IWW timber workers

This appeared in the Lumberjack News of Eureka, California and in Vanguard, of New York.

And THIS from the Lumberjack News of Eureka, California.

And this one appeared in Lumberjack News of Eureka, California; Vanguard of New York, and New South Revue of Louisville, KY.

We are now all familiar with the John Birch Society, but little is known of its splinter group, the "Grand Demoniac Sons of Birchers" (GDSOBs), however it is widely suspected that they are pretty much alike. And now comes a new split in the Birchers, and its bound to spread to the GDSOBs This new splinter calls itself the "Jack Ash Society"

The following also appeared in Lumberjack News when it was published in Eureka, California. It also appeared in Vanguard of New York.

The chief is disturbed. He has heard a lot of rumors about "Progress" among the Red Barbarians up on the hill, so he has decided to call a special meeting of the council. He steps outside, picks up a club and proceeds to beat a tattoo signal on a hollow log. Five minutes later the council members arrive at the thatched hut of the Chief. He bangs his club on a stone slab and the Council comes to order.

Following is an article on American Standard of Living written by me in first issue of the Lumberjack News then located at Fort Seward, California in October of 1957.

Not all of my life in the timber has been confined to the logging end of it as this article will show. I wrote this following article which was printed in the Lumbermans Magazine of Portland, Oregon in August of 1957.

The "Fast Rig" is a sawmill carriage. To be specific, this fast rig is most generally found in the pine timber country. The whole question of "fast" is relative, as nearly every sawmill town from the Lake States to Seattle, Washington has the "fastest rig" either real, or imagined.

And also from the pages of Lumberjack News, located at that time in Eureka, California.

There is a hell of an uproar in the nations press about the giant roaming the hills of Humboldt and Del Norte County. He makes footprints 16 inches long and seven inches wide! They all try and make out that it's a big mystery but it's no mystery at all to us old time lumberjacks, especially to those among us who were logging in the vicinity years ago. We knowed him as Bigfoot Wallace, and I got to know the gent quite well back in 1919.

This first appeared in the Lumberjack News of Eureka, California and in 1964 in the Redwood Ripsaw. Ye editor was the author of this book.

Gee Whiz Two, (Army Intelligence) had just called me back into service on account of I was in the army 45 years ago, and having been a lumberjack for fifty years ago, they figured I would understand jungle warfare, and would be just the cookie for Vietnam.

This lengthy text was published by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1922. While by now some of the information is considerably dated, this study is still thoroughly exhaustive for its time. The breadth of knowledge possessed by the workers in the Lumber Industry is demonstrated here, and it shows that, even in 1922, control of the industry by the workers was entirely possible. So while technology and conditions have changed, the song remains the same. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.

• Chapter 1 - Lumber in its Relation to Other Industries.
• Chapter 2 - Early Methods of Logging.
• Chapter 3 - Evolution of the Lumber Industry.
• Chapter 4 - Private Monopoly of Natural Resources.
• Chapter 5 - How Rich Grafters Got Possession of the Timber Lands of the Country.
• Chapter 6 - Ruinous Mismanagement of Stolen Property.
• Chapter 7 - Labor Conditions in the Lumber Industry.
• Chapter 8 - Organization.
• Chapter 9 - Right Versus Wrong Methods of Organization.
• Chapter 10 - Past Battles of the Lumber Workers.
• Chapter 11 - How the Workers can Manage Industry.

By James Rowan, Lumber Workers Industrial Union #500 - IWW; Seattle, Washington - 1920

• Chapter 1 - The Monopoly of the Lumber Trust
• Chapter 2 - The Lumber Trust Autocracy Over Labor
• Chapter 3 - The One Big Union of the Workers Versus Bosses
• Chapter 4 - The Early Struggle for Camp & Sawmill Democracy
• Chapter 5 - The Lumber Workers' Struggle for Freedom and the Lumber Trusts' Struggle for Profits
• Chapter 6 - The Job Strike
• Chapter 7 - Victory, but not the Final Victory
• Epilogue - A Job & Political Bunk, by Ernest Riebe

About the author:

James Rowan began organizing in the Lumber Industry for the IWW as early as 1916, witnessed the Everett Massacre, and became involved in the great IWW LWIU organizing campaigns from 1917-23. During this time he became to be known as the "Jesus of the Lumberjacks".

Unfortunately, post World War I defeats and factional disputes led to James Rowan leading a splinter faction called the "Emergency Program" (or "E.P.") which ultimately failed. The "E.P." died out around 1930. James Rowan was quite possibly its last remaining member.

Before this disastrous split, however, Fellow Worker Rowan's efforts contributed to and documented the success of the LWIU 120 (then known as LWIU 500).

The following represents the complete, unabridged edition of James Rowan's Sixty-One Page account of the (then) short but colorful history of the IWW in the Lumber Industry of the American Pacific Northwest from 1907-20.