The Cockroaches of Paterson: A Study of Labor Conflict and Technological Change

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Abstract
A technological innovation based on a revival of the seventeenth century putting-out system dominated the Paterson broad-silk weaving industry during the 1920s and 1930s in the form of the family shop. It was introduced because Paterson capitalists - confronted with a militant work force - were unable to maintain control over the labor process in conventional central mills. The search for improved managerial efficiency resulted in the family shop that turned weavers into petty capitalists. This study demonstrates that capitalists' need to control the production process shapes technological innovation even to the point of reviving an antiquated system of industrial organization. It also concludes that working men and women persist in their concerted actions against such forces.

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