American manga: I drew Superman in the Great Depression

New York, factory district.

Colin, led by Jack, came to the place where the idle color printing press factory was located.

"careful."

Walking on the muddy path of the factory, Jack reached out to stop Colin behind him and carefully avoided a small puddle in front of him.

Not far from the puddle, a few children in ragged clothes were playing in the water with their bare feet.

Their almost emaciated bodies can be vaguely seen through the ragged coats.

These children are the children of factory workers. Their parents work in the factory every day and night, enduring poor working conditions, just to earn a meager salary, and they have no time to take care of these children.

Under the impact of the Great Depression, exploitation by factories and enterprises became increasingly serious.

In the early days of the crisis, under the strong request of the then-prestigious Hoover administration, major industrial companies cut wages in a very small proportion. However, as the impact of the Great Depression gradually spread, those factories that had been on the sidelines finally could no longer persist.

, by reducing working hours and working days, we tried every means to cut workers' salaries by 40% of the original amount.

At that time, many industrial enterprises and small businesses even refused to verbally support the government's pleas to maintain wage levels.

The growing unemployment backlash has led some department stores to pay employees as low as $5 to $8 a week.

In addition, garment workers, candy store employees, and cannery workers are among the most ruthlessly exploited classes.

Someone has conducted a survey in Chicago and it is said that most female workers are working hard for a salary of less than 25 cents an hour, and a quarter of them earn less than 10 cents.

In 1932, as the Great Depression continued, hourly wages in the logging industry dropped to 1 cent, and in the general contracting industry it was 7 and a half cents; in the brick and tile manufacturing industry it was 6 cents; in the sawmill industry it was 5 cents;

Stenographers' salaries dropped from $35 to $45 a week to $16; domestic servants had to work for $10 a month.

And New York City is the most exploited place in New York State.

"Times Magazine" once conducted an investigation. In a city's clothing company that employs 50,000 female workers: hat workers can get 0.4 points for crocheting a dozen hats, but can only knit 2 dozen a week; female workers who make aprons can get 2 and a half points for each one.

You can only earn 0.2 points a day.

But even in the face of such serious exploitation, the workers did not dare to complain at all.

Because even for such a job, there are a lot of people watching behind it, whether it is an unemployed man with a family or an elderly person, they are all competing with them for this job.

After passing the overcrowded clothing factory, Colin and Jack arrived at the location of the printing factory.

"Mr. Colin Looper, nice to meet you?"

At the entrance of the printing factory, the factory owner, who had been waiting for a long time, wiped his hands repeatedly on his work pants before stepping forward to greet him.

"Me too, Mr. Doug."

Reaching out to shake the factory owner's hand, Colin smiled and replied.

Immediately afterwards, under the leadership of Doug, the two came to the location of the color printing rotary machine.

"Cough cough, cough cough..."

Reaching out to lift up the tarpaulin covering the machine, Doug covered his mouth and coughed several times in succession. He endured the discomfort and explained to Colin and the two of them.

"Sorry, you two... ahem... I bought this rotary machine before the Great Depression. It was mainly used to print merchants' posters and promotional materials. But not long after I bought the machine... the Great Depression happened. Many people who had been there were

Businesses that cooperated with the factory went bankrupt one after another. Due to cost considerations, the printing factory had to idle the color machine and reuse the original black and white printing process..."

The dust on the printing press had been accumulating for who knows how long. Once it was pulled off, it spread all over half of the factory.

Standing aside, Jack covered his mouth and couldn't help coughing either.

Turning to look at Colin behind him, he found that he did not seem to be affected by the dust.

When the factory owner Doug lifted the tarpaulin, Colin had already used Super Breath to protect himself from the dust attack.

After waiting like this for almost ten seconds, when the dust in the air gradually fell, Doug coughed, cleared the thick phlegm in his mouth, pointed at the machine in front of him and said: "Two gentlemen, this is

It’s the color spinner you want.”

Following the direction pointed by the factory owner, Colin's eyes fell on the colorful runner in front of him. As a layman, he didn't know much about this type of machinery, but judging from the appearance of the machine, it seemed to be just as the other party said.

As said, it hasn't been used for much, and it looks at least 70% to 80% new.

Although, Colin doesn't know much about machines.

However, there was obviously someone who knew about it. After hearing the factory owner's introduction, Jack immediately stepped forward and opened the cover of the machine, tried pressing the button again, and then turned to Doug beside him and asked: "Can we

Try printing it and see the effect?"

"this?"

Facing Jack's request, Doug showed some hesitation on his face. After all, printing with color ink is not cheap.

But in the end, he nodded and agreed: "Okay, but I have to wait a moment. I have to go to the warehouse to see if there is any remaining color ink."

Simply speaking, there are still some colored inks left over from the original printing in Doug's printing factory.

Although I don’t know how long it has been since now, but it should be no problem just as a trial.

After starting the machine, as the gears inside the color rotary printing press rotated, the factory owner Doug skillfully operated the machine to complete the printing of a color poster.

I don’t know whether it’s due to the aging of the ink or the mediocre quality of the paper used for printing, but the effect of the posters printed by Doug’s hands was not ideal.

The leakage of color can be clearly seen on the poster. This situation is particularly obvious under the lines of the characters. Picking up the poster with a strong smell of ink, Jack frowned and handed it to the person in front of him.

Colin.

Reaching out to take the poster, Colin looked around.

"Mr. Colin, this has nothing to do with the machine. It is entirely my personal mistake."

"I can ask the printer to come over, and he will definitely be able to print works that satisfy you!"

Looking at the crudely made color printed poster in Colin's hand, the factory owner couldn't help but defend himself.

I am deeply afraid that this customer who finally arrived will leave because of my poor operation.

At this time, not many people are willing to buy such a big machine.

Once Colin is missed, it will be a question whether Doug's printing shop will still exist next time.

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