^96 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



day, $3.50 minimum wage, with other stipulations to conform to the 

 demands made by the millmen. 



Labor disturbances in the lumber industry of the Northwest are 

 symptoms of a social disease. They are natural and expected results 

 of a sawdust-pile, transient, mill-shack-town form of economic devel- 

 opment, which has been notoriously characteristic of the development 

 of the lumber industry in the United States. To attempt to kick or 

 kiss away the trouble without an open-minded, sympathetic, scientific 

 inquiry into the fundamental causes is both dangerous and futile. 



Many of the demands of the workers in the woods are not only just, 

 but are essential if ordinary decent standards of sanitation, recreation, 

 and the like are to be assured. The dirty, ill ventilated, uncomfortable, 

 and unattractive logging camp has been the rule rather than the excep- 

 tion. "River pig" and "lumber jack" have been terms of contempt. 

 The atmosphere of distrust and suspicion, accentuated by the black 

 list, the lack of social imagination by the employers in the handling of 

 the big human problem, and the wretched living conditions of the 

 "lumber jacks" has provided a most fertile field for the agitator. The 

 agitator in his endeavor to correct conditions no doubt goes to ex- 

 tremes at times. This, however, is not the important question in- 

 volved. There is too much concern for the particular criminal in such 

 cases and not enough for the causes of the crime. A sincere attempt 

 must be made by the industry to determine fundamental causes for this 

 agitation, and with courage, sympathy, and imagination it must work 

 out some basis of adjustment. Palliatives in the form of the cleaning 

 up of camps, the providing of some recreational facilities, and the like, 

 will, when put into effect in the right spirit by the industry, form the 

 basis for a truce and be a start in the right direction. Such work will 

 not be effective if done in the spirit of patronage or largess. The in- 

 dustry should recognize, however, that any settlement on this basis 

 will only be a temporary truce, for the whole question goes deeper. 

 The stability and permanency of the lumber cut by regions must be 

 assured in the industry if the human side of this problem is eventually 

 to be solved with a reasonable degree of satisfaction and social justice. 

 It is imperative to the success of the industry that the confidence be- 

 tween workers and employers be restored. There is but one way in 

 which this stability, permanency, and confidence can be brought about, 

 and that is through conservative forest management, including fire pro- 

 tection, continuity and regulation of cut, which would make possible 

 the building up of permanent communities of forest workers. Perma- 

 nent homes and the enjoyment of the privileges and social advantages 



