Pine, Saws and a Strike: A Michigan Council Meets, 1885

Minutes of the Cedar Bend Village Council, Michigan, July 14, 1885

1Cedar Bend lies where a river meets Lake Huron. By the 1880s, Michigan cut more lumber than any other state. Crews felled white pine upriver each winter, and the logs floated down to the mills in spring. The largest mill in town belongs to the North Star Lumber Company, owned by investors in Detroit and Chicago. For eight days, about 600 of its workers, led by the Knights of Labor, have been on strike for a ten-hour day at the same daily pay.

2Mr. Harold Wentworth, the company's manager, spoke first. "Ten years ago this town had five small mills. North Star bought three of them and 40,000 acres of pine, and put in steam-powered saws that cut boards far faster than the old mills. That is why Cedar Bend has 600 steady jobs. But mills in Wisconsin and Minnesota sell boards in the same Chicago market, and prices have fallen. If we pay a full day's wage for ten hours, our costs rise, and the owners may close this mill and cut pine somewhere else. The owners risked their money, and they must decide how their mill is run. Some of our men want to work. I ask the council to request that the governor send the state militia to protect them."

3Mr. Patrick Doran, leader of the Knights' local assembly, answered. "We work from six in the morning to six at night, with a half hour for dinner, six days a week. Since January, the saws have taken fingers or hands from four men. Part of our pay comes as orders on the company store, where prices are higher than on Main Street. When one man asked for shorter hours last spring, he was told there were ten men at the gate who would take his place. The Knights would rather settle this by arbitration than by striking. We ask the council to name three citizens to hear both sides."

4Mrs. Ingrid Larsen, who owns a dry-goods store, spoke next. "Every dollar the mill pays passes through our stores. With no wages, families are buying on credit. If the mill closes, my store closes. I fear what soldiers would bring. I ask the council to close the saloons until the strike ends, so that no quarrel turns into a riot."

5Mr. Jan Nowak, a millhand, spoke last. "I came from the Polish lands of Prussia in 1881. My father's farm was too small to divide among four sons. My cousin wrote that the mill hired any strong man and sent money for my ticket. Here I earn more in a week than in a month at home, and I send money to my mother. I want the ten hours. But I have a wife and a baby and no savings, and I hear the company is bringing men from Canada. I ask only that no striker's family be put out of a company house."

6The council voted 4 to 3 to name three citizens to arbitrate and not to ask for the militia. Clerk's note, September 1885: the company refused arbitration and hired some new men. By mid-August most strikers had gone back on the old hours, though the company agreed to pay all wages in cash.