Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE SHINGLE WEAVERS textit{i THE best way perhaps of obtaining an understanding of trade-unionism in the United States is to trace the development and policies of a single union. This chapter on the International Shingle Weavers' Union is a study at first-hand of a single American trade-union.1 This national union, while not so old or so large as some of the national unions associated with it in the American Federation of Labor, is a typical union and has recapitulated in its brief history the development in structure and policy found in the older and stronger national organizations. In addition to this, in its membership and activities this organization is confined largely to the Pacific Coast, and this section of the country especially outside of California is an un- tilled field on the part of the economist as far as trade-union activity is concerned. The manufacture of shingles and lumber is a basic industry in Washington and also, to some extent, in Oregon andCalifornia. The Shingle Weavers' Union in addition to the usual policies and activities of a trade- union presents a very interesting development in an experiment in industrial unionism, a return to the craft system, and then a return again to an industrial form of organization. 1 The writer would here acknowledge his indebtedness to Messrs. J. G. Brown and W. H. Reid, former officials, and to Secretary J. M. Norland for documents and information furnished; also to the delegates who courteously extended to him the privilege of attending several conventions of the union held at Seattle and Everett, Washington. The question naturally arises why a worker in a shingle mill is called a weaver and not, for instance, a shingle sawyer, a shingle cutter, or a shingle worker. A shingle, as is familiar to...