St. Paul daily globe., 1894-09-27
LUMBER PIRATING
Directly Resulted in the "Pi-
rates" Starting the For
est Fires,
so SAYS A CHICAGO MAN.
Absurd Charges That Cause
the Lumbermen of the
City to Laugh.
30 SAYS A CHICAGO MAN.
A GREAT FUSION SCHEME.
Knights Of Pythias Conclude
Their BuSineSS--WeStmin-
ster Mission.

The lumbermen of the city were some
what amused yesterday when they
learned that at the meeting OF the North
western underwriters held in Chicago a
deliberate charge was made that the
fires in the northern part of the state
were traceable to timber pirates, who
started them 10 cover up their pilfer-
ings. The charge was made by w. T..
l.. Littlejohn. the Chicago manager of
the North British Il Mercantile Insur-
ance company, and this Is what lie said !:
The recent forest fires are traceable TO in
cendiaries, timber pirates, who have appro-
priated thousands of dollars belonging to
the state III trying to cover up their steal
lDgs from the state officials, who as a COM
mission. have teen investigating the frauds
against the state. They fired the pine top
pings, underbrush and stumps so as TO make
il impossible TO obtain a correct measure
ment of the stumpage. and thereby
leave no basis for suits which the
state might bring against them. That thefe
is urgent need OF some system of thorough
investigation on the part of the state officials
into the origin of and circumstances attend
Ing fires every one must admit but how to
accomplish it is the question to be well con-
sidered. would recommend that investi-
CATION by proper officials of the cause of all
fires be required by law, and provisions be
made Tor the prosecution of all criminal or
fraudulent cases.
MIR. Littlejohn made these charges
so openly that they could not be passed
by without some comment from local
lumbermen. L. b. Walker, the veteran
in the lumber business. who owns saw
mills in several sections in the northern
part OF the state, and who is Thoroughly
conversant with all phases of the lum-
Der and logging business, was seen last
night He was shown the clipping con-
tanning the Associated Press dispatches.
and. in regard 10 the charges made, said
very positively:
why those charges are the most
absurd that it is possible to make. and
any one that knows anything about the
lumber business would tell you so. In
the first place l never heard of MIR.
Littlejohn, and do not know of any
be called upon TO make the remarks
that he did Is question that | will
undertake to answer. His charges
are outrageous and shameful and
do not see on what grounds
he makes them. If some of
these people who are continually talk
ing about lumber baronS' and 'lum Der
kings and timber pirates would make
some OF their charges against particu-
lar person or set of persons so that we
could get after them and show upon
what little foundation they were based
we would make them come to time.
But they all talk like this man does.
They make charges against the lumber
men in general and not against any
particular one and it is impossible to
pin them down to their statements.
Now l will show you how absurdly
foolish such statement is. When a
forest hre once gets started it is impOS-
slble to tell where it will stop, and ALL
the timber OH acres of land is likely to
be wiped off before the fire is under
control. 1t doesn't stand to reason that
the lumbermen will burn up their own
timber in order to cover up something
that nobody knows anything about. To
cover up what? The charges have been
made that lumbermen are stealing tim
Der. but why don't they prove them?
"TheSe charges are foolish. and they
are hardly worth taking the trouble to
refute. When they are made definitely
and to the point, then is the time to an
Swer them.''
William Tenny. lumberman of long
experience. was also seen last night.
He laughed when shown tine clipping.
"Ot course. the lumbermen didn't set
that fire." was his remark. "Ihey
wouldn't want to burn up their own
timber, would they? They would do it
if they set fire in the pine regions of
the North. As Tor the charges, l don't
think they are worth while bothering
with at all. They are too absurd"