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=Northwest Lumber Strike of 1917= The Northwest Lumber Strike of 1917 was a strike held primarily from June 1917 to September 1917. This strike started in the state of Washington and then spread out into the states of Idaho and Oregon. The strike was started by the Lumber Workers Industrial Union, which was a union associated with the Industrial Workers of the World. The strike’s intentions were to try to get the lumber workers an eight hour workday and better working conditions. This event triggered response from both the lumber employers and even the United States government.

History and Background
Employer companies were in charge of employing the laborers. The Weyerhaeuser and the Anaconda Company were some of the ones in charge of the lumber camps the workers were employed at. Due to the nature of the larger companies having more money, they drove out the smaller local lumber operations until they were the main ones. In states like Montana, these companies controlled approximately 80 percent of the privately owned timberland in Montana. When it came to employing the workers themselves, the employers used a system that made lumberjacks get tickets for the camps that were available, but even with a ticket, it was not entirely guaranteed that a job opening was available. Also, in states like Montana, the work was not full time, but rather seasonal, with some of the jobs only lasting four to six months.

Working conditions for the lumber workers during the early part of the 20th century were not considered fair by the workers. Lumberjacks had to work in camps that were located substantial distances from towns. They had to work long hours, on average 10-13 hours a day. Due to these long hours, there was not much time for leisure. The loggers had to work in conditions that caused them to be very unsanitary, and the companies did not provide proper ways to sanitize and clean themselves like laundry facilities. Lumberjacks had to live in bunkhouses, which were small buildings that only had a stove for heating. These bunkhouses frequently had many people fit into one building, and had lice. Conditions of things like beds and food were not always assured, and sometimes were poor. The employers of the workers placed the cause of the bad conditions on the workers, which caused even greater animosity towards them.

There were events that would be considered to be precedents to the strike. In the years of 1907-1909, IWW documents showed that there were strikes by lumber workers in Montana, but those were not successful. Oregon also had a strike in 1907 by sawmill workers, but this strike was ended by the American Federation of Labor. The AFL were able to put in scabs in order to end the strike.

During the years of 1915-1917, the Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO), an organization connected to the IWW, were able to organize large numbers of farm workers in the North-West area of the United States. On March 5, 1917, the lumber workers of the area convened together in Spokane, Washington in order to start up their own unions, just like the AWO. There were representatives from many states such as Minnesota and Washington. This conference gave way to the formation of different unions, in particular the Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500, based in Spokane Washington. The union was organized in order to improve the unfair labor conditions. Some of these conditions were better working hours, improved living conditions and better pay.

The Lumber Strike, June 20, 1917
Committees in the LWIU decided to meet together to discuss the beginnings of a strike. The LWIU had arranged for the strike to officially begin on July 1, but the members in Spokane had already started to not work and the strike was officially declared June 20. They were picketing the logger camps they worked at, even forming strike camps. The demands for the strikers were overall that they were to get better work hours, reducing the number of hours from 10 to 8, better living conditions for the loggers in the bunkhouses, more opportunities for pay, and for the union to be the hiring power instead of the lumber employers. Once the strike picked up in Spokane, it soon spread to other areas. In Idaho, there were IWW organizers who went out there in order to organize the lumber workers there to join those who were already striking.

The LWIU decided to ask for funds from organizations around the nation. They had sent “appeals for funds and subscription lists were sent out from the head office in Spokane to all other IWW unions and branches in the United States, and to many other unions, radical societies and individuals.” They were able to get a lot of funding and support from these organizations. A lot of the money went to support the active strikers at the picket lines and their strike camps. This money helped the strikers be able to sustain themselves. Some camps were able to earn money by themselves without even needing to ask for additional funds. Additionally, other lumber laborers also started to have strikes in Washington. During the strike, lumber production severely went down. Production did not stop entirely and varied among states. Montana for instance, had to have some of their main lumber mills to shut down. They had to close the lumber mills of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and the Clark Hill mill, which were essential for the lumber production.

Responses to the Strike
However, the owners of the lumber companies did not want to go along with these demands. During 1917, the United States had entered the First World War, and the need for lumber industries had risen. The lumber employers wanted to make sure the lumber industry was still operational in order to receive government spending. The lumber employers, “On July 9, 1917, employers established the Lumberman’s Protective Association. ” The purpose of the association was to oppose the strikers that wanted a 10 hour workday. A few days later, on July 17, the heads of the lumber industry convened in Seattle and rejected the proposal for an eight hour workday.

Heads of the lumber companies also influenced the mass media, through the use of propaganda to put the strikers in a negative light. The use of libel was prevalent in articles about the strike. They were to be seen as traitors, as criminal people. Some propaganda was used to try to tie the source of funds of the strikers to Germany. The media said the goal of the Germans was to “obstruct the U.S. government in the conduct of the war, and to hinder the manufacture of aeroplanes by stopping the production of spruce, and that $100,000 a month was received at strike headquarters, from the Kaiser.”

In Spokane, the state government did want the strike to end, and were willing to make changes to accommodate the lumber workers. The Governor of Washington, Ernest Lister, was willing to help improve the conditions of the workers and their pay. They had a plan and wanted the lumber companies to accept an eight hour work day along with overtime pay. However, not all the companies agreed with that proposed idea at all.

Closure of the IWW Office
If the headquarters and leaders of the IWW for Spokane were shut down, then the LWIU would lose financial support which was necessary to maintain a strike. The IWW Office in Spokane was raided and shut down by the National Guard on August 9, 1917. Due to the raid, the leaders of the Office ended up being arrested. The reason that the National Guard was forced to do such measures was due to the United States War Department. In 1917, the War Department told the Army to “suppress civilian acts of seditious intent.” The United States had entered WWI and needed to maximize wartime production. Seditious acts against the nation would detract from that goal. Seditious acts in the context of the strike were being in the strike itself. The city itself came under martial law enacted by the National Guard. In addition, the governor of Washington, Ernest Lister, in July wanted “a statewide organization of vigilantes, a ‘Patriotic League’ to quell the IWW.” During this time of martial law, if you were a member of the IWW or any associated organization, then you were arrested on the spot. They were easily identifiable, as members of the IWW would carry red membership cards. Vigilantes, along with the National Guard and local authorities were instrumental to all of these arrests.

Activities like that were also apparent in the other states as well. In Idaho, the governor had to call out the National Guard in order to arrest IWW members as well. Additionally, when the war started, Idaho, like other sates passed a Criminal Syndicalism law as well. This law prevented the IWW to actively spread the cause of the strike in Idaho and the other states.

Results of the Strike
Due to the leaders of the International Workers Union that were helping with the strike through organizing being in jail, the IWW decided to stop the strike in September. Without the backing of the IWW, the LWIU loggers had to go to back work. The end result of the strike was mixed, as there were different outcomes everywhere. Some companies in Washington complied with the eight hour workday, but most employers still kept the ten hour workdays. Not all workers gave up the spirit of the strike however. Some workers who returned to work continued the strike in their own way, by working slowly and inefficiently, trying to get as little work done.

Creation of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen
On October of 1917, Colonel Brice Disque created the government union of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. Disque had been tasked by the US government with making sure that the wartime lumber production was able to continue with no obstructions and fix the lumber industry. In his case, the IWW strike was an obstruction. With the creation of this union, Disque rallied loggers to work together. He was able to do this with the Four L helping to address the grievances of the loggers and trying to find solutions. One of these solutions was that loggers would have their 8 hour work day under the Four L. In addition, as the union itself was a government one, those who would join would have to be anti-Wobbly, so that discouraged the IWW even more in terms of the strike.