Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-12-20
a DIFFICULT SITUATION.

" 1ShaS
strong articles urging upon the General
Government and the State of New York
the necessity of preserving the forests
on the public domain by reservation Of
certain wooded districts from sale; and
it has also been advocating the purchase
Of certain wooded tracts for this pur-
pose. 1t has made a powerful plea and
its presentation Of facts has been SO n
vincing that the necessity of action in
the premises has been made evident. We
quote the folio wing paragraph which
presents the pith of its argument:
The forests are disappearing; they are
necessary to the prosperity OF che
try; they add every year an immense
sum to the national wealth; they give
employment to an army Of men,; they
warm more thar one- half of the whole
population of the United States; they
protect the streams, and hold the soil
upon the sides of mountains; agricul-
ture, commerce., and all manufacturing
industries depend upon them. There is
not a human being in this whole u
try to whom the forests are not i'm
portant. There is no industry which
will not suffer by their destruction.
The time will come, nevertheless, it
the forests are burned and cut faster
than they can grow up again, when
there will be no forests left. They
still cover vast regions; they surpass
the forests of all other lands in their
variety and productiveness; in many
parts of this country the climate is ex-
ceptionable for the rapid growth Of for
ests; and still it cannot be denied that
our forests are destroyed much more
rapidly than they grow, and that
nothing is done to promote their more
rapid development.
But the Sun encounters An ugly OBJ
stacle in its way toward accomplishing
the result proposed in its argument.
There is a tariff of 81 per 1000 feet
upon all spruce or pine and 81 per
1000 feet upon various other sorts of
building lumber imported from Canada.
The result of this tariff, in a word, is
to place . premium upon the destruc-
tion Of these very forests which the
Suns best energies are directed to pre-
serve.
The great newspaper %luminary OF
New York is still on the warpath
against the lumber tariff, and now
reaches the point in the discussion
where it demands free trade in lumber
as q great public necessity. Yet, while
calling loudly for the adjustment of
this specific tariff, it throws cold water
on the avowed principle of the Democ-
raoy for tariff reform with incidental
protection.
It looks just as though the Sun is in
the attitude of the troubled man who
had the bear by the tail. 1t can neither
hold on nor let go. In fact, the great
Mr.. Dana, for the want Of more salts
factory words in which to ex press the
distress Of his dilemma, says:
This is a broader question than any
of the other economic questions which
are involved in the discussion of the prin-
protection, or q tariff for revenue only.
The breadth and Importance of reform
in the regulations Of the lumber trade
are admitted. Unless the tariff on Cana
. dian building lumber is cut down or
abolished the destruction of the much.
needed forests will have to 20 on.
But this is an evil much more remote,
less general after all, and less onerous
than some others with which Mr.. Dana
is, of course, familiar. He knows that
the price of all manufactured articles is
greatly enhanced to protect monopolists
and corporations that are not less
inimicAl to the interests of the people
than the destroyers of forests. Under
the false nam of protection the great
masses of the people have to pay. or an
average, something like one-third more
than they ought for a thousand indis'
pensable articles bought every day for
common use, such ~ hats, shoes, boots,
shirts, drawers, wooden and cotton stuffs,
clothing. cutlery and everything else
turned out by the manufacturers. Whom
does this protection protect? Nobody.
II only makes the rich richer and the
poor poorer. Do laborers and mechanics
get any increase in wages from the in
crease in the price to the manufacturers
through the tariff! Not at all. They
are striking continually to keep from
being starved over their work. The
manufacturers pocket the prodiguoua
margin of profit and keep on grinding the
poor and bilking the general public.
The Ohio plank in the Democratic
platform for "a can't be straddled aver
by Nj. Dana. It is plain, wholesome,
and saving to the nation. The more it
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