The Monumental Boot and Shoe Co. of Baltimore was started in the fall of 1871 by the Knights of St. Crispin with a $15,000 stock divided into shares of $25.00. They leased a three story building at 37 North Howard St., the first floor of which they used as a salesroom, the second as "a cutting and fitting department equipped with the latest improved machinery and appliances," and the third as a making department.

A new note on the question of cooperative manufacture was struck by John Dormer, First International Grand Knight (First Vice President) in 1872. He argued that Crispins engaged in cooperative manufacture should withdraw from the order. "My reasons are that their interests cease to be with journeymen. I can not see any difference between a cooperative shop and a joint stock company-the cooperative men have everything to gain and nothing to lose by a strike

I don't want our order governed by capitalists claiming to be workmen." Dormer was not opposed to cooperation as such but only to the dangerous influence of cooperator-members at the lodge meeting. He said that his position was shared by many Crispins throughout the organization who had learned by experience the evil effects of cooperation upon the local policies.

Cooperative purchase of supplies and cooperative stores were even more common among the Crispins than cooperative manufacture. In March, 1869, a cooperative association in Stoughton, Massachusetts, purchased a $2,500 lot on which they intended to build a $10,000 hall. Whether it was the plan to use a portion of the building for manufacturing and store purposes we! have no record, but it would hardly seem reasonable for them to build a $10,000 hall for merely social purposes, especially at a period when wages were low and threatened to be lower.

In June, 1869, the North Bridgewater Crispins opened a store with a capital stock of $6,000 divided into six hundred five dollar shares. Part of the officers of the association were officers of the state grand lodge and the store was one of the most successful organized in Massachusetts. "The principle of cooperation was fairly applied alike to stockholders and customers. Every

* Proceedings, 1872, pp. 21, 22.

American Workman, April 24, 1869.

store in the place marked its goods down and strong competition at once set in." Nevertheless, the sales of the cooperative store soon averaged $200 per day, and the cooperators began to prepare for cooperative manufacture.10

Between thirty and forty Crispin cooperative stores sprang up during the first half of 186911 and in the winter the Massachusetts state lodge asked the legislature for a special charter of incorporation to give them power to handle the funds of the local lodges. The charter was refused on the grounds that the Crispin purpose of controlling apprenticeship was an unlawful purpose.12 In 1870 the demand for incorporation was renewed and through the efforts of Judge Charles Cowley and in spite of the opposition of the manufacturers, who were represented by P. Emory Aldrich, later judge of the Superior Court, was successful. The purpose of incorporation was "to enable the state lodge to use the Crispin funds for buying coal, groceries, and other supplies in wholesale quantities in order to distribute them to the Crispins at prices that would lower the cost of living. "The charter, granted May 26, 187014 contained the following provision:

13

Sec. 1. They were incorporated "for the purpose of managing and administering the funds belonging to said voluntary association."

Sec. 2. "Said corporation may invest any of the funds belonging thereto in the stock of any cooperative association duly organized. * And such subscription may be to the extent

**

of $5,000 in any one association." Sec. 4. "Hold property

not exceeding $100,000."

In the course of this hearing the limitation of the powers of the state lodges under the international constitution of 1868 and 1869 were clearly brought out. Galen E. Pratt, Grand Sir Knight of the Massachusetts state lodge testified: "We have no control over the other [local] societies. We are simply an organization formed by them for the purpose of controlling and investigating whatever funds may be placed in our hands."

10 American Workman, Oct. 2, 1869.

11 Same.

12 Same, Mar. 5, 1870.

13 Social Economist, July 1895. Article by Cowley.

14 Mass., Acts and Resolves, 1870, Chap. 281.

These funds were to be used to establish wholesale coal and grocery depots and sell to Crispins at cost. "The Legislature was not asked to endorse the principles and policy of the subordinate lodges. The members of the Grand Lodge

sit only as trustees, or delegates, or representatives of subordinate lodges, and the funds belong to the subordinate lodges, but are under the management of the Grand Lodge for the benefit of the whole Order. ''15

Thus cooperation, both in the purchase of supplies and in the manufacture of shoes, formed an integral part of the Crispin movement. To it most of the leaders and a large part of the membership looked for the final solution of the problems of employment. The conflict between employers and employed seemed to them irreconcilable so long as the wage system was continued. Their ideal was, perhaps unconsciously, a return to the economic position of the colonial shoemaker, that of self-employment, ownership of the stock and direct sale to customers, individual or mercantile. The differences between the early individual shop and the proposed cooperative factories were principally in manufacturing method.

15 American Workman, Mar. 12, April 2, 1870.

CHAPTER VII

THE SECOND KNIGHTS OF ST. CRISPIN, 1875-1878

The attempt to revive the Crispins in 1875 was in reality a distinct movement. The records of the international grand lodge held at Boston, June 11-14, 1878, show that the so-called Crispin movement of 1875 was distinct in principles, purposes and policies from the earlier and more important movement. Two of the three special committees appointed at the grand lodge of 1878, those upon arbitration and upon benefit life insurance, dealt with subjects that never, so far as shown by the official records that have been preserved, formed the subject of consideration by any committee of the original organization. The other committee, that on Laws, was the earlier Committee on the Constitution.1

The committee on arbitration made a report that no changes in the present laws seemed to be needed, and also submitted the following, which was adopted: "Resolved, That the Executive Board of the I. G. L. be authorized to take such action as seems proper to it to secure such legislation as may be possible in favor of legal arbitration between employer and employed." The Lodge passed a further resolution "That Unity Lodge No. 32 of Lynn, Mass., be requested to lay before the Executive Board a full explanation of the manner in which said Lodge had applied the principle of arbitration, and the Executive Board shall use such explanation in the way best calculated to advance the good of the Order." The Unity Lodge plan of arbitration is described in a contemporaneous report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor."No strike can be ordered sustained or

1 Proceedings, 1878, p. 5.

2 Same, p. 13.

3 Same, p. 14.

* Massachusetts Statistics of Labor, Report 1877, pp. 41, 42.

allowed except by vote of the board of arbitration-and the unanimous consent of the shop's crew where such strike takes place.

"The board of arbitration is composed of eleven members, each from a different branch of labor, as follows: a cutter, stockfitter, laster, McKay stitcher, beater-out, trimmer and edge setter, hand nailer and shaver, Tapley heel burnisher, McKay nailer and shaver, bottom finisher, channeler.

"They are elected to office for a year, and chosen, not alone for their integrity and general intelligence, but also because they are regarded as superior workmen, each being an expert in his branch of the business.

"The board shall have power to settle all difficulties that may arise between any member or members of the lodge and their employers, by arbitration; and it shall be the duty of the board, when such case has been referred to them, to carefully examine all the circumstances connected with it and endeavor to effect a settlement by arbitration, before giving their consent to a strike. It will not be the duty of the board to give aid or encouragement to a strike, begun without their consent, by any members of the order. When any matter has been referred to the board for arbitration, it shall be their duty to appoint a committee from the board, who shall meet a committee appointed by the employer. If the committees agree upon any one plan of settlement, any decision they make shall be final." 20

"In the thirteen months that have elapsed since its organization," says the Bureau of Labor, "this board has settled about one hundred cases of difficulty in different shops, most of them amicably and without much trouble. Nearly all of them arose from attempts on the part of employers to cut under what was considered a fair price, and as the chief object of the board is to establish and maintain, as nearly as possible, a uniform price for labor in all branches and grades of work in shoemaking, many of the manufacturers look upon the plan with favor. The smaller employers especially regard its establishment as useful and efficient in preventing ruinous competition in business." The question of Benefit Insurance was brought up by Newell

Same, pp. 42, 43.