ANNUAL REPORT 1914 9 



and of the enormous loss to the laboring man, especially in his 

 own line of work, if the timber is allowed to burn. 



( )ne man of this kind will do as much or more work, that 

 actually counts in controlling a fire than three men of any other' 

 kind. 



While there are occasional emergencies in our work which 

 make it necessary for us to pick up any kind of men any place we 

 can get them, I feel that we should not lose sight of the fact that 

 all men will demand 25 cents an hour, that it costs just as much 

 to feed and transport a poor fire fighter as a good one, and that 

 the efficiency of such a man is not more than 25 per cent to 30 

 per cent of that of a man who is used to hard manual labor and 

 conditions in the timber. If its costs us $3.25 a day for the wages 

 and board of a man who is 100 per cent efficient in this work it 

 must cost us nearly $10.00 to get the same amount of work done 

 by many of the men we rush into our large fires who are recruited 

 from employment offices, farms, and the ranks of the pool room, 

 saloon or corner loafers. Unfortunately we can not entirely avoid 

 the use of these undesirables and incompetents, but we can hold, 

 down their number to the minimum and thereby save money 

 while increasing the average efficiency of what force we have. In 

 my opinion we have no use for such men, except in the face of 

 the most overruling necessity, and that then their employment 

 should be limited to the shortest possible term. 



WASTED EFFORT 



Some trouble was experienced last summer by reason of the 

 failure of green men to realize the importance of holding any 

 ground gained and of watching the trench back of them to see 

 that fire did not crawl across it. This is another of the draw- 

 backs experienced in using green men and in having to string 

 them out over a long line without enough supervision. The prob- 

 lem is a serious one and deserves very careful consideration in the 

 future. 



SUPERVISION 



When fire fighting crews consist almost entirely of woods- 

 men, lumberjacks and the like one foreman or straw boss can 

 handle a comparatively large number of men, stretched out over 

 a long fire line. When our forces consist of green men, wholly 

 unfamiliar with the work, it becomes necessary to put an experi- 

 enced straw boss in charge of a very small crew. 



The efficiency of the work done by green men depends almost 

 entirely on the care with which the supervisory organization is 



