The true northerner., 1896-10-07

The direct erect or tarin reduction
upon certain farming industries has
already been considered at some length
in these columns. The indirect losses
of the same class Of producers, through
suspended industries of other kinds,
are almost as great, though not quite
so apparent.
Next in value To the farm products
of the state and following close upon
them, are the products of the pine and
hardwood forests, the pine lumber,
lath and shingle cut alone, having, in
its best years, reached value of over
500, 600, 900. When these two industries
are booming the pine and hardwood
forests and mills furnish the best mar
lSet there is for the products of Mich
igan farms. The lumber camps, in
winter, create "a demand for immense
quantities of hay, oats and bran, to-
gether with market for draft horses.
They are also heavy consumers of
very staple article of food for man, es-
pecially for those products in which
Michigan eXcels, wheat flour, beans,
potatoes, apples, beef cattle and pork.
Following the breaking up OF the lum-
ber camps in the spring comes the
starting of the sawmills, which con-
tinue the demand through the summer
and fall. In the most prosperous years
for numbering the farmers north of the
d., G.. III. II NJ. railway have had mar
ilet for their products almost at their
own doors and at their own prices
Changes in the tariff have had an
immediate effect upon this industry by
transferring Il good deal of the sawmill
work to Canada, while the general de-
preston of business has greatly re-
1uced the demand for lumber Not
since 1887, when it was in its infancy.
has the lumber business of Michigan
been SO paralyzcd as during the present
year. Operations in the camps last
winter were smaller than for many
years before, and the mills are running
light this summer. Stocks on hand are
leavy and their owners find it difficult
to realize on them As a result the
farmers have lost the excellent market
which they formerly had in the woods
and the sawmill towns. and have TO
pay freight charges and commissions
before they can get Detroit prices,
while they become competitors with
their brethren from other parts of the
state in the Detroit and eastern mar
xets. The depression in this one in
iustry has made a difference of many
hundred thousand dollars in their re-.
,eipts since the Wilson bill passed
Next to the lumber camps and saw.
mills, the mines of the upper peninsula
employ more men and pay out more
IN wages than any other single indus
try in the state. In 1892, before the
election turned the country over to the
Democracy, many of the irDn mines of
lorthern Michigan were running night
and day shifts, with as large force OF
men as they could work to advantage.
Wages were good and the men and
their families were liberal purchase RS
If clothing and of all food products.
With the threat of tariff changes came
'educed prices for iron ore, and the
threat was followed by the enactment
IF the Wilson tariff which dealt TO
ron manufacture a heavier blow than
TO any other branch of manufacture
except that of woolen goods. Within
one year after its enactment that law
doubled the importation Of bar iron
destroyed the cotton industry in this
country and closed up the factories,
almost doubled the imports of steel in.
yots and blooms. and increased the inn
ports of tin plate" The direct result
)f these increased imports is a lessened
demand for American iron ore and the
evil is aggravated by the general de-
preston of business caused, in part, by
the same tariff. The result is disas.
trous TO the Michigan mining district.
During the past six weeks, when ope'
cations ought to have been more active
than at any other time in the year,
nine after mine has ceased work, and
IN some cases the pumps even have
been stopped, allowing the mines TO
ill with water. Many of the miners,
instead of being the most liberal OF
purchasers, are likely, during the com
ing winter, to require aid from public
appropriations or private charity.
he puTCHdslilS anu CONSUMING pOWCt
)f thousands OF families has thus been
seriously impaired. Not only that, but
many OF them have become producers
Of farm and garden products When
the miners were earning from $3.50 10
50. so day, with plenty of work, they
had neither time nor inclination 10
work farm or garden under the disad.
vantages of soil and climate that xist in
that region. But, under the stress Of
enforced idleness and reduced pay, they
have undertaken both. Last winter
witnessed the novel spectacle of farm
ers' Institutes in Il region which before
that had possessed little of the quality
IF an agricultural district, and another
series of institutes has been arranged
for this winter.
The Wilson tariff has thus helped
to destroy n good market and tO
raise a competitor. do the farmers
OF lower Michigan want four years
more of IL?