Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-01-06
Unionizing Loggers

The socialist organ of Aberdeen
admits the purpose Of certain pro.
fessional agitators to unionize THE
workers in the logging camps, aft
er the scheme was made public in
the Herald. According to the plan
outlined in the organ, the intention
is to gather in one organization all
men who work in the woods and
mills of the coast, and, if success.
full, the disastrous result to both EN-.
ployer and employed-is not difficult
to forecast.
A large majority Of the men now
employed in those branches of the
lumber industry are of recent ar
rival from foreign lands, ignorant of
the language, laws and customs of
this country, many OF them from
countries where class lines are sew
erely drawn and justice to the poor
man a minor consideration. This
..class affords rich field for exploit
alton by the glib-tongue agitator-
whose pathetic sympathy for the
down-trodden working man is wholly
sentimental, for he never experiences
the sensation of real work himself
unless he gets tangled with the law
and does service for the state.
The organ says it is not a move
ment of the l. w. w. With the
knowledge we all have now of the
doctrines and teachings of this pesti-
lential organization, this denial will
be taken with proper allowance. 1t
will be remembered that this organ
was the head center of the l. w. w.
during it's attempt last spring to raise
hay on the streets of Aberdeen, and
and the Herald has no hesitancy in
saying that if this unionizing move
ment is permitted to succeed, it may
not be part of the I. w. w. or
ganization, officially, but it will be
ruled by those who take orders, and
share the graft, with Vincent St.
John.
This bunch of grafters, like the
camp followers of an army, thrive
only when other suffer; there is no
opportunity for loot until the city is
carried, or trouble worked up among
the deluded followers of former. Just
now, this gentry are in distress; if
they fail to create trouble shortly
they are in danger of having to do
some real work for a meal ticket.
With job and half to the man at
good wages, it is positively hard
lines for those professional believers
Of not only the abused ca working
man, but the pocketbook of the afore-
said a. W. as well.
Recognizing the fact that there is
no fault to be found with wages or
conditions on Grays Harbor at this
time, the schemers are putting up
the plea that there may be trouble
later on, and that the men had bet
ter begin contributing to those needy
parasites now, so they will be pre-
pared to rush to their defense when
it comes. Along with this line of
talk is Joined the palaver about the
employer being the natural enemy of
the man to whom he pays wages, a
bit of econ" that is usually swallow.
ed greedily by the most ignorant,
who have not yet learned to distin.
guish between the republic of the
United tSates and autocratic Russia
To the intelligent English speaking
workman it's utter absurdity is read.
lily apparent, as is the entire line of
argument in use by those non.toil.
ing workingmen, but whether these
are sufficiently numerous in the camps
and mills to Offset the element the
grafters rely upon remains to be dis.
covered.
The abuse Of employing loggers on
Grays Harbor has a humorous sound
to the old timers here, who remem.
Der when, within but a few years
many Of those "blood-sucking" EN-.
ployers, were driving bull teams, fall
ing timber or sniping in the woods
for much less wages than they are
now paying. The writer has in mind
= a man, now at the head of one of the
largest logging concerns on the Wish
kah river, who for eight or ten years
rode on his wheel from his home ir
Aberdeen to a mill in Hoquiam. and
was at his saw from Z a. m. to