452 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



typical lumberjack hotels or rooming houses sought out by the lumber- 

 jack in his visits to the larger towns, and then make a trip to one of the 

 typical modern camps, the camp bunkhouse would be found the prefer- 

 able place to live. Even when they were at their worst, the lumber 

 camp housing conditions and sanitary arrangements compared favorably 

 with many of those offered today to laborers on railroad and other con- 

 struction or even farm work. Have they ever been any worse than in 

 tenement districts in our most uplifted cities, where several families 

 occupy the same room? Have the hours of labor been any more out- 

 rageous than the hours exacted today by the railroad companies of 

 many of their employes? When a man entered a camp he knew about 

 what to expect in regard to hours of labor. He was free to choose 

 between the camps and other occupations where hours were shorter. 

 What of the hours of labor required of farmhands and fire-fighters? 

 Tn many localities logbfing is a seasonal occupation, depending on 

 winter weather in some places and on absence of deep snow in others. 

 It is necessary to work men only a part of the year in the same manner 

 as they are needed only temporarily by the farmers at harvest time, or 

 by the Reclamation Service when it is constructing a dam or a system 

 of ditches. The lumberman keeps up his skeleton organization, build- 

 ing it up in time of need in the same manner as the Forest Service 

 when it enters the fire season or has a planting project on hand. Why, 

 then, should we single out the lumberman to blame for the condition of 

 his workers, who easily become "voteless, landless, womanless, home- 

 less, and hopeless, and therefore discontented, restless, and sympathetic 

 with destructively radical doctrines." Can we not as readily and with 

 as much truth blame it on any of the other classes of employers men- 

 tioned above? Let me add that my experience in contact with the 

 lumber industry has been that rarely is a good willing worker "fired" 

 for trivial reasons, as i? the general impression. Such workers are 

 encouraged to stay and are given work to do whenever there is work to 

 be done. Ten men quit in order to "blow their stake" for one who 

 leaves because he is discharged. It is not because a given body of 

 limber is logged oflE in a few years that labor is a constantly shifting 

 stream, but because labor itself for the most part is restless and con- 

 tinually on the move. Neither forest destruction nor forest conserva- 

 tion will alter this. Trouble between labor and employers dates back 

 at least to the time of the parable of the workers in the vineyard. 

 There always will be dissatisfied employers and dissatisfied labor. An 



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