Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) would buy it? What with? Why? How could it pos- know they will be fed. And, since the very character of sibly be sold in competition with other lumber, and with the demands upon the mills make them i.mpossible of 4cother materials? ceptance, the hands of the manufacturers seem tied. And

***

Of course, the men that called the strike didn't ask that question. Probably didn't consider it material or relevant. The fact that the only way a mill could accede to their demands would be to be able to sell the lumber manufactured under such conditions AT LEAST FOR COST probably never came up for consideration when the strike was in prospect.

***

In the first place a Fir mill paying 75 cents an hour for common labor would be unable to meet the market price of other woods; in the second place it would not be able to meet the rnarket price of other materials, other than wood; in the third place it would not be able to assist the BUILDING INDUSTRY in meeting the competition of those things-other than buildings-that are in hot competition for the consumer's dollar.

.* * 'F

Supposing some mill had accepted the terms demanded, it could only have operated until its yards and sheds were glutted with lumber (assuming that its money to meet payroll held out that long).

*'* *

There isn't any possible way in this world that a Fir mill could meet the demands of the union and continue operation. Lumber made at such cost would be utterly unsalable, anywhere, for any purpose. So the sawmills-or nearly all of them-in that district, are closed down tight. So are the other lumber using industries already mentioned. And a huge army of men are out of employment, and just at a time when it looked as though the lumber industry was going to start absorbing some of the men they used to work. And the Pacific Northwest is prostrate.

The Inland Empire *U* "." not afiected. Few Pine mills in the West are closed. The Redwood mills were organized in California, and a strike called, but not enough of their men walked out to close them down, and the Redwood mills kept on operating. The mills chiefly affected are the mills of the great Coast territory in Washington and Oregon. ***

How long the strike will continue is about as problematical as anything in this world could possibly be. In the old days strikers faced the hazard of hunger and sustenance, in case of a long continued strike. Today they no one can even guess how long this may last. ***

Crow's Pacific Coast Lumber Digest and the Four L Lumber News, both published in strike territory, report dire conditions. Both declare that the large majority of employees have not voluntarily joined the strike movement, but that "coercion, intimidation, and violence" have played a strong hand in lining them up. Crow's Digest reports that rocks thrown through the windows of the homes of "hold-outs" have been very effective in making them join the strike movement. Fear of physical violence has been the chief argrunent used, according to most reports. ***

It must be remembered that in this strike territory there has always been an unusually large communistic element of citizenship that adds radical violence to every labor movement, and strikes in that territory have always been extremely violent. The decision of the rnills to close rather than contest the issue is not difficult to understand. It is reported that there are only watchmen on the job at the closed mills, even the office forces being let go as there i9 no lumber being shipped or made either, and at various mills they have slipped off the belts and prepared for a long rest'

Crow's Digest says that the organizers, "made bold by the assurance that they have the present administration behind them, are racing about the Northwest and authotizing radicals to act as organizers. These organizers are making full use of the black page in the history of the Pacific Coast last summer when the longshoremen in their strike, supported by the same administration, carried on a reign of lawlessness that saw men beat into insensibility on the busiest corners of our largest cities." This paper adds that "'the Relief Administration wired out to the Portland Relief Bureau wilhin forty-eight hours after the first strike had been called here and gave instructions that strikers were to be accorded the same consideration for relief as anyone else." ***

In short. a man who refuses to work for 45 cents an hour or to let anyone else take his place and work for that amount, gets the same relief as the unfortunate fellow who can't find a job.

And what is the effect ; ;" i,.*ou, industry generally?

ALWAYSSUDDENSEnvIcE

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