65 cents. 
the East and South, approximately the same as 
those in the other Pacific slope States, and as high 
as those in any other forest region. Hourly wages 
here are about double those paid in the South. 
Wages in the lumber industry in this region 
declined during the period 1930-32, but not so 
rapidly as lumber prices, and they have recovered 
much faster. In 1935 they were approximately 
at the 1926 level, and at the middle of 1936 they 
had risen above the 1929 level. Lumber prices 
had increased, but were still below the 1926 level. 
Approximately 75 percent of the 100,000 to 
115,000 workers normally employed in the forest 
industries of this region are skilled. For this and 
for the consequent high average wage the high 
degree of mechanization in the logging and lumber 
industries and the extremely large size of the manu- 
facturing plants are chiefly responsible. Workers, 
including woods workers, are highly unionized, 
unlike those in the eastern and southern forest 
industries. 
in normal 
periods shut-downs are relatively brief. Conse- 
quently, a large percentage of the workers em- 
ployed are resident. 
Employment is nearly yearlong; 
Many men in rural communi- 
ties near the logging centers have had experience in 
forest work and supplement the yearlong labor 
during periods of extra activity. 
Most of the larger logging operations maintain 
semiportable or portable logging camps where 
workers are housed and fed in community fashion. 
Some of these camps have quarters where married 
men may house their families, and even provide 
school facilities. Nota few logging operations, both 
large and small, are so situated that workers can go 
to their jobs daily from their homes on nearby 
farms or in neighboring towns, sometimes in trains 
run by the company or sometimes in their own auto- 
mobiles. A large percentage of the labor, which is 
practically all white, is native born. Many of the 
remainder, mostly the older forest workers, mig- 
rated from the Lake States and the South when 
operations there folded up or moved to the Pacific 
Northwest. 
Production 
The Douglas-fir region produces approximately 
30 percent of the total lumber cut in the United 
Wages are much higher than those in 
States. 
Figure 21, giving lumber production in the 
United States and in the Douglas-fir region, shows 
that the ratio of production of this region to the 
total for the country varied but little during the 
11-year period 1925-35. For the first nine years 
of that period western Oregon’s lumber production 
amounted to about one-third of the regional total, 
varying from about 32 percent in 1925 to 36 per- 
cent in 1929; in the last 2 years the ratio increased 
slightly, and in 1935 it reached 41 percent. 
This region produced 91 percent of the shingles 
manufactured in the United States in 1935, Wash- 
ington producing 81 and Oregon 10 percent. 
The production of wood pulp was about 23 per- 
cent of the total for the country in 1935. The 
present installed pulp-mill capacity is about 17 
percent of the Nation’s total. Present indications 
point to a large increase in pulp-mill capacity 
within the next few years. 
Markets 
This region’s wood-using industries depend 
chiefly upon outside markets. During the period 
1926-34 only about one-quarter of the lumber pro- 
duced in the region was consumed within it. Ap- 
proximately one-third of the wood pulp produced 
is shipped to other regions without being manufac- 
tured into paper. Only about one-fourth as much 
paper is consumed in the region as is produced in 
it. Therefore, local paper consumption accounts 
for only about 15 to 20 percent of the annual 
regional pulp production. The situation in the 
This de- 
pendence upon outside markets apparently will 
plywood industry is about the same. 
continue for many years if current rates of produc- 
tion are maintained. 
With the exception of a very small quantity of 
hardwood veneer and lumber, no wood products 
need be brought into this region for a long time to 
come. 
There are four large markets where logs are 
offered for sale under definite rules of measurement 
and grading; these are the Puget Sound, Grays 
Harbor, Willapa Bay, and Columbia River log 
markets. in each of these, an association has been 
formed to do the scaling and grading. Many lum- 
ber manufacturers depend entirely on these mar- 
kets for their raw material. 
