The rude science : a social history of west coast logging, 1890-1930
Date
1987
Authors
Rajala, Richard
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the logging industry of the Douglas Fir region of coastal Washington and Oregon underwent a structural, technological and managerial transformation. Vast tracts of timber were acquired by timber capitalists who moved their operations westward from the denuded forest lands of the east and midwest, and the adoption of railroad technology for the final stage of log transportation contributed to an expansion in the scale of logging operations . Confronted by a particularly unstable productive setting, intense competition and uncertain markets, logging operators engaged in a concerted effort to reduce operating costs and secure a more rigid control over the production process.
This study examines two related aspects of the search for efficiency: the development of increasingly sophisticated harvesting technologies; and the inception and moulding of degree programs in logging engineering at western universities. Technological innovation involved the displacement of animal-powered logging by the steam engine during the l ate nineteenth century, followed by the adoption of overhead systems of logging in the early years of the twentieth century. The state played a crucial role in t he reorganization of the production process. When the acquisition of huge areas of timberland and the transition to large-scale production coincided to produce a managerial crisis, operators responded by forging an alliance with university educators and administrators in the establishment of instruction in logging engineering within the forestry schools of those universities. This historical process is examined from current perspectives in labour process research. It is argued here that technological and managerial innovations resulted not only in significant gains in productivity, but in an erosion of the control that loggers exerted over the crucial yarding procedure. Many of the skills which had been of central importance in earlier methods of harvesting the resource were made redundant by the implementation of aerial or overhead methods of logging. The discretionary content and task range of occupations on the yarding crew were progressively narrowed. Similarly, the duties performed by the logging engineers brought a new level of managerial control to coastal logging, enabling operators and managers to regain administrative authority over operations. Although the relationship between educators and operators was often marked by tension over the nature of programs, the universities served to reinforce capitalist control over the workplace. Relations between the engineers and their employers were characterized by a similar conflict over the degree of autonomy engineers would possess in the determination of policies. This conflict did not detract from the engineers' function in the labour process: to facilitate the concentration of planning and design work within a managerial elite.
In the context of labour process theory, this study demonstrates the continued relevance of Harry Braverman's "degradation of work" thesis. The resistance of loggers to dangerous and oppressive technologies had no discernable influence in forestalling changes in productive techniques, although worker resistance did effect changes in features of the employment relationship which were peripheral to the production process. Still , the important theoretical and methodological considerations raised by Braverman's detractors are upheld. Developments in technology and the division of labour undenied the loggers' relationship to the entire production process, but the unstable environment of coastal terrain and timber denied operators the factory-like productive setting they desired. Loggers continued to possess considerable autonomy at the workplace, and their conceptual and physical skill s remained of paramount importance in logging operations at the end of the period under study.