The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-05-09

Official Press Of King County.
Thursday, May 8, 1878.
PUGET SOUND AND ITS
LUMBER INTEREST
.--1S52-lS76.


Between the two dates given above
we have lapse of twenty-sl1 years
only. and in that comparatively short
time there is no industry of the North
Pacific coast, which taking into consid-
GRAFTON the natural difficulties against
which it has had TO contend, and the
labor that has had to be performed ID
its development, that has through indi-
vidual enterprise, capital and energy,
unassisted by political or congressional
assistance attained the astonishing re-
suits of which the Puget Sound lumber
interests can boast.
The miner, who casts his lot. skill
and labor in auriferous countries; the
farmer, who settles and tills the soil
already more or less adapted by nature
TO abundantly yield the products of his
energy, deserve all credit from the
country which they have selected as
their homo, and We contend without
fear of contradiction, that the mechanics
who embark their capital and invest
the best years of their life in the
prosecution of an industry, which at
one and the same time, assists to clear
the land fo- the plow of the farmer,
and produces or manufactures TOR
export to the Furthermore markets of
the world, building materials. are
entitled to Il full share of recognition,
second to none known to commerce in
its broad and general acceptation of the
term.
Since the time that the first cargo of
lumber or spars was shipped from our
coast, up to the present moment, never
did our lofty pines represent the same
prospective wealth as they do now.
While the leading powers of Europe
are standing on the very brink of
volcano ready to break forth at any
moment. the United States and Terri
tories can afford to look calmly on,
watch the progress of events, and take
any commercial advantage that may be
derived from the discontinue of those
across the duck Pond"
The general prospects of our crops
from the Atlantic to the Pacific have
seldom, if ever, been equallej. Our
manufacturing and ship. building enter
prises are likely to receive an impetus
towards activity which they have never
experienced before, and the forests of
Puget Sound will in all probability
represent source of permanent pros
perity that few of us could have antici-
pstsd only few short months ago. 1t
10 only % it were yesterday that the
whiz Of the saw. the steam whistle of
the mill, or the sound of the woodsman's
axe were comparatively unhsard on the
forest girdled shores of our richly tim
bered country, and yet to- day our lum-
Der is known in the markets of the four
quarters of the globe, our spars have
been contracted for by leading Euro
pean powers, and have been purchased
by the worlds mercantile marine as
superior in most respects to those of
any other country. Notwithstanding,
however. these uncontrovertible facts,
which are we'll known by those who are
interested here and abroad in this local
industry. few of our friends in the East
ern States or Europe have any adequate
conception of the rapid increase which
has taken place in our lumber business.
Captains and officers of vessels which
come to take cargoes from one or the
other Of our saw-mills invariably ex-
press themselves rs not only agreeably
surprised. but much astonished at the
quick and permanent improvements
which attest the steady march of pro.
gress. being the combined result of the
capital Of the merchant. the handiwork
and industry Of the woodsman. and the
skilled labor of the mechanic.