Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-12-09
WOOD SUPPLY.

IS MOI Larger supply IhfS WINTER on
the III. e ID. Read-The Railroad COM
pany and ITS Inspector accused.
To the Editor of the Globe.
notice in your weekly issue of November
25th that MIR. L. B. Hodges is reported as
stating in the chamber of commerce at st.
Paul that there was not sufficient quantity
of wood cut in the big woods to supply the
treeless region. Perhaps this is SO, but it
may surprise Mr.. Hodges and others of
your numerous readers to learn that here in
the town of Dahlgren, Carver country, there
are hundreds of cords of wood lying rotting
where it was piled in the woods, and within
one or two miles at the outside, of the Fl. &
d. railroad. Why? Because of the rascally
system of extortion practiced in the meas
urement by the inspector. So long as this
system is allowed to continue, so long will
the people here object to haul wood for the
company. In many cases men whose wood
lands lie on the railroad prefer hauling their
wood five or six miles to the brick yards of
Carver or Chaska, where they receive no
more nominally per cord, but where they do
receive the measured value. One hauling
and piling wood for the company is required
to add six inches to the height of the pile
for shrinksge they call it-and in addition
to this he is mulcted from five to twenty-five
per cent in the length measurement, as may
suit the will of this autocrat of the wood
piler. If one may venture to expostuIate
with him, he is told that if he does
not like it, he will take off his line. Neither
is one allowed to know the result of the in.
spection until he is paid for his wood, and
it is too late to enter any protest. It used
to be said that the meanest man in any
community was selected for poundmaster.
1t seems to be on some such principle that
railroad wood inspectors are selected.
This one tells with great glee of poor
man who hauled ten cords of wood to the
railroad on handsled, and how he locked
him 20 per cent. to learn him to pile it, as
he expresses it, "Just as want it, Now
this, although it is bad enough, would not
be SO bad did the people
of the treeless regions receive the
benefit of this shave; but they do not. The
most dillgent enquiries elicit the fact that
those people receive very scanty cord of
wood for their money; and that they receive
the same satisfaction we do. 'Take it or
want It," The ST. Paul Dispatch, Il think
it is) asserts that the railroad companies can
furnish wood for two and half dollars per
CoIu duu Audho uOuoy Ou lie ISG Us S66.
The FL. & D. railroad paid here last winter
for soft wood, which includes bass wood,
elm, ETC., one dollar and thirty-five cents.
and sold it for four dollars, which is two dol
lars and sixty five cents for the carrying
alone. They paid for maple wood two dol
lars and q half per cord and sold it for six
dollars, or three dollars and half for the
transportation.
You will see by this that there are good and
sufficient reasons why Mr.. Prior cannot OBJ
tain wood. When man pays 80 cents per
cord for chopping soft wood, besides swamp
ing, hauling and piling, and after paying
for the chopping of say one hundred cords,
the inspector allows only eighty five, and
this without rhyme or reason, and at the
rate of $1.35 per cord, while the company
charges $2.65 cents for the carriage, I
think, in view of all this, that it is very plain
why the company cannot obtain wood.
We have plenty of wood here and will
have for some years yet, but people cannot
afford to chop and haul it and then give it
away, or, if they do, they prefer to give it to
the people direct and not to the Hastings &
Dakota railroad company. -
Dahlgren, Carver county, Dec. 6.