Documentary Report on The Logging Camps of the Pacific North West with Recomme nd ations By WORTH M. TIPPY Executive Secretary 1919 PUBLISHED BY THE Joint Committee on War Production Communities 10 cents — $8.00 per hundred, postpaid ADDRESS Commission on the Church and Sociai, Service 105 East 22nd Street, New York Readers will please observe that this is a report only, and that it does not, and cannot at least at the present date, rep- resent the work as it will be set up finally by the cooperating boards. May 1, 1919 I Section A LOGGING CAMPS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST My visit to the logging camps of "Washington and Oregon was at the request of the Joint Committee on "War Production Com- munities, in the interest of the boards of home missions and their work for the loggers in that area. The specific things desired were : first, to study a sufficient number of typical camps on the ground, intensively, and, as far as possible, in company with experienced workers on the field to determine what religious work should be undertaken, and how it should be undertaken ; second, to look into the nature and causes of the radical social movement which exists amongst the loggers and to determine its relation to the work which the churches should undertake; third, to study the relations which should obtain between the churches and the Christian Associations in these logging camps. I left New York on Saturday, February 8th, and arrived in Portland on Friday morning, February 14th. I went to Port- land first in order to meet Mr. Tom Davis, Director of the spruce production camps of the Y. M. C. A. Finding him at Port Angeles on the strait of the Juan de Fuca, I wired on and leaving Portland that same day, arrived at Port Angeles the next morn- ing. I there spent two days with Mr. Davis and fortunately, with Mr. Charles Puhler, in charge of the industrial work of the Y. M. C. A. on the Pacific Coast. We visited together the gov- ernment spruce operations at Lake Crescent south of Port Angeles, driving along the line of their railroad, passing through abandoned camps and halting at this indescribably beautiful lake. "We held repeated conferences on the problems involved and I also participated in the reorganization meeting of the Y. M. C. A at Port Angeles. Leaving Port Angeles at one o'clock on Sunday, after speak- ing in one of the churches, I went up to the logging operations of the Puget Sound Lumber Company at Twin, "Washington. 3 I spent two days and visited Camps 8, 9 and 10, sometimes riding to camps on logging trains, sometimes walking. I ate with the men, mingled and talked with them, watched the felling and cutting up of the big trees and the loading of the logs on fiat ears. I also climbed up into the uncut forests. On Sunday evening I attended a moving picture exhibition in the main camp and on Monday had an extended conference with the Manager, Mr. Henderson. Eev. J. M. "Weaver, Superintendent of Sunday School work for the Puget Sound Conference, joined me at Twin on Monday and we rode back together as far as Port Angeles. This operation at Twin is typical of those on the northern peninsula between Puget Sound and the ocean. There are ten or a dozen such operations along the strait and within a short period, large logging operations will be opened along the line of Lake Crescent into an interior valley. This was on the point of being opened by the government in its search for materials for airplanes. These camps at Twin are far distant from any town and con- stitute a sort of community by themselves. As in all the camps which I visited, the forests are growing on the sides of the foot- hills of the mountains, sometimes near the water, at other times far up the valleys. The trees are mostly very large, sometimes nine, ten and eleven feet in diameter and as high as two hundred and seventy-five feet. It is a wonderful spectacle to stand in the midst of these columns of living wood in the silence of the forest. I say silence, for there is no bird life. The trees consist mostly of Douglas fir, cedar, spruce and hemlock. They are cut to fall down the hillsides away from the forests, and in the opera- tion two men work together in felling the tree and two in cutting it into log lengths, or bucking it, as it is called. Spurs from the main logging railroad are built along the top of each ridge, and the logs are then dragged up to the side of the cars and lifted upon them by powerful donkey engines, using wire cable. I did not see a single horse, mtile or ox in any of these camps. Usually a logging company cuts its logs and sells them in open market to the mill men, although the two operations are fre- quently combined, as in the big Snoqualmie mill, which is men- tioned later. The men at Twin work eight hours a day, receiving from forty to ninety cents an hour. I saw one woman who was acting as fireman for her husband on a logging engine. She had made good and the two were earning between three and four thousand 4 dollars a year, wliicli they were placing in a ranch below the camp. The houses for families are located at Camp 8. These houses are temporary structures, but livable, set in the midst of the stumps of an old cut. There is a company store, a moving pic- ture house run by a private enterprise, a recreation room for billiards and games, and an attractive public school building, looking like a cottage, in the midst of second growth trees. There are also bunk houses for a considerable number of men, located along the side of the logging railroad. Camp 10 is six miles distant from Camp 8. I rode up to this camp on a logging engine Sunday afternoon. The bunk houses here are built on runners of long hewed timbers so that they can be lifted by a derrick and put on a fiat car. There is a large dining room and back of it a kitchen and store house, also quar- ters for the girls who wait on the tables. This camp is right in the forest. There are no family houses and no women except the flunkies, as they are called. I found here the old type of bunk houses, no springs or mattresses, each man buying his own straw from the company and using blankets for bedclothes. I found the men to be intelligent and good natured but very rough, very profane, and many of them very obscene. The older men were more thoughtful and quiet. They had nothing to do on Sunday and of evenings except to rough-house, or to lie about, or play games or read. Most of the bunks were very dirty, the men lying on them in their working clothes. I found that the food in the camp was exceedingly plentiful and well prepared. This is the rule in all the camps. The men pay a dollar a day, strangers thirty-five cents a meal. I was told by the manager that the waitresses in the camps of this operation were all self-respecting girls. At the meal the men eat in silence and it is a part, of the etiquette of the meal that no one shall talk. In one of the camps I found a sign posted to this effect. They ate so rapidly that I was not more than half through when the men got up, almost en masse, and went out. That night a large part of the men