336 REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



The camp location is cleared of all trees and stubs which might prove dan- 

 gerous in a high wind. All slash and underbrush is burned to avoid unnecessary- 

 fire risk. Good drainage and plenty of pure water are essential to well-located 

 camps. 



III. Organization. 



There are three principal methods of hiring the men aside from the few 

 hired individually by the camp foremen. 



The most common method, perhaps, is through the regular employment 

 agencies. The camp has established relations with a number of responsible 

 agencies and hires few men coming directly to the company for work, as men 

 are ordered from the agents as vacancies occur, such orders guaranteeing at least 

 a fair trial for the man sent out in response to the order. Were chance applicants 

 takeh on, it would entail a great deal of confusion. 



Some of the larger companies employ their own agent. They figure that a 

 man working for their interests alone will be able to get a better class of men 

 for them, and that the men themselves will be better satisfied, not having to pay 

 any employment fees. Where the company uses enough men to justify the 

 expense of a private agent, and the right sort of a man can be secured to act in 

 that capacity, it will usually prove the most satisfactory arrangement. 



In some instances several companies go together and maintain an agent, a 

 plan which has quite often proved unsatisfactory because of a feeling that may 

 arise that one company may be favored more than another. In other cases the 

 crews are kept up almost entirely from men who apply either at the camps or the 

 city office for work. 



So far, labor unions have not been a factor in the logging end of the industry 

 — a condition of affairs which will undoubtedly be changed within the next few 

 years, as more determined efforts for the organization of loggers' unions are 

 being made each year. The natural independence of the lumberjack, coupled 

 with his tendency to casual, rather than steady, employment has been the prin- 

 cipal factor in keeping him free from union affiliations. Add to this the fact that 

 work is almost always plentiful and good wages the rule, and you have the prin- 

 cipal reasons for this state of affairs. 



The men are almost universally paid once each month or on the termination 

 of their work. Either bank checks or time checks are used. In most instances 

 the time checks are taken for their full value by the merchants of the surrounding 

 towns ; the exception- to this usually being in the town or city where the com- 

 pany has its office and where the men may exchange the time checks for bank 

 checks or cash. 



Most of the men are paid by the day and pay their own board. The monthly 

 men, such as foremen, timekeepers, cooks, and engine crews, have their board 

 included in their monthly wage. Pay days usually come between the 1st and 15th 

 of the month. 



One of the most important steps toward attaining efficiency and greater 

 cooperation from the men, is the adoption of a system of bonuses by a number 



