Actually the Bata Cc. had planned to establish its American factory at Belcamp as early as the summer of 1934 and late that September made arrangements that the new Philadelphia road pass through its property. They later paid the Maryland State Highway Commission $11.000 for this arrangement. Meanwhile they had arranged for special consideration from local officials and followed this up with a petition to the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Labor requesting the Department to permit the Bata Co to import 100 citizens of Czechoslovakia to "employ these persons as instructors in the making of shoes in accordance with the particular methods and in the operation of the special type of shoe machinery which will be used by the petitioner In its new factory." The petition was based on the allegation that the machines used by the Bata Shoe Co. were different from machines used in a comparable American factory. Likewise. the petition claimed that 5 or more years experience In the Bata factory in Zlin was necessary to develop the skills required to teach their "peculiar" methods. Mr.
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