Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-12-24
The Duty on Lumber.
From the Detroit Free PRE-


A vast deal was said during the
recent election contest concerning the
duty on lumber and the interest of
Michigan in that regard. Lumber
dealers and lumber producers rushed
into print to show. that Michigan
would be ruined if the duty were
taken of. Potectionists appealed to
the State pride of candidates for
Congress who were suspected of rev.
enue reform views and begged them
at all events to exempt the duty on
lumber from their destructive theo-
ries. Party organs of protectionist
proclivities cndeavored to strengthen
their case against such revenue re-
form candidates by charging them
with deliberate purpose to remove
the duty on lumber and thereby
plunge the State into poverty and
distress. Some of them went so far
rs to attribute the hard times, or
Michigan's share therein, to the mere
agitation of the question whether
lumber should be made free or not /;
and there is very little doubt that
they managed, by their persistent
harping, to affect the votes of some
timid souls whose notions of the tariff
needs of the country were bounded
by the horizon of Michigan.
1t is refreshing in view of these
facts to find a rock-rooted protection
list organ deliberately exposing the
absurdity of the duty on lumber and
presenting in support of that view
the same arguments, in substance,
which the revenue reformers have SO
often urged upon the attention of the
public. The Chicago Inter Ocean,
which is, with two, or possible three,
exceptions, the most bigoted protec-
ZIONIST sheet in the United States,
says, in responding to an article in
the Springfield Journal
eve have again and again pointed
out the fact that the Northwest is the
cheapest point of lumber production
in the world. Lumber can no more
be imported from Canada into any
port west of Cleveland than wheat
can. The duty cuts no figure in the
question, but is solely one of relative
cheapness of production. Lumber,
which in Wisconsin or Michigan,
St. Paul or Chicago, is worth SIS
thousand feet, is worth about $40 per
per thousand in Western Canada and
$40 in New York and New England.
Dimensions in manufacture control
its price; i. e., it is cheaper where it
is manufactured from the logs in the
largest scale, and the cost of transpor-
tation is the chief element in controll-
ing its price. The duties imposed by
Canada on lumber sent into Canada
from the Northwest are substantially
the same as those imposed by the
United States on lumber coming here
from Canada. IF now the editor Of
the Illinois State Journal, instead of
talking about fanaticism, will take
down its volume of commerce and
navigation reports for any year be-
tween 1875 and 1880, and look for
our imports Of lumber, he will find
that not $4,000 worth in all was sent
into any port west of Cleveland from
any point in Canada. IF then he
turns to our exports Of lumber he
will find that the Northwest exported
to Western Canada upward Of $780,
900 worth. i. G., na Canadian lumber
dealers could get higher prices in the
Northwest for their lumber than they
could get at home. But owners Of
10000 worth Of American lum-
Der in Michigan and Wisconsin could
get higher prices for it in Western
Canada than they could in the Ameri-
can Northwest. IF there had been
any lumber supply of any value in
Western Canada to he had for impor-
tation in the Northwest our North
western lumbermen would have been
over there and would have bought it,
and their voice would have been
heard for free lumber, in order that
they might get in their product. But,
as was testified before the Tariff Com
;;.oision, the explorers from this side
have gone carefully over Western
Canada, and the alleged Lumber sup
ply is myth. 1t does not exist"
1t is in order now for the Michigan
protectionists to turn their batteries
upon this member of their own order
who has exposed so conclusively the
fallacy of their defense Of the lumber
duty.
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