The Pacific Monthly/Volume 2/A Workingman's Enterprise
The Pacific Monthly.
A Workingman's Enterprise.
By H. S. LYMAN.
SALMON packing, or canning, has been a large industry for a number of years. It began about thirty years ago, and rapidly ran up to a bonanza business. The profits were very great. Price of canned goods was high, and that of raw fish low, leaving to the canner large returns on his investment. At first fish cost but fifteen cents apiece; then twenty-five cents was the ruling price for some time.
The heavy pack, however, — in 1886 it reached 630,000 cases, of 48 1-lb cans each, — led to a diminished supply of fish, and to a consequent higher and higher price for the raw article. The price rose to a dollar per fish and in some cases as high as a dollar and a quarter, but was not obtained without strikes and trouble. The matter was finally adjusted on a bas- is of five cents per pound for raw fish. This was not done without sacrifice to the canners, as the price of raw fish was going up while the pnee of canned goods was, through competition from British Columbia and Alaska, coming down, and the Columbia river supply was also falling short. The pack soon fell to about one-half that of '86.
In 1896, in consequence, a combina- tion was made among the cannerymen, and it was agreed by them to reduce the price to four cents per pound for raw fish. ' This was resented by the fishermen, who complained that it was a violation of the agreement, and that the canners gave them no notification of a reduction until .after all preparations for fishing had
been made, and many of the fishermen had gone in debt for twine, etc., for mak- ing nets. A strike was therefore order- ed, which lasted two months and a half of the fishing season. There was some violence reported on the river, and final- ly, at the solicitation of the county judge and the mayor, who believed local au- thority insufficient, the state militia were brought to the city. This led to an agreement between canners and fisher- men, on a basis of four and a half cents, and operations were resumed.
However, it was apparent to the fish- ermen that in view of the combination of the cannerymen, and, as they believed, the partiality of the authorities, it would be impossible to hold up prices by strikes which in any case were costly, and might lead to a violence for which they did not wish to be responsible.
It was decided, therefore, by the lead- ers of the Union to establish a co-opera- tive cannery. It was not presumed that the profits to the fishermen would be ma- terially greater than before, but they felt that they would, at least, know practical- ly what proportion of proceeds should go to the fishermen. They believed, further- more, that by offering a reasonable price they could prevent the canners from reducing it below genuine business necessity.
The cannery was accordingly built, and was ready for operation in 1897. It cost $30,000, all of which was subscribed by 200 fishermen. Much of the actual work cf building was also done by the fishermen, many of whom are skilled mechanics. The architect's work was done by Mr. Franz Wilson, a fisherman; the pile driving, an important part of the undertaking, as the building is set over the water,—was done by Victor Sanderson, a Finnish contractor and builder, not a fisherman, but of the same class and race as many of them.
The cannery has now been in operation two seasons, packing 44,000 and 26,000 cases respectively for 1897 and 1898.
Mr. Sofus Jensen.
There have been no strikes, or troubles of any kind on the river the past two seasons. The price of raw fish has ranged from four to five cents per pound. This has been affected somewhat by the demand for shipments East of fresh salmon, shippers paying a little more than the canners in order to obtain the choicest specimens. If the co-operative cannery, therefore, sustains the price of fish to the fishermen at the cannery, it also sustains that paid by the cold-storage shipper, giving the fishermen a fair share of the proceeds in any case.
As a result, the officers of the Union feel that they have been able to run the cannery at a good, honest profit, and that they have attained their object in maintaining the price of raw fish at a figure that could be judiciously paid. Though their pack is not one-fifth of that on the river, still the other canneries must pay the same as they for fish, and they are able to take a controlling part in fixing this price.
Price, however, is not the only object the Union has had in view. They look upon salmon fishing as their permanent business. Many of the fishermen are well-to-do, owning comfortable homes in the city, and perhaps a "ranch" in the country, and look upon salmon fishing as the chief means of livelihood for themselves and children. They desire, therefore, to build up the business, provide salmon hatcheries in order to maintain the supply of fish, secure proper laws for protection of young salmon, and regulate the methods of fishing so as to enable all the fishermen to have a measurably equal chance at taking fish.
