Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-05-17
VALUABLE
INDUSTRY
GOES NORTH
Oregon City Enterprise.)


Sensational statements were made
Tuesday at the weekly luncheon of
the Live Wires" Of the Oregon City
Commercial club to the effect that
the agitation of two years ago and
this year on the part of Office seek
ers in favor Of an elght-hour day in
the paper mills has lost to Oregon
City five new paper machines, re-
sulting in a consequent loss of close
to one-half million dollars in the an
nual pay roll.
The matter came up on a report
from the committees that was re.
Gently appointed to confer with the
officials Of the Crown-Columbi Pa
per company with the object Of Sc
curing the locating in this city Of
that corporations new 184-inch paper
machine, the largest in the world. A.
j. Lewthwaite, resident manager of
the company at Portland, told the
Live Wire committee, that he had
recommended the machine be placed
at Oregon City as the pulp for the
company is made here and the loca-
tion Of the machine in this place
would obviate necessity of transport
ing thousands of tons of pulp to
Camas, Wash, where the Crown-Col-
umbia Paper company has another
mill. Mr.. Lewthwaite said, however
that the directors of his company
were uneasy because of the perpetual
agitation on the part of some of the
Oregon City politicians for an eight
hour law in the mills and for that
reason they had concluded to install
the new machine at Camas, there be-
ing no political agitation in Wash
ington for an eight-hour law. Itwas
stated by Mr.. Lewthwaite that the
construction Of the mill to house the
new machine would involve an ex-
penditure Of about 100000 and the
machine would mean an addition to
Oregon City's pay roll of from $4,000
to $4,000 per month
In presenting his report, the chair
man made plain that the same situa-
tion confronts the other paper COM
panies here and that development
was practically brought to stand
still because of the agitation.
Bx-State Senator Hedges declared
emphatically that the agitation was
all buncombe and made solely for the
purpose of getting votes and was not
in the interest of the laboring men.
II was stated that the two new ma
chimes that we're recently installed at
Powell River, B. G., by the same in
terests that control the Willamette
Pulp & Paper company would have
been located in Oregon City had it
not been for the unrest, and that two
new machines now on the way from
the East to. Powell river would also
have been located here.
T. W. Sullivan said at the meeting
that the paper companies in Oregon
object to an elght-hour law for the
single reason that by It's operation
they would be placed in disadvanta-
geous competition with mills in
Washington and other Pacific Coast
states where two shifts are main
tanned, as in Oregon at the present
time. II is also contended that a
majority Of the men themselves, who
are familiar with conditions in East
ern mills where eight-hour shift pre-
walls are entirely satisfied with the
present system, as their wages are
materially increased by a bonus sys-
tenn that is In effect in the various
departments Of the Willamette Pulp
& Paper company, as in some Of the
mills in the East where there is an
eight-hour law the men are paid
from si.4O to $3.50 per day, and SINH
lar labor conditions would be bound
to prevail here under an eight-hour
law.
The Live Wires" believe oregon
ity has suffered in no little degree
because Of the unceasing agitation
directed at the management of the