A Logger's Life Before Confederation

it wasn't easy work and it wasn't safe work logging in pre Confederation Newfoundland and Labrador relied on the muscle and endurance of its workers from sunrise until sunset the men chopped down trees hauled logs and helped to bring the wood to the mill site in the night time they returned to dirty drafty and overcrowded bunk houses the food was monotonous and the wages abysmal but the men did it because there was precious little other paying work in the fall and winter commercial use of Newfoundland and Labrador forests started in the second half of the 1800s when the government made wood Lots available to sawmill operators and paper companies by the 1930s hundreds of logging camps were scattered across the island together they could employ up to 9000 men most of the loggers worked in Western or central Newfoundland were large forests of spruce and fir trees provided excellent pulp wood but there was a problem the area's population was small and there weren't enough local workers to satisfy the demand so men began to travel to the logging camps from the islands numerous coastal communities these were seasonal workers who worked in the woods during the fall and winter and then returned home to fish in the summer outport loggers often had to travel great distances to reach the headquarters of a logging operation they came by rail horse boat and they came by foot often carrying heavy backpacks of clothes bedding and other belongings after all that traveling they still weren't guaranteed a job the number of applicants often exceeded the number of positions so some of the men were turned away empty-handed the ones who did get hired on were assigned to a logging camp there they worked for a contractor who in turn worked for the paper companies to large companies dominated the industry during the first half of the 20th century the Anglo Newfoundland development company in Grand Falls and the international Power & Paper Company in Corner Brook in 1937 another company named Bo waters took over the corner brook operations each season the paper companies pay to their contractors a fixed sum of money to harvest a specified quantity of wood and company land from that pool of money the contractor had to pay the loggers feed them and give them shelter whatever was left over became the contractors earnings the system was far from ideal often the paper companies didn't pay the contractors enough to both earn a profit and take good care of the loggers this forced the contractors to spend as little as possible on food housing and of the loggers wages the situation reached a boiling point during the Great Depression of the 1930s the pulp and paper companies slashed their spending to unprecedented ly low levels it soon became impossible for the loggers to make a living discontent spread and in 1934 Newfoundlands Commission of government appointed the lawyer F Gordon Bradley to investigate the forest operations his report gives us important insight into the working life of the loggers it also paints a picture of underfunded contractors struggling to get the job done every one of these contractors whom I interviewed readily agreed that the prices they paid were too low but said they could do no better out of the price paid by the paper come my inquiries as to the costs of hauling driving booming towing loading and stowing have convinced me that no unfair profits were made on these operations indeed I am satisfied that some of them will be fortunate if they escape a small loss the logging camps also suffered from the poor funding bunk houses were dirty and drafty and their rubes often leaked 80 men might find themselves crammed into a single bunk house designed to sleep 60 if a logger wanted a mattress for his bed then he would have to rent one from the company for 25 cents a month but these were often dirty and many men preferred to make their own bedding with tree boughs the cook and his assistants prepared plenty of food for the loggers but there wasn't much variety beans for breakfast six times a week is likely to pall upon the appetite after a couple of weeks despite their great sustaining value one of the chief complaints is insufficiency of fresh meats and lack of variety of vegetables fresh meat cannot be handled economically in summer but there is no reason why the supplies should not be plentiful in winter a more liberal supply of turnips cabbage in season carrots parsnips and beets is recommended a greater variety of dried fruits apricots prunes and alike would be helpful Newfoundland and Labrador loggers usually harvested spruce and fir trees for manufacture in to newsprint they did this in three phases first was the cutting phase in the summer fall and early winter this was followed by the mid winter haul off when loggers transported pulp wood to a pond or river and then came the Spring River Drive this brought the wood to the mill site the cutting phase was the longest and it employed the most men once a worker arrived at a camp the contractor assigned him a section of land to work on it was usually about 100 metres wide and 2 kilometers long loggers called these Lots chances because they never knew what quality of timber they would find their poor chances might be located on boggy or steep terrain or contain wood that was difficult to harvest the quality of a loggers chance had a direct impact on his earnings because the men were paid by the amount of wood they harvested and not by the hour most contractors gave the worst chances to inexperienced woodsmen unless they have friends they seldom receive proper instruction frequently they are sent in difficult wood where an expert will find hard to make anything under such conditions the prospects of the novice are to say the least most disheartening struggle as he may his days work gives him little if anything over the cost of his board and sometimes not even that is it any wonder that in such circumstances and realizing that while he is well-fed his family is perhaps hungry the unfortunate man cannot resist the urge to leave his palest job and return home