went down to Camp 8 to moving pictures, which were evidently an event. The show was excellent and the presence of the men, women and children very normal and interesting. The films displayed were better than one would ordinarily see in New York. 5 I spent the night with the storekeeper of the company, a Mr. Young, who gave me a great deal of information. The next morning I went very early up to Camp 9 on a logging train. This c'dmp is not dissimilar to Camp 10 except that it is an older operation. It was here that I was able to observe the fell- ing and bucking of trees and the loading of logs on flat cars. In my conference the next morning with Mr. Henderson, the manager, I found him very anxious about the conditions under which the men live. He said to Mr, Weaver that a logging camp is lost without a church; a very significant statement. He was uncompromising against the I. W. W. and on that morning had discharged two men whom he had discovered to be I. W. W. organizers. I heard him question another man very closely. At this camp I observed for the first time loggers going out of the camp. There were possibly a dozen men who came tramp- ing down tlie railroad track carrying their blankets on their backs like soldiers. I asked one of the firemen why they were leaving. He said that some of them had been fired, that others had got mad over some incident and were leaving, and that others were just restless. He said that when they got to be fifty they would wake up to realize what damn fools they had been to keep moving about. No religious work of any kind was being done in this camp. Rev. II. S. Waller, a logging evangelist of the Presbyterian church from Port Angeles, had worked in the town, but having ten or a dozen centers to care for, he had not been able to develop the work. The children are, therefore, without religious instruction and the community without religious care. It was perfectly evident that this logging operation requires the entire attention of one pastor, also that it would be a waste of money to put in both a minister and a Y. M. C. A. secretary. One man can handle the entire operation and since a church and Sunday school are needed, it should be handled by the church. An agricultural area is coming up slowly behind the logging operations. It costs from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars an acre to clear the land of the big stumps but the soil is very rich. The climate is too wet and cold for wheat, but grass, oats and garden truck are abundant. It is probable that the pastor assigned to the logging operation at Twin should also tak(=' care of the ranches nearby until the rural community develop? to a point where it can take care of itself. 6 I have dwelt upon this operation at length because it is typical and because it illustrates the relation of the rural community to the camp. Leaving Twin Monday afternoon I arrived at Seattle late the same evening. Here I met Rev. 0. H. McGill who spent four years as a logging pastor and is now the social service secretary .of the Puget Sound Conference. I also met Rev. Charles A. Brooks of the Baptist Home Board of New York and we had a dinner conference with Rev. W. A. Forbes, Educational Super- intendent of the Presbyterian Church. I later went with Dr. Forbes to an organization meeting of the New Era movement of the Presbyterian Church, where I made a brief address. Here I also met Dr. Fullerton of St. Louis, western representative of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, with whom I had an extended conference. Through him it was arranged that I should travel for the next few 'days with Rev. H. L. Chatterton, logging evangelist of the Presbyterian Church at Stanwood, Washington. I spent the next day partly with Mr. Schultz, social evangelist of the Baptist Church, who had been working in Seattle under the nominal sanction of the Joint Committee on War Production Communities, and partly in studying the general strike condi- tions in Seattle. Logging Operations at Bellingham, Washington Taking a sleeper that night I arrived at Bellingham on Wed- nesday morning, February 19th. Here I was met by Rev. James M. Wilson, pastor of the Presbyterian Church. He had been in Europe with the Y. M. C. A. and had long known the logging operations. He took me over for an interview with the Methodist pastor, Dr. King, and we then drove to the Blodell Donovan Logging Camp, sixteen miles in the interior. This is a fairly large camp, soon to be moved two or three miles farther into the forest. It is surrounded by a considerable agricultural commu- nity and there is one camp, which we did not visit, which is eoritribiitory. We agreed that there was need of a whole time pastor to care for the logging operation and the surrounding rural community. It was clear to each of us that there is no need of both a pastor and a Y. M. C. A. secretary, and that a pastor is indispensable. Bellingham itself is a city of thirty thousand with fifteen churches, a good Y. M. C. A. and four big mills. 7 Logging Operations at Concrete Leaving Bellingham early the next morning I arrived at Stan- wood at 8 :30. I was met there by Mr. Chatterton and within an hour we left for the town of Concrete in the Skagit River Valley, possibly seventy miles north of Seattle and east of Puget Sound. The general topography of this country consists of a series of_ valleys between low mountains formed by rivers which run from the Cascade range west of Puget Sovind, striking the Sound very nearly at right angles. There is abundant timber all the way up to the mountains. The town of Concrete represents a combination of logging operations, rural community and the manufacture of cement. There is a little Presbyterian church, at present .without a pas- tor, and within a year a Baptist congregation has been started. This is clearly a misfortune and there should be an amalgama- tion of the congregations as soon as it can be accomplished. The division grew out of a church trouble. The logging camp is two and a half miles up a fine stream, the railroad passing above the gorge. This camp has one hundred and ten men, three families, four girls in the dining room and three or four little children. There is no school and no religious work being done. Mr. Chatterton makes this camp occasionally, so that he was known. The women of the camp were not enthusi- astic about religious work, but the cook, an intelligent man who had graded the school at Laurel, Mississippi, told us that he thought that good educational work could be done by the use of movies and by the lecture and discussion method. The little Presbyterian church at Concrete needs about five hundred dollars in repairs. We were all agreed that there should be one resident pastor; that the two congregations should be amalgamated; that the pastor should care for the logging camp, going up at least twice a week ; that he should have a Ford car and moving picture apparatus so that he could take care of the village of Concrete, the logging camp, a little community called Van Horn, two miles east, where there is a school of twenty