The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-10-12
AND. LUMBER BARONS
Republican Candidate for Governor
Fought Them Hard.

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The st. Cloud Journal Press gave the
cue to the democratic papers Wien it
said that "NIr. jacobson was defeated
by tile efforts of the railroad and lum-
Der interests The Mankato Review
amplified this with the assertion that
MIR Coles nomination was dictated by
the great lumber interests And every
lesser honbiower catches up the note
and blows it histly. How much of this
is due to that slipperiiress of memory
that cannot hold facts over night and
how much to downright mendacity we
Shall not attempt to determine. The
cold facts of the ease dispose of the ca
nard under either hypothesis.
In the legislature\of 1903 Mr.. Cole rep
resented Cass county. The "lumber
barons' long ago corralled about all the
valuable pine land in that large county
They logged off the pine in winter,
drove it down the rivers with the
earliest clearing of ice, long before the
local assessors had begun then work, and
had it secured in their booms at their
mills after the local assessors there had
finished their work, thus eyading taxes
on the logs at each end of the line. This
deprived the revenues. state and local,
of the taxes on the logs in each locality.
One need not take pencil to figure out
how much this privilege meant in add
ditional profits to the 'barons.''
Mr. Cole drew and introduced and,
over stout opposition from the local rep
in the house of lumber mill
centers. had passed a bill that made the
logs cut from pine lands assessable, in
the year in which. they were cut, i'll
the county where the. lands lay from
which they were cut: making that the
situs instead of the locality of residence
of the owners. In his speeches i'll sup
port of the bill he showed how the coun-
tics where the pine grew had to bear the
expenses entailed by the presence of the
lumber crews. amounting, in Cass coun-
ty, to about $4,000 annually; how not
only did the county lose revenue by the
driving of the logs before May l, but
also through the diminished value of the
cut over lands.
He presented an array of figures show
ing the quantity and value of the pine
thus removed and the loss to state and
counties of revenue from the evasion of
taxes by lodging assessment at each
end of the drive. He presented other
figures showing the loss of revenue from
the expectation of these logs to milling
points outside the state. The totals
ran into the hundreds of thousands of
dollars. His arguments were irresistible
in the house. i'll spite of the efforts Of
the lumber men to defeat the bill. 1t
went to the senate, that, stronghold of
all special interests. There the ''barons"
were successful The bill was killed.
The ''barons' continued to enjoy their
immunity from taxation and the state
and counties continued to be deprived
of just revenues.
And vet. in the face of this record,
one that earned for Mr.. Cole the hos
tiIity of the lumber barons that con-
tinues to the present day, these reckless
or forgetful or ignorant editors have
the hardihood to say that MIR. Coles
nomination was dictated by the great
lumber interests. st. Paul Dispatch.