The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-04-06
oLD-TIME wooDsMEN VANISH.
Lured Away by High Wages, Yankees
Are Replaced by Foreigners

The part of Ward | in Bangor, Me-.
bounded by Exchange, Hancock, Wash
lngton and French streets is occupied
chiefly by barn-lika structures that cnce
bulged with robust woodsmen. Today
they are they are all but vacant silence
pervades the rows of little stalls that
were the guest rooms, the offices where
IN gathered the boisterous throngs of ak
artists, and the long, low-ceilinged apart
;ments, with rows of deal tables and pine
chairs where once these sons of the forest
appeased their ravenous appetites with
eorned beef and cabbage
The reason of all this is that the ways
of numbering have changed In former
times all the woodsmen were white
men,-that is to say, natives of Maine or
of the British provinces; all were hired
dhere, all started for the woods from
here, and, work all over came back here
to spend their money.
Today it is impossible to get enough
men to gather the 250,00O,G00 feet log
harvest of the Penobscot system, for they
long ago were attracted to other occupa-
tions by better pay and more agreeable
work and conditions. When it was much
too late, the operators began to boost the
| pay IHth OlltIeu gtb q Il9nJn where 80
to $50 had been the rule, and then, by
rapid stages, the rate went up, up, until
the years of big war found ordinary
woodsmen getting more than town mech
anics, and with board and lodging thrown
in
But the high wages have attracted only
the ragtag-and- bobtail of big city streets
and immigrant stations-a congress of all
nations more expert in rolling cigarets and
damning the government than in telling
trees; and SO today, instead of the Yam
kee Irish of Bangor and Eastern Maine
or the brawny Scots from the Provinces
we have a grouchy, muttering mob OF
Lithuanians, Esthonians, Firms, Swedes
Norwegians, Poles, Hungarians and all
sorts from Continental Europe coming
down from New York and Boston in car
lead lots, working long enough to get a
bit of money and then hurrying they
came They are poor woodsmen indeed
but they are the best that can be had
and the lumbermen have to put up with
them, paying them $15 a month and won
dering at the patience of the good old
timers who worked for third of that.
Eight thousand men and several thou
sand horses will be required to gather
| the Penobscot log crop this winter, anc
! most of this force now is at work. The
| cutting and hauling will occupy the
| greater part of four months, so that the
| payroll will be something worth consider
/ ing The pay of the men at average rates
| will amount to about 50 600 for the
/ four months: hire of horses will brins
I this up to about S3,O00.OOO and another
| million must be added for food, fodder
and supplies of various kinds. 1t vii
| cost far more to get a log out of the
| woods and down to the sawmill or to tn,
| pulp mill in the coming season than thu
| log would have been worth a few year
| ago. Common choppers and swamper
now get more pay than formerly wa
| given to the most expert boss, and tn
boss of camp today gets more none
| than most professional men IN SINAI
| cities.
Within the memory of men of middl
| age the best spruce logs sold at sll t
| SI4 a thousand feet, and the manufaC
| tured lumber at Sl4 to SIC, while hem
lock frames and covering boards brough
| only 81 to 50 n thousand feet Toda
| spruce commands $40 to $50 and hemloc
| almost as much.
There will be bigger lot cut on tn
Penobscot. as in al Maine and the Pro
vinces. this year than had been expected
owing to high nrices and eager deman'
| OF this 80. coo feet 80 per cent. vi
60 to the pulp mills The few remain
ing sawmlls will take the rest and g
fancy prices for the product.
/