The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-07-05
ANOTHER OF THE LEADING INFO
UITIES OF OUR PRESENT TAR
TIFF.

O1I1GID OG JUN IlL0GGN L M
IFF.
In a recent article we referred to the
sugar tariff, which takes ~$56,000,OO0
yearly out of the pockets of the people,
for no possible good to the great mass
of The American people. We desire
now to point out some of the opera
tiOns of our timber tariff.
The Mills bill proposes to put lumber
on the free list. We need not refer to
the fact that lumber is a product of ma.
ture, and that it takes no labor to pro-
duce it. The stale platitude, therefore,
that this tariff On timber is to protect
the American laborer against the pau
per laborer of Europe cannot be made
to apply. Another point will be con
ceded; that of our sixty millions of peo-
pie, every man, woman and child in
the United States, whether upon land,
lake or river, is interested in timber.
We all use lumber.
Man did not plant the forests They
are with us by P~rOyidential dispense
ton. But while God planted them and
made them FREE, the Republican party,
at the beck of a few lumber barons, has
taxed the whole American people. "a
When it is proposed, in the interest of
the whole American people, to place
lumber on the free list, the agents of
the lumber barons holding seats in the
Congress Of the United States, raise
the hypocritical howl, that free lumber
means lower wages for the men who
work in the lumber camps of the great
Northwest.
That this is a false plea is evidenced
by the fact that the laborers in the lum-
Der camps are no better paid than farm
laborers in the same locality. Indeed,
it is asserted by high authority that
they are not as well paid. The pre-
tense, in some instances, that the tariff
on lumber protects the American labor
er against the competition of cheap
Canadian labor is also a false pre-
tence. There is only an imaginary
line between the United States and
Canada, and it is claimed that about
one-thiTd of the men employed in the
Northern woods cutting timber in the
winter are Canadians, who leave their
families in Canada, and that one-third
of all the wages paid by the timber
barOns of the Northwest goes over into
Canada to support the families of Can
adian laborers.
The great timber barons of the North
west have now obtained possession Of
all available pine lands, and have
formed a pool and put up prices. They
also fix the price of labor to suit them
selves, and If net accepted by American
laborers they can get all the labor they
want from Canada and Manitoba.
White pine stumpage is now worth
$3.50 per thousand in the United States
and only $1.25 in Canada. Why is this
thus9 Let us give the reason: A few
men own the timber in the United
States; they have combined to realize
every dollar they possibly can out of it.
They have an advantage over their
Canadian competitor of about 81 per
thousand in the cost of transportation,
and so per thousand in the duty, and
these they have added to the value of
their timber and estimate it as a part
Of the cost Of the lumber. Every dol
lar goes to the owners of the stumpaVe.
Let us see what their profits amount to.
The Government sold the lands upon
which the timber, stands at from S1.25
to $3.50 per acre-a section. at the high
est price, costing $1,000. These lands,
according to the lowest estimate con-
tain, upon an average, a stumpage of
5000 feet per acre. A section, therefore,
contains a stumpage of 100000, which
at $3.50 per thousand, brings Sl4,4O0.
The land, after the timber has been
removed, sells for from $3.50 to $1,000
per acre. Upon an average it brings
more than original cost. The lumber
men, therefore, realize a clean profit off
of each section of land purchased by
them of over $4,000. K
This is the kind of robbery, by act off
Congress, that has filled the greatt
Northwest with millionaire lumber
barons, like U. S. Senator Sawyer, of
Wisconsin, worth $6,OO0,OOO, Gen.
Alger, of Michigan, Gate candidate for
Presidency worth 100000, and U. S.
Senator S~tockbridge, of Michigan,
worth $2,500,O00. 1t is such legislation
as this that has filled the cities of
Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Grand Rapids,
Saginaw and Muskegon, with
princely millionaires, while the men
and women Of the lumber region have