children, another little community called Grassmere, a mile and a half west, and a fourth place called Birdsview, five miles west, where there are very few people. Along the valley between these little settlements are the scattered ranches of a rural community which should fall to the same pastor. This would keep one man 8 very busy, but it would offer a fine opportunity for service. Mr. Chatterton and I thought that he might need an assistant in the person of an experienced woman worker who could take care of the children and the little Sunday schools. Logging Operation at Sedro-WooUey Leaving Concrete we arrived the same evening at Sedro- Woolley, very tired from our tramp. After a half hour's sleep and without supper, we took a taxi part way and walked the rest of the way, through darkness and mud, to Delvan, a logging camp of the Blodell Donovan Company. Here there had been soldiers and the bunk houses had been rebuilt. Under the direc- tion of the commanding officer, the bunk houses had been divided into open compartments with double deck iron beds. This was a distinct improvement. In the centre of the room was a large stove, and on either side an open space with bench seats around the walls and the sides. Mr. Chatterton called the men into one of the bunk houses and we had a most profitable evening of informal discussion, cover- ing the church, wages, hours, bunk houses, food, seasonal work, homes and children, public worship, the new attitude of the church toward social questions and the distinctions between socialism, guild socialism and syndicalism. I found the men - thoughtful, well informed and mostly open minded. They were favorable to the idea of a minister coming in, and of having movies once a week. If they could have such discussions as we had that night, they said, they would very much prefer the dis- cussions to the movies. It was apparent from this evening's discussion, that it would be easily possible to have the frankest discussion of social ques- tions, to bring to bear acute criticism upon all solutions proposed, and to bring in the deeper religious issues along with the others. They seemed just as much interested when we talked about wor- ship as when we talked about sabotage. I saw also that the right kind of a pastor would quickly come to have the regard of most of the men. "We walked back three miles to the town through the blackest kind of night and had a good dinner before going to bed. 9 Logging Operation of the Clear Lake Lumber Company The next morning we took a stage three miles to the mill and logging center of the Clear Lake Lumber Company. This com- pany has in operation a big shingle mill and a wonderful new sawmill about to start. We did not go out to the logging camps but spent four hours studying this center. The logging company has built a model chib called the Skagit Club, for the use of the community. It consists of a moving picture and dance hall and adjoining it a club building with game rooms, reading room and parlor, and provision for light refreshments. The company also has a small hospital. All these buildings are attractive architec- turally. The Congregational church is an attractive little church and parsonage with forty members, one hundred thirty in the Sunday School and a good club organization. Its pastor. Rev. C. L. Williams, is doing a good work. It seemed to me, however, a misfortune that the church cannot be in the community build- ing, although I judge that this is impossible under existing conditions. We were introduced to Mr. B. R. Lewis, General Manager of the Company, and Mr. H. F. Jackson, its Secretary. I broached to Mr. Jackson the plan of a moving picture and discussional evening in each of the logging camps after the general plan which I followed the night preceding at Sedro-Woolley. He was favor- able to each and said that they could be financed locally. He felt, however, that only a few ministers are capable of conducting such open discussions and advised experimentation antecedent to an extensive adoption of the plan. We had with us at the Clear Lake Camp Rev. H. T. Murry, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Sedro-Woolley. Mr. Murry approved the plan of one pastor for each logging operation and of the use of moving pictures and of discussional groups, also agreed that there is no need of both church and Y. M. C. A. Logging Operations at Snoqualmie Mr. Chatterton and I spent the night at Everett, Washington. We left early the next morning for Snoqualmie Falls. Here the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company has built one of the greatest new mills on the coast, having a capacity of half a million feet of lumber per day, also a large shingle mill, a planing mill and 10 a storage warehouse with a capacity of ten million feet. The mill itself and the entire operation is a marvel of construction. The logging operations which supply this mill are seven or eight miles distant. They consist of camps 1 and 2, of one hun- dred fifty men each, and a Japanese construction gang of forty men. "We were fortunate in being able to visit the camps on the company's speeder, going with Mr. J. P. Weyerhauser of the Weyerhauser Timber Company, Tacoma, together with his son- in-law, Mr. F. R. Titcomb, and a lumberman from Minnesota. When Mr. Weyerhauser found what we were doing he became very much interested and we found that he was a Presbyterian elder. We visited the various logging operations, which are not different from those described at Twin. We had dinner together in the dining car in one of the new logging camps, which is a house on wheels. Here we wandered about the bunk houses, combination office and storage car, recreation car and dining car, filing car, and latrine and bath car. All these bunk cars are heated by steam from a common plant. Mr. Weyerhauser said frankly that he considers the I. W. W. a hard proposition and does not know how to meet it. He says that the morale of the men needs bracing. "I have talked to the I. W. W. men freely, ' ' he said. ' ' I have said to them ' What do you want' and they have answered, 'Your plant.' I said to them, 'We find it hard to make ends meet and to face the compe- tition of the southern camps. What do you think you men can do ? ' They replied, ' We do not worry about that. We will take care of that when the time comes. ' ' ' Mr. Weyerhauser agreed to the principle of open discussion and requested me to prepare a list of books and periodicals selected to present various points of view on social reconstruction, as well as books of fiction, etc. The following are the outstanding features of the Snoqualmie operation. There are five hundred men in the mill and three hundred in the camps with one hundred ten Japanese in the mills and forty Japanese in the construction gang. There is no church and as yet no school but the company has provided an excellent building for church and Sunday school purposes. At present children are being taken to school in trucks a mile and a half to Snoqualmie, where there is also a Methodist church. We visited the Japanese camp after dark and talked with