Timber Workers and the Making of Place in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-1964
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Landscapes of Solidarity: Timber Workers and the Making of Place in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-1964 Steven C. Beda A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: James N. Gregory, Chair Linda L. Nash Margaret Pugh O’Mara Program Authorized to Offer Degree: History © Copyright 2014 Steven C. Beda University of Washington Abstract Landscapes of Solidarity: Timber Workers and the Making of Place in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-1964 Steven C. Beda Chair of Supervisory Committee: Professor James N. Gregory Department of History This dissertation is an environmental history of Northwest timber workers. Looking at rural logging communities in Washington, Oregon, northern California, Idaho, and British Columbia between 1900 and 1964, it examines how timber-working communities interacted with the physical environment through work, subsistence, and recreation and explores how nature shaped working-class culture, community, and the politics of one union, the International Woodworkers of America (IWA). This study identifies an ethic of place as a critical part of working-class experience in the Northwest woods. Timber- working communities developed their identities through their relationship with the forest, and while they believed in the work they did, as well as in the lumber industry’s important economic place in the rural Northwest, they also believed that changes to the landscape brought about by industrial logging needed to be carefully considered and at times constrained. In the postwar period, timber workers belonging to the IWA began putting political pressure on the lumber industry to try to force their employers to follow more responsible harvesting guidelines and later supported forest preservation and attempts to expand Northwestern wilderness areas. This study contributes to recent efforts to combine labor and environmental history. It highlights the central role that nature and visions of the landscape play in working-class culture and politics and demonstrates that place is an important category of analysis in working-class history. By examining work, recreation, and subsistence practices, it highlights the multiple ways working-class people engaged with nature. And, by documenting the IWA’s role in forest policy debates it highlights the central role that working people and unions have played in the history of environmentalism. To Mom, Dad, and Amanda and to Jess There are no medium-sized trees in the deep forest. There are only the towering ones, whose canopy spreads across the sky. Below, in the gloom, there’s light for nothing but mosses and ferns. But when a giant falls, leaving a little space…then there’s a race—between the trees on either side, who want to spread out, and the seedlings below, who race to grow up. Sometimes, you can make your own space. —Terry Pratchett TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF CHARTS ii LIST OF TABLES iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv INTRODUCTION ENVIRONMENTALISM, FROM THE GUYS DOWN BELOW 1 PART 1 PLACE INTRODUCTION 18 CHAPTER 1 “I HEARD THE TIMBER OUT IN OREGON CALLING ME” MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION, AND COMMUNITY 21 CHAPTER 2 “THE LOGGER IS THE BOSS OF THAT POWER” TECHNOLOGY, WORK, AND ENVIRONMENT 51 CHAPTER 3 “WE DO NOT WANT ANY EXTRAVAGANCE” COMPANY TOWNS, WELFARE CAPITALISM, AND NATURE 84 PART 2 POWER INTRODUCTION 111 CHAPTER 4 “A BAKING POWDER IN THE MASSES” COMMUNITY AND UNIONISM IN THE EARLY DEPRESSION 114 CHAPTER 5 “INDUSTRIAL FEUDALISM OR INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY?” BUILDING THE IWA 144 CHAPTER 6 “CAPITALISM HAS NO PLACE IN OUR FORESTS” WORKING-CLASS ENVIRONMENTALISM, THE NEW DEAL, AND WILDERNESS 177 CONCLUSION “WE MUST TRANSFORM NATURE TO LIVE” 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY 221 LIST OF CHARTS CHART NUMBER PAGE 1.1.1. Lumber production in Washington and Oregon, 1879-1929 26 1.1.2. Population of Washington and Oregon, 1879-1929 26 1.1.3. Percent increase in lumber production and population in Oregon and Washington, 1880-1930 26 1.2. Number of Agricultural workers and timber workers in Oregon and Washington, 1880-1950 28 1.3. Timber workers as a proportion of all non-agricultural wage workers In Washington and Oregon, 1880-1930 29 1.4.1. Birthplace of timber workers in the Pacific Northwest, 1880-1930 35 1.4.2. Foreign birthplace and nativity of timber workers in the Pacific Northwest, 1880-1930 35 1.5. Year of immigration for Scandinavians living in the Pacific Northwest in 1930 41 1.7.1. Percentage of Pacific Northwest wage workers