World Shingle-Packing Championship Crowns Everett's Best
Skilled union workers prove that brainpower beats raw speed in a test of precision at the A.-V.-P. fairgrounds.
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.
That mind will always triumph over matter was fully demonstrated at the A.-V.-P. fair grounds Saturday in the shingle packing contest for the championship of the world. About twenty entries were made for this event, both union and non-union men entering. The first prize of $60 was won by Edwin Johnson, a member of the Everett union, and second prize was divided between Garfield Kirk and E. Tritz, members of Everett and Bellingham locals respectively. None of the non-union men got inside of the money. The moral is obvious: it takes a man with brains under his hat to become a skilled workman in any trade, and the skilled workman with brains joins the union of his craft. Each contestant was required to pack one thousand shingles, and the winning time was 17 minutes 18 seconds. The comparative slowness of the time is due to the rigid grading rules under which the contest was held and which most of the contestants were unaccustomed to.
“It takes a man with brains under his hat to become a skilled workman in any trade, and the skilled workman with brains joins the union of his craft.”
Everett’s identity as a 'Mill Town' was built on these exact metrics of speed and skill. Today, while the shingle mills are largely gone, the region's labor culture still echoes that century-old pride in craftsmanship and the specific value of the union card.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.