LOGGING IN THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 9 
No result of the depressed condition of the lumber industry is more 
deplorable than this. The short employment period each year and 
the peculiar social conditions are doubtless largely responsible for 
the fact that woods laborers of the region as a class are not as steady 
and efficient as they might be. 
METHODS OF EMPLOYMENT AND PAYMENT. 
There are three principal methods of hiring those of the men who 
are not hired directly by the camp foreman. The most common, per- 
haps, is through the regular employment agencies. Some of the 
larger operators employ their own agents. When a company uses 
enough men to justify the expense of a private agent, this usually 
proves the most satisfactory arrangement. In some instances several 
companies join in maintaining an agent, but that plan has often 
proved unsatisfactory because of a feeling that one company was 
favored more than another. In other cases the crews are kept up 
almost entirely from men who apply for work either at the camps or 
at the city offices. 
So far labor unions have played only a small part in the logging 
industry of the region, and that in an indirect way. The natural 
independence of the woods worker and the fact that strong or normal 
demand for woods labor over long periods is unusual are probably 
the principal reasons why he has not affiliated with labor unions. 
Furthermore, living conditions in the camps are improving and rela- 
tively good wages are the rule. However, stronger efforts for the 
organization of a loggers' union are made each year. 
Most of the men are paid by the day, the operators charging them 
for board. The monthly men, such as foreman, bookkeepers, cooks, 
and locomotive crews, as a rule, have their board in addition to their 
monthly wages. 
Comparatively little contract work is done. In a few cases felling 
and bucking and railroad grading are contracted, and, less often, 
the delivery of the logs from the stump to the landing in the case 
of an out-of-the-way chance. 
A system of bonuses, a modification of the wage system, is being 
tried out by a number of operators. 
The men are usually paid once a month or on the termination of 
their work. Either bank or time checks are used. In most cases the 
time checks are taken at their face value by the merchants of the 
surrounding towns, the exception usually being in the town or city 
where the company has its offices and where the men may exchange 
the time or bank checks for cash. 
