Rebel Voices
Page 53
Before the campaign of organization now inaugurated by the Industrial Workers of the World is closed the lumber barons of Dixieland will have learned that it is impossible to fell trees with rifles and saw lumber with six shooters.
It should be mentioned here that of the nine men arrested four are non-union men, two of them, John and Paul Galloway, being owners of the Lumber Company. All are charged with murder. This, perhaps, indicates that the Trust has not entirely corralled the officialdom of Louisiana. It is certain that they are in bad repute with the business element in nearly all of the towns as their commissaries have been the means of controlling nearly the entire earnings of their employees, who are compelled to trade with the companies or lose the only means they have of making a living.
To maintain their absolute control of the camps the lumber companies, with the aid of their thugs, patrolled the towns; in some places inclosures were built around the mills and shacks. Notices were posted warning away union men, peddlers and Socialists.
Only a few days ago, H. G. Creel, one of the Rip-Saw editors on a lecture tour, was roughly handled at Oakdale and De Ridder, La. He was compelled to leave the first-named place, being threatened and intimidated by gun-men.
The small merchant realizes that if the workers are allowed to trade where they choose some of their money would pass over their counters and they know if wages are increased there would be a corresponding increase in their day’s receipts. This will account for the fact that the small businessman and farmer have given their sympathy and a measure of support to the growing union of timber workers.
Arthur L. Emerson and Jay Smith, both southern born, are the men around whom interest centers. They are the men who organized the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. Emerson had made two trips to the West—one to the Lumber District to the Southwest and the other to the Northwest. It was during the time that he worked with the lumberjacks of the Pacific Coast that he learned the need of organization. This thought was especially developed when he came in contact with the Lumber Workers’ Union of St. Regis and other points in the Bitter Root Range of Mountains. Being a practical lumberjack and sawmill hand and mill-wright himself, he saw at once the discrepancy in wages between the Pacific Coast and the Gulf States and upon his return to Dixieland he immediately took up the burden of organizing the workers as the only possible means of bringing up their wages and conditions to the level of the already too-low Western scale.
His first attempt was at Fullerton, Louisiana, where, after securing employment in the mill, by energetic work, he had in a few days secured a list of eighty-five of the one hundred and twenty-five employes who signified their willingness to join an organization such as he, in his earnestness, explained to them, outlining the benefits to be derived if all would stand together in one union.
Emerson traveled from place to place securing a few days’ employment in the different lumber camps, carrying his message of unionism to the slaves of the pine forests and cypress swamps of the southern states.
In this work of organization, he soon enlisted Jay Smith, his colleague in office, the present Secretary of the organization, and thousands of other stalwart men of the woods and sawmills, never hesitating at the color line or the nature of a man’s work.
The framework of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers was as solid as the heart of the mighty oak that they converted into lumber. It was securely rooted. With headquarters at Alexandria, La., it branched out into the surrounding states. Its membership rapidly increased until thirty thousand of the wage slaves of the Lumber Trust were enrolled in its ranks.
Through the system of espionage which the Trust has established throughout its domain, the managers of the companies kept themselves informed of the work of the organization and its rapid growth. They realized that with this kind of an organization to contend with, their despotic methods would be at an end and they determined to destroy it root and branch.
To this end the Southern Lumber Operators’ Ass’n. applied the most drastic action, closing down without notice forty-six mills. The thousands of workers who were employed in the lumber industry were thus deprived of their means of livelihood and left to shift for themselves. This arbitrary shut-down was continued for a period of nearly six months, and it is only now that the operators are endeavoring to run their mills as the demand for lumber has become so great and as the prices are higher than at any period in the history of the lumber industry the most vigorous efforts are being made to man the mills with nonunion labor.
Being unsuccessful a few of the largest companies have withdrawn from the Association; have granted the demands of the Timber Workers and are now running their mills night and day to fill accumulated orders.
The more obstreperous members of the Association are still trying to maintain their black list through the agency of their labor clearing house which has recently been established at Branch Headquarters located at Alexandria.
Their black-listing system is the most complete in operation anywhere. A man is compelled to give his name, birthplace, his color is recorded, the name and residence of his relatives, his former place of employment, the reason of his discharge or leaving his last place of work and particularly is he compelled to abjure all connection with the Brotherhood of Timber Workers or the Industrial Workers of the World. No later than the Fourth of July, celebrated as Independence Day in this country, John Henry Kirby, one of the wealthiest timber barons of the South, in a spread eagle oration, declared:
“That we do ask a man when he applies to us for work whether he is a member of the B.T.W. or I.W.W. If he is, we have nothing that he can do.”
Thus a free-born American citizen, or one who has adopted this “Freeland” as his country, is denied the right to live and at the same time belong to this organization. The two having now merged, Mr. Kirby will have to refer to them as one in the future.