its superintendent. He said that the Japanese would welcome 11 instruction in English and Americanization and also religious work. We were all agreed that there should be a whole time pastor for this operation, living at Snoqualmie Falls; that he should organize the regular Sunday School and church at the mill center and special work as indicated, for the Japanese quarter. He should go to the logging camps at least twice a week with moving pictures and religious and social work based on discussion, and he should have a small automobile. We were uncertain as to whether he could really meet the need without assistance but agreed that this could be determined later. Stanwood, Seattle, Aberdeen Leaving Snoqualmie we spent Saturday night at Everett and the next morning I preached for Mr. Chatterton at Stanwood. We left immediately after for Seattle. That night we visited the labor forums in the Labor Temple and a new forum which had just started in the Painters' Hall. These were crowded to suffocation and the discussions turned wholly on the strike situa-' tion and the relations of the new industrial unionism to the craft union system of the American Federation of Labor. We took the sleeper that night, February 24th, for Hoquiam on Grays Harbor. This harbor opens into the Pacific Ocean and these logging operations extend north, south and east of the big mill centers of Hoquiam and Aberdeen. We were informed that there are in the neighborhood of one hundred logging camps out from these centers. We spent the morning in Hoquiam, the most valuable part of the time being given to an extended conference in the Spruce Division office of the United States Government, where we got inside facts about the government operation in the spruce industry. Logging Operations at Saginaw We left here at noon for the logging operation of the Saginaw Timber Company, thirty miles south of Aberdeen. We rode on a logging railroad from the Milwaukee station of Saginaw to Gamp 1. There we got a handout from the cook and rode on an open logging car in a drizzling rain to Camp 6, a distance of four miles. This camp lies on the summit of a ridge up which there 12 is an incline railroad rising at an, angle of fifty-eight degrees. Heavy cars of logs are let down this incline by a cable controlled by a powerful engine. Spending an hour here until the next logging train went further up, we rode up to Gamp 3 and into the forest beyond. The logging road in question is a daring operation. The rails are laid along the summit of the ridges, and we rode part of the time in the midst of the clouds. It rained slowly all afternoon and all evening. In fact, we were scarcely a day in the woods during these three weeks when it was not raining. We watched the men at work tramping with them in the mud. We had started out to meet Rev. Thomas N. S. Simpson, Indus- trial Chaplain of the Saginaw Timber Company and at the same time one of the logging pastors of the Presbyterian Church. We passed Mr. Simpson on the way to the most distant camp with- out knowing him, but we caught up with him in the evening at camp 6. Here we had dinner with Mr. Simpson and the men. In the evening Mr. Simpson gathered them in the recreation hall and we had a free-for-all discussion for .an hour and a half. The men told me what they thought of the church and I told them what the church was doing. They consider ministers parasites and the church unreal. They also think that it usually stands with the employers. It was evident that they were wholly ignor- ant of the social creed of the churches and of what the churches were doing and planning. This information clearly created a most favorable impression. They desired moving pictures and were favorable to discussion in the evenings. After adjournment of the meeting, Mr. Simpson conducted a class in English, in which there was a Greek, a Filipino and some others whose nationalities I do not know. I went into a bunk house and had another extended conversation with a group of men who gathered around me. I found them frank, intelligent and likeable. They are almost solidly against the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. They deeply distrust the com- panies. For example, when I called the attention of the group to the competition between the Washington camps and the south- ern logging camps, the latter working on an eleven hour day and the Washington camps on an eight hour day, and that this com- petition might force a nine or ten hour day in the Washington camps, I saw that any lengthening of hours would produce an explosion. One of the leaders said to me, "Do you know what 13 these valuable timber lands cost these companies V I said ' ' No. ' ' He replied, "From a dollar and a quarter to ten dollars an acre. One little tree will pay for an acre. We think the com- panies are able to take care of the competition and we will let them do it. ' ' Interestingly enough, the leader of this discussion said to me that he did not blame the lumbermen personally. He also said that he feared any sudden revolution. He thought it better for the social revolution to come slowly. I found that he had a family. ' ' I say to my wife, ' ' he said, ' ' that I ought to be taken out and shot. I have you all dependent upon me but I can not keep mj'' mouth shut. When I hear men say anything that I know is not true, I talk to them and I then get fired. ' ' After the meeting we walked four miles through a drizzling rain to Camp 1. Mr. Simpson had telephoned down and Mr. Chatterton and I were taken care of for the night in the com- pany's emergency hospital. We each had a hot bath, which took away our lameness, and then a delicious sleep between clean sheets. The next day Mr. Chatterton, Mr. Simpson and I spent in conference in the community house at Camp 1, going over the problems at issue. Mr. Simpson was Presbyterian pastor at Aberdeen where he had a number of lumbermen in his congre- gation. He was very frank in his expression of opinion as to what should be done in the logging camps. He was finally asked by Mr. Morley of the Saginaw Lumber Company, one of his elders, to give up his church and to go to the logging camps of the operation as a personal representative of the manager, to work out some of the things he had in mind. This he finally consented to do. He was perplexed for a considerable time as to what his status should be, but he finally settled upon the idea that a logging pastor should have a definite status in the camps like that of a chaplain in the army. In view of the fact that the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen is established in all the camps, he thought it advisable to propose to the Legion that he should be made the first of a group of industrial chaplains. This was taken before the first convention of the Legion at Port- land, being proposed by Rev. Dr. Boyd, pastor of the first Pres- byterian Church of Portland, who is also chairman of the Home Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church for Oregon and who offered to furnish the chaplains. The plan was accepted with unanimity and Mr. Simpson was