The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-22
NEED THE GOLD STANDARD.
Lumbermen Say Their Future We'll
fare Depends ON 1t.

Lumbermen Say Their Future Wei
fare Depends ON 1t.
At meeting of the board of direc-
tors of the Mississippi Valley Lumber
mems association this week, an ad-
dress to the members was prepared
showing the conditions existing in the
association territory, and also a strong
declaration on the silver question A
portion of the address reads as follows:
From these reports briefly epitomized,
your board OF directors are led to believe
considerably exceed the % per cent which
1t was hoped at the beginning of the saving
season would be sufficient to remove the
surplus of lumber which has been accu-
mulating during the last four years, and
particularly that which accumulated during
the year 1895. 1t will be remembered that
your board has before them figures which
showed a large surplus on hand at the end
of the saving season of 1895. The over
supply at the need of last season was about
rs per cent OF the cut of the mills in the
territory of the Mississippi Valley associa-
ton. the Wisconsin Valley association and
at the head of Lake Superior in the Duluth
of 1895. This surplus was largely in the
lake markets and at points where the COM
petition of Canadian pine was most keenly
felt, and where it was undoubtedly largely
responsible for the inability of our manu-
facturers to sell their lumber. Official re-
ports show that imports of Canadian logs
L
about LOCO, 000,0 900 feet. This amount was an
increase of ully 100000 feet over the i'm
ports during the preceding year before the
present tariff law had gone into effect
and the duty on Canadian lumber had been
removed-Or an amount very nearly approx
initiating the surplus in our yards and on
our docks which threatened and has now
imposed upon us the necessity for closing
our mills and deprivng American laborers
OF the steady employment which it has been
within our power to give them almost with
q fnrT1 nf
The reports received by us indicate that
the present conditions surrounding the lum-
Der market and which have imposed the
necessity for shutting down a large share of
the mills belonging to our members is an
oversupply of lumber for which there is no
market, and which cannot now be sold at
the cost of production. Your board believes
that this condition is primarily due to the
removal OF the tariff on lumber, aggravated
by the present possibility of free coinage of
silver and the complete overthrow of our
present financial system. We therefore be-
lieve, without regard to party, that all
honorable means should be adopted to i'm
fore the American people are not questions
of party, but of business, and that the
future welfare of the nation, the prosperity
of the country and the resumption Of the
work in all manufacturing institutions. and
particularly the mills Of the makers of
wfnte pine lumber is dependent upon the
pecially of the gold standard-the standard
OF all the great commercial nations Of the
world. We therefore suggest that the as
surance be given our employees that we
have accepted the conditions which have
been forced upon US, even more unwilingly
than will our men now leave the positions
which they have been filling, and which
under normal conditions would have been
opened to them until late In the fall, and
that. but for these conditions there would
have ben insured to that large class of our
employees who find steady and remunerative
employment during every winter in the woods.
the full quota Of work. 1t must now be evil
dent to them that 1t Is impossible for us to
give them the employment which is usually
theirs. In our opinion it will not be posi-
bic SO long as the financial institutions are
menaced by an unstable money, and our mar
kets are invaded by the proudcts OF other
countries because of an insufficient protective
tarln-a tariff which neither protects the
American laborer nor produces a revenue
general government"