Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 16, 1917
The Great Northwestern Lumber Strike: Causes and Demands
From the International Socialist Review of September 1917:
LUMBER BARONS REFUSE GOVERNMENT REQUEST
As we go to press we learn that Secretary of War Baker sent a telegram to the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, urging an eight-hour day for Pacific Coast lumber workers.
According to an Associated Press dispatch, Robert B. Allen, Secretary of the Association, said the lumbermen were anxious to co-operate with the government, but “they did not feel that they could concede the eight-hour day at this time.” This open defiance of the government by the gentlemen composing this Association, coming at this time, is rank treason, and fifty thousand lumber jacks are watching the outcome.
—–
News from Lumber Workers’ Strike
By JOHN MARTIN
THE general strike in the Lumber Industry as called by the L. W. I. U., No. 500, of the I. W. W. has spread practically to every camp and mill of the entire northwest. Not a wheel is turning, no more is to be heard the sound of the woodman’s axe. Quiet reigns all over.
At the General Convention of the L. W. I. U. held in Spokane last spring it was decided to call a strike in the latter part of the summer, so as to obtain better working conditions thruout the Lumbering Industry. But things were so unbearable that they forced the men out on strike before they really intended to go. Out of the woods and mills they came by the thousands, determined that they would not return until their demands, an eight-hour day with no reduction in pay, were granted. And today these sturdy sons of the forests stand as a solid wall, which the lumber barons are unable to break down. Many brutal methods by the authorities have been used against them. Many of our members have been jailed, and are now being held in bull-pens and stockades, incommunicado, thruout the country, and are being treated like they are a bunch of wild animals.
In many instances lawyers have been refused by town authorities to see those in prison. At Klamath Falls, Oregon, the lawyer sent there by the organization to look after the men in jail, was deported out of town at the point of a gun after he was told by the gunmen that they would hang half of the men in jail and throw the rest of them in the river. Many of our halls have been raided, literature and supplies stolen by the tools of the lumber companies. On several occasions our delegates have been arrested by soldiers and their supplies taken away from them, and inquiries to United States attorneys in regards to returning these supplies do not even meet with a reply, but with all their dirty tactics and high-handed methods, they have not been able to break the strike.
The solidarity displayed by the striking lumber workers is wonderful, and especially as hardly any organization existed among them up to last fall, when the delegates started to make the drive for members. The lumber workers, recalling the hard times existing in previous years and the need of organization, joined by the score, and today they control the situation of the biggest strike ever called in the Lumber Industry. Wherever you go you will meet the wobbly picket. He is on the job day and night, always on the lookout for scabs, but very few have the lumber barons been able to get so far. The lumber jacks and mill workers realize more and more that “An injury to one is an injury to all,” and are staying away from the camps and mills.
The situation in general looks very promising. Idaho has been the storm center, and it is the most solidly organized section of the strike area. The Governor of Idaho has practically admitted that he has failed to break the strike, and that the only thing left to do is to get the men back to work. He wants to arrange a conference with our “leaders,” and he has been informed that there are about fifty thousand leaders in this strike. The Organization Committee in Spokane told him that every hall that has been closed will have to be opened again, every picket who has been arrested will have to be released, our demands granted, our right to organize respected, and a stop put to the Cossack-like tactics of “Officers of the Law” who have grown so arrogant that a Russian secret service man of the Czar’s regime would be lost in admiration of them. There will no doubt be a conference of lumber barons to consider the proposition before long, and they may try to run a bluff on us. But anyone with half an eye can see that we have them in the hollow of our hands. All we have to do now is to “HOLD THE FORT,” and the victory will be ours.
Many of these pickets have been arrested for no reason whatsoever. But a new squad appears on the job the next day, always realizing that we are in this fight to win, and win we will, if the outside workers give us a helping hand. Many of our members are married and have children. These rebel women and kids must be taken care of. Remember, if this strike is won it will mean one of the greatest victories for labor. Funds are urgently needed, so donate whatever you can, and do it now. Send all funds to John Martin, Room 40, Union Block, Seattle, Washington.
———-
WHY WE STRUCK
By W. L. MORGAN
—–
THE conditions under which the lumber workers existed during past years in the Northwest were worse than any pen could portray. I am making an effort to describe them because of the misrepresentations of the capitalist press regarding the lumber workers in this great and growing strike. They have maintained that wages were high and that conditions in the lumber camps “were satisfactory.” For many years I have worked in the Northwest lumber camps and am able to tell you about them from personal experience.
Ten hours a day, which was our working day, is far too long for men who are employed at this irksome labor which taxed the endurance of the most powerful men. Besides we walked to and from the job on our own time, which stretched the working day to eleven or twelve hours.
When we got back to camp at night we were so played out that we had no strength for recreation or study, but were overcome with a desire for sleep. We existed like horses or mules. The work on the job was not only hard but dangerous and we were continually speeded up to the limit of our endurance. For this giving of our entire strength, our entire lives, as you might say, we were paid a bare subsistence. When our board bills were squared there was not much left for clothing.
