B.C. LUMBER WORKER

October 5, 1950

MEMORIES

BARE BOARDS, POOR GRUB, $2 A DAY
IN “BAD OLD DAYS” PRE-IWA

_ MINNEAPOLIS LPA).—Thirty-five years of unionism in the

Pacific Northwest’s timber industry have brought revolutionary
changes in working conditions in the woods. ~-

Take the word of an old-time lumberjack, Lee Garrison, of Ta-

Garrison was 16 when he got
his first job as a “whistle-punk”
in 1917, Garrison later became a
“boomman”, sorting logs as they
were rushed downstream and
loading them atop rafts. He also
is a Union official.

Wages then averaged about $2
a day for “bucking”, one of the
better trades in the woods. The
jacks worked a 10-hour day six
days a week—but they never got
$12 a week. Usually they ended
up with something like $4 after
pay $1 a week for bed and $1

ly for food.

Garrison recalled that a meal
of straight beans and bread was
no novelty and lunches would con-
sist of cold left-overs to be taken
into the woods and munched
alongside a fallen tree.

The bunks were bare boards
and all the boss supplied was a
straw mattress. This led to the
jacks making a “bundle” of their
blankets and extra clothes as
they went on the job. The first
great union strikes were fought
over the issue of “sheets on the
bunks”. Sanitation was non-ex-
istent,

The men would spend 11
months of the year in the isolated
camps, away from family and
friends. Twice a year, in July
and December, they would draw
their accumulated stake (usually
about $100) and make for Seattle

"coma, who can’t look back to the “good old days” without shuddering.

or Tacoma, there to spend it in
honky-tonk saloons. After two
weeks they would again make for
the camps, the sheetless bunks
and the beans-and-bread.

Safety devices were virtually
non-existent. In one camp a jack
was killed each day for 39 days
straight. Workers crippled on the
job were left stranded. :

Conditions began to change
when the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) drifted into
the northwest from Idaho to
preach the gospel of “An Injury
to One Is An Injury to All”.

The Wobblies, refused to sign
contracts or even negotiate for
future conditions. They depended
on their ability to strike and shut
down an operation to keep and
raise working standards.

They began on the bunkhouses,
cleaning them up, and then moved
on to the cookhouses, where they
insisted that the men be fed prop-
erly. They fought for and won
the eight-hour day, although for
years employers continued to
work the jacks overtime at
straight wages.

During the last years of World
War I, the employers with the
help of the government, organized
the Loyal Legion of Loggers and
Lumbermen (the “Four-L”), a
giant company union. A wave of
hysteria swept throughout the

region and the Wobbly organ-
izers were jailed. chased out of
the woods and often killed.

Meanwhile, soldiers (known as
the “spruce-troops”) were moved
into the woods, ostensibly to fell
logs. In one case, the jacks were
assembled in a cook-house and
the structure surrounded by
“spruce-troops”. -The men then
were ordered to join the “Four-
L”. When they protested and
tried to flee, two were shot by
the soldiers.

The “Four-L” destroyed the I-
WW as an effective organization
and throughout the 1920’s the
lumberjacks were represented
only by the “Four-L”. When the
depression broke, wages’ were
slashed and working conditions,
as Garrison put it, went “plumb
straight to hell”. Something like
80 percent of the woodworkers
were jobless—without unemploy-
ment insurance to take up the
slack. Wages ranged from $1.50 to
$2 a day while in the south they
dropped to as low as nine cents
and hour. The men started talk-
ing union again.

The New Deal and its wage
code raised wages to 4244 cents
an hour in the west and 22%
cents an hour in the south, Mean-
while, the “Four-L” and its suc-
cessor, the Industrial Employees
Union, were thrown out of the
woods when the government la-
bor boards held they were illegal
company-dominated unions. Genu-
ine unions succeeded them,

—Labor Press Association. |

Ne LIP EATER ASS ERE GPF Sr ayy
(

POET’S CORNER

“The Hardy Breed”’

Scattered around are the buildings
Where Majestic the Sawmill stands,
And yonder is the Backhouse

For tise of the many hands.

But those who are the hardy kind
Daily to the Backhouse go, A
To sit and breathe the ozone

And take it kind of slow.

Only Communists and fello
right statement of policy on th

“Qur members fervently desire
peace throughout the entire
world. Only in peace can work-
ling people increase their stand~
ard of living, improve their
homes, eat more and better food,
advance their education, and en-
joy more leisure. These and not
war are our objectives.

“Unfortunately some individ-
uals who have attached them-
selves to trade unions are at-
tempting to pose as the only
friends of peace, and as such,
the only qualified leaders of the
organized workers of our coun-
try. But, however incredible it
may seem, these are the very
people who are in favor of the
armed attack upon South Ko-
rea.

“This campaign in favor of
peace on the one hand and armed
aggression on the other must be
exposed.

