Page:Chicago Race Riots (Sandburg, 1919).djvu/35

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NEW INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES
25

table and say, "I'll be stiff as this table before I go back south."

Sergt. Cannasius told the story of Edward Burke, of 3632 Vincennes avenue. Burke volunteered for naval service in California before the draft and became chief commissary steward on the ship Mauben. He was discharged at Norfolk and took the best position he could get, that of first cook on a dining car. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese—practically all languages spoken in South America or in central or western Europe—are fluently spoken by Burke. His aspirations are toward a position as interpreter or secretary, but thus far destiny bids him fry eggs and stew beef with his many languages.

The Chicago Whip, a new weekly newspaper, voices appreciation of two utility corporations that have opened the doors of employment to colored men.

"The Peoples Gas company breaks precedent by employing four meter inspectors at salaries of $100 per month and four special meter readers who are boys, 16 years old, at salaries of $55 per month," says the paper. "The experiment of the gas company proved so successful that the Commonwealth Edison company immediately followed suit by placing six colored men in the meter installation department."