Our food was of the worst and our “homes” were the dwelling place of vermin. We were packed like sardines in a can amid the odor of drying socks, filthy blankets and the breathing of many men. These unsanitary bunk houses were the breeding places of disease. We had smallpox and other epidemics impossible in clean surroundings. Medical attention was a farce although we paid our fees three or four times a month. Combined with the commissary graft life became intolerable. Many of the workers became apathetic to their surroundings and indifferent to attempts to better their lot.
At last the idea of organizing into One Big Union struck us and since then the men have awakened to new hope, a new interest in life. They have been putting up a valiant fight ever since. When the lumber jacks got interested they began to line up with surprising speed. During the last year the small beginnings have grown into a powerful organization, the members of which are recognizing their economic strength.
To offset this growing solidarity on the part of the workers, the lumber barons started a blacklist. Rustling cards, similar to those forced upon the Butte miners, were introduced to weed out the union men in the camps. The blacklist proved a failure as most of the boys had already joined the union. This action to stop the organization of the lumber jacks on the Pacific coast resulted in the tragedy at Everett, Wash., when five workers were ruthlessly shot down by the hired assassins of the lumber trust.
Instead of steming the tide of organization, this crime stimulated it, until at last the O. B. U. [One Big Union] has become so strong that it has tied up the lumber industry like a bolt from the blue and every day seems to give better promise of the boys winning what they are striking for.
Here are our demands: An eight hour day which will allow us opportunity for recreation and for study and education.
Sixty dollars a month and free board, which every man ought to have in these clays of high cost of living.
Sanitary bunkhouses, dry rooms, clean, wholesome food and shower baths, the need of which I hope I do not have to argue.
Nor for our demands for sheets and pillow cases, the like of which no lumber jack ever sees while working on the job.
The welfare of society demands that the lumber workers win this strike which will mean stronger, healthier, more intelligent workers in the great Northwest; workers who will strive always for a new social system, an Industrial Democracy wherein every man, woman and child shall be free from the shackels of wage slavery. Our last demand for no discrimination against men in the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union is essential to bring this about.
———-
The Lumber Jacks
By OLIN B. ANDERSON
—–
ONE of the most vital and momentous class struggles ever waged on the industrial arena is being fought by the newly awakened Giant: The Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500, I. W. W.
He has risen with indignant and virile manhood from his crouching submission in the dust and brushed the sleep from his eyes.
He has been looked upon as being too callous and inert beneath his galling burdens to unite in any place other than before the “booze bar” and this sudden and unexpected volcanic eruption on his part has sent glimmering all previous theories regarding his “specie.”
It may be that the giant plumed forest monarchs have whispered their secrets of Solidarity to him; or that the turbulent floods have taught him of the course gravitating toward a common end (organization, the immutable law of life) but nevertheless by some mysterious agency he, at last, has thrown aside his peavy and ax, calmly filled his “jimmy pipe” and is demanding a larger share of the good things his sinewy hands have produced. He did not “blow his stake” in a drunken brawl, get vicious and start a “rough house” but wisely dropped his money in a strike fund “grub stake” to put his fellow slaves next to the advantages of Industrial Organization; got in picket lines and began a peaceful, confident vacation of “watchful waiting.”
No “morning after” headaches, black eyes, of “grim visaged” judges (with the exception of “trumped up” charges) but the putting of his great gnarled hands in the empty pockets of his “stagged” pants, his class conscious realization of being in the possession of the greatest weapon on earth: Economic Power.
The arduous, hazardous and abnormal conditions of the river drives which requires men to wade the icy mountain waters, from ten to fourteen hours per day and sleep in wet clothing; the greatly increased cost of all necessary outfits; (driver shoes as high as $12) for the meager pittance of $3, became unbearable, and culminated in the river drivers’ strike.
One of the first blows was against the Eureka Lumber Company on the Fortine River Mont. They had previously boasted they would put a ban on all I. W. Ws., but upon shipping a “specially selected” car load from Spokane, they suddenly found themselves submarined by “solidarity” in what they supposed to be submissive and peaceful waters. They at once resorted to the old time tactics in “skinning the red man” and throu luring and deceptive promises, imported a band from the White Earth Reservation.
About 140 soldiers arrived at once, supposedly to protect railroad property, but immediately began the patroling of the river, and guarding scabs.
The good behavior of the strikers was a surprise and disappointment to the Masters and in a frenzied effort to disorganize them, they resorted to “trumped up” charges of vagrancy against Organizer J. I. Turner, Delegate Louis Miller and three of the strike and press committee.
After a two day’s jury trial they were released. Fred Hegge was arrested at Fortine by the Federal authorities and kept under guard for fifty-eight days at Whitefish. The Whitefish hall was raided and closed, and Fellow Worker Wm. Collins and others arrested.
The Great Northern R, R. was in the midst of extensive construction work there, and the I. W, W.’s in their effort to organize for a betterment of their conditions, were looked upon as being a “menace” to big business.
