PLAN No. 911. RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION
Men who have had experience with railroad construction or operation will find a promising field in the lumber industry, since on most large operations the logs are hauled from the forest to the mill over logging railroads. Locomotive engineers and firemen are in demand and command a fairly high wage. The hours are long because it is necessary to deliver a certain quantity of logs to the mill daily, and in case of delays in schedule, the crews must work until the necessary quantity of logs has been delivered.
On large operations new railroad lines are continually under construction, and opportunity is afforded for employment to those who are familiar with railroad construction.
Log Driving
Where logs are transported down streams to the mill, log drivers are required during the spring and summer months. On “rough water” this work requires experience and skill, and is hard work which must be done often in inclement weather. It is not a class of work to which an inexperienced man would be adapted.
Social Conditions
Social conditions in the different regions have played a prominent part in the distribution of labor in the lumber industry. The trend of labor migration has been from the East to the West, and not from the North to the South, because woods workers from the North and East have found both climatic and social conditions more to their liking in the West than in the South. Northern and eastern loggers have gone South in small numbers to fill positions of responsibility, but in general, the unskilled laborer has not found living and working conditions to his liking in the lowlands and southern pineries.
An important factor to be considered in this connection is the color line, which is more or less sharply drawn in the South. In some sections both whites and negroes work together on the same operations. The standard of work and the social conditions which prevail in southern logging camps, however, do not appeal to the northern man, and but few are content to remain for any length of time.
In the West the northern logger meets with conditions similar to those existing at home and, therefore, he is satisfied to become a permanent resident in the region.
Logging work in most sections is more or less removed from settlements and, in general, it is not possible for the logger to enjoy family life. The exception to this case is the logging camp of the southern pineries, which is a community comprising the loggers and their families. The buildings are small, portable houses, two or more constituting the home of a single family. Medical facilities are provided by the company, along with a school and a church and each community comprises a settlement in itself. Although both white and colored laborers may live in the same camp, the quarters are separated and the two races do not intermingle. The social advantages for an ambitious man with a family are not great and many northern and eastern men would not find conditions to their liking. Only men familiar with local conditions should seek employment in southern logging camps.