On account of operating an independent business of their own, they are enabled to stand upon a par with the other canners, who have to some extent regarded the business as simply a temporary investment to be made the most of while it lasted, and after it was "played out" to invest their capital elsewhere. It is to be said, however, that the canners now operating are men of much breadth of mind and ideas. An excellent fish law, prepared by the State Fish Commissioner, and having the fullest approval of both fishermen and canners, has just passed the Oregon Legislature. Its main feature is to provide a fund for propagation of fish by a license system laying a tax upon fish gear, such as nets, seines, traps, and wheels, and also upon the canneries.
Further legislation will be necessary to regulate the use of gear, but the Union feels that it is making progress, and in general now favors the use of reasonable measures, such as public persuasion, legislative and legal remedies, and cultivating friendly relations with other packers and canners. This it is able to do chiefly on account of owning and operating its own cannery.
Nothing, withal, could have been of greater educational value for the fishermen themselves than this enterprise. Most of them were foreigners, mainly from Norway and Sweden, or Finland. They came here unacquainted with our language, laws, and methods of business. They undertook fishing, as it was an industry with which many were already familiar. Through their daily labor, and the organization that arose out of its exigencies, they have been learning our language. They have even suggested and influenced legislation, and are now taking an intelligent part in our business and politics.
One of their number, Mr. Sofus Jensen, is the secretary and business manager of the cannery; another, Mr. N. J. Svendseth, was elected to the State Legislature two years ago to represent especially the fishermens' interests at the state capital. Mr. Svendseth was not reelected, but the fact that when they thought it necessary the fishermen could take part in politics had been demonstrated, and the legislation they desire is given respectful attention by all parties.
One feature is quite interesting, as it has developed since the fishermen became canners. This is their treatment of Chinese laborers. Formerly they thought seriously of expelling the Chinamen from town. They now employ a limited number in the cannery. While the Chinese are not altogether a desirable body of residents—being mostly single men and transients—it is pleasant to see their usefulness as laborers recognized, and no ill-treatment offered them by white laborers.
Mr. Ole B. Olsen, secretary of the Union, reports that since their organization, and their business enterprise, there has been a marked improvement in the habits of the fishermen, who are now mainly temperate, thrifty, and ambitious to improve their condition. The most of them now, also, are married men, and are raising families and acquiring property. These men have found no serious difficulty in conducting a business worth about $200,000 a year. They employ the best legal advice regularly, and do not find the brains of other employers superior to their own.
Fishing is a laborious and dangerous business. The trade-mark of the cannery suggests the method. Gill-net fishing is done at night in an open boat, and frequently in stormy weather, and often upon the bar of the Columbia river, in the breakers. Drowning was not uncommon in years past, but more caution is now observed, and much assistance has been rendered from the government life-saving station
Perhaps the history of this labor union and its cannery suggests a way out of labor troubles, which are always present, either patent or latent. Co-operation; yes, co-operation, but quite as much competition. The fishermen are co-operating among themselves, but competing with the capitalistic canners, and thereby have earned their respect.
Competition is no evil, but a necessary element of industry. It seeks only to supply the market with articles made increasingly desirable at a decreasing cost. It does thereby constantly shut off and crowd out inferior or expensive goods, but for these, substitutes better; giving better service at less expense. It is only when the laborer is not able to compete, and has no alternative but starvation, that labor is oppressed. If every laborer, like these Columbia river fishermen, could proceed to work on his own account, and put out a product on the market, and reap his own reward, if wages did not suit him, there could be no oppression.
The industrial sin of the time is the shutting of labor away, mostly through legislative action, or neglect, from opportunity to make use of natural advantages. The problem of industrial legislation is to give labor equitable rights in the resources of nature, and not permit private, or exclusive ownership, in the materials and natural energies that are required to carry on industry.
If the cannerymen had been legally allowed—and this is not to say a word against them—to own the river itself, and all the fish in it, the fishermen would have had no recourse but strikes and violence to prevent reduction of wages. Where labor is shut up to violence to preserve its part in reward of industry, it will use violence. Wherever it has the alternative of inaugurating competition on its own account, and engaging its own energies, it will infallibly resort in the end only to industrial methods of obtaining; its share in proceeds.
