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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Appendices - 6. Pre-War Conditions of the Negro Wage Earner in Selected Industries and Occupations - 5. Lumber
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Appendix 6. Conditions of Negro Wage Earner 1091
were mainly in laboring jobs, at wages which were lower, compared with the pay of
skilled and semi-skilled workers, than was true in other parts of the country.® The wage
level is still lower for wood cutters; prior to 1958, the average was less than $i for a
day of 10 to 14 hours. It is not clear whether the Wages and Hours Law has brought
any significant improvement. The employers have succeeded fairly well in postponing
its enforcement. An industry committee, set up in 1 940 for the purpose of regulating
labor conditions under the law, even excluded production of pulpwood from the paper
and pulp industry, which means that the wood cutters cannot get any benefit from the
minimum wage of 40 cents an hour decided upon by the committee.**
Only a small minority of the 140,000 Negroes in the lumber and woodworking
industry proper were in processing work. Furniture and piano factories had few Negro
workers (8,000), but box factories and miscellaneous plants had a somewhat greater
number (17,000). The bulk of the Negro workers, or 114,000, were employed by saw
and planing mills, where they constituted one-fourth of the national, and one-half of
the Southern, labor force.
This situation, of course, is rather unfortunate for the Negroes. The saw and planing
mills have been a stationary, sometimes even a regressive, industry since about 1910. The
expansion in the Pacific, and particularly in the Northwestern areas, has made it still
more difficult for the Southern mills. Moreover, Southern pine timber stands have been
exploited in a rather shortsighted manner, causing serious denudation. The increased
use of iron, steel, cement, and bricks in building construction, the substitution of barbed
wire for wood in farm fencing, of fiber for wood in boxes and crates, the use of mesh-
bags instead of boxes for packing of fruits, as well as other similar changes, have brought
about serious limitations in the demand. Nevertheless, there may be some hope for the
future. Timber stands in other parts of the country may become so exhausted that the
rapid growth in the Southern climate will give the Southern industry a competitive
advantage. New uses for the product (e.g., plywood-built airplanes) may bring about
an increased demand.
During the early ’thirties lumber production m the South was reduced by almost
two-thirds, and the recovery was very slow.® Owing to the present war emergency, the
production is large for the time being, but this boom, of course, is not going to last.
The insecurity in the situation is further enhanced by the fact that mechanization,
which has proceeded rather far in other areas, has been less pronounced in the South,
mainly because low wages prevailed until recently. For this reason, and also because of
the denudation of many Southern timber stands, the productivity of the worker in the
Northwestern region has been estimated to be about 60 per cent higher than that of the
Southern worker.^ Mechanization has not always caused displacement of labor; in some
cases, it is claimed, mechanization has increased job opportunities by making it possible
‘Norgren and Associates, of, cit.y Part i, pp. 100-1 01. The section on the lumber indus-
try in Norgren’s manuscript was written by James Healy.
^ Ibid,y Part i, pp, 102-104. Information on prevailing wages based on an interview.
May 30, 1940, with Mr. Richter, Field Investigator in the Wage and Hour Division, U.S.
Department of Labor.
* Ibid. Part i, p. 26; based on data from the Biennial Census of Manufactures. Also pp.
31-32 and letter from Paul H. Norgren, August 16, 1942.
* Ibid.y pp. 60-63. Information based on brief submitted to Office of National Recovery
Administration, Division of Review, Yost et aly “Economic Problems of the Lumber and
Timber Products Industry” (March, 1936), Work Materials #79, p. 151.
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