appointed to the Saginaw 14 operations. He is salaried by the company, which provides him a house, an attractive cottage, at camp 1. He has been given the power to correct minor abuses without referring back to the manager. He saw to the erection, for example, of the recreation house at Camp 6 and also put in new latrines and reventilated all the bunk houses. He has secured an arrangement by which each of the camps elects three men to meet with the manager nionthly to discuss matters of common interest. The manager sits at one end of the table, Mr. Simpson at the other and the men on either side. lie has not thought it advisable to begin any religious service until it is asked for by the men. This was necessary down at Camp 1 where there are families and children. In due time, however, this request came at Camp 1 and a Sunday School was started. He is patiently working toward the time when the opportunity will be opened. He realizes keenly that the men do not look upon the minister as a legitimate worker and that his own service will have to make its way. This is clearly being accomplished. He dresses for the woods, tramps back and forth through the rain and the mud to the camps and looks after the welfare of the men closely. "We found ourselves in agreement that the general plan worked out by Mr. Simpson with the Saginaw Timber Company is the ' " upon which we could work in the logging camps. There should be freedom for variations in the scheme. As a general plan, we think it better that logging chaplains should not be financed by the companies, and it seemed to us at that time that it was questionable whether they should be made chaplains of the Loyal Legion in view of the fact that the Legion is not in favor with the loggers. We agreed that the fields of Washington and Oregon were probably too large to be handled intensively by any one denomination, and that after the Presbyterians, who have had this assignment, are allowed to take over such territory as they can handle intensively, the other churches should enter the field under a cooperative arrangement. We were unanimous in the opinion that the whole operation in these states should be unified under a general scheme of management, but one which should allow for integrity of denominational operations. Since Dr. Boyd was ready to proceed with the appointing of chaplains, it seemed advisable that I should see him at an early date. Mr. Chatterton and I returned to Seattle on Tuesday night. I then spent the time until Saturday night in Seattle. I devoted 15 a great deal of time to a study of the situation in the general strike, to get at the point of view of the A. F. of L. officials, and of the various heads of organizations in Seattle toward the log- ging camp situation. I hoped to be able to estimate in this way, the relative strength of the radical movement as compared with the more conservative sentiment of the American Federation of Labor. These conferences convinced me that the sentiment in the logging camps is overwhelmingly I. "W. W. and that the lumber- men will be wise if they allow the International Timber Workers ' Union to set up the regular labor organization of the American Federation of Labor. It became clear to me also that while labor in the northwest is radical, it is not as yet revolutionary and that they will soon put the violent men out of control wherever they are now in control. The general strike itself never seriously threatened revolution. The revolutionary spirits are more in evidence than in power. During these four days I also addressed the meetings of the Inter-Church World Movement in Seattle and a special meeting in the Y. W. C. A. building of women engaged in the Y. W. C. A. campaign. I met the Methodist district superintendents in a special conference and laid before them my findings and recom- mendations. They concurred in these without dissent. I also a number of the denominational state superintendents for the same purpose. They also were agreed in principle. Conferences in Portland Leaving Seattle on Saturday night, March 1st, I spent Sunday and Monday in Portland. I addressed the ministers of the city, in cooperation with Mr. Fred B. Smith, on Monday morning, on ' ' Bringing the Church Bacfcto Wage Earners. ' ' I later attended a luncheon conference with the Committee on Social Service at the Hotel Portland. At 3 :30 p. m. Monday, I had a conference with the Oregon superintendents in the office of Rev. 0. C. Wright of the Baptist Home Board. There were present, in addition to Dr. Wright and myself. Rev. B. Seeley, representing the Presbyterian Church, Rev. A. J. Sullens, representing the Congregational Church, Rev. B. G. McDonald, representing the United Brethren Church, and Mr. Schultz, labor evangelist. The Methodist representative was not able to be present. I outlined 16 to them my visit and conclusions. They were agreed in principle on the recommendations, except that Dr. Wright wanted the worlj to be made more a part of regular church work, and questioned the need of special supervision. San Francisco and Los Angeles Leaving Portland Monday night, I arrived in San Francisco "Wednesday night. My train arrived too late for a conference of superintendents which had been arranged to meet me, and I was obliged to content myself with a conference at the Federation of Churches with such superintendents as I eoiild reach. I spoke on Tuesday afternoon at the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley, on ' ' The Religious Situation in the Logging Camps. ' ' I desired to see whether the work in these camps would appeal to young men in the seminaries, and I was gratified to have two of the most desirable men, one of whom had been a chaplain for a limited period, offer themselves for the work. Leaving that night I arrived in Los Angeles Friday morning. My conference here was disappointing because of the shortness of the notice which I had been able to give of my coming. I had not been able to send an earlier announcement, due to the necessity of staying in the camps until I had completed my information. However, I met a few of the leaders of Los Angeles on Saturday night before leaving for the East. t 17 APPENDIX I Labor Organization in the Logging Camps 1. Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen The Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, called the 4 L 's, was organized by Colonel Brice P. Disque, now Brigadier-General Disque. It has headquarters in the Yeon Building, Portland. It is an organization consisting of employers and loggers, based on mutualism and loyalty to the government, and had at the close of the war 130,000 members. This included 40,000 soldiers and 90,000 loggers and mill men. It divided the area of Wash- ington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana into 12 districts, with two chairmen for each district, one each elected by the employers and the loggers. These constitute a central council of 24 men. The government put the whole industry on an 8 hour " The Loyal Legion provides for a form of collective action on the problems and grievances involved in the industry. It is now being reorganized, still under the direction of government officers, for peace times, although it will be taken over by the industry. The Four L 's has a desirable ideal, but its success is problem- atical. It has the general suspicion of the men. Many of the companies also are unfriendly and desire to go back to unre- strained freedom in managing their men. It is impossible in a brief space to go into details but the information is available in the olBce of the Joint Committee. 