Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEWIS;099 I:2:22
And, of course you know as the world progressed, things
have got so that people haB to have somebody to represent
them. In those days we all knew each other and represented
each other. Unions are a good thing if people attend, but
unions are nothing because half the member don't turn and
just a few people attend, and a union's only as strong as
its attending members. If it has a thousand members and
twenty people attend, they don't have a union; they have
something that's just working to suit the few that is.
Where if they all attend, they know what's going on.
Harvey: Was that good times during World War I? As far
as the mills were concerned?
Lewis: Well, people - it was good t imes because we made
good money . . . I mean, when the war started people were
working, making - the best mechanics wasn't making over
ten a week and they were up, way up above that. 1 went to
work first week, as I said, for four dollars and change
and then when I left, you know, I was making around nine-
teen dollars, and hardly had reason to strike. But, of
course it was like in all wars the company's working on a
percentage the government guarantees them so much profit on
their investment . . . we're still paying tax some of that
money [laughs] .
Harvey: Now, the Koapers lived right in Hampden, didn't
they?
Lewis: Well, in my time he didn't live right here in Hamp-
den, but they Lived up in Mt. Washington not too fax, but