The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-07-19
THE LOGGERS STRIKE.

The greatest of the western in- dustries unqacstionably is the lum- Der industry. While machinery has greatly increased the produc- tivitv of that industry none the less today as yesterday labor is the Vii tally productive factor.
 Moreover machinery in the woods 'has not frightened the load of a single workingman" On the con- trary while fewer men may be need ed with the elaborate mechanical equipment now in use, those who are employed have to work if any thing more laboriously.
 Only the strongest can endure the labor in the woods for a long time. and although people are ac- customed to regard it as healthy work it is simply because it eXer- cises a natural selection of it's own, and only the lit will be able to do the work.
 Probably the logger is as fine a specimen of muscled humanity as anywhere exists, but he is that be- cause of his inherited natural strength and because he finds field for it's application in the lumber in dustry, not because the industry creates such men.
 On the contrary the hard work breaks down men in the woods And litter a few years the 1.-the and the supple and the active and the agile, become the bent and the gnarled and the mishapen.
 The timber in the western world Is a commodity always in demand. But just because it has been easily available, many men with small or large capital engaged in it. Conse- quently competition, apparently, was the life of that industry and in consequence of the large number of competing firms engaged therein. the market was subject to frequent and disorderly upheavals when lGni- Der and logs went up and down to the great distress of the owners.
 Over production has caused again that only those with anything like adequate capital could stand the pressure and the rest either had to shut down or to sell out-often to go bankrupt.
 Under such ill-organizcd condi- tions it was inevitable that condi- tions should force down wages, especially as the men who were em- ployed were unorganized and cer- tainly the lumber industry has in many respects been going from bad to worse.
 Moreover the fact that long period of hard times in the lumber industry has forced to the wall a large number of small firms and left behind none but the very strongest, has not affected the si- tuation as far as the wage workers are concerned in the least. And the legacy left over from the days of bitter competition and also from overproduction in the industry ana over supply of labor remains with it.
 Camp conditions have gone from bad to worse The good, clean well kept bunk house occasionally met with in former days is a thing of the past. The table that was well stocked by cooks who had to fur nish them well to hold their posi- tion has long since disappeared. Economy in the camp kitchen has been insisted upon and many adult erants have usurped the place of the wholesome and excellent fare that was provided in earlier days,
 Bugs and other vermin have in Tested the older camps, but the cost of creating new ones is too much 10 be thought of in these days of efIi- ciency.
 The situation for several years has been that there was a falling demand for lumber. But there was no falling supply of labor. Hence those camps which persisted in ope- rating, because of large capital and extensive milling interests and abil- ity to take in large lumber con tracts, were able also to dictate 10