Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-07-31
MAINE AND THE LrTMBER TAX.

4 r.
papers of Maine and o. this lumber tariff
question it says:
THE people Of Maine have been carry
ing on the lumber business continuously
more than two hundred years under high
duties, low duties and, by far the greater
part Of that time, under no duties, and yet
il has never suffered what might be called
paralysis. The SHOWS have sometimes
failed to fall in the winter, and the rains
to fall in the spring. and greatly hindered
the business; bat has there been winter
for the last hundred years when on all
our rivers 3 certain proportion of our Ia
boring men did not spend from two TO
four months in the forests cutting logs, or
q spring when they did not spend as many
weeks in driving them to the mills, or q
summer and fall when they were not
sawed and either directly sold or piled up
to season and wait for better prices?
"When q man ssserts," says the argus,
that 30 insignificant change as the MILLS
bill proposes in the rate of duties is going
to paralyze the lumber business or any
business, and throw any number of lsborers
ont of employment, he talks the widest
nonsense. We wholly suspended the duty
on provincial lumber-the only lumber on
the globe that ever did or ever can come il
competition with Maine Misunderstanding
the dozen years that the Reciprocity Treaty
was in operation, and there was no paral-
ysis on the lumber business, no shutting
down of mills, no throwing Of our laboring
men out Of employment. On the contrary,
timber lands were never 90 high, and for
tunes were never 20 rapidly accumulated
by both land owners and lumber mer-
chants. There never was tine when
more bona sde purchases of lands were
made at such large prices, nor when cutting
was more extensive, or rates OF stumpsge
higher; when more gang mills and i'm
proved machinery were set up, or when
more men were employed or at better
wages.
1.-THE provincial lumber of certain kinds
much Of il owned by Maine men-sl-
WAYS did and always will come to our
markets, tariff or no tariff, and ~ for tim
Der and large deals they come to the New
York market whenever it is better than
the Liverpool market.
docs anybody think" continues the
Argus, that there is any wisdom in or
necessity for creating by law an artiicially
high price for q commodity Of prime and
universal necessity like lumber which is
growing steadily dearer throughout the
world by reason of its growing steadily
scarceI? All the forests Of the United
States and British America are inadequate
to meet the every year increasing demand
for lumber. Spruce timber brings bet
ter price than prime timber, ana hemlock
boards thirty years ago. The fine old
houses built in Portland hundred years
ago were finished with clear boards sawed
from logs cut in Cumberland county
Now, to get such boards, we must 90 to
Michigan and Wisconsin. The Ottawa
House is being finished with lumber that
grew in the forests of Tennessee. Our
fathers travelled 10 miles to cut their win
ter logs. We travel 1GO miles.
at is this steady shrinksge of the forest
that steadily enhances the price of lumber,
and the ups and downs in the market are
due to years of prosperity and depression
in the general business Of the country.
Nothing stimulates building like good
times; and in bad times the first thing
that stops is new building with its de-
msnd for lumber.
"A revived foreign commerce for Port
land" adds the Argus, that should call
for piles, and timber, and boards and
laths, for piers and wharyes, for bridges
and warehouses and stores and dwellings,
would raise the price of lumber; but to
double or treble the duty on it would not
add dollar to its prices, neither would
taking the duty off take q dollar from its
prices. Fill the yards of Rebbinstou, Of
Pembroke, of Thomsston, Of Stockton, OF
Camden, of Damariscotta, Of Richmond
and of Bath with growing ships and yes
sels, and take of your paraiyzing tariff,
and you would do more TO stimulate the
lumber business, than you can by any
other policy.
THE fact is lumber is an exceptional
article. We can think of no other unless
it be whale oil in the days before kerosene.
Nearly every thing else can be produced
indefinite quantities. Wool. cotton
sugar, iron, coal, clothes, cutlery, corn,
beef, and prints, and the restriction, Of
their supply by tariff does for time at
least enhance their price, but in the case
Of lumber, the Diminished supply by
natural causes is so powerful factor in
determining price, that any diminished
supply by artificial causes becomes nope
ratiys."
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