Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1914-11-20
SAYS STATE NEEDS
STEAD|ER INDUSTRIES
SEASONABLE WORK RESPONSE
BILE FOR ANNUAL CRISIS,
OLSON DECLARES.

day out the year around and the re-
markable predominance Of seasonable
enterprises offering only inteririitt
tent employment, lie at the heart of
whatever labor problems exists in
this state" Labor Commissioner z.
w. Olson declares in his biennial re-
port to Governor Ernest Lister and
the legislature, which has just come
from the press of the public printer.
This condition, Commissioner Oh
son states, is responsible for the ex-
istence Of the I. w. w., which he
characterizes as "the most baneful
influence among our workingmen."
Statistics from 7S7 of the largest
employing firms in the state, Mr.. o.
son says, show that % per cent of
their men were employed only inter-
lnittently. These figures include log.
ging camps and factories Of various
kinds employing male labor. Fish
canneries employ 4,141 men during
the busy season, exclusive of girls
and Chinese contract labor, but give
steady employment to only 1883. In
the Puyallup berry fields, some 15,.
600 pickers are employed for three
months, almost all losing this en-
ployment during the other nine
months of the year.
What do we do with the men
composing this 23 per cent temper
arily employed? Practically nothing
in the winter" Mr.. Olson states.
1.-The slump begins to come in the
early fall when the wheat harvest is
in, the fruits and berries have all
been picked, when road work be-
comes difficult because of adverse
weather conditions and the lumber
mills curtail operations because Of
the slackening of the demand for
their product. -,.--...
"Army" Begins to Gather.
"Then is when the army begins
to gather-then is when our labor
problem crowds itself before us and
demands: What are you going to
do?' g .Yf
"And that is the question we must
answer. seasa
Here in this army, too. is the
stronghold of the I. w. W., the most
baneful influence among our work.
ingmen. When we readjust our in
dustrial affairs to such an extent that
the army exists no longer or is at
least reduced to a minimum we will
have no I. w. W., for it gathers its
forces during the winter when the
unemployed congregate in the cities
foments then its discomfort, feeds
upon the work-hungry anxiety Of the
men and by strenuous agitation and
violent attacks upon that which then
seems to be the common enemy
capital-because it affords no work
arouses in the army that deplorable
spirit which tends toward anarchy
and produces turmoil.
Needless to say, 1t Is a strongly
disturbing force in labor, constantly
hampering legitimate labor organiza-.
tions because of the tendency to in.
ject it's spirit into their circles and
causing troubles which would not
otherwise arise. 1t should be equally
needless to note that with the coming
Of spring and work again and the re-
sulting disbanding of the army the
I. w. w. also disappears, its agita-
tors seeking other climes and labor
generally setting out to do the work
it has in hand.
'As matter Of justice to unions
and to union men it is we'll to add
that the legitimate trades unionist Is
a bitter enemy of the I. w. w., liking
neither it stheories nor its practices
and generally dong everything he car
to minimize the effect of it's propa.
ganda. He realizes it's regrettable in
fuence upon labor. knowing as II
does no creed but violence, and sc
the union man can almost always be
found on the side of those opposing
the I. w. w."
A future labor problem is seen by
Commissioner Olson in the promised
influx of common labor from Europe
with the end of the European war.
Danger From Immigration.
"We know that today % per cent
of our workmen are shuttled back
and forth and round the state from
one job to another. Suppose immi-
grafton should double or treble the
number of our neutrality-suspicious.
then? The ratio of employed to un.
employed would be inverted and
there would be nearer 23 per cent
regularly employed than n per cent,
as now. Or else there would come