The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-06-21
PLUCK, NOT FAIR DEAL,
LACKED BY BOY CREW
Forest Service Investigates
Complaint Made BY
Missoula Lads.
OTHERS MADE MONEY
Spokane Planters Went
Home With Good Wages,
Report Declares.

Not lack OF fair deal, but lack of
pluck was the trouble with the Mis-
soula high school boys who threw un
| forest service jobs two weeks ago after
few days of experience, according
to 4. r. White Of the planting depart
ment of the federal service.
Mr. White went from Headquarters
here to Noxcn last week to find what
lay behind the complaints of half n
dozen boys who had been employed
here in scforestation work The bows
declared that rain prevented them
from working so long that their board
bills consumed their wages. Mr..
White. who returned yesterday, saws
that all the boys left camp with
money.
Could Have Made Money.
If they had stuck to their Jobs. he
sald in report to District Forester
r. A. Silcox yesterday, they would
have left camp on June Is, when the
work was finished with se7 in their
pockets and "A ticket to Missoula.
group of boys from the y. NJ. C..
a. in Spokane, secured to fiji the
places of the Missoula boys who quit.
left after II days of work with s.3
each and return ticket.
Wage System Common.
The wage system, says the service
report, is in vogue throughout tho
northwest in outdoor work. The boys
received 81 Il day, when they worked.
with y charge of 80 cents Il day for
meals. Moreover, instead of deducting
ilrn31 faro iS
tice. the service offered to pay it to
all who stuck through.
"This offer" says the report, sis un-
usual and was made this year because
Of the difficulty in obtaining men.
The wages, too. We're conSidcrab ly
higher than were ever offered before.
and were accepted by 800 adult men
working on the government planting
jobs this spring
All but two of the Mssoula boys,
the report points out, We're under Is
years of age.
Boys Were Discouraged.
1T was, of course" the report says.
"a little discouraging to the boys to
meet with bad weather at the start
The trouble was that the boys sue
cumbed to encouragement"
contin uing, the report says:
1.-The experience of the service with
the Missoula boys was very costly. 1t
requires several days for the govern
nent to teach them how to plant prop
erly, but in this case, as soon as the
boys were broken in, they quit work.
making it necessary to break in Il new
crew. The cost is hard to estimate.
The ma Ximum number of trees planted
by the Missoula boys was 65O--the
average from crews was about $50.
The boys who came later from Spo-
kane and stayed through planted 1000
trees per day each after the first few
days of training
Railroad Fares.
The forest service denies that any
attempt was made to collect railroad
fare from those boys who left before
their wages were large enough to
cover that expense. AS for the charge
that not all the contracts signed by
the boys contained the statement that
fare both ways would be paid
only if the boys stayed through the
job. the report says
The forest service regrets this.
However, the stipulation was cx-
planned thoroughly to the boys before
they left town, according to the West
ern Employment agency"