“The activities of Communists
and Communist sympathizers
have never been sincere efforts to
improve the position of working
people. They have been designed
in the past solely to further the
interests of the Communist party.
Today these willing dupes are at-
tempting to sow confusion among
Union members, in order to assist
the Stalinist dictatorship of So-
viet Russia, which has for its ob-
jective the domination and en-
slavement of the entire world.

“As is now well known, the
armies of Stalin’s puppet govern-
ment of North Korea invaded
South Korea on June 25, after
having resisted all efforts of the
United Nations to re-unite Korea
under stable democratic govern-
ment. The Security Council of
the United Nations took-action by
resolution the same day to coun-
ter this armed attack.

“The International Confedera-
tion of Free Trade Unions imme-
diately stated its support of the
Security Council.

“Communists and persons of
like minds in our own country are
asking our members and others
to sign the phony Stockholm
Peace Pledge and to pass “ban
the A-Bomb” resolutions, hoping

An ancient device of slight expense

For always to it one is driven;
A gesture slight to Nature's call,
No profit in such provision,

Oh: how the stinks are blended,
‘The aroma unearthly seems—_ .
Some have nightmares fantastic,
Others have ghastly dreams.

Always there are weaklings
Among the hardy pioneers,

Once they have used the Backhouse
There’s naught but dreams and fears;

They laugh aloud at the weaklings
Who fail to meet the test:

The survival of the fittest,

For Nature she knows best.

Civilization comes but slowly

On the last great frontier,

But where the Union is established
One knows that it is near.

Soon there will be the yesterdays
Which oldtimers will recall,
And strongest in their memories

The Backhouse stands above them all.
Bane McBain, Giscome, B.C.

Le

Life on the Loggers’ Navy

The logger’s navy is a stalwart craft
Forty feet, with a six foot draught,

A three cylinder Gardiner, that starts with air,
The starting of which requires quite a flair.

‘The air compressor is quite a rig,

It's a Jot of trouble for something that big.

Turn on the gas and a little choke,

Give a heave on that quarter inch rope,

A little more gas, cut down on the choke,

Another pull on that quarter inch rope.

Cl the choke, cut down on the gas,
the next pull is ‘the last.

‘There she goes! Open the gas,
Has she caught? Yes, at Jast.
Amidst the
Run

compressor’s clattering din,
the engine room, a quick look’ in.

When ing’s set, then let ‘er go,

For iners’ starting is quite a show.

A ‘of coughs,
Then she settles to
Turn a val
Di
for the gall

Put her in gear and open er wide

For there's not much time to make the next tide,

The Boys at camp are glad to see

‘The crew of the “Logger's Navy”.
These are places to run a show,

Just a couple of films, then they know,
How to fall timber, according to rules,
And not go and act like fools.

Then there are the unfortunate few,

Who stepped in the bight and got their due.

OF how Compensation handles their case,
At Fourth Ave., at their Modern place.
Then up to Otto's place for dinner,
Thanks to his wife, no one’s thinner.
Bacon and Eggs, contrary to opinion,

Are one of the best foods in this Dominion.

Back to the boat, to work on reports,

Duplicates and triplicates and things of that sort.

Just after Midnight the work is done.
Letters, reports, every single one.

Off with the clothes and into bed

Thoughts still persist, in your head,
Of tomorrow, and the work to be done
In all the camps, every single one.

No matter how far, or remote

That have to be visited by the Logger’s Boat.
F. H. (SCOTTY) DRAPER.

to keep us disarmed and leave
Soviet Russia free to move in on
any country whenever it suits
their purpose,

“Dictatorship wherever it ex-
ists is the foe of trade unions.

“Dictators, whether they are
fascist or communist, are intent
upon world domination. They
know no goal but unlimited power.
They know no method of actom-
plishing this end, but armed force
and enslavement of conquered
people.

“We as unionists know the
value of peace, of freedom, and
of democracy. We also know
} that there are times when these

things haye to be fought for.
There can no longer be any
doubt that that time has come
around again,

POOR LORD!

Who wouldn’t be a labor lord.
In England, members of the Brit-
ish Labor Party, when elevated
to the House of Lords, find that
they have to have the wealth of
the Tories to pay the shot,

Most of them are trade -union
members, and in their new public
office have discovered that they
are expected to pay out nearly
$2,000 for scarlet robes with er-
mine, coronet for coronations and
coats of arms, etc.

It is suggested that they form
a Lord’s union and process the
grievance.

SUPPORT OUR
ADVERTISERS

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yw travellers opposed the forth-
e international situation, pinned

the blame for wars and unrest squarely on the shoulders of inter-
national Communism in~these words:

“Thus, in the firm conviction
that the steps taken by our own
country, Britain the United States
and other members of the Unit
Nations are designed to resto;
peace in Korea and uphold th
dignity and authority of inter-
national law in the settlement of
disputes between the countries of
the world, we call upon all of our
affiliated membership to give
these measures their unqualified
support.”

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