The press reports the hall at North Yakima raided, and boasts of 30 members arrested. In acting as a rebel once did at a place called Nazareth two Greek Fellow Workers were arrested and deported from Boville to Moscow, Ida., with the horrible charge of “agitation” being preferred against them. From all over the country flashes the news of the pillaging of halls, the destruction of literature, and the wanton mistreatment and imprisonment of active members. Yet thru it all we rejoice, for we realize such actions are digging the grave of capitalism.
The active tyranny being inflicted upon the I. W. W. organization by our foes, proves its worth to the working class. We are sincerely proud of our enemies. News of the most encouraging importance is constantly pouring in from all quarters, and the strike zone is spreading like a consuming fire. Hurry up calls for supplies and membership cards is threatening to submerge the General Headquarters like an avalanche.
The results are a pleasant surprise to even the most zealous and optimistic. In full realization that Organization and Not Whisky lands the “solar plexus punch” and in strict avoidance of all actions that tends to breed violence, the One Big Union [I. W. W.] is destined to sweep forward with its organized economic power.
———-
From Salem’s Oregon Statesman of September 9, 1917:
LUMBER STRIKE IS CALLED OFF
—–(By The Associated Press)
Spokane, Sept. 8. – With their leaders in jail as military prisoners and their literature confiscated the I. W. W. at a secret meeting last night decided to call off the strike which has practically tied up the lumber industry of the northwest. Though Don Sheridan, acting secretary in place of James Rowan, now a federal prisoner, refused to admit that the strike was called off, members of the organization declare they will go back to work Monday.
J. H. C. Reynolds, secretary of the Loggers’ club, said no official report had reached him that the strike was off.
———-
From The Tacoma Times of September 11, 1917:
DENY LUMBER STRIKE HAS BEEN CALLED OFF
Positive denial of reports circulated thruout the state that the strike for an eight-hour day in the lumber industry has been called off and that the men are going back to work in the mills and camps was made Tuesday at I. W. W. headquarters in Tacoma, and at the headquarters of the timber workers’ union.
[Said Secretary Earl Osborne of the local I. W. W.:]
I can state positively that the timber workers of the state will never go back to the camps and work 10 hours a day.
Officials of the timberworkers’ union said members of their organization had no intention of returning to work unless their demands are granted, altho they had received numerous inquiries from employers whether it was true the strike had been called off.
Tuesday the north End Lumber Co. resumed operations on an 11-hour basis, officials asserting that enough men had been obtained to handle the company’s orders.
Japanese workers in the mill were offered 40 cents an hour to return to work, it was reported, while formerly they were receiving only #2.25 a day.
Reports were received in Tacoma Tuesday that 60 men who had been employed by the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. to reopen its camp at Orting all had walked out again.
———-
SOURCES & IMAGES
International Socialist Review Volume 18
(Chicago, Illinois)
Charles H. Kerr and Company
July 1917-June 1918
https://archive.org/details/ISR-volume18
ISR Sept 1917
(Also source for images within articles.)
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n65/mode/1up
“News from Lumber Workers’ Strike” by John Martin
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n74/mode/1up
“Why We Struck” by W. L. Morgan
“The Lumber Jacks” by Olin B. Anderson
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n75/mode/1up
The Oregon Statesman
(Salem, Oregon)
-Sept 9, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/202827803/
The Tacoma Times
(Tacoma, Washington)
-Sept 11, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1917-09-11/ed-1/seq-8/
See also:
Everett Massacre of 1916
https://weneverforget.org/tag/everett-massacre-of-1916/
For more on LWIU #500, see:
The Lumber Industry and Its Workers
-by James Kennedy
IWW, ab/ 1921
http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/pamphlets/lumber/index.html
Chapter 10-Past Battles of the Lumber Workers
Scroll down to:
“In March, 1917, Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500 (now 120) was launched…”
https://www.iww.org/fr/unions/dept100/iu120/lumber/lumber10.shtml
For more on “Industrial Democracy” as the term
was used and debated back in the day:
Socialism:
a Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles
-by John Spargo
Macmillan, 1910
(Search: “industrial democracy”.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=wk9YAAAAMAAJ
For more on Industrial Organization v Craft Organization:
Industrial Unionism, The Road to Freedom
-by Joseph J. Ettor
IWW, 1913
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/unions/iww/1913/ettor.htm
Tag: James Rowan
https://weneverforget.org/tag/james-rowan/
Note: I believe that the “timberworkers union” mentioned above refers to the International Union of Timberworkers (AFL). For more on the IUT strike of 1917 and the relationship of the IUT strike to the LWIU (IWW) strike of 1917, see:
“The International Union of Timberworkers, 1911-1923”
-by Chris Canterbury
Scroll down to:
“The few remaining locals….In January 1917, the new IUT was strong enough…”
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/canterbury.shtml
50,000 Lumber Jacks – Joe Glazer
Lumberjacks’s Prayer – Utah Philips
Lyrics by T-bone Slim
