The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-07-21

RAILROAD BROKE
LUMBER COMBINE
G. j. R. Threatened to Go into the
Sawmill Business and Sup
ply Yards.
Correspondence Of The Journal
Revelstoke, B. G., July Elbow the
railroad by a shrewd piece of strategy
broke up an obnoxious lumber COM
bination which was retarding the set
Element of the Canadian west, is told
in an interesting talk by j. S. Dennis,
who is an assistant to the second vice
president of the Canadian Pacific rail
road, and it's land commissioner for
British Columbia.
eve have vast open area on the
east side Of the mountains which is be-
ing rapidly peopled,'' began Mr.. Den
mis-, "and the first great need Of every
body going in there is lumber with
which to build houses. On this side of
the mountains we have large timbered
areas, which are supplying the prairie
| country to the cast. The settlers soon
began complaining because the retail
| Element was to a certain extent checked
in consequence. AS it is our business to
people the country and to make condi-
tions favorable for it's development, we
! decided to look into this complaint, and
we found peculiar conditions.
"We have two sets of mills in British
Columbia, one On the coast, and the
other known as mountain mills, which
are nearer the prairie markets. These
have the advantage over the coast
mills of shorter haul, but they can
supply only coarser grade Of lum-
! ber Timber is not so fine here in the
mountains as it is on the Pacific coast
Agreement With Retailers.
! "But we find on the other side Of the
mountains an organization called the
Retail Lumbermen g association, which
had entered into an agreement by whlcf
sell lumber to anybody who was not {
member of the Retail Dealers associa
\ ton. There would be a town with ont
retail dealer, or possibly two, and ;
; third man would come in and, satisfy
ing himself that the conditions of set
Element were good, might decide to In
vest his money in third lumber yard
"Such man would go, to the retal
association and say that he wanted t.
establish a yard at this point, and 1T
officers would reply that there were tw
yards there already and they could no
give him a certificate Of membershi
to establish third. He would the
90 over to British Columbia, bringin
, with him a letter of introduction fror
leading bank, saying that his check
were good for $4,000, and he woul
, ask to buy $3,OOO,O0O feet Of lumber t
| have shipped to a certain place, o
sight draft. l am here giving the az
tails of an actual case which came uI
5 der nv observation. In spite of hi
, capital and credit, he was asked to pre-
duce a certificate Of membership In tn
\ association, and when. it was found tina
: he had none it was plain that he coul
not 60 into business. -....
Combine to Control
o HThe railroad took the ground the
$ the retail men had combined to col
|, troll the lumber market, and that the
e to the great injury of every settler g
: ing into that country. We did M
e purpose to stand any such arrangement
h and we were in position to make e.
- fective our opposition to it.
t "In connection with the constructio
(, of certain lines in British Columbi
e the G. P. R. came into possession of Ian
G grants comprising 100000 acres. !
It the south Kootenay country we own
the management of the road that unle
the mountain and coast mill men as II
z producers and the association, as tt
retailers would agree to put the lumb
: business on the same basis as other +
, tail trade, we should open sawmills {
= our own lands and deliver lumber
" the settlers at proper prices. We cou
Z not only cut the lumber ON our oN
~ ~ land, but we could ship it to our ov
It agents, over our own rails, making u
- mill business branch Of our servlc
d : Howl Went Up at Once.
y, "a "You can understand the howl tn
10 went up when this proposal was ma
u known to the association. 1t had
u first declined to accede to our reque
a to put the lumber business upon t
~ same basis as other retail trade. b
l 1i we told the association and the sawm
Ill men that we were not bluffing, that '
e. should smash the lumber combine
know the reason why. There. was not
n ing for them to do but to yield, and
re price Of lumber was reduced So thou
st and at the first crack.
Of GIN the Crowsnest you will see t
st mill Of an American named Otis b; ST
De pies, who came from Saltwater, Min
n, It is one of the most thoroly equipp
IS establishments in America. He. has
to contract to sell his top lumber in CT
ne cago, and he is shipping it over o
- main line to Moose Jaw. and paying
Of thousand duty to get into the. Unit
or States, but he is able to meet the dit
t. culties Of distance and duty.
as Similar Condition Across Line.
~ uYou have a condition existing
~ your side of the line in the lumber b.
! mess with which / became acquaint
~, when I looked into this matter.
. start with, you have exactly the sal
a geographic areas Of demand and SUPP
~ that we have-great forests in t
ee mountains and big open country wit
" " out timber. But the retail lumber bu
lc ness in the United States has gone il
a. the hands of companies which establi
liz what are known as line yards. The
"a line yard companies practically cont
as the lumber trade. When the spri
1t opens, their representatives size up
lumber situation for that year, study
on the crop outlook and the. general
re mand, and they say that they will p
ty naming price for dimension lumb
&C. another price for finished flooring, ;
I'd, other for shingles, etc. Then they
IA to the mill men in Puget sound and ell
zee where and they tell how much they "
give for the whole cut. The mill m
must take these prices or nothing.
Last year you had an absolute de;
. lock for nearly two months between
!. line yard companies and the mill n
) who are producers of lumber. / find
- rious complaint down there that the l