Lumbering in the Philippines. 613 



Too many Americans have attempted to run a lumbering enter- 

 prise without knowing more than the rudiments of the business 

 themselves and have attempted to log cheaply with the minimum 

 of American supervision, a practice in every instance disastrous. 

 In bandmill practice the minimum amount of high grade American 

 labor to insure success may be obtained at an annual cost of about 

 $9,6cx).oo. This should employ a saw filer, sawyer, mill foreman 

 and millwright at $2,440.00 for each man. The right man cannot 

 be obtained for less, and with Filipino labor a mill cannot be run 

 as it should be unless thoroughly competent Americans are in 

 charge of the most important operations. Furthermore, experi- 

 ence shows that in the larger mills it pays to put in an American 

 as edgerman, as careless or unskilled edging, especially in de- 

 fective timber, reduces the output of the better grades of lumber 

 as much as 50%. The writer has seen Filipino edgermen fail to 

 shift saws after cutting out a defect in an 18" flitch and allow a 

 sound flitch 18" or more go through and be sawn into 4" strips. 

 Of course this is exceptional and in mill practice as well as in 

 logging, as the better grades of Filipinos enter the trade, higher 

 and higher grades of work can be entrusted to them. 



At present Filipino engineers and setters receive from $1.50 to 

 $2.00 per day, these wages attracting the highest grade of men 

 that are willing to go into the work. Trimmer men, edgermen 

 and setters receive from $1.00 to $1.50 per day and the rest of the 

 mill and yard crew, being classed for the most part as common 

 laborers, receive from $0.25 to $0.75 per day. As higher grades 

 of labor enter the field and as the present crews become more 

 skilled they will of course demand higher wages. Nevertheless, 

 the cost of each operation should lessen, for it is probable that the 

 capacity of the workmen both as to quantity and quality of work 

 will increase at a much more rapid rate than will wages. No 

 good figures can be given as yet for cost of logging and milling 

 for the Islands as a whole because each mill is operating under its 

 own particular conditions which differ from those in any other 

 mill to as great an extent as would the conditions in New England 

 differ from those in Oregon. In most large operations, however, 

 the logs can be delivered at the mill over a five mile railway and 

 at a cost of less than $3.50. The transportation charge is a large 

 item in getting the lumber to the market, but will be largely over- 



