40 SEVENTEENTH REPORT. 



AN INTERPRETATION OF THE WORKING RULEt? OF THE 

 CARPENTERS' UNIONS OF CHICAGO. 



BY EDWARD M. AIIXOS. 



Introduction. 



Trade unions have been the cause of much alarm as well as loss 

 to employers and consumers ever since the shoemakers of Wisbch 

 (1538) walked out of the town and conditioned their return upon 

 an advance of wa<»es. Employers' associations have given an enor- 

 mous amount of attention and funds to stamp out this mystic thing;, 

 trade unionism. The dramatic scenes surrounding- the great battles 

 of labor for control have left sanguinary impressions of trade unions 

 npon our minds. The Homestead strike of 1802 and more recently 

 the Lawrence strike in 1912, and the strikes of the Western Federa- 

 tion of Miners in 1!)11 show that force has been used by some 

 unions, a fact which the press and employers have used to create the 

 imi)ression that such are the universal methods of unions. Perhaps 

 unions have used violence to an iinwarranted degree, but to con- 

 clude that such methods are universal does injustice to those peace- 

 loving- unionists, who recognize the importance of their control over 

 the trades and desire to obtain tliis control only throu^^li ])eaceful 

 ;.nd l)usiness like methods. 



The twelve thousand words of e\-idence which 1 liave taken from 

 the carpenters of Chicago in personal friendly interviews, show in 

 no uncertain terms tiic reasonableness of the car]>ent(M-s' rules, the 

 peace-loving- dispositicni of the journeynnm. tlic wisdom of the 

 leaders, and the carjienters' business-like methods. 



HoAvever. this is an attempt at a scientific treatment of the sub- 

 ject and iherelore the I'eader must expect to find some evidence 

 bearing- ui»on trade disj)utes, craft selfishness and indifference to 

 public welfare. 



-I collected the data from about fifteen different carjienters, in 

 somewhat more than Ihiee dozen interviews, and from the files of 

 their journal, "The Cari)enter.'' I inquired into the causes leading; 

 to the adoption of the inles, the demands, methods, policies, and, 

 so far as jmssible. their underlying- theories. 



The working; rules of the carpenters' unions of Chicag:o are em- 

 bodied in an agreement l)et\veen the Cai-penter Contractors' Asso- 



