The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-02
REAp1NG THEIR PRospERIrY.

from the SurCeaSe OF DufQ6TS.
REAPING THEIR PROSPERITY.
A Minneapolis morning paper, an or
gan of the party whose creed attrib-
uteS prosperity to legislation. contains
the report Of the meeting in semi-an-
nual session of the m embers Of the Mis-
sissippi Valley Lumberrlen's associa-
ten and of their proceedings. The re-
port is very short, however long the
sitting may have been, but its brevity
is compensated by it's significance. First
congratulations each extended to the
others. and all to each, upon the be-
nightly of congress in relieving them
from the cheapening competition of Ca
madam lumber and in permitting them
to achieve prosperity at the rate OF
81 for each thousand feet of lumber
they might manufacture. If republics
are ungrateful, it is evident that lum-
bermen, especially the seventy Of the
Valley association, are not, so far at
least as inexpensive resolutions of con-
graduation can express gratitude.
We are next informed that sundry
gentlemen from West Virginia, two
bearing the tuneful name of Tunis and
one with the suggestive name of Win
chester, were congratulated for the
services rendered in securing from
congress their valuable franchise. We
note with chagrin the absence Of any
congratulatory resolution to our own
Tawney for his HercuIean Iabors in the
same direction. Where, we may ask,
and Tawney may inquire were the
Tunises and Winchester when Tawney
was in Minneapolis consulting with the
gentlemen of the association and re-
ceiving their suggestions as to the
rates they would like to have put into
the lumber schedules? Where were
they when Tawney was racking his
brain in the preparation of that stu
pendous speech that went into the Rec
ord by leave to print" and is being
duly read evenings by the farmers of
his district, with wondering admira ton
for the small head that holds so much?
But that aside. We digress, as the
meeting did when it took to congrat-
ulatory resolutions. We will initiate
them and go to business as they did.
We are told by this loyal organ that
the meeting then recommended that
the price list committee be instructed
to report a list of advancing prices,
the first to take effect next week and
subsequent ones to follow another re-
vision, to be made thirty days hence.
We have had occasion heretofore to
note and comment upon the advance
in lumber prices of so cents a thou
sand, made soon after Mr.. Mckinley
O. KID. the bill, and commented upon
the celebrity With which the lumbermen
share of prosperity. We note, this lat
est action as indicating that they did
not deem the slice taken as sufficing,
and as indicating also that the Sic
is all taken up.
We noted last week how the millers
in Minneapolis made prosperity by
promptly raising the price of flour
made from 60-cent wheat to the basis
of dollar wheat, but that making had
at least the merit of dependence sole
ly upon market conditions that were
uninfiuenced by acts of congress. This
making is devoid of that merit and is
solely due to the brutal exercise of
power by few hundred men who style
themselves representatives of the peo-
pie of this blessed country. We in
Vite the attention of this congress
of farmers to the spectacle pre-
scented to their envious gaze and
suggest to them that a congress
that enables lumbermen to make pros
perity so easily and surely, while leav-
ing the agriculturists of the country
to the mercy of foreign crop conditions
is hardly giving the poor farmer that
tender and solicitous care he deserves.
How nice it would be could seventy
odd members of the Mississippi Valley
Wheat Growers meet in comfortable
parlors and instruct their price list
committee to advance wheat next week
and again thirty days later.