The Auld Mill Experiment
Shingle weavers launch a cooperative, sharing the risks and rewards of their labor during a period of economic uncertainty.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Auld Shingle Mill Company is making an experiment which, if successful, may prove an effectual means of solving the difficulties between capital and labor. The mill is now operated on the co-operative plan. John Reed, Henry Crooks, Andrew Tenke, and Charles Sears, skilled laborers in the manufacture of shingles, and also members of the Shingle Weavers' Union, have formed an agreement with the Auld Shingle Mill Company to run the mill for two months longer, whereby they receive a share in the profits made and also bear a proportion of the losses, if any. E. A. Auld returns his salary and position as manager of the mill, and F. McV. Johnston acts as bookkeeper. The company furnishes material and capital required, and the men pay a monthly rental for the use of the mill. After the running expenses are paid, the men will receive from the profits their daily wages for the days of work performed according to the schedule of wages laid down by the Shingle Weavers' Union, and the balance, if any, will be divided equally among them. By this arrangement, expenses are cut down to a minimum and each workman is put upon his mettle to do his very best. John Reed and Andrew Tenke, knot sawyers, in one day of eight hours cut 14,000 shingles, when 7,000 for a day of nine hours is considered a good day's work for a skilled workman. The men believe that there is money in shingles even at the low prices now prevailing, and feel sanguine that in any event they will have no trouble in making the wages fixed by the union.
“By this arrangement, expenses are cut down to a minimum and each workman is put upon his mettle to do his very best.”
This 1891 experiment with cooperative ownership reflects a perennial Seattle labor tradition: workers seeking agency by taking over the means of production during economic downturns. Today's interest in worker-owned cooperatives continues to echo these 19th-century attempts to bridge the gap between capital and labor.
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