West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1892-09-08
PSEUDO-PR0TECTION.
Written for the Argus.

PIC, ana OF the people, is lUStlna-
able only If il promotes the common
welfare and secures general pros
perIty. Upon these grounds it
must stand or fall.
A duty of 81 per thousand.
board measure, on white pine lam
bcr has kept ont Canadian lumber
and has given monopoly OF the
lumber trade to Alger and Co, etc.
Recently have talked with two
gentlemen from Michigan. Michl-
gan people own about 10000 acres
OF Fresno county pine timber land.
One said the timber was getting
pretty well thiuned out in Michi.
gan and that was the reason they
were coming here. He told me of
Il Michigan company for which he
was an operator, compan now
worth $50. 900, 900. lie told me he
had rs nice farm in Michigan as
tarms 60, but it didn't net him 3
per cent year. 1t would not make
him bread and butter. Since the
bread and butter come of the farm
1t seemed little tough that 1T
would not make him bread and
butter. The money, he seemed to
think, was in the lumber business.
The other Michigan man assured
me that wages were not as high
now, since pine is protected, as they
were when lumber was lower i'm
price, and that most hands en-
ployed in the lumber camps are
Canadians and other foreigners.
The three states of Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota gained
more in wealth during the past ten
years than did this dozen Of states.
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia.
North Carolina, and Florida. This
dozen are farming or producing
states. Their people arc equally as
industrious and economical as those
OF the lumber belt.
1t was not Michigan nor Wiscor-
sin nor Minnesota that got So tax
on every thousand feet of pine sold
i'm the other states it was few
millionaire millmen. 30, 900, 900
people must pay 81 extra per thou
sand feet for lumber to build
houses, barns, and fences. And
vet this is styled protection to
American labor {! To the poor man
who is Smuggling to build hIm
little cottage Of his own such pro-
lection must be very encouraging;
but not quite so encouraging as it is
to the lumber king. who is erecting
palatonal residence with brown
stone front.
II protection to the numbering
states means prosperity to them and
prOstration in the agricultural
states, it must follow that in Justice
the farm must ne protected or the
lumber pile left unprotected. How
shall the farm DC protected by Il
high tariff?
II tariff discrimination be not
accountable FOR the great increase
Of wealth in the lumber states as
compared with the agricultural
states named, what is ?
This so-called protection will i'm
few years rob the Uaited States of
its pineries, and then our people
must buy of our northern neighbor
st said northern neighbours own
figures.
There is q legend that Christ
when tempted in the Wilderness
found retreat from the Evil One
in tree of tread like foliage
and invoked the blessing upon it
that Vt might be forever green.
The pine tree sighs. according to
the legend, out Of sympathy for the
wrongcd and suffering Son Of Man.
Let the legend be as it may, the
signing OF the pines recalls The
present wrongs and suTerings Of the
sons Of mcn who earn their bread in
The sweat Of their faces.
a. W. FREDERICK.
North Fork, California.
Addendum. According to CEN
sus Superintendent Porter's Bulle-
tin Of Wealth Gains, the three
states named above gain over 912,
900, 900 the twelve only gain
fractiop ovor Qo7 ooO OOo