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Saturday January 1, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: Arthur Boose on Organizing Lumber Jacks

From this month's edition of the Review we offer an article by Arthur Boose who is currently engaged in the organizing effort of the Industrial Workers of the World amongst the Timber Workers of Northern Minnesota.

THE LUMBER JACK

By ARTHUR BOOSE

I HAVE been asked to contribute an article on the lumber industry and the conditions which obtain in it. I have spent a good deal of my life in that industry and take pleasure in telling about the life of the men known as lumber jacks.

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Friday December 31, 1915
From the Archives of the Industrial Worker: The "Life" of the Migratory Timber Worker

As the Industrial Workers of the World begins a campaign to organize the timber workers of Northern Minnesota, Hellraisers offers this account of the life of a migratory timber worker from an anonymous logger, originally published in the Industrial Worker of July 2, 1910. The conditions under which the "timber beasts" live and work have not improved much, if at all.

WHO SAID A LOGGER LIVES?

The question has often been asked: "What constitutes living?" If it is the mere fact that we have life in our bodies and are plodding along in search of a job with our blankets on our back, then we are all living.

If "living" means to have all the good things of life, all the comforts of a home, and a life guarantee that such comforts shall continue as long as we are willing to do our share of the work, then we are not living, but simply saving funeral expenses.

It is estimated that there are 50,000 loggers along the Pacific coast, and it is a conservative statement to make that not one percent of them can say that their home consists of anything better than a dirty bunk furnished by the boss and a roll of blankets that they are compelled to tote about from pillar to post, many times only to make room for another toiler who has left $2 for the job in the tender care of the fat Employment Hog, who will divvy up with the foreman or superintendent. This is incentive enough to soon discharge him, so that a new recruit can be divorced from his $2, and so this endless chain of men tramping to and from the employment shark and the job.