Capital and Labour in the Forest Economies of the Port Alberni and Prince George Districts, British Columbia, 1910-1939

ON THE FRIMGES: CAPITAL APJn LABOUR IN THE FOREST ECONOMIES OF THE PORT ALBERNI AND PRINCE GEORGE DISTRICTS, BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1910-1939 by Gordon Hugh Hak B.A. University of Victoria 1978 M.A. University of Guelph 1981 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF \I THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of History @ Gordon Hugh Hak 1986 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April 1986 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name : GORDON HAK Degree : Ph.D. Title of thesis: On the Fringes: Capital and Labour in the Forest Economies of the Port Alberni and Prince George Districts, British Columbia, 1910-1939. Examining Committee: J. I[ Little, Chairman Allen ~ea@#, ~ekiorSupervisor - - Michael Fellman, Supervisory Committee Robin Fdr,Supervisory Commit tee Hugh ~&nst@: IJepa<tment of History Gerald Friesen, External Examiner Professor, History Department University of Manitoba PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thes i s/Pr~ject/Extended Essay On the Fringes; Capital and Labour in the Forest Economies of the Port Alberni and Prince George Districts, b British Columbia, 1910-1939 Author: (signature) (date ABSTRACT The Port Alberni and Prince George districts of British Columbia experienced the beginnings of an extensive forest industry at about the same time, the second decade of the twentieth century, and both regions were destined to become substantial lumber centres. Yet in their early period of development, before the major changes of the 1940s, the two communities had distinct growth patterns: by 1939 the Port Alberni district had emerged as a prosperous lumber-producing centre housing an active, coordinated working class while the Prince George district remained an economic backwater with a weak forest industry base, an ill-formed class, and quiescent labour movement. Simple economic or geographic explanations do not begin to address the complexity of the histories of the two regions. Only by closely examining the lumber companies, the sawmill workers, the loggers, and the broader community can the local historical contexts be understood. Further, exogenous factors such as western Canadian working-class initiatives, the role of the provincial state, and the shifting international lumber trade must also be taken into account. Business decisions, union drives, - -- strike action, and political structures were all intertwined in shaping the development of these fringe areas of the province. By comparing the two forest districts this thesis not only highlights the various elements that interacted in creating the forest economies and forest-based communities, it also sheds light on the development of British Columbia's most important industry and the history of the western Canadian working class. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Allen Seager for supervising this thesis. Professors Michael Fellman and Robin Fisher were very helpful in commenting on a number of drafts of the manuscript. Conversations with Ken Bernsohn, Bob Hawkes, Jack Gillbanks, Otto McDonald, and Mark Mosher helped clarify some issues, as did spirited discussions with Wayne Wood and Michael Atkinson. Norman Hak kindly drew the map for this presentation and Frank Leonard offered encouragement by sharing his observations on the life of a graduate student. Throughout this project Joanne Finnegan contributed timely advice and convinced me that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I would also like to thank Professor Alan A. Brookes who some years ago encouraged me to pursue doctoral studies. All errors of fact and interpretation in this thesis are the sole responsibility of the author. Financial support was provided by a C.D. Nelson Memorial Graduate Scholarship, administered by Simon Fraser University, and a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. -- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Map and Figures ............... vi Introduction ................. Part One The Business of Making Lumber and the Social Context of Production ........... 27 Chapter Empire Building in the Alberni Valley .... 38 Chapter Precarious Existence: The Forest Industry in the Prince George District .......... 74 Chapter Community Loggers, Tie Hacks, and Sawmill Workers ...................112 Part Two Class and Class Conflict in Two Forest. Economies ..................148 Chapter IV Wage Slaves and Boss Loggers in the Alberni Valley ................166 Chapter V Towards Class Cohesion: Loggers, Mill Workers, Community and the IWA in the Alberni Valley ................204 L Chapter VI "Line Up or Roll Upff: The Lumber Workers Industrial Union in the Prince George District ...................246 Chapter VII Unemployment, Communists, and the CCF in the Prince George District in the 1930s. ...284 Conclusion ..................316 Bibliography. ................332 MAP AND FIGURES MAP The Port Alberni and Prince George Districts . 15 FIGURE I Timber Scaled in British Columbia, 1912-1940 (inthousandboardfeet) . 29 FIGURE I1 . Average British Columbia Lumber Prices, 1918-1940 (per thousand board feet). 30 Introduction During the first decade of the twentieth century the forest industry emerged as the most significant sector of the British Columbia economy. Between 1901 and 1910 the amount of lumber cut in the province increased by almost 400 percent. The 26,500 workers in the logging, sawmill, and wood manufacturing work force constituted almost thirteen percent of all provincial w'orkers in 1911.l The chief forester of British Columbia noted in his 1914 report that half of the payroll of the province was derived from the forests. He also commented that the forest industry "employs more labour, distributes more money, consumes more supplies, produces more wealth and public revenue than any other Provincial industry, and it is one of the strongest influences promoting the opening-up and settlement of new undeveloped regions. " The forest industry has not relinquished its primary place in the British Columbia economy. In 1972 the forest industry accounted for 50 percent of the census value-added by all manufacturing in the province. With over 84,000 employed in the forest industry directly, over 42,000 working at jobs in the transportation, construction, and supply industries which are dependent on the forest economy, and another 126,000 in the service sector that caters to the workers and families directly and indirectly tied to the forest industry, it was estimated that more than one quarter of those employed in British Columbia in 1972 owed their livelihood to the forest industry.3 Three major actors have contributed to shape the contours - 2 - of forest exploitation in the province: capital, labour, and the state. The first important surge in capital investment came during the Laurier years. Railway construction and the settlement of the Canadian West in the years from 1896 to 1913 stimulated an almost insatiable demand for lumber, and capitalists recognized that manufacturing wood products in ~ritishColumbia had become a profitable undertaking. The buoyancy of the prairie market, however does not completely explain the migration of capital to British Columbia in the early years of the twentieth century. Rapidly diminishing timber resources in the American Midwest and in central and eastern Canada in the late nineteenth century spurred a search by established timbermen to locate new areas where they could apply their expertise and sustain the profitable existence of their lumber firms. In the first decade of the century capital, especially from the United States, poured into the province to exploit the rich timber resources.4 The movement of capital to British Columbia spawned the migration of labour to work in the logging camps and sawmills. The aggressive campaign by the Laurier government to induce Europeans, Britons, and Americans to emigrate to Canada was ostensibly geared to provide homesteaders for the prairies, but the importance of immigrant workers for western Canadian industrial development was not lost on federal policy makers. Between 1896 and 1914 some three million immigrants entered Canada and the migration continued through the 1920s. It was from this labour pool that companies drew many loggers and millworkers. Together, the influx of capital and labour enabled the British Columbia forest industry to achieve prominence in the provincial economy by 1911. The provincial government controlled the vast majority of timber land in British Columbia and by setting the terms by which forest exploitation occurred the state played an important role in the destiny of the forest industry. Over 95 percent of provincial timber land is still owned by the Crown. In the nineteenth century the provincial government experimented with various methods of allocating timber to lumber

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