At the last convention of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, attended by the writer, which was held last May, by an almost unanimous vote, application was made to the Industrial Workers of the World for a charter. The action of the convention was submitted to a referendum of the rank and file and has been sustained without a single opposing vote.
In September the Timber Workers of the South will meet in Convention representatives of timber workers from all other districts.
This meeting will be held in Chicago at about the time of the general convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. Then a National Industrial Union of Timber and Lumber Workers will be formed. This will include all of the workers employed in the United States, Canada and Mexico, in this industry, which in this country, is the third largest in importance and employs, perhaps, more men than any other.
Until the American Labor Union, which later merged with the I.W.W. began organizing the Lumber Workers, these millions of men were without a union of any kind. The organization which has now such a splendid foothold, will not limit its jurisdiction to any craft, section or division of the industry, but will include every man employed in the woods, the mills and the co-related industries.
The fight will be a long one and a bitter one. The struggle will be intense. Members and their families will suffer keen heart pangs, as the lumber barons will not loosen the stranglehold on their ill-gotten profits until they have exhausted every weapon that Capitalism has armed them with. But now that the workers of the Southland have joined hands with their fellow workers of the North, there can be but one result as the outcome of their united efforts. It can be recorded in one word—VICTORY! And the first step has been taken in the onward march toward Industrial Freedom!
Industrial Worker, August 25, 1917.
4
This unsigned poem appeared in Solidarity (August 4, 1917) during a major I.W.W. strike in the Northwest lumber camps for better living and working conditions. A second version of the poem, collected by folklorist William Alderson, appeared in the California Folklore Quarterly (Vol. I, 1942).
FIFTY THOUSAND LUMBER JACKS*
(Tune: “Portland County Jail”)
Fifty thousand lumberjacks, fifty thousand packs,
Fifty thousand dirty rolls of blankets on their backs.
Fifty thousand minds made up to strike and strike like men;
For fifty years they’ve “packed” a bed, but never will again.
Chorus:
“Such a lot of devils,”—that’s what the papers say—
“They’ve gone on strike for shorter hours and some increase in pay.
They left the camps, the lazy tramps, they all walked out as one;
They say they’ll win the strike or put the bosses on the bum.”
Fifty thousand wooden bunks full of things that crawl;
Fifty thousand restless men have left them once for all.
One by one they dared not say, “Fat, the hours are long.”
If they did they’d hike—but now they’re fifty thousand strong.
Fatty Rich, we know your game, know your pride is pricked.
Say—but why not be a man, and own when you are licked?
They’ve joined the One Big Union—gee—for goodness sake, get wise!
The more you try to buck them now, the more they organize.
Take a tip and start right in—plan some cozy rooms
Six or eight spring beds in each, with towels, sheets and brooms;
Shower baths for men who work keep them well and fit;
A laundry, too, and drying room, would help a little bit.
Get some dishes, white and clean; good pure food to eat;
See that cook has help enough to keep the table neat.
Tap the bell for eight hours’ work; treat the boys like men,
And fifty thousand lumberjacks may come to work again.
Men who work should be well paid—“A man’s a man for a’ that.”
Many a man has a home to keep same as yourself, Old Fat.
Mothers, sisters, sweethearts, wives, children, too, galore
Stand behind the men to win this bread and butter war.
5
William Alderson wrote in the California Folklore Quarterly (Vol. I, 1942, p. 376): “In the Spring of 1942, Dr. Harold Barto of Ellensburg, Washington, gave me this I.W.W. song which he learned in the logging camps of northern Idaho in 1917. … It is sung to the tune of ‘A Son of a Gamboleer’ … Professor Arthur G. Brodeur has pointed out to me a general similarity in metrical pattern and even in phrase—’twenty-thousand Cornish men’—between ‘Trelawny’ and this song.”
FIFTY THOUSAND LUMBERJACKS
1. Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Goin’ out to work,
Fifty thousand honest men
That never loaf or shirk
Fifty thousand lumberjacks
They sweat and swear and strain,
Get nothin’ but a cussin’
From the pushes and the brains.
2. Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Goin’ in to eat
Fifty thousand plates of slum
Made from tainted meat,
Fifty thousand lumberjacks
All settin’ up a yell
To kill the bellyrobbers
An’ damn their souls to hell.
3. Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Sleepin’ in pole bunks
Fifty thousand odors
From dirty socks to skunks,
Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Who snore and moan and groan
While fifty million graybacks
Are pickin’ at their bones.
4. Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Fifty thousand packs
Fifty thousand dirty rolls
Upon their dirty backs
Fifty thousand lumberjacks
Strike and strike like men;
For fifty years we packed our rolls,
But never will again.
6
Archie Sinclair, head of the I.W.W. California Defense Committee, was the author of this poem, which appeared in the Industrial Worker (February 16, 1918).
BINDLELESS DAYS
By ARCHIE R. SINCLAIR
The loggers all say, on the First of May,
Our bindles we will shed.
From the First of May till Judgment Day,
We’ll nevermore carry a bed.
