Playing upon the natural
desire of the woodsmen for organization, shrewd swindlers have formed
unions which were nothing more than dues collection agencies.
Politicians have fathered organizations for their own purposes. Unions
built by the men themselves have fallen into the hands of officials who
used them for selfish personal gain. Over and over the employers have
crushed the embryonic unions only to see them rise again with added
strength. Forced by the very necessities of their daily lives, the
workers always returned to the fight with a new and better form of
unionism.

Like the loggers, the shingle weavers were routed time and again, but
their spirit never died. The Everett shingle weavers formed their union
as a result of a successful strike in 1901. In 1905 they were strong
enough to resist a proposed reduction of wages. In 1906 they struck in
sympathy with the Ballard weavers, and lost. Within a year the defeated
union was back as strong as before. By 1911 the International Shingle
Weavers Union had attained a membership of nearly 2,000, the majority of
whom were in accord with the Industrial Workers of the World. The
question of affiliation with the I. W. W. was widely discussed and was
only prevented from going to a referendum vote by the efforts of a few
officials. Further discussion of the question was excluded from the
columns of their official organ, "The Shingle Weaver," by the Ninth
Annual Convention.[4]

Following this slap in the face, the progressive members quit the union
in large numbers, leaving affairs in the hands of conservative and
reactionary elements. Endeavors were made to negotiate contracts with
the employers; and in 1913 the officials secured $30,000 from the
American Federation of Labor and made a pretense at the organization of
all workers in the woods and mills into one body. This was a move aimed
at the Forest and Lumber Workers of the I. W. W., which was feared
alike by the employers and the craft union officials because of its new
strength gained thru the affiliation of the Brotherhood of Timber
Workers in the southern states. Instead of gaining ground by the move,
the shingle weavers union lost in membership and subsequently claimed
that industrial unionism was a failure in the lumber industry.

The industrial depression of 1914-15 found all unions in bad shape.
Employers used the army of unemployed as an axe to cut wages. In the
spring of 1915 notice of a wage reduction was p