Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-01-23

-feto York ECentf1g Post.
There is the best statistical authority
for the statement that, if the present rate
of consumption of lumber continues. the
entire supply of white pine growing in
the United States will be exhausted in
eight years. AS our population increases,
our industries expand, and our settle
ments spread. it is certain that the con-
sumption of lumber of all kinds will not
only not decrease, but grow considerably
larger. 1t is no less certain, therefore,
that if the quantity Of white pine con-
sumed be entirely drawn from our home
supply, or at least in the same proportion
as at present, that home supply will be
exhausted in less than eight years, es-
peclally as vast deal of Want0n destruc-
ton of trees by imprOvident lumbermen
and by fires goes along with the regular
consumption in a business way. What is
true of the white pine is more or less true
of every other kind of timber. There is
not the least particle of eXaggeratiOn in
the prediction that. if we continue to draw
on our timber resources at the present
rate, the people of the United States Will,
in less than twenty years, not only depend
for the necessary supply OF lumber 10
cover their current wants entirely upon
foreign countries. but our country viii be
almost completely stripped OF its forests.
What the consequences OF SUCH condl-
tion are every well-informed person
knows-dried-up springs; destructive
floods at one season of the year, dry river
beds at another; parched fields; once fer
tile plains turned into deserts. We can
see the lesson illustrated in Spain and in
the ruined countries of Asia. This will be
our inevitable fate unless the suicidal
course we are now pursuing be stopped.
What are we doing? We are levying a
tariff duty not only on articles manufac-
o. 4 \. I'm
wheel hubs, and slaves and the like, but
on sawed boards and hewn timber and
other things that may properly be called
raw material. What is the object OF this
tariff duty! Scarcely to raise revenue,
for the sum of money flowing into the
Treasury from this source is compare
lively small, the duty being high enough
to prevent large impOrtatiOns. The object
is, by impeding foreign. competition, to
enable lumbermen to cut and saw
timber at a tempting profit; to pro-
tect and encourage, not the manufacture
ing of house furniture and cabinet ware,
and wagon boxes and barrel staves-for
those branches of industry would be en-
couraged most by cheapening, not by in
creasing the cost of the raw material
but to protect and encourage the cutting
and saving up of trees, and thus the rapid
destruction of the forests within our own
boundaries. We prevent the British pos
sessions north of us from furnishing from
their abundance the raw material to our
manufactures, thus Obliging our neigh
bors to keep their forests comparatively
intact, while we insist upon sweeping
away our own. In other words, we pay
to the lumbermen a premium for the de-
vastatiOn of our country.
These facts are so plain and patent, and
the disastrous consequences are so ObVi-
Gus, that it would seem the mere state
ment of them must convince every sane
man of the imperative and immediate
necessity of changing our policy. 1t is
not matter that will brook delay from
year to year, for if we persist in our pres
ent course, our middle aged men will
surely see the time when the case
is past remedy, We should rather
pay a bounty to every importer of
sawed boards and hewn timber than
impose a duty upon those articles. Only
the Tariff Commission did not see the
pressing need. 1t thought that this was
too flourishing an industry to be disturbed
by the withdrawal of encouraging prOtec-
ton. The premium on the devastation Of
the country is therefore sustained. But
may we not at least hope that some men
may be found in Congress to recognize
and urge upon their colleagues the neces-
sity of immediate and sweeping action?
The Committee OfWays and Means recon-
mends only partial and insignificant
reduction of the duty. 1t is evident
that in this case nothing will do short of
placing the raw material, such as sawed
board, hewn and squared timber, ETC., on
the free list. OF course there will be the
usual screech against this indispensable
measure of precautiOn on the part of the
numbering interests. But can the Ameri-
can people afford to sacrifice an essential
condition of the future prosperity of the
country to the destructive greed of few
lumbermen?