St. Paul daily globe., 1893-01-30
CONTROL The RIVER,
The Weyerhauser Syndicate
Played Their Greatest
Card Saturday,
And Gained Possession Of the
Booms at Minneapolis
and Anoka.
How 1t Is Proposed to Divide
the Business Of Manu-
featuring.
A Move That Will Take Away
Minneapolis Lumber
Supremacy,

The full meaning and import Of the
great lumber deal made in this city on
Saturday evening, the details of which
were exclusively published in yester-
days CLIQUE, are probably much more
thoroughly known and appreciated in
Minneapolis than in st. Paul or any
other portion of the state. The st. An
thony Lumber company transferred all
It's property and franchises to the Wey-
erhauser syndicate, and, with the 500,-
0O00 feet of standing pine in the vi
cinity of Leech and Cross lakes and the
Cross Lake Logging railroad. go the
two big booms in the Mississippi
at Minneapolis. To the WeyerhaEser
syndicate these booms are more valua-
bic than the great amount of pine. for
with the boOms in their possession they
will be complete masters Of the situa-
ton on the Mississippi, and able to
carry out the plans they have made for
logging in the great timber belt,so large
a portion of which is now in their pos
session. 1t has not been generally
known that the Mississippi and Rum
river boom, as we'll as the ST. Anthony
boom. belonged to the st. Anthony
Lumber company, and when this fact
became known yesterday at the Mer-
chants there was considerable excite
ment, which was increased when Capt.
Van SAINT, of Winona, casually re-
marked:
4 Significant Remark.
81 think the business of towing logs
on the Mississippi will be much better
in the future"
Capt. Van SAINT is in this business, and
for many years has done the towing for
the big firms at Clinton, To-, WinOna
and Rock Island. With these two
b0oms in the hands of the Woyerhauser
syndicate there will De no difficulty in
rafting out the logs that the company
desires to 20 below the Clinton and
WinOna mills. OF course, every log
that is RATED out Of the Minneapolis
b0omS and sent below by that much
will decrease the lumber cut Of Mime
apOlS. and a Well-lnfOrmed lumberman
in discussing this move yesterday said:
"This sale of the st. Anthony Lum-
Der company will prove Il terrible blow
to the lumber industry at Minneapolis.
AS things now stand there are not three
lumber companies IN Minneapolis with
three years. The WeyerhauSer syndi-
cate have gone in on the Mississippi as
they did on the Chippewa river, Wis
cOnSin, and the result will be the same
they will soon control the almost en-
tire business. When these lumbermen
commenced on the Chippewa there were
many small operators who insisted on
cutting and drawing their logs separate
Iy, with the result that none of them
made any money. When this was
changed and the Weyerhauser crowd
took hold
Stumpage Went Up.
and every man who owned pine land
became wealthy. Expenses were re-
went down. Thus far the result has
been the same in this state, Although
it has been hardly two years since Nlr.
Weyerhauser and his associates took
hold III this state, the price Of Stumpage
has nearly, if not altogether, doubled,
and pine worth 81 per thousand stand
ing two years ago now brings $3.50 to
81. In my opinion, the deal made yes
terday is death blow to the lumber
manufacturing industry Of NJ inneap
oils"
The policy of the Weyerhauser syndi-
cate is not to concentrate their mills at
the Mississippi with reference to the
markets desired TO be supplied.
In accordance with this they have mills
at Rock Island, H.; Clinton, To-, and
Winona and Little Falls in Minnesota.
AS soon as they commenced business
i'll this state, it will be remembered.
they purchased the n. p. Clarke mill
on the east bank of the Mississippi at
Little Falls, and, in addition, erected
what is PROBABLY the finest sawmill in
the state Oh the west bank. These two
mills last year cut little over 100000
feet Of timber, and the coming season,
according to Mr. Weyerhauser himself,
the
Cut VIII BE Increased
tors, 900, 900. The lumber manufactured
at Little Falls is sent west over the
main line of the Northern Pacific to
supply the Red river valley and North
Dakota market, and over the Little
Falls Il Dakota to Western Minnesota
and South Dakota. The wisdom of this
move is apparent from the fact that the
markets tributary to these two lines
took every foot manufactured at Little
Falls, and warrant the manufacture of
double that quantity this year.
From WinOna all Southern Minnesota
and the southern part of South Dakota
are supplied, and from Clinton and Rock
Island, ILL.,. Iowa, Northern Missouri,
Nebraska and Kansas get their lumber.
Under the circumstances the full i'm
port Of the deal concluded Saturday
evening will be appreciated.
1t will probably lie matter of sur
prise to the general public that the Min
neapolis lumbermen allowed this deal to
pass through their hands, but there are
a great many reasons why they were
outgeneraled in this instance. Iu the
first place, the st. Anthony Lumber COM
pany was not much of Minneapolis in
stitutiOn. only one of the three owners
residing there. And this one, Mr..
Whitney, is
Not a C,Ose Friend
of T. B. Walker and the Pillsbury
crowd, having been the private secre-
tary or clerk OF Mr.. Walker before he
went into the st. Anthony Lumber
company. In this position he is gener-
ally supposed to have gathered the in
formation which made the success of
the st. Anthony Lumber company pos
sible The relations between him and
Nr. Walker may explain the fact that
The Minneapolis lumbermeu did not get
into this deal. With his partners, Messrs
Fowler. of Chicago, and Arthur Hill, of
Saginaw, Mich, Mr.. Whitney will LnoW
90 into a large deal in Canadian timber
lands.
While ii is not generally known, the
Wcyerhauser syndicate have already
secured c0ntIoI Of such a large proper
Of . +l,f,,