* * *
From that time on, at dusk or dawn,
When hiking over the road,
Morning or night, we’ll travel light,
Not one will carry a load.
* * *
If the boss wants to pack a bed on his back
We have nothing more to say.
But nary a jack will carry a pack
After the First of May.
* * *
So here is a toast to the men of the Coast
The loggers and job delegate,
For a “Bindleless Day” on the First of May,
All the workers will agitate.
7
T-Bone Slim wrote this very popular statement which was printed on small colored cards and sold to raise money for the organization. This version was taken from such a card in the I.W.W. files in the Labadie Collection.
THE LUMBER JACK’S PRAYER
I pray dear Lord for Jesus’ sake,
Give us this day a T-Bone Steak,
Hallowed be thy Holy name,
But don’t forget to send the same.
Oh, hear my humble cry, Oh Lord,
And send us down some decent board,
Brown gravy and some German fried,
With sliced tomatoes on the side.
Observe me on my bended legs,
I’m asking you for Ham and Eggs,
And if thou havest custard pies,
I like, dear Lord, the largest size.
Oh, hear my cry, All Mighty Host,
I quite forgot the Quail on Toast,
—Let your kindly heart be stirred,
And stuff some oysters in that bird.
Dear Lord, we know your Holy wish,
On Friday we must have a fish,
Our flesh is weak and spirit stale,
You better make that fish a whale.
Oh, hear me Lord, remove these “Dogs,”
These sausages of powder’d logs,
Your bull beef hash and bearded Snouts.
Take them to hell or thereabouts.
With Alum bread and Pressed-Beef butts,
Dear Lord you damn near ruin’d my guts,
Your white-wash milk and Oleorine,
I wish to Christ I’d never seen.
Oh, hear me Lord, I am praying still,
But if you won’t, our union will,
Put pork chops on the bill of fare,
And starve no workers anywhere.
ANSWER TO THE PRAYER
I am happy to say this prayer has been answered—by the “old man” himself. He tells me He has furnished—plenty for all—and that if I am not getting mine it’s because I am not organized SUFFICIENTLY strong to force the master to loosen up.
He tells me he has no knowledge on Dogs, Pressed-Beef Butts, etc., and that they probably are products of the Devil. He further informs me the Capitalists are children of Hisn—and that He absolutely refuses to participate in any children’s squabbles. He believes in letting us fight it out along the lines of Industrial Unionism.
Yours in faith,
T-BONE SLIM.
NOTE—The money derived from the sale of these, goes for the payment of putting out free literature.
PRICE 10 CENTS
8
This short story about “technological improvements” in the lumber camps appeared, unsigned, in the I.W.W. publication The Lumberjack Bulletin (May 4, 1918).
TALL TIMBER TALES
The newest member fell in behind Lumberjack Joe on the trail and spoke up rather resentfully:
“Well, anyhow, I’ll bet you and Paul Bunyan never logged with a flying machine. Now did you?”
“Son,” answ
ered Joe over his shoulder, “men were too cheap in them days to bother much about machinery, but the cook did rig up one of them contraptions to turn flapjacks with and load them onto the men’s plates. You see he had to cook for a crew of one thousand scissorbills and even with their roller skates the flunkeys couldn’t get the flapjacks down to the far end of the big table until they were too cold to eat. When Paul laid eyes on the handy rig he raised the cook’s wages to $18 a month.”
“Eighteen a month!” exclaimed the cub member. “And what wages did the loggers get?”
“We paid them a package of Peerless each day, a bottle of whiskey every Saturday night, $10 in commissary and $5 in cash each month, and charged them for wear and tear on the tools. They had to furnish their own lanterns and it kept them broke most of the time buying oil, until Paul hit on a scheme to get them free light. It worked fine until John D. put it on the bum.”
“What was the scheme?” inquired the newest member.
“The men filled their lantern globes with lightning bugs,” answered Joe, “and they gave a better light than kerosene. Coal-oil Johnny sure was sore at us, and when he failed to make an injunction stick against us, he got a bunch of sentimental old women to organize a Society for the Abolition of Firefly Slavery and made us turn all the bugs loose. Then when Paul went East and got the machinery idea in his nut he came back with a jigger-maroo that dumped 800 of the crew down the skid road onto the bread line. All we needed was loaders.”
“Gee!” exclaimed the cub member with his mouth hanging wide open. “What kind of a machine was it?”
“It was a 90 foot Improved McCormick Reaper and Harvester with 15 foot blades as sharp as razors. Paul hitched the old blue ox onto it and mowed down every tree in Kansas. The machine cut them close to the ground, trimmed them clean, ground up the tops into patent breakfast food, and tied up the logs in bundles of five. We made a million dollars every day and were known all over the country as great philanthropists because all the breakfast food we didn’t feed to the ox and the crew we sent down to be given away to the hungry lumberjacks on the bread line.”