The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-10

One of the sensations of the past week
was the purported statement of w j. Lit
tleJohn, of Chicago. well known insurance
man, to the effect that the recent forest
tires III Northern Minnesota, which resulted
in so tremendous a loss Of life and prop
erty, were caused by lumber kings" who
We're seeking to hide traces of their steal
ings of timber presumed to have been taken
from lands owned and controlled by the
state.
The utterances credited to Mr.. Littlejohn
were made at meeting of the Fire Under
writer's Associa ton OF the Northwest, and
were embodied in paper read at the SeS-
sion referred to- The matter created much
comment, and the ST pposed author of the
serious charges has been criticized very Sc
Nereiy because of his supposed sweeping
assertions. 1t would seem, however, that
Mr.. Littlejohn has been misquoted, as ac-
cordlng to a letter received from him yes
terday he used not the word king" but
pirate" His letter follows:
MIR. LITTLEJOHN 5 LETTER.
notice in your paper of the 18th
UT, that you take exception to a por-
ton OF my paper read before the Fire Tn
derwrters' Association of tie Northwest,
at its recent meeting. and in Justice to my
self | wish to correct the impression that l
have made any charge against the lumber
kings. i seem to be rather widely adver-
tised in the papers as charging lumbermen
generally with fraud, while such was not
and is not my intention.
My paper was printed the day before 1t
was read at the convention, and not
altered in any way. l did not allude to
lumber kings in any manner what ever,
hut stated that charge had been made
that some of the recent forest fires were
traceable to lumber pirates, lumber
thieves who, to cover up their stealings
from the state, might have had reason to
fire the underbrush so as to make it i'm
possible to obtain a correct measurement
OF the stumpage. Now there is considerable
difference between a pirate and king.
and my object in abiding to this charge
i'll my paper was much for the purpose
of calling the attention of the lumber
kings as of the state authorities and other
law-abiding citizens to the necessity of in
Nestigating these fires
have too many friends among the better
class of lumbermer to make any charge
which would reflect upon their integrity,
and | believe that they will agree with me
that there may be foundation for the
charge and that some of the fires may
have been set by lumber pirates or
thieves. and that it is the duty of every
good citizen to Join in the hunt and ferret
them out, or else run down the rumor.
That there is something more than mere
runor III connection with this charge is
shown by the account of one of the news
papers in reporting on the forestry fires in
the Minnesota pine lands.
State Senator ". s. Dedon, who is a
member of the commission, says that the
commission would reveal some facts calcu-
lated to astonish the country. A whole sec
ton of land WIS cut over by firm, and
the settlement with the state was on a
basis of 60io00 feet, our scale from the
stumps showing that 100000 feet were cut
over. This lumber was cut, and employe
was instructed to burn it over and to be
sure and make clean job of it.
y dispatch to the Chicago Tribune on
Sept. {, from st. Cloud Mimi. contained
the following I'm one of the chief hotels
in st. Cloud yesterday a scout employed
by the commission to ferret out cases of
lumber thieving declared he had secured
sworn evidence that millions of feet of
lumber had been stolen, and that as soon
as it had been cut employees were Instructed
to burn the ground over and to make a
clean job of it,
Investigation made by adiusters and spec
ial agents of insurance companies generally,
with the publications as above made, it
seemed would warrant me in directing the
attention of those legislators and others in
terested that laws might be enacted where
by a repetition of these serious forest fires
might be avoided.
l am satisfied that you WILL in view of
the facts above stated set me right before
your large number of subscribers, and will
| am sure. lend your assistance to the en-
actment of proper forestry laws. Yours
truly, w. j. LITTLEJOHN
Chicago Oct. l.