2. International Timber Workers' Union This is the American Federation of Labor organization in the lumber industry of the northwest. It is an amalgamation, includ- ing the Shingle Weavers' Union. This organization has control of the key workers in the mills and through them has a great influ- ence in the industry. It is not strong in the logging camps and is opposed to the 4 L 's and the I. W. W., and is fought bitterl^ by the I. W. W. Its leadership is experienced and careful. 1& 3. Industrial Workers of the World This organization has as near to 100 per cent of the loggers as any organization could get. It does not have them in actual membership, but it directs their thinking. The I. W. W. is said to put $30,000 in literature in the logging camps annually. It has a state organization and a district organization, and always keeps an organizer in each camp. As soon as one man is dis- charged another takes his place. There is a scattering of socialism, but it does not figure. APPENDIX II Statistics of the Logging Industry I WAS informed by the officials of the International Timber Workers ' Union that there are not less than 25,000 and not more than 40,000 men engaged in strictly logging operations in Wash- ington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana, which constitute an industrial firea with the lumbermen. Accurate figures are not available. They consider the number nearer 25,000 than 40,000. These men are at work in between 600 and 700 camps. These figures do not include the mill men. The total of men engaged in the lumber industry of these states is not over 100,000. In neither instance are women and children or commercial or rural population included. The logging pastors will probably minister to from 50,000 to 65,000 souls. Mr. Chatterton estimates that two-thirds of the loggers are Scandinavian. There are considerable numbers of Japanese, Austrians, Filip- inos, Greeks and Indians. They seem to understand English. The mills close down at Christmas and for a period at the Fourth of July. These times are taken for repairs. Often as ■ - h as two months is lost if times are dull. The men are anxious for steady work and the mill owners likewise. 19 APPENDIX III Causes of the Radical Sentiment in the Logging Camps The present radical strife in the lumber industry has roots farther back. It is partly a matter of an. uncompromising pro- paganda which nothing but taking over the industry will satisfy, and which is as savage in its attack on craft unionism and the American Federation of Labor, as upon the companies and a capitalist industry. But it could never have gained such influ- ence except for grave abuses. Before the war the relations between the men and the com- panies were acute. The companies were ruling turbulent men with an iron hand. The industry was on a ten hour basis — too long hours in the woods. The bunk houses were often unfit for human habitation. Wages were unsatisfactory and there was too much blacklisting, locking out and seasons of unemployment. The men as a rule were not allowed the slightest right to organiza- tion. The policy of the companies was to employ unmarried men and to encourage a migratory body of labor, and unfortunate abuses arose with employment agencies before the Government took them over. The worst of these abuses have now been cor- rected, and except for the ban on organization, there is little about which to complain. The men are also aware of grave wrongs connected with many holdings of big areas of forest land. They resent the fact that land which costs below ten dollars an acre should be cut off and then held for settlers at thirty dollars an acre. They have grown so bitter that it is impossible for them to be just. Their experience with the courts and with lawmakers and police authorities has tended to make them lose confidence in orderly procedure, and to turn to syndicalism and sabotage. 20 Section B. RECOMMENDATIONS The logging camps constitute a highly specialized problem. While related to more normal communities in the larger mill centers and in the growing agricultural areas which follow the cutting of the forests, the logging camps are isolated communi- ties, consisting largely of men, hidden away in the edge of the forests, and moving forward into them at the rate of about three miles a year. Not less than 25,000 and not more than 40,000 men are engaged in strictly logging operations. Associated with them are possibly as many more women and children, and men con- nected with the operations. The big mill centers constitute a different and distinct problem. The camps also constitute a specialized problem in the fact that they are centers of an extremely radical social sentiment and propaganda. The loggers are almost solidly radical and over- whelmingly I. W. W. in convictions. In two camps where I was able to get definite information, fifty per cent held I. W. W. red cards in the one, and eighty per cent in the other. The men are indoctrinated with the ideas of the Revolution. They look upon the ministers as parasites. They hold that the churches are capitalistic and that there will be no church in the Revolution. They are uncompromising in their hostility to the present owner- ship and operation of the lumber industry, although not neces- sarily hostile to managers as individuals. The hostility which exists between the companies and their men in the lumber industry has also created acute divisions of opinion in the communities of the area, and has brought about a situation fraught with great danger not alone to the industry but to the public safety. It could easily become violently revo- lutionary under conditions of unemployment, or of industrial struggle and a general strike. Under present conditions it is costly, disturbing and constantly menacing. The church faces therefore a rare opportunity not only for religious work, strictly so called, but for public service to the people of the area and through them to the nation. I am con- vinced that, if we are willing to throw ourselves between the 21 groups, and if we can do so with courage and wisdom, we can bring to bear the spirit and point of view of Christ, and we can profoundly influence present and future conditions. For the church to attack this problem with its familiar meth- ods, and to attempt to set up its standardized organization, would be the height of unwisdom. It is one of those specialized problems, of which America has many, which demands of the church capacity for elastic adjustment and powerful united action, suited to the conditions involved. The recommendations which