Spokane Hardware Dealers Enforce Union Pricing
Wholesale hardware stores agree to penalize non-union horseshoers by doubling supply costs.
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.
SPOKANE, Dec. 4.—The hardware association of the city, composed of the principal wholesale hardware stores, has agreed to charge non-union master horseshoers of this city 100 per cent more for all goods purchased from them than they charge the members of the Master Horseshoers' union. The Master Horseshoers' union made the demand immediately after the organization of the union and the demand was granted. The action is to help the union to enforce the new scale of prices. There are only a few of the smaller shops of the city that will be affected by the arrangement.
“The action is to help the union to enforce the new scale of prices.”
This 1903 report captures an early example of supply-chain pressure used as a tool for labor solidarity. Today's modern industrial economy relies on similar, albeit more complex, collective bargaining agreements and vendor-client labor politics.
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