vidends increased, both at one stroke. This may be the ground for the abrogation of present restrictions on immigration recently proposed by Judge Gary. The early factory investigators in England ran across the same argument in that Willie was a better boy when he worked fourteen hours a day -childish mischief being eradicated and profits increased at one blessed stroke. The reply of the Hunky to the actual fact is, "Work long day, me no live." The recent report of the Society of Engineers against the twelve-hour day shows the direction of current opinion. The findings of representatives of such a body of men, highly educated and scientifically trained, cannot be disregarded. The twelve-hour day with its accompanying sevenday week and twenty-four hour shifts is a social anachronism which seems to exist only in the steel industry.

In conclusion, this book by Mr. Olds must be characterized as unscientific and unconvincing. Admitting, for the sake of argument, defects in the Interchurch Report, one must say that Mr. Olds has not controverted its fundamental conclusions because he does not seem to have the faintest comprehension of what the people in the Interchurch World Movement were trying to do. The social point of view in industry, however, is gaining ground, and if this is true, the gratuitous dis

tribution of this book by the United States Steel Corporation is a sheer waste of good money.

POSTSCRIPT, DECEMBER, 1924

The foregoing reviews were published in the American Economic Review for December, 1920, and September, 1923, and at this writing no facts have been brought forth which seem to vitiate any of the conclusions indicated. There is one point, however, which in the spirit of fairness should be touched upon, inasmuch as it concerns one of the most serious charges in connection with the steel strike. An announcement was made in July, 1923, that the Iron and Steel Institute, embracing the entire steel industry, had promised President Harding that the industry would shift its operations so as to place all workmen, on the straight eight-hour day just as soon as labor conditions permitted. Mr. E. H. Gary also stated that machinery would be used whenever possible because of the existing shortage of workmen. The leading steel mills in the country, including those of the United States Steel Corporation, have now abolished the twelve-hour day. Whatever the forces back of the change, the strikers of 1919 have had at least one of their demands granted. The exit of the twelvehour day will be mourned neither by workmen nor by an enlightened public.

It is of interest to note that the recent convention of the American Federation of Labor at El Paso, November, 1924, passed resolutions looking forward to a renewed effort for the organization of steel workers. Evidently organized labor has not given up its efforts to unionize the steel industry.

IX

COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION AMONG

THE SHINGLE WEAVERS

URING the last ten years an interesting development in coöperative production has taken place among the shingle weavers of Washington and adjacent states. Previous to the panic of 1907, the shingle industry had been quite prosperous and there had been but little unemployment among workers about shingle mills. The wages had also been fairly good. Beginning in 1908, a period of depression ensued for several years, which was accentuated by the tariff act of 1913 and the general business depression which took place just before the outbreak and during the first year of the Great War. Two questions arise at this point and should be answered before going on with the main subject.

1. WHO ARE THE SHINGLE WEAVERS

The manufacture of shingles and lumber is a basic industry in Washington and also, to some extent, in Oregon and California. The workers in and around the shingle mills are called shingle weavers. Why is a worker in a shingle mill called a weaver and not, for instance, a shingle sawyer, a shingle cutter, or a shingle worker?

A shingle, as is familiar to all, is a small, thin piece of wood used for covering the roofs and sides of buildings. It is sawed thinner at one end than at the other, and in shingling, the thick ends of one row are placed so as to overlap the thin ends of the next row. Weaving shingles is the process of dovetailing them together, after they are cut, so as to form the standard commercial bundle of shingles.

Shingle makers are called weavers because the work of shingle packers in a measure has the appearance of weaving. The cutting of shingles is done by a machine run by a man called the sawyer. Weaving, or the packing of loose shingles into bundles, the form with which we are familiar, is still a hand process. There has not been a machine invented as yet which supplants the deft hand, the quick eye, and the skilled judgment of the shingle weaver.