The morning news., 1889-04-26
a MILL MANS SIDE OF IT.
The Lumber Industry and the Rail
roads-The Tremway Roads.

rDe Lumber Industry and the Rail
roads-The Tram mway Roads.
can't I. Johnston of Waycross was in
.bo citv and spent two or three days here
~ week on business connected with the
cav mill industry. Capt. Johnston said
hat the demand for lumber is heavy and
+ba lumber dealers are findings market for
~ tbav can furnish. The increase III the
sLai+bT a. Y- rate. though, renders the business
-,rnToftable, and many concerns are doing
a losing business.
Four wears ago the saw mill operators
nj before the railroad commission, and
.-l-ad for a reduction IN the existing rates.
Prasident Raoul of the Central railroad ap-
1doTad before the commission at the same
tire and voluntarily made proposition 10
ia1rer the rate His proposition was ac-
,o,tpd and shortly afterward the price of
CePsSo ,o,. ~ as necessarily forced up on account
~ the increase in time and labor in supply
mo tbe demand. Timber got scarce and
10 eaw mill operators had to construct
q line of tram railway traversing the
Sorest and terminating at some point
~ +be line of the main railroad. During
tbis time the land upon which the timber
grew was raised in price, SO that the cost
81 production" became greater, and forced
the producers to ask more for the result of
fhpTT IA
bacame known to the railroads, an addl-
tional rate was promptly added, Capt
Johnson said.
The railroads did not stop to think that
the increase in tie price OF lumber did not
materially alter the state Of affairs or condi-
tions under which the saw mill operators
snnnlied the markets The railroads tackled
ON an additional rate Of 20 per cent, allow
inc the lumber dealers to load a car with
6OO pounds, instead of $500. With this
advantage the rate per cent. was reduced TO
about II per cent.
Capt. johnston said that the saw mills in
the lumber region now operate over 500
miles of tram railway, which are nothing
more nor less than feeders to the main rail
roads. Every tramroad has its point of
destination somewhere on one of the main
lines and every foot of lumber hauled over
II or made merchantable by the saw mills
goes over the main lines. Some Of these
tramways are thirty, forty and fifty miles
in length, but the cost of transporting lum-
ber over them, seeking the main lines, falls
on the producer. The main lines will not
allow the short lines anything for their
services, be said, because the short lines are
not Incorporated. The main lines will not
nrorate with them, as they would be forced
TO do we're the saw mill roads formed into a
corporation.
Capt Johnston assigned as reason for
the saw mill men not forming a corpora
ton, that the moment the roads are incor-
porated they become a public institution
and are prevented from moving their
tracks from one portion of the country to
another, as they are forced to do when the
forests are utilized. Capt. Johnston said
that he does not see how the mill industry
can exist long, or if it does exist, the re-
suit will be that the pine forests will be
used up without profit TO anybody except,
perhaps, to the railroads. They claim that
the rate now in existence is barely suffi-
ciant to cover the actual cost of transporta-
ton, and the reduction made by President
Raoul was simply to encourage the in
dUstrV