follow are based upon these con- victions. They were worked out on the field with representatives of the churches, and after conferences with managers and log- gers, and represent in principle, although not in details, a com- mon point of view. I. The plan of the logging evangelist is ineffective and should be abandoned. In its place should be substituted one man to a logging operation. The logging evangelist never had a chance to do good work because of his infre- quent visits. "What is needed is intensive work in each logging operation. The organization of the industry by these separate logging operations is favorable to such assignments. II. Instead of logging pastors, we should send in ministers who might be designated as Industrial Chaplains, with a status in the industry very much like that of a chaplain in the army, which should include recognition of his rights and duties by the company and likewise by the men. This will need to be negotiated separately with each company and with the men of each operation. It is all but universally recognized that the chaplain or minister should not be an employee of the company, and that he should not be officially related to the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. It is better that he should represent strictly the boards of home missions. They should finance his operations for at least the first year, and moneys contributed either by the companies or by the men should go to the supporting boards. These restrictions will tend to give him an impartial and inde- pendent position, which in the present controversial state of industry is highly important. 22 III. It will be necessary to secure a special body of men for this service. In addition to their other qualifications they should know social questions, both by study and experi- ence, and they should be men of rare poise and capacity. They should have that human love and sympathy which .will make them real pastors of these turbulent personali- ties. It is better to send in chaplains only as fast as such men can be discovered. If a chaplain does not succeed in a given operation, he should be removed as quickly as possible, either by trans- fer to another operation, or entirely out of the woods to some other field of service. He will have to be placed on a basis of efficiency with the other men in the industry. For him to remain when he cannot succeed, would be demoralizing. IV. The Industrial Chaplain should reside at the center of the industry, where a cottage should be provided for him. This will necessarily be on company land, and might be provided by the company without serious disadvantage. V. The chaplain shoidd visit each camp two or three times a week, the oftener the better. His work will be done mainly in the evenings. He should give the men in the bunk houses one evening of moving pictures, followed by a class in English and Americanization or some other useful service. This will relieve the loneliness of the forests and the long evenings. It can be made highly educational as well as entertaining and can enter into any fields which may be desired. There can also be singing, prayer, or anything else which seems opportune. Another evening should be given to a discussion of religious and social questions. There should be entire freedom, and the minister himself should direct the dis- cussion by the socratic method. The present suppression of free discussion in the camps is ineffective. At the same time it is forcing a one sided and fanatical social propaganda. The lid should be lifted and light thrown in. The men should be brought to see that there are various methods of social reconstruction, 23 and every solution proposed should go through the fire of criticism. The men should also be free to discuss the problems of religion ; also ethical problems like sabotage, efficient work, the length of the working day; also national and world problems, such as the control of venereal infections and the League of Nations. Capable speakers should be sent to the camps to address the men on these various subjects, and the men should have entire freedom of questions and discussion. It may be possible after a while to have more formal religious services on Sundays, in the dining rooms or recreation rooms of the outlying camps, especially if it is possible to employ singing and instruments. If the men come to trust the chaplain he can do finally almost any- thing they agree upon. At any rate he can put these religious features into his picture nights and discussion groups, if he acts with due respect to the desires of the men. In the community which constitutes the center of the logging operation, the chaplain will have families, with women and children, under his care. In this center, after he has established himself, he can introduce regular wor- ship, Sunday school, clubs for boys and girls and social life for the young people. If these can be made attractive, they will draw men from the outlying camps on Sundays. He will also have specialized problems, like the Japanese quarter at Snoqualmie Falls, and the nearby ranches at Concrete. The status of the chaplain should also make it possible for him to go about the camps looking after the welfare of the men, with authority to report and secure minor changes. If, as at the Saginaw Timber Company's opera- tion, he can be allowed to bring representatives of the men and the company into stated monthly conferences, he will have large power for good. The harder he works and the more practical his efforts, so as to prove that he is not a parasite, the better. VI. The chaplain will need money for equipment. In most camps he should have an inexpensive automobile, moving 24 picture machine and money for books, periodicals, maga- zines and games. Mucli of the cost of this equipment will come back from the men and the company but it will need to be provided for in the first instance. VII. As a rule, there is no need of investing money in buildings. Bunk houses, dining rooms and recreation rooms are avail- able in the camps. In the center of the operation, espe- cially where there is a big mill as at Snoqualmie Falls, it is much better to use the community buildings or club buildings. This makes the church a real part of the com- munity and not something on the side, and it releases money for personnel, which is the main necessity. VIII. The number of chaplains required to provide for the log- ging industry of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Western Montana, which constitutes an industrial unity, cannot be far short of 100, but this can only be determined by sur- vey. This should be made by the men engaged in the work, and not by separate surveyors. Its main problem will be to lay out definite operations or parishes for the industrial chaplains. IX. The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. has had responsibility for a number of years for this area but it has not been able to develop the field. The concensus of opinion on the coast, including that of the representatives of the Presbyterian church, is that it is impossible for one denomination