most loggers worked at least 10 hours a day six days a week early each morning they walked from the camp to their chances that could take up to an hour once there they felt as many trees as possible with an axe and Buck saw they removed all of the trees limbs and cut the wood into four-foot logs the men pushed themselves hard to harvest as much wood as possible they worked long hours wearing themselves down in the process and sometimes suffering long-term physical injuries Bradley interviewed several cutters about their work they wanted to remain anonymous so they could speak freely without jeopardizing their jobs I have to work early in late that means 14 or 15 hours in summer I have cut continuously for three months I did not go in the past two years because I saw men as good as myself who could make no money at it I am all strained up from cutting and logging would I have worked too hard at it from my own good I find it in my shoulders arms and legs once or twice a month the paper companies sent out employees to the logging camps to measure how many cords of wood each log are cut these men were known as scalars they had tremendous power because their calculations determined how much money the loggers would earn Bradley reported that the loggers and contractors often suspected the scalars of under estimating the quantity of wood harvested to save the company money and to protect their own jobs there is unquestionably a strong feeling among the men and even contractors that they are not fairly dealt with in the matter of measurement and call few complaints are made to the operators however the reason being that any effort to secure their rights would stamp them as grumblers and cause discrimination against them in the future companies paid varying amounts of money for pulpwood in the early 1900's it all depended on the amount of demand for the product on the international market in 1926 loggers earned about 2 dollars and 40 cents per quart that price dropped to about one dollar and 40 cents during the Great Depression unable to earn a profit some experienced cutters stayed away from the woods altogether by early December most vloggers had completed the cutting phase and returned home for a brief period of rest until the halluf began in early January this work only required about half as many workers as the cutting phase so the contractors only called back the most experienced loggers they also brought in horses to help with the Holling loggers were assigned to one of four different tasks during the hollow loaders helped to pile the wood onto a horse-drawn sled teamsters drove the sled to the bank of a river or pond and also took care of the horses road men cleared the roads of any stumps rocks or debris that could slow the sleds progress and Landers unloaded the logs onto the pond and river banks Teamsters headed the longest working day a teamster gets up at 5:00 a.m. to feed and look after his horse then he gets breakfasts and goes to the job at daylight with a break for the midday lunch he works until dark which is about 6:00 to 6:30 returning to camp he feeds his horse gets his own supper and then grooms the animal his work is over at 8:00 p.m. he must also look after and feed his horse on Sundays for this he receives no remuneration nor for days when he cannot haul he pays $18 per month for his board he has paid $2 per day for the days he works the haul off usually lasted from early January until mid-march when the snow became too soft to support the heavy sleds once all the ice broke up in the spring the river drive could begin during this phase the men floated the pulpwood over the water to the mill site or railway depot the first step was to clear the river or pond of any rocks or other obstructions that could trap the logs or slow their progress the men also built dams to build up the water's level and quicken its pace as with the haul off workers in the river drive had specific roles rollers pushed the pulpwood off the banks and into the water drivers used Pike poles to guide the logs along the river PEG poles were long staffs with an iron spike attached to one end there were also sackers they retrieved any stray logs that became separated from the main drive driving was difficult work and the pay was bad one anonymous driver explained the situation to Bradley in 1934 we are charged 20 cents per meal and I have four meals a day I came out because I can't make any money there for 21 days in camp I only got 12 dollars and 75 cents as prices dropped in the 1930s many loggers grew increasingly discontent some stopped working altogether to protest low wages Bradley wrote in his report that the woods workers were underpaid and overworked he found that this was especially true of the cutters he estimated that they only earned about 20 dollars a month I find that a reasonable standard of living for the average outport workman in Newfoundland today is impossible on less than $50 per month employers should not be permitted to take the benefit of men's time for little more than the cost of boarding them while their families at home insufficiently clad and fed are kept from downright starvation by government dole but government officials were hesitant to make Bradley's work public they feared that it would anger the paper companies and spark a loggers strike the government advocated for a more pay raise than what Bradley recommended they asked the paper companies to pay their loggers at least $25 a month in return for keeping the report private in the coming years the working life of a logger did improve somewhat labor unions became more vocal about workers rights and the government passed new legislation aimed at improving the forest industries but the nature of woods work remained largely unchanged in Newfoundland and Labrador until the 1950s when the introduction of the chainsaw and other mechanized equipment forever changed the working life of the logger [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website

Views: 77,473

Keywords: newfoundland history

Id: JPzo8UTglcU

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2017