Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-30
The Lumber Depression.

1t is estimated that there are, at
present, an excess of about 45,OOO,-
600 feet of logs in and about the
Sound country, causing deplorable
depression in the whole lumber BUSH
ness. This over-production is, by
no means, the result of honest and
legitimate labor and enterprise, but
quite the contrary is the fact. 1t is
we'll known that many million feet
of logs are now lying in our waters,
at one point and another, that have
been cut from Government lands,
and the officials are now here, work.
ing the matter up, having already
seized the logs as thoy lie in common
with those of honest loggers. A
careful investigation of the prices of
lumber and its demand in various
foreign ports will convince any one
that the present dullness in the trade
is not entirely on account of the
small demand. A few years ago.
when the shores OF our Sound and
its numerous inlets were covered
with good marketable timber down
to the waters edge, it was risky
business for anybody to trespass
upon the public lands, for various
reasons. The claims that had been
taken We're very few compared with
what they are to-day, when the whole
shore line on either side is dotted
with settlements. Government agents
could quickly determine whether
any given logging camp was located
on lands duly purchased and paid
for, or whether its proprietor and his
men were carrying on system of
open piracy against the Government.
Most if not all of the accessible
points and coves once clad with n
heavy growth of valuable timber,
have been cruised," run over and
shorn of their value. The conse-
quence is that adventurers now 60
further inland, and if they are I'M
scrupuous enough to prey upon
public property, their camps are so
far removed from observation and
shut in by the surrounding, inter-
minable forests, that detection is
more or less difficult. and often quite
impossible. Some men argue, with
show of reason, that the forest
fires would destroy the timber if they
did not utilize 1t; but this is no JUS
LITIGATION of the matter at all, and, of
course, such plea is as fruitless as
il is groundless. During the past
twelve months, logging camps have
increased at n rate unprecedented in
the history of the Sound country.
Scores of common laborers, fancying
that their employers were coming
money from big thing that had
millions in it," would no sooner
get few dollars ahead than they
themselves became chooses of new
camps, located wherever n convent
ent roadway could be opened from a
good belt of timber to tide-water.
These are the classes of loggers who
have committed most of the trespass-
es on Government land. Paying as
they did no stumpage, they have
been enabled to offer their logs to
the millmen for one-half OF what is
fair remuneration to an honest and
conscientious operator. Thus it is
that they have sold millions of feet
at from 50 so to - per thousand and
made money, while legitimate log
gers could barely pay expenses by
selling at SIS per thousand.
We think that facts will bear us
out in the assertion that large pro-
portion Of the logs now lying in the
various sloughs, creeks and inlets of
the Sound are owned by honest men,
who have paid for their timber, and
that the present ruinous prices have
from the depredations on.
the public lands. Reliable men, who
have been in the business many
years, inform us that Sc per thous-
and for logs in the boom is a fair
compensation, and that prices would
not vary much from this figure if the
could free the country
rom the depredations of unscrupu-
GUS operators.
IT may be safely concluded that