CRAFT PRIDE REBORN

In England, iorn by industrial strife, a group of laboring men have instituted a movement that may aid in the solution of the housing and building trades problems that beset various sections of the United States. The lack of home facilities for workers and the prevalent unemployment of many wage-earners ordinarily engaged in construction work, led to the organization of the Building Guild, so called because of its great resemblance to the trade combinations of the days before the Industrial Revolution. The members have done away with the hampering regulations of the modern unions, which for instance, prevent a carpenter from doing the work of a bricklayer, and have subordinated all petty distinctions to a single idea,--co-operation in the interest of efficiency.

By this method, the members of the new Guild have succeeded in arousing a powerful craft spirit of pride in speed and finish of workmanship, and have assured themselves a guaranteed weekly wage, regardless of weather conditions, for under the rules laid down by the initiators of the scheme every worker is to assist the progress of the job in hand at all times, regardless of weather conditions, which often make outdoor construction - impossible. The system has worked very well in the communities in which it has been tried. In fact on every occasion that the Guild has offered bids in competition with Union contractors, the latter have been considerably underbid. The quality of the work has been excellent, and in each case the contracts have been satisfactorily fulfilled.

It is indeed strange that, with the great call for improvement in building methods, particularly in connection with the labor question some enterprising group of workmen in this country have not organized on this co-operative basis. The scheme seems to be a very feasible solution of the difficulties that are encountered at present in erecting satisfactory houses inexpensively. As worked out in England, the plan is one in which the laborer has everything to gain and nothing to lose; here it should prove to be a no less beneficial arrangement.