ever married, by selected industries, 1900-1940 47 1.7.2. Percentage of Pacific Northwest wage workers living in a family household, by selected industries, 1900-1940 2.1. Lumber production in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, 1899-1929 58 ii LIST OF TABLES TABLE NUMBER PAGE 1.1. Place of birth of Pacific Northwest timber workers, 1920 36 1.2. Industries worked by Scandinavian-born living in Washington And Oregon in 1930, by year of immigration 42 1.3. Marital Status of Pacific Northwest timber workers, 1900-1940 45 1.4. Marital status of Pacific Northwest timber workers by place of birth, 1920 45 1.5. Household type of timber workers living in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-1940 46 1.6. Household type of Pacific Northwest timber workers, by place of birth, 1920 46 2.1. Area Cut by timber industry in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, 1909-1929 63 2.2. Fatalities in logging and sawmilling in Washington and British Columbia, 1925-1929 67 2.3. Non-fatal injuries in logging and sawmilling in Washington, 1925-1929 67 2.4. Accident frequency per 1,000,000 hours work in Washington, 1925-1929 67 2.5. Daily wage rates of coastal logging camps and sawmills, 1928 80 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Towards the end of the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, a story about prisoners on a chain gang in the rural south, Luke (played by Paul Newman) is called over by one of the guards as the inmates return from a hard day’s work in stifling heat and humidity. The rebellious and defiant Luke has escaped from the prison several times and now the guards are determined to break his spirit and make sure he never runs again. As Luke shuffles up, the guard marks out a large square in the dirt of the prison yard and throws a shovel down on the ground. “That ditch is Boss Kean’s ditch,” he says to Luke. “And I told him that dirt in it’s your dirt. What’s your dirt doin’ in his ditch?” “I don’t know, Boss,” Luke replies. “You better get in there and get it out, boy,” says the guard. Luke gets to digging. Just when he’s dug out most of the ditch, another guard comes by. “Luke, watcha’ think you’re doin’?” “Just getting my dirt out of Boss Kean’s ditch, Boss,” an exhausted Luke replies. “Well, damned if you’re going to put your dirt in my yard,” says the guard. Luke starts filling in the ditch he’d just dug. This process is repeated several times. Luke digs out the ditch, is told to fill it back in, only to be told to dig it back out again. Luke eventually breaks, but for most of the ordeal he remains obstinate and defiant as ever. A large reason why he’s able to keep up the good fight is because his fellow inmates are there to cheer him on. They sit on the porch of the prison bunkhouse and sing to take his mind off the work and urge him to keep going when he no longer has the will to continue. I thought of this scene often as I was working on this dissertation. When revising chapters for the third or fourth time, or meticulously working on large sections of other chapters, only to decide to take them out of the final draft, I felt a lot like Luke, trapped in a Sisyphean struggle. Like Luke, though, I benefited greatly from a chorus of voices cheering me on, encouraging me, and offering support. I would’ve collapsed into that ditch long ago had it not been for them. Jim Gregory was this project’s primary advisor. At times, I thought of him as one of those prison guards, going so far as to imagine him with mirrored sunglasses and shotgun, standing over me and laughing maniacally as I worked beyond exhaustion. But now that this project is wrapping up and I’ve had some time to think it over, I no longer believe Jim was one of the guards. Rather, he was one of the loudest voices in the chorus of people cheering me on. Jim believed in my intellectual abilities even when I didn’t, and made me feel like I had something important to say. Jim is a keen reader, and incredibly sharp historian, and a remarkably astute advisor. He’s tough when he has to be tough and iv v comforting when he needs to be comforting. He encouraged me to think about the big picture, tie chapters together, and not get too lost in my stories. When I felt that a chapter was “good enough,” Jim pushed me to keep working until it was actually “good.” He’s incredibly busy and has stretched himself extremely thin, but he was never too busy to meet with me. Most of what’s good about this dissertation is the result of Jim’s generosity, guidance, and insight. Linda Nash and Margaret O’Mara were also clearly audible among the chorus of people cheering me on. Linda first introduced me to environmental history, the concept of place, and encouraged me to develop my thinking about workers and nature.