Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-10-09
AS Jackson Paper
Views Our Trouble

A~" - ASPAO00CSO al GulLOEldl
which appeared in the Jackson,
miss. }, Clarion-Ledger a few days
Ago which is just little of the pub
nSlty BogaIusa is getting as result
OF our labor difficulties.
An item from Bogalusa announces
that Three thousand workers at the
Great Southern Lumber Company's
plant here carried out their threat to
quit work today when the company
officials declined to recognize their
union"
And so it goes, from one end Of
the country to another-strikes ev-
eryWhere, for one reason and an
other, generally the work of the
walking delegate, who must have
something to do to earn his salary.
A more inOpportune time could
not have been selected for the strike
at the Great Southern Lumber Com
pany' than the present, especially in
opportune for the laborers, who have
been induced to quit their work and
lose Their wages which their families
sorely needed IN these days Of high
priced profiteering.
The Great Southern Lumber Com
pany is the greatest enterprise of the
kind in the. country, which was es-
tablished some fifteen years ago, and
has the largest saw mill in the world,
having capacity of one million feet
per day. 1t has been exceptionally
well managed, and SINCE its establish
ment has run night and day, except
Sunday. It has given employment
to over 5000 laborers, has had a
weekly pay roll of many thousand
dollars, aggregating several million
dollars annually.
On account of its liberal manage
ment, and high wages, just and fair
to all concerned, the Great Southern
Lumber Company, has had no trou-
Bile with its employees, and until row
the walking delegates has given no
real worry, however much they may
have attempted to DO so.
There seems to be no complaint
at Bogalusa about wages, lthe one
thing that every working man, from
the highest to the lowest, whether
he labors in the counting room with
his brain, or outside with his Drawn,
is interested in-the whole kick be-
ing about union recognition, which
the Great Southern Lumber Com
pany has refused to concede, as have
thousands of other industrial plants.
The laborer is worthy of his hire.
He has the unquestioned right to
organize unions; he has the right to |
quit whenever he pleases, but should |
give his employers sufficient notice.
Managers of manufacturing plants |
have the right to refuse to recognize |
unions; and that is the great fight |
of the day, the cause of all the trou-
BILE in the big steel plants in the East |
which has resulted in more suffer
ing to the laborers and dependent |
families than to the plutocrats who |
own and run the mills.
But the purpose of this article is
not to discuss labor unions, to con-
denim or endorse them, simply to re-
fer to conditions at the Great South
ern Lumber Company, which has
built up a city in a piney woods will
derness, and made it possible for
10000 people to live and prosper
there-a real benefactor to human
ity if an industrial plant was ever a
The statement is made
above, that a more inopportune time
could not have been selected at the
Great Southern, as a look at the
situation will show.
Last week the large engine that
drives the plant was wrecked by an
explosion. Some fifteen hundred "a
oorers were laid off pending repairs.
estimated at from sixty to ninety
iays or perhaps longer. That tmeant
fifteen hundred laborers out of jobs,
most of them skilled and high priced,
who had to seek. other situations, in
order to maintain their families.
The accident caused a shutting
iown of the saw mill. but its sub
salaries were enabled to continue,
and the field and logging forces were
allowed to go ahead, fell trees and
laul them to the mill. The company
would doubtless have made money
Nv letting out all of the laborers not
engaged in the big saw mill; but 1t
preferred to give Cnem work that
hey might earn their accustomed
wage, and support their families.
The Great Southern Lumber Com
,any never missed a day during the (
var, though the demand for home
was small. 1t executed
orders and logs not suit
sble for ship timbers. were convert
ID into domestic lumber. The result
$ that the company has on its yards
oday from 100000 to $4,000, 600
'eet of lumber, a supply sufficient
% meet all demancs for quite
while; and will really lose very lit
lie by the strike should it continue
o the new year, which is not at
Ill probable.
Meanwhile the families of the
striking laborers will be the suffer
RS and largely because of the in
reference of the walking delegate I
whose salary goes on regardless as
o results of the final outcome