The history of the acquisition of the forests of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and California is a long, sordid story of thinly veiled robbery and intrigue.  The methods of the lumber barons in invading and seizing its “holdings” did not differ greatly, however, from those of the steel and oil kings, the railroad magnates or any of the other industrial potentates who acquired great wealth by pilfering America and peonizing its people.  The whole sorry proceeding was disgraceful, high-handed and treacherous, and only made possible by reason of the blindness of the generous American people, drugged with the vanishing hope of “success” and too confident of the continued possession of its blood-bought liberties.  And do the lumber barons were unhindered in their infamous work of debauchery, bribery, murder and brazen fraud.

As a result the monopoly of the Northwestern woods became an established fact.  The lumber trust came into “its own.”  The new social alignment was complete, with the idle, absentee landlord at one end and the migratory and possessionless lumber jack at the other.  The parasites had appropriated to themselves the standing timber of the Northwest; but the brawny logger whose labor had made possible the development of the industry was given, as his share of the spoils, a crumby “bindle” and a rebellious heart.  The masters had gained undisputed control of the timber of the country, three quarters of which is located in the Northwest; but the workers who felled the trees, drove the logs, dressed, finished and loaded the lumber were left in the state of helpless dependency from which they could only extricate themselves by means of organization.  And it is this effort to form a union and establish union headquarters that led to the tragedy at Centralia.

The lumber barons had not only achieved a monopoly of the woods but a perfect feudal domination of the woods as well.  Within their domain banks, ships, railways and mills bore their private insignia-and politicians, Employers’ Associations, preachers, newspapers, fraternal orders and judges and gun-men were always at their beck and call.  The power they wield is tremendous and their profits would ransom a kingdom.  Naturally they did not intend to permit either power or profits to be menaced by a mass of weather-beaten slaves in stag shirts and overalls.  And so the struggle waxed fiercer just as the lumberjack learned to contend successfully for living conditions and adequate remuneration.  It was the old, old conflict of human rights against property rights.  Let us see how they compared in strength.

The Triumph of Monopoly

The following extract from a document entitled “The Lumber Industry,” by the Honorable Herbert Knox Smith and published by the U.S.  Department of Commerce (Bureau of Corporations) will give some idea of the holdings and influence of the lumber trust: