The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-08-10
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1900.
FOR PRESIDENT
WILLIAM. J. BRYAN
OF NEBRASKA
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
ADLAI E. STEVENSON
OF ILLINOIS
What will be the first
yoolen mill in Montana
A MONTANA
WOOLEN
OF ILLINOIS

r1ILL. will soon be in opera
ton at Big Timber, a company composed
of prominent woolgrowcrs and business
men of that town having been organized
for the purpose of building and operat-
ing such plant. The capital stock will
be $4,000. The business men of Big
Timber have had the wooden mill propo-
sition in view for long time and it
would have been an accomplished fact
several years ago but for the misfortune
which overlook the wool industry at that
time. The Big Timber people have fig
ured it out to their own satisfaction that
such an institution should pay and pay
we'll. Big Timber is the center of one of
the largest woolgrowing sections in Mon
tana, and chemical analysis has shown
that the water of the Boulder river,
which runs to the south of the town, is
of the very best quality for securing
purposes. Added to this, the fact that
perhaps the best water power in the
state is to be had at Big Timber makes
the wooden mill proposition look like a
winner, so far as the location is con
cerned.
1t has been urged that the railway
company will SO discriminate in the
freight rates in favor of the eastern man
ufactured article that no wooden mill can
succeed here. The railway companies
like to haul the dirt and grease, which
compose about fifty per cent of the I'M
secured wool, at the regular freight rate,
and are likely to do what they can to
retain the business. But when it is un-
derstood that the Montana wooden mill
will be able to save both the freight of
the raw material to the eastern market
and the freight on the manufactured
article back to the western market, with
absolutely no natural disadvantage to
contend against, it will be seen at a
glance what tremendous economic ad-
vantage the home institution will have
over the eastern competitor. 1t will be
an advantage which can withstand the
most arbitrary discrimination in the
matter of freight rates within the limits
prescribed by the inter state commerce
law, and if the Northern Pacific is dis
posed to practice such discrimination
against Montana manufactures, the
sooner the people of Montana know il
the better.
Perhaps the most potent factor in the
establishment of the wooden mill at Big
Timber is the doubt which has always
existed in the minds of the woolgrowers
as to the secured value of their wool
Year after year they have accepted prices
for their clips which the buyers have
told them was the most that could bt
paid considering the secured value O
the tleeces. The woolgrower could no.
successfully controvert the statement
He had never anything to do will
secured wool and the buyer had. Ii
most cases the grower has taken tn,
word of the buyer and the price offered
His ignorance placed him at disadvan
tage. When it was pointed out to hin
that if there was securing plant hand
he wouldn't have to depend on tn
buyers Judgment, which was more thai
likely to be biased, he twiggcd at once
Hereafter the Sweet Grass county wool
grower will be able to ascertain tn
secured value of his wool to certaint,
and the buyer will be relieved of tn
suspicion of perverting the facts. II
will probably also be relieved of some c
his profits.
The Big Timber wooden mill exper
ment will be watched with interest a
over Montana. 1t will settle sever;
points of interest, the most important ,
which will be to disclose if it is or is NJ
the purpose of the Montana railroads
discriminate against the home manufa
turer, to his destruction, and if sue
power is in their hands.