Knowledge that Transforms

The building trades have always been thrown into close contact with one another. The very fact that carpenters, painters, plasterers, etc., work side by side on the same jobs has had much to do in fostering a feeling of fellowship and co-operation among union men of all sorts in the building industry. In the metal industry, the different trades have not been brought into the same intimate contact. Fifty or more years ago it was uncommon to find plants which employed more than two or three of these trades. Today, however, some establishments are so extensive that they find place for practically every metal trade. The different crafts remain somewhat isolated from each other, nevertheless, so that the sense of group solidarity has never fully developed among the men of the rank and file. Labor organizations within the building trades have been able to secure effective co-operation because there have been about a halfdozen unions of fairly equal effectiveness which have been able to give each other real assistance as well as to ask for it. In the metal trades, union leadership has depended largely upon the Molders, the one union which has possessed size, influence, and responsibility far beyond the accomplishments of allied trades. It is important, therefore, to see what attitude this union has taken toward sympathetic or joint action in the group of crafts to which it belongs. As early as I864 the Molders considered the feasibility of co-operating with the Machinists in forming "subordinate Trade Assemblies where separate trade union activities are impracticable."' Nothing was done, however, to carry out the plan. The incident is noteworthy only as showing the cordial relations which existed between the two crafts at that time. Again, in I865 there appeared to be considerable team work between the molders and the stove