Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-06-02
INVEST ELSEWHERE.

Inc milwaukee SenEnoI OF yesterday
gives list g the holdings of Wiscon-
sin lumbermen in the Southern and
Western states, and mentions as Wau-
sau parties the following: The Alexan-
der Stewart Co. with $3.50, 900 invested
in redwood in California; Winton Tim
Der Co. 10000 acres of Oregon fir and
California sugar pine, $3.50, 600; the JOS
Dessert Lbr. Co., 100000 of redwood
holdings in California; Pike. City Lbr
Co., 10000 acres short leaf pine in Ar
kansas; Winton Lumber Co., 10000
acres OF Alabama pine; Wausau South
ern Lbr. Co., 40O,0O0,0O0 feet of Miss
issippi long leaf yellow pine.
Tbs list is only partial, and does not
include the purchases of the Wisconsin
Arkansas Lbr. Co., in Arkansas, Alex
ander Lbr Co. in Alabama, the large
tracts bought by Wausau and Chicago
parties last winter in Alabama, Georgia
and Mississippi, and many others.
With the attention of lum bermen be-
ing drawn elsewhere it may be thought
| by some that Wisconsin is dead state
so far as the lumber industry is con-
cerned but this is mistaken idea.
Tens of millions of dollars are being
invested by these lumbermen in timber
lands in the far west and south. The
extent of the purchases doubtless has
never been realized by those not identi-
fed with the lumber industry, but any
supposition that Wisconsin is to lose its
influence in the lumber industry be-
cause its own pine lands have nearly
been cut over is far from the truth.
The poor young men who came to
Wisconsin score of years ago to make
their fortunes by the cutting and sell
ing of the pine with which northern
Wisconsin then was covered today are
backing with their millions great lum-
bering companies which are buying up
the choicest timber lands in dozen
western and southern states. Instead
of losing its influence in the lum Der in
dustry, Wisconsin is more likely to
take higher rank than ever before by
reason of the millions which its self
made capitalists are investing else
where. The fortunes which were made
in Wisconsin pine are being used to cut
the timber from many other states, and
the millionaires are retaining their
offices in this state, still making Wis
consin the center of their operations.
Though Wisconsin's pine cutting in
dustry is within sight of the end, new
lumber industry is springing up in the
cutting and marketing of the hemlock,
which in the days when the pine was
plenty was considered worthless. Now
it is being cut by the billions of feet
The hardwood resources of the state
also are being utilized, and hardwood
mills are taking the place of the plants
which sawed up the tall pines few
years ago.
The clearings which have resulted
from the denuding of the land of its
pine timber also are being used, and
the sections which were formerly the
home of the lumber Jack and the river
hog are now becoming rich agricultural
and dairy districts.
There are very few men OF money
in Wausau OF the Wisconsin river
valley who have not invested in South
ern real estate within the past few
years The money that has been taken
out of Wausau alone amounts to a
large sum. They build mills with Wis
consin labor and fit them with Wis
consin machinery and Wisconsin men
furnish the skilled labor for their
operation. A Wausau gentleman who
was in the South not many months ago,
upon his return had the following to
say in regard to that section and the
lumber industry:
st is surprising how rapidly the
South is developing now. Northern
capital has gone in there and purchased
the timber, opened large sawmills and
| marketed the lumber at once, thus put
ting new life into the South. Eastern
capital has done the same thing in raw
cotton. | understand that the lumber
men from the North, that is from Iowa,
Minnesota Michigan and Wisconsin,
have found it necessary to employ their
than to depend upon the black labor of
the South.
This movement solves two problems.
1t tells how the south is to be developed
and it shows what the lumber kings of
the north are going to do when the
forests of their own state are exhausted.
Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota
millmen are going South every year
and re-investing the fortunes they have
made OF course, many are going west
into Washington, Oregon and Califor-
MIA. But these go for investments that
may require years to secure returns up
on. They purchase their timber to
hold. But those who go South, for the
most part, go into the manufacture OF
lumber to get immediate returns.
The pine forests of the South have
not been touched, comparatively speak
ing, and this territory is now destined
To become the scene of great activity in
numbering. 1t is an idea. place for the
industry, because it is so Hear the mar
ket
The mills that are there now are
loaded down with orders They simply
cannot supply the demand. They sell
only to wholesalers and jobbers. They
will not sell to contractors at all. look
| for general exodus of Wisconsin lum-
/ bermen, who wish to continue the
manufacture of pine, to the South"