llow the hanging of a block. From this spar
tree a cable, two inches in diameter, is stretched to another tree some
distance in the woods. On this cable is placed what is known as a
bicycle or trolley. Various other lines run back and forth thru this
trolley to the engine. At the end of one of these lines an enormous pair
of hooks is suspended. These grasp the timber and convey it to the cars.

[Illustration: The Flying Machine as now used in Western logging.]

Ten to twenty thousand feet of logs a day was the output of the old
bull or horse teams. The donkey engine brought it to a point where from
seventy-five to one hundred thousand could be turned out, and the steam
skidder doubled the output of the donkey. Ordinarily the crew for one
donkey engine consists of from thirteen to fifteen men, sometimes even
as high as twenty-five, but this number is reduced to nine or even lower
with the introduction of the steam skidder. Loggers claim that the high
lead system kills and maims more men than the methods formerly in vogue,
but be that as it may, the fact stands out quite plainly that as
compared with a line horse donkey, operated with a crew of twenty-five
men, the flying machine will produce enough lumber to mean the
displacement of one hundred men.

At the same time the sawmills of the old type have disappeared with
their rotary or circular saws, dead rollers, and obsolete methods of
handling lumber, and in their place is the modern mill with its band
saw, shot-gun feed, steam nigger, live rollers, and resaw. Nor do the
mills longer turn out rough lumber to be re-handled by trained
specialists and highly skilled carpenters with large and costly kits of
intricate hand tools. Relatively unskilled workers send forth the
finished products, window sashes, doors, siding, etc., carpenters armed
only with square, hammer and saw, and classed with unskilled labor, put
these in place, and a complete house can be ordered by parcel post.

As is usual with the introduction of new machinery and methods where the
workers are not in control, the actual producers find that all these
innovations force them to work at a higher rate of speed under more
hazardous conditions for a lower rate of pay. It is true of all industry
in the main, particularly true of the lumber industry, and the mills of
Everett and camps of Snohomish county have no exceptions to test this
rule.

The story of Everett has no hint of romance. Some time in the late