The Price of a Lien: Laborers Shortchanged in Log Sale
After months of legal delays, loggers find their hard-earned wages swallowed by legal fees and court costs.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The travesty of our laws was never more plainly shown than in the disposition of the logs owned by W. D. Mack, and held by his men by lien. There were at the time of shutting down the camp supposed to be logs enough to meet all claims of the workingmen, but it was put into the courts, an attorney from Aberdeen appointed to sell them, and what is the result? They were sold last week, after months delay for $3.50 per thousand, all they are worth now. There is eleven hundred dollars' costs, and the men get 48 1/2 cents on the dollar of hard earned money. Mr. Mack was injured in the transaction, the boys lost half their rightful earnings, and the only man who was benefitted by the transaction was the attorney who did the business. Shame on such a law.
“The boys lost half their rightful earnings, and the only man who was benefitted by the transaction was the attorney who did the business. Shame on such a law.”
This 1894 report of laborers losing their wages to legal fees and market timing reflects the enduring vulnerability of workers when their pay is tied to speculative assets. Even 130 years later, the tension between local labor justice and the extraction of wealth by the legal profession remains a central struggle in timber-dependent communities.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.