The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-28


 pelled to realize on is liable to demor- alize the entire market unless he has an idea of about what the market price is. The prices fixed by the association enable him to cut under just enough to make a sale. That is as far any as- sociation has ever been able to enforce it's price lists.
 The Cause of Present High Prices.
 For more than eight years this coun- try has been enjoying an era of pros- perity never equaled-certainly never ex- ceeded before, and there are no indica- tions of it's immediate subsidence It pervades every line of trade and indus try and affects the price of o--ery com mereial article In no line of industry has greater activity been displayed than in the building trade. It is universal, all over the United States, and greatest fin the oldest richest and most densely populated sections. It is less active in the cotton states than elsewhere, but the oldest citizens never before saw so much building and improvements as is now being done in the south. The reasons are apparent. The people are nearer out of debt and have more money than ever before since 1860. Not only are the lum- Der yards and the mills rushed with or- ders, but the supply of worlSmen ap- pears totally insufficient. The complaints we have heard about prices comes from the Mississippi legislature. The pressure for lumber on the yellow pine and hard wood mills is so strong, and the cost of stumpage having within a very short while advanced from one hundred to one thousand per cent, they have also been forced to put up prices frequently and quite suddenly. If the millmen had realized the rapid advance in cost of tim ber they would have begun to advance l,tu so gradually; but they waited too long, and were compelled to make such radical advances as to frighten some people who have not kept up with the progress of business into the belief that there is a "trust' somewhere in the woods.
 Lumber Consuming Center.
 In country like ours the per capita consumption of lumber is one of the best indlces