The Union Label Inspection
Everett shingle weavers form a committee to enforce labor solidarity by auditing the hats of their fellow workers.
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.
Acting upon a suggestion of the Trades Council, the shingle weavers at their last meeting concluded to see how many of their members were helping the United Hatters in their fight by buying hats with the union label in them. So they appointed a committee to wait upon the boys and examine their hats, and report any that were not decorated with the sign of union conditions in the hat factories. To the credit of the boys it must be chronicled that of nearly a hundred hats examined, only a half dozen were found labelless. The owners of the headgear without the emblem were assessed by the payment of 25c apiece.
“To the credit of the boys it must be chronicled that of nearly a hundred hats examined, only a half dozen were found labelless.”
This early 20th-century 'buy union' enforcement highlights the intense pressure for solidarity in Everett's industrial heyday. Today, similar (if less formal) efforts are seen in consumer boycotts and supply-chain transparency movements, showing how labor activism often relies on the collective power of the individual consumer's wallet.
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