Sharp County record., 1891-08-06
THE LUMBER DUTY.

Large Exports of Lumber and Small Inn
professionalism Pine Lumber in All
Parts of the World-Canada as Rival
Amusing Freaks of the Protection super
stitiOn.
Some people fancy that we need a
duty on Ium ber and timber to protect
our forests from the pauper-grown for
ests of Canada and other countries; but
a staff correspondent of the high tariff
New York Tribune, who has been
travelling in the south, writes to that
journal from Pensacola, Fla, to show
that Florida pine is shipped to Europe
in large quantities and is very popular
there for ship building as well as for
other purposes.
This correspondent states that the
Florida yellow pine was largely used in
the Portsmouth, England, deck yards
before the present custom of making
chips huIls and masts out Of iron was
adopted. AT the French navy yards
at Cherbourg, Brest and Rochefort, he
says, lit was largely used. For deck
planking it is unexcolled, and to this
day the Cunarders' passengers perform
heir endless promenades on planks
shipped from Pensacola. The Barbary
coast men use it, and 50 do the ship
builders at Venice and at Fiume, the
greatest timber exporting town on the
Adriatic"
The changes in the method Of ship
building, however, have not hurt the
export of Florida lumber and timber.
Large shipments of the big logs are
sent annually to France and Belgium
for railroad piers and bridges. Some
of them are cut up and made into
freight cars. Other cargoes have been
unloaded at Rotterdam and towed all
the way up the Rhine to Mayence,
passing on the way the German RATS
bound for the sea. In Germany they
use the wood for flooring and house.
building, and so they do in Switzerland.
Java, Japan and Cape Town use it for
docks and harbors Australia has
taken many shiploads; and only year
ago a cargo went to London, was trans
ferred there to a steamer bound
through the Suez canal, and finally un-
loaded at Calcutta, the entire cost hav-
ing been less than the current through
freight from Pensacola direct. 4
The shipments every year are enor-
nous. one Pensacola firm alone having
exported 100, 900, 900 feet in one year"
If anyone will examine the reports
of our foreign commerce for the fiscal
year 1890, he will find that our exports
of lumber and timber amounted to
nearly S22, 900, 600, against imports of
only about $3.50, OOO By far the
larger part of our exports went out
from southern ports like Newport
News Va; Brunswick, Ga; Pensacola,
Fla; Mobile, Ala, and New Orleans.
But our exports to Canada were very
reaching nearly 1000, 900.
Some of the figures of our lumber
and timber exports from points along
our northern border give rise to anus
ing reflections concerning the protection
The Iumbermen of Mich
igan were before McKinley's commit
tee last year to oppose any reduction
of the duty on lumber; yet last years
exports from the two Michigan ports of
Detroit and Port Huron into Canada
reached about $780, 900 worth. Three
years ago certain citizens of Seattle,
and Tacoma, Wash, sent strong memo
rials to the senate finance committee
against lowering the duty. Their cry
Of distress was mingled with pathetic
references to the Chinese coolie labor
in the forests Of British CO.
lumbia. Yet the fear and trembling of
these good people was but the effect of
the protection superstition. The treas
ury reports show that the exports of
lumber from Puget Sound in 1890 were
upwards Of 1,25O, 900.
Afraid Of foreign competition and yet |
able to export and sell in foreign mar
Sets; such is ever the amazing folly of |
the protection mind.
The duty on lumber should be re-
pealed; not one vestige of it should be
eft, 1t is not needed to protect the |
American lumber industry, as it was
by Michigan lum herman that
.he cost of making lumber was about
Is much in Canada as in Michigan, and
hat if there was any difference at all
The cost would be found little greater
n Canada, The duty, then, can serve
'nly to give American producers and
iealers the opportunity to combine and
prices. So recently as the sec.
md week in March there was a report
hat consolidation of practically all
he lumber dealers Of the west had
)een effected,