Lumber Workers Industrial Union 120

THE objection is sometimes raised to the I. W. W. program of industrial democracy, that industry could not run unless financed by capitalists, and that without bosses to employ them workers could not exist. These objectors do not understand the difference between capital and capitalists. Capital means "stored up labor power," or "wealth that is used to produce more wealth." Wealth is "nature's material adapted by labor to suit the needs of man." The machinery Or production, such as sawmills, steel plants, factories, mining machinery, railroads, is capital.

MANY attempts at organization among lumber workers have been made with varying success. The first lumber workers' union of which we have any record was organized at Eureka, Calif., in 1884. Six months later it took out a charter in the Knights of Labor, and soon gained a membership of over two thousand. It had locals in Eureka, Arcata, Freshwater, and several other points in Northern California, and published a weekly paper called "the Western Watchman." One of the principal grievances of the lumber workers was the hospital fee.

The Fallacy of Craft Unionism

All wealth is produced by labor being applied to the natural resources of the earth. Wherever labor and natural resources come together, there industry springs up--a job comes into existence. The wealth produced on the job is divided in two ways. Part goes to the workers in the form of wages and part to the capitalists in the form of profits. The share of each is determined by the amount of control they exert over the job. On every job there are two conflicting interests. The capitalist wants to make the biggest possible profits in the shortest possible time.

OWING to the nature of the industry conditions for loggers differ considerably from those of most workers. Situated in thinly settled forest regions, lumber camps are, to a great extent, cut off from civilization. The resulting conditions are a peculiar mixture of capitalism and feudalism, civilization and barbarism. Each camp is a community by itself--a unit in the industrial empire of the Lumber Trust--and is ruled by a foreman who has the powers of a petty czar. The company not only plays the part of employer but also that of hotel and store keeper.

SOME idea of the waste and destruction of the forests of the U. S. can be gained from the following extracts from the report by the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, June 1, 1920, entitled "Timber Depletion, Lumber Prices, Lumber Exports, and Concentration of Timber Ownership."

"The outstanding facts reported by the Forest Service are:

OWING to lack of space it is impossible to deal under this heading with more than a few examples. The history of the crimes committed by big capitalists in getting possession of the natural resources of the country would fill many volumes. The few cases mentioned are only typical examples of the methods by which all the big timber interests acquired their stolen property.

The only thorough canvass ever made of the amount and ownership of standing timber in the United States was that made in 1910 by the Bureau of Corporations, U. S. Department of Commerce and Labor. The findings of this investigation are given in the report known as "The Lumber Industry, Part 1, Standing Timber." Some extracts from this report follow and they convey some idea of the degree of centralized control that exists in the lumber industry.

Letter of Submittal - Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Corporations, Washington, Feb. 13, 1911:

The facts given in this chapter were obtained from an article entitled "A History of the Logging Industry in the state of New York," by Wm. F. Fox, Superintendent of Forests in that state, and a collaborator of the Bureau of Forestry. This article was published in 1902 as Bulletin 34 by the US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry.

Logging

The facts given in this chapter were obtained from an article entitled "A History of the Logging Industry in the state of New York," by Wm. F. Fox, Superintendent of Forests in that state, and a collaborator of the Bureau of Foresty. This article was published in 1902 as Bulletin 34 by the US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry.