The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-08
By ALFRED RACKMAN

mines. Thousands of workers flocked
| to the northern corner of Minnesota,
St. Louis County, to seek employment
in the mines or logging camps. Few,
if any, at that time dreamed that
about twenty-five years hence, one
would see in the same territory hum
dreds of fine dairy farms, thousands
of acres of the finest clover and
timothy fields, wide stretches of
man made prairie land" with valu-
able lords of dairy cattle.
One wonders when travelling in this
peculiarly developed region how man
transforms whole countries, even
states, into modern habitation for
himself. These farmers at one time
were employees of the various mining
or logging companies. Due to the
seasonal and unhealthy form of emf
ployment, hundreds of veteran min
ers and loggers, in their declining
this industry. The mining and rail
way companies, who owned all the
land, were also interested in deposing
of their stump land to the miners at
comparatively low price. The tim
Der being cut away, the land was
worthless to the former owners. A
very distinct and radical change must
have taken place in this particular in
dustry if this vast number of men
have left it to take up farming.
Fewer Jobs.
Upon careful investigation of the
mining industry, we find that about
a score Of years ago, the mining in
dustry needed much greater num-
Der of men than at the present time.
All the ore was brought to the sur
face by means of shafts Cor vertical
tunnels) as an average man would
call them. Consequently this method
of ore production required a tremen-
dous amount Of labor power, and the
production was slower and costlier.
A Change In Production.
AS we look at the mining industry
today, we see but few shafts or tun-
nels. We only find great open pits
measuring mile across and hun
dreds of feet deep, reminding an OBJ
server of some canyons in the west
ern Rocky Mountains. Huge steam
or electric shovels sinking their iron
jaws into the bowels of the earth, and
a network of railroad tracks are built
throughout the pits with strings of
cars rumbling and putting in every
direction. These giant shovels filling
fifty-ton cars in a few shovelsful,
each train of cars moving slowly ac.
cording to the requirements of the
shovel operator. We do not see men
working with picks and shovels, as
one imagines miner would. A miner
today on the Mesaba Range is either
a track worker or steam shovel
operator. Thus thousands of workers
were deprived of job as miner al
the advent of these modern machines
of production leaving only a few
dozen men at the machines producing
more ore than several hundred or a
thousand did before.
During these years, the lumber in
dustry was developing equally as
rapidly as mining. Millions of acres
of the finest pine forest at one time
covered the entire range The log
ging industry developed with great
strides. Armies of men emigrated
every fall for the winter seasons log
ging. Small industrial cities like
Virginia and Cloquet, developed, de-
pending largely on the sawmills and
pulp-mills.
Today one can travel within the
radius of fifty to seventy-five miles
of Virginia or Hibbing and not see
an acre of virgin timber anywhere.
This industry which once employed
tens of thousands of workers has
been practically wiped out of exist
ence in this territory. Barren stretch
es of stump land resembling a desert
greet the eye of the traveller who
wonders where the millions of feet
of timber has disappeared. Gradu-
ally this land is being cleared by
hard working farmers who were COM
PEELED to resort to farming for liv-
iHS. 1 HIS PAL ClCUldI DdCh W IllS
farm" movement in this district was
not voluntary by any means. On the
contrary, the struggle for existence
drove the industrial worker to take
step toward that which seemed to
insure him and his family more
permanent home.
Farming Industry.
Like huge mower, the logging in
dustry had cut away the timber, leav-
ing the stumps and rocks blazing in
the sun, resembling skeletons in the
wake of a hord Of vultures. Later
the examiner and logger arrived on
the scene and developed practically
all this into tillable soil. During the
last two decades of back breaking
toll, these stumps and rocks have
gradually disappeared from view.
Forty after forty has been cleared
and rick soil is found under the debris
of rocks, old timber and underbrush.
This pioneer farming industry finally