KinSource - Tale of the Week - Men For The Woods

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Minneapolis Journal, August 20, 1901, p. 6

MEN FOR THE WOODS.

The First Call of the Season Is Sounded.

WAGES ARE PLACED WELL UP.

Railroad Contractors in Trouble - Still Some Demand for Harvest Hands.

The first orders for men for work in the woods came in from lumbermen in northern Minnesota yesterday. Gatherers of Spruce for pulp are in demand and large wages are offered. The average price paid for labor of this kind is between $26 and $30 per month. As yet Minneapolis has not sent out many men for this work, but Duluth and West Superior have been sending out a few men. It is difficult to procure men for work in the woods [this] early in the season and it is for this reason that wages have been pushed up. One pulp gathering concern which had 600 men at work last year writes its employment agency in Minneapolis that it will send out much more material this year than last, if men can be secured for gathering and shipping.

Railroad contractors are in a dilemna. The season for construction work is drawing to a close and many of them will be unable to fill their contracts. One local employment bureau Saturday received an order for 200 men to be sent out this morning without fail. Only about sixty could be secured and it is feared that many of them, shipping free fare, will "jump" the jobs when they get into the harvest fields. For this railroad work the men are offered $2.25 a day. The call for men has been sounded in Duluth, West Superior, and Fargo, but there are few men available for the work.

The harvest rate is off. Information from points in northern Minnesota and the Dakotas indicates that farmers are fairly well supplied with men for harvesting the crops. Out-of-the-way sections, however, are still sorely in need of men. Harvesters have gathered about the larger centers, and farmers nearby have been able to get all the men needed at a fair price. Farmers in more distant districts have been forced to offer higher wages and even then are unable to secure enough men. It is not anticipated, however, that there will be any heavy loss to standing grain.