The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1921-11-18
W0ODSMEN'S PAY
NO LONGER HIGH
Reaction in Maine From War
Boom Sends Lumber Prices
Gown Toward Normal.
TWO MEN FOR EVERY JOB
Home Builders Will Rejoice, but Pulp
Mills Garner Most of the Output
Employers Now Can Get Their
Pick of Men.

BanSOf.--Ine day or fabulous wages
| for woodsmen Is past, and instead Of
Jobs hunting men-men of any kind
at almost any price-the hunting Is
now done by the men, for there are
at least two of them to one job. Every
day now, the sidewalks of lower En-
change and Washington streets are
thrOnged with wOodSmen, waiting for
something to turn up, and the employ
ment agents are having their pick OF
the men at prices not more than half
those paid year ago.
In olden times the best of native
woodsmen were glad when November
came around and a long winter faced
them, to get SIC to $25 a month to go
into the woods, walking most Of the
80 to 100 miles from Bangor to the
scene of operations with their bags
on their backs, and satisfied with a
bunk in log house and a diet COM
posed chiefly of pork and beans. They
went to work at me first streak Of
dawn and kept at it as long as they
could see tree.
Wages Were Low.
In that day the price of spruce
stumpage (the right to cuD was S1.23
to 81 per thousand feet and very lib
eral scale at that. The men who drove
the logs down the boom got $1.75 to
$3.50 day, and they were experts,
every one. The rafters at Bangor,
the overhaulers, the sawmill men and
everybody else who touched the log
or the lumber worked long hours at
low wages-the sawmill men from
dawn to dusk for $50 a month and
board. Vessels carried the lumber
from Bangor to Boston for as little
as SIPS per thousand feet, seldom
more than S1.75; to Long Island ports
for so cents more and to New York
for 1925 to $2.75.
On this basis of cost Of production
estimating the price OF the logs In
boom at SO to 50 per thousand feet
for hemlock and $40 to $13 for
spruce, lumber was so cheap that al
most anyone could afford to build a
house and mechanics in Bangor and
the towns along the river improved
the opportunity Of cheap lumber and
cheap land to get homes for them
selves.
Today everything Is very different.
There had been a gradual increase be-
fore the war of stumpage rates. wages
and other costs and lumber was costly
enough when the war came on, largely
through the advent Of the pulp mills,
which from small beginnings In the
eighties increased their field and scope
Of operations until In 1915 they owned
most Of the desirable timber lands
and were eating up rather more than
half Of the SOOOOO,OOO feet of spruce
cut In the state.
Then the war set things faster
than ever. Wages were first to go sky
ward, owing to the difficulty of getting
help.
Men who could not speak word
Of English and were almost too lazy
to move got SO day and board for
cutting fOur-loot pulp wood, or $2.75
to SO a cord when working by the
piece and paying their own board, at
the rate Of Is cents to 81 day.
Some Of these pieceworkers made as
much as $3.50 to 5000 month, a few
even more. Most Of this was spent
In Bangor for whisky, motor rides and
other enjoyments, or lost in gambling.
Bottom Fell Out.
Then, in the early fall Of 1920, the
bottom began to fall out. Peeled
pulp wood fell from S31 cord to
sol, and rough from 500 to S13, while
with an overstock on hand every
where, cutting operations were cur
tailed one-half. Woods wages went
down with bang but the bottom was
not reached. This summer the decline
has continued and woods wages are
down to $1.75 day, In some sections
as low as $3.50, with board. while
pulpwood sawyers working by the cord
are getting instead Of $2.75 to $3.50
cord, S1.75 and occasionally 81, and
paying their own board at the rate of
Is cents to 81 a day. Even at these
prices there are thousands idle.
Spruce lumber, which at one time In
1919 reached $63 and $65 per 1000
feet, Is now quoted at $45 to
$40 for dimensions and $50 to SAB
for randoms, and the only thing that
prevents further slump is the de-
mand Of the pulp mills, which now
eat up 70 per cent Of the log crop.
On the west branch Of the Penob-
scot, which In the old days yielded
5O,OOO,O0O feet or more Of long logs,
scarcely a stick was cut last winter
for sawmills, practically the entire out
put, 1874 100000 feet being in four-foot
lengths, for the Great Northern Paper
company. II Is the same story every
where-the pulp mills monopolizing
the log cut, and as long as this de-
mand continues lumber cannot be any
thing like as cheap as 1t once was,
wbatavar tho cOSt Of Iobor