The Centralia Conspiracy | Page 7

Northwestern lumber-jack was too human and too
stubborn ever to repudiate his red-blooded manhood at the behest of his

masters and become a serf. His union meant to him all that he
possessed or hoped to gain. Is it any wonder that he endured the
tortures of hell during the period of the war rather than yield his Red
Card--or that he is still determined and still undefeated? Is it any
wonder the lumber barons hated him, and sought to break his spirit
with brute force and legal cunning--or that they conspired to murder it
at Centralia with mob violence--and failed?

Why the Loggers Organized

The condition of the logger previous to the period of organization
beggars description. Modern industrial autocracy seemed with him to
develop its most inhuman characteristics. The evil plant of wage
slavery appeared to bear its most noxious blossoms in the woods.
The hours of labor were unendurably long, ten hours being the general
rule--with the exception of the Grays Harbor district, where the eleven
or even twelve hour day prevailed. In addition to this men were
compelled to walk considerable distances to and from their work and
meals through the wet brush.
Not infrequently the noon lunch was made almost impossible because
of the order to be back on the job when work commenced. A ten hour
stretch of arduous labor, in a climate where incessant rain is the rule for
at least six months of the year, was enough to try the strength and
patience of even the strongest. The wages too were pitiably inadequate.
The camps themselves, always more or less temporary affairs, were
inferior to the cow-shed accommodations of a cattle ranch. The bunk
house were over-crowded, ill-smelling and unsanitary. In these
ramshackle affairs the loggers were packed like sardines. The bunks
were arranged tier over tier and nearly always without mattresses. They
were uniformly vermin-infested and sometimes of the
"muzzle-loading" variety. No blankets were furnished, each logger
being compelled to supply his own. There were no facilities for bathing

or the washing and drying of sweaty clothing. Lighting and ventilation
were of course, always poor.
In addition to these discomforts the unorganized logger was charged a
monthly hospital fee for imaginary medical service. Also it was nearly
always necessary to pay for the opportunity of enjoying these privileges
by purchasing employment from a "job shark" or securing the good
graces of a "man catcher." The former often had "business agreements"
with the camp foreman and, in many cases, a man could not get a job
unless he had a ticket from a labor agent in some shipping point.
It may be said that the conditions just described were more prevalent in
some parts of the lumber country than in others. Nevertheless, these
prevailed pretty generally in all sections of the industry before the
workers attempted to better them by organizing. At all events such
were the conditions the lumber barons sought with all their power to
preserve and the loggers to change.

Organization and the Opening Struggle

A few years before the birth of the Industrial workers of the World the
lumber workers had started to organize. By 1905, when the above
mentioned union was launched, lumber-workers were already united in
considerable numbers in the old Western afterwards the American
Labor Union. This organization took steps to affiliate with the
Industrial Workers of the World and was thus among the very first to
seek a larger share of life in the ranks of that militant and maligned
organization. Strike followed strike with varying success and the
conditions of the loggers began perceptibly to improve.
Scattered here and there in the cities of the Northwest were many locals
of the Industrial Workers of the World. Not until 1912, however, were
these consolidated into a real industrial unit. For the first time a
sufficient number of loggers and saw mill men were organized to be
grouped into an integral part of the One Big Union. This was done with

reasonable success. In the following year the American Federation of
Labor attempted a similar task but without lasting results, the loggers
preferring the industrial to the craft form of organization. Besides this,
they were predisposed to sympathize with the ideal of solidarity and
Industrial Democracy for which their own union had stood from the
beginning.
The "timber beast" was starting to reap the benefits of his organized
power. Also he was about to feel the force and hatred of the "interests"
arrayed against him. He was soon to learn that the path of labor
unionism is strewn with more rocks than roses. He was making an
earnest effort to emerge from the squalor and misery of peonage and
was soon to see that his overlords were satisfied to keep him right
where he