Gilpin observer., 1900-04-19
FIRST LOG ROLLER.
TiowsAwyEREARnEDrHErrrLE
Entertaining sto. y of tho Wisconsin Lum-
Der Kings Method of Securing What
He Sought While in ConRrass

ber Kings Method of Securing What
He Sought While In Congress.
The late Philetus Sawyer of WiscOn-
sin earned his first money by driving
n team for Messrs. Penfield & Ham
mond, who had mines and timber
camps ON the banks of Lake Cham
plain, and he managed to save $1,000
on a salary of S12 n month. With this
capital he went to Wisconsin in 1S47
and laid the foundation of his enor-
nous fortune at an auction sale of gov
ernment land. Mr.. Sawyer spent two
years tramping through the timber ana
marking the best tracts, and arranged
with lumbermen in Boston to furnish
the money to buy on shares. He used
to tell the story with great gusto. The
older he grew the Oftener he told it,
and the more he enjoyed the recollec-
ton of the way in which he Outwitted
party of spectators from New York.
The latter, knowing that Mr.. Sawyer
was the only man who knew the actual
value of the lands, followed his bid
ding, and when he seemed anxious to
obtain certain tract they would raise
him until they got it, Mr. Sawyer soon
discovered how his rivals We're avail
ing themselves of the knowledge which
1t took him two long years of labor and
hardship to acquire, and then turned
their game.
Placing the list of lands he wished to
purchase in the hands O. an uncouth
rustic with Instructions 70 bid each I'D
to certain amount, he Did frantically
himself for other tracts, but the New
York spectators persistently outbid
him. He showed so much chagrin that
it afforded them amusement When
the sale was over and the land was in
York spectators had purchased near
ly every worthless piece of timber in
the state and that the rustic lumber
man had secured nearly every choice
tract. The Boston people were very
liberal to Mr.. Sawyer and gave him
generous proportion of the lands he
bought with their money Some of
them he still owned at the time of his
death.
Mr.. Sawyer was the inventor of that
form of legislation known as "log-roll-
ing 1t was the practical result of his
ability to accomplish things. He never
cared for show. He never made
speech in his life. but no man enjoyed
the sensation of success more keenly.
What he undertook he carried out. and
If he couldn't do it one way he did it
in another He had n large share of
that faculty the Yankees called Con
trivance," which enabled him to devise
means for accomplishing his purpose
that would not have suggested them
selves to any other man. The .log-roll-
ing method of legislation was sug-
gested to him by the familiar habits of
the lumbermen in his own country.
who help each other to roll the logs
from the winter camp to the banks of
the nearest stream, where they can
Inv hn npit, r.is, IL
the application of this neighborly prac-
uce which enabled Mr.. Sawyer to Sc
cure legislation that could not other
wise have been passed. an4 he gave
the method its name
Wisconsin needed Il good deal of leg
islation when he first came to Con
gress, and Mr.. Sawyer secured more
than forty other men could have done.
He let his bills accumulate until to-
ward the end of the session, when he
would take up the calendar and make
memorandums of various measures in
which influential men in the House
and Senate We're interested. Then he
would call them together mt his house
or at his committee room and say:
Boys, we've got to do n little log
rolling If we get our timber to the mill
this season." The result would be an
agreement to stand by each other and
throw all their combined influence in
favor of n list of bills which he had
made out and handed to members of
the combine. The work was conduct
ed in secret and was almost always
successful, so that the habits of the
wisconsin lumberman now prevail in
every legislative body in. the world.
The river and harbor appropriation
bill originated in that way. Formerly
separate measure would be passed for
each river or harbor that required i'm
provement, but under Mr.. Sawyer's
log-rolllng system the members of
Congress interested in such appropra-
tions organized II trust which finally
grew into Il regular annual appropra-
tion bill and special committee to
frame 1t.