The Shingle Trust Flexes Its Muscles in Tacoma
Ninety percent of the Pacific Northwest shingle industry convenes to fix prices and freeze out jobbers, signaling a new era of regional corporate dominance.
The story, cleaned up
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Tacoma, Jan. 17.—Today's meeting of the Washington and Oregon Shingle Association was the largest ever held in the history of that organization. There were present about 125 members, representing nearly 90 per cent of the shingle mills of the Pacific Northwest. There are estimated to be 300 blocks in the mills, and of these 225 were represented. It was decided to continue the increased price list adopted at the Seattle meeting, providing per thousand: $1.75 for Extra Star, $2 for Clear, and $2.75 for Perfection 5 and 18s. The meeting was enthusiastic and at times lively. Ex-Collector Bradshaw, of the Puget Sound district, was one of the new members, representing several mills near Port Angeles. A motion by Young & Son’s mill of Tacoma to allow a 10 per cent reduction on association prices to wholesalers in ten carload lots was promptly voted down, as the shingle trust desires to protect its own association jobbers against Eastern competition.
“The shingle trust desires to protect the association jobbers.”
This meeting marks a pivotal moment in the Pacific Northwest's transition from small-scale timber operations to highly organized, capital-intensive trusts. Today, the echoes of this 'trust' era can be seen in the consolidated nature of modern regional industrial sectors and the perennial struggle between local manufacturing and global supply chain competition.
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