"I looked enviously at the over-head bead Popov had been laying in the bleeder pipe. It was as nearly perfect as I ever saw. Popov was a crackerjack structural steel welder, as good as or better than any of the men I had learned from in the General Electric plant in Schenectady."
"For instance, most of the skilled welders on the job were working two shifts a day regularly, because there were not enough of them, and the work had to be done. This was distinctly against the law, but the shop committee did nothing at all. How could they buck Shevchenko and hinder the work by taking the welders off the job?"
"The party meant a good deal too. You could get a room through the party, get a new job, lodge complaints, or make suggestions with some assurance that they would get attention."
