Word

Instantly, the noise stopped. The whole room lay in perfect silence. The tire builders stood in long lines, touching each other, perfectly motionless, deafened by the silence. A moment ago there had been the weaving hands, the revolving wheels, the clanking belt, the moving hooks, the flashing tire tools. Now there was absolute stillness, no motion anywhere, no sound. Out of the terrifying quiet came the wondering voice of a big tire builder near the windows: "Jesus Christ, it's like the end of the world." He broke the spell, the magic moment of stillness. For now his awed words said the same thing to every man, "We done it!' We stopped the belt! By God, we done it!"' And men began to cheer hysterically, to shout and howl in the fresh silence. Men wrapped long sinewy arms around their neighbors' shoulders, screaming, "We done it! We done it!" For the first time in history, American mass-production workers had stopped a conveyor belt and halted the inexorable movement of factory machinery. - Ruth McKenney, 'Industrial Valley'