Mark Mandel Screenwriter
   

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THE SPRUCE PRODUCTION DIVISION
 

Copyright © 2008 by Mark Mandel
WGAw Registered

EXT. SAWMILL – DAY
A steam engine RUMBLES out of the mill with a train full of cut lumber. COLONEL DISQUE and COMPANY are riding in a small crew car pulled behind the engine.
INT. CREW CAR – SAME
DISQUE and CARLETON PARKER are seated across from each other.
DISQUE
I thought radical propaganda had inspired the reports on these conditions. But now, having seen things I can say not only are they true, they defy exaggeration.
PARKER
I told you it was the conditions, and not Wobbly ideology, that was causing the unrest in the timber industry.
DISQUE
(with genuine dismay)
How is it that in the twentieth century American workmen have to live like this?
PARKER
I admire the tough, independent lumber operators, I really do. But I detest their fixed attitude toward their workers, which resists even the slightest demand for improvement in how they work and live.
(a BEAT)
Without improvement, and soon, peaceful labor relations will be all but impossible. So, too, will an increase in the production of spruce.
DISQUE
That's not an option.
PARKER
Then someone must put an end to these wretched conditions. Clearly the lumber barons will not.
DISQUE
I guess that someone is me.
PARKER
You almost seem excited by the prospect.
DISQUE
Can't help it.
(looks out the window)
There’s just this certain joy of the woods which the office man never knows. I feel like a field campaigner again, freed from the restraints of desk work.
(a BEAT)
Yes, I think I can make a difference here— Get out the spruce. Help win the war.
The train THUNDERS out across a scenic trestle as it heads down into the valley.