to meet so large a problem and that the area should be reassigned. I think that this should be done on the field, and not in New York, in a conference of several days' duration, in which the whole problem of the camps and the methods to be pursued are worked out. The Presbyterian Church, because of its prior assignment, should be given such territory as it can develop intensively; and the section assigned to any one board should be subject to revision according to the later proved abilitj^ of the board to suc- cessfully develop the work which it has undertaken. X. It is of primary importance that the boards should work unitedly in the logging camps. If they work independ- ently, they are almost sure to lose their opportunity. They 25 will not be able to exert a commanding influence upon the industry because they will be divided and the work will lack uniformity. I, therefore, submit the following plan of organization, which, I think, will make it possible to divide the territory and make full use of denominational machinery, and yet preserve the necessary unity. Form of Organization 1. A Central Committee in New York, consisting of one representative from each of the cooperating boards and organizations, to have general supervision of the work. 2. An Advisory Committee on the coast, consisting of the areal representatives of the cooperating boards on the coast. 3. An Executive Staff, consisting of a Chief Industrial Chaplain, appointed and salaried by the Central Com- mittee, associated with an executive officer for each cooperating body. These denominational officers to have supervision of the territory assigned to their denominations. Commit to this staff, backed and coun- seled by the Central Committee and the Advisory Com- mittee, the following responsibilities. a. Survej^s of the areas to determine operations or logging parishes. b. The selection and training of industrial chaplains. c. The supervision of the work, including negotiations with the companies and the men of the camps. 4. Plan for setting up the work. I do not think the Boards are in a position to set up this work without conference on the field. I therefore suggest the advisa- bility of creating at once the Central Committee pre- viousljr recommended, with authority to proceed to Seattle at an early date and to organize the work in cooperation with western leaders. 1. The Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. should each have a representative on the Central Committee, the Advisory Committee and the Executive Staff, if they join in the effort. 26 2. The work in the logging camps, unless in exceptional circumstances, should be under the boards and their industrial chaplains. The presence of the church is necessary in each operation, because of the presence of families in the center of each operation, because the ministry of the church is needed with the men, and because of the rural communities which follow up be- hind the cutting of the timber. The policy which is being inaugurated, of giving a preference to married men in order to stabilize the industry, will emphasize the need of the church. The pastor or industrial chaplain can take care of welfare features, and needs them for his influence. To put in an additional secretary would be to duplicate personnel and money, and to pave the way for trouble. The Association should be given charge of specific log- ging operations only if the churches can not or do not assume the task. 3. The Field of the Y. M. C. A. a. In the larger mill centers, where its work in behalf of loggers and mill men should be highly developed. b. In cities like Seattle, Portland and Tacoma, where thousands of loggers and mill men congregate when out of the camps. A municipal judge in Portland said that the loggers have no adequate social resorts in these cities, and that they become a prey to vicious men and women. They will not go to the uptown social centers because they are conscious of their rough appearance. The Association, so far as I could study the problem, is not adjusted to this need. It offers an opportunity for service of great importance. c. The Association is able to perform a vital service for boys in the larger mill centers such as Aberdeen, Port Angeles and Everett. This should take the form of sending in, after conference with the churches, an expert on boys ' work to assist in organ- izing the boys' work of the churches. This, however, should be done in church buildings so far as it is 27 possible to do so. At Port Angeles, for example, it would be a mistaken policy to set up independent club organization in the present Association rooms. 4. The Field of the Y. W. C. A. a. The Y. W. C. A. is in a position to offer the same expert service for girls and women in the larger mill centers, that the Y. M. C. A. is able to offer for boys and young men. b. There is need also of a representative of the Y. W. C. A. to visit regularly the logging operations, in order to study the needs of women and girls, espe- cially of the young women who are waitresses in the camps, and to couftsel with the chaplains and the company managers concerning their welfare. c. The Associations should be brought into conference as soon as the cooperating boards decide upon a policy of united action. XII. The entire work in the camps should be undertaken on a generous financial basis. It is wrong to ask young men of the ability required to undertake this heroic and isolated service on a meager siipport. Single men should receive a minimum of $1,500, married men, of $1,800, and in- creases should be provided for. I would advise also a conference in summer of all the chaplains, and that the expenses of the men and their families be met by their boards. Bach man should also be provided with periodicals such as the Survey, the New Republic and the journals of the industry, both of the employers and of the trades. XIII. The logging camps of the Northwest constitute but a sec- tion of the logging operations of the United States. Those of the South are greater in extent. There are large opera- tions in California, in New Mexico and Arizona, in Minne- sota, Wisconsin and Michigan, in the Adirondacks and ■ New England, in the Ozarks and the AUeghenies. A con- siderable amount of religious work is being done in all these sections. 28 The southern camps are in direct competition with the Northwest, and since they are on the basis of an eleven hour day, and employ Negro labor at a lower wage, they tend to precipitate trouble on the coast. Instead of attempting to organize the entire logging industry of the country at once, it would seem wisest, for a year or two,- to establish a precedent of experience on the coast; except that the southern churches, since they are not involved in the coast experiment, might simul- taneously begin in the south. This is the more necessary because of competitive relations of the two regions. If the churches act forcefully, and with a due sense of the social consequences of their acts, they may become an influential factor in the critical conditions of this industry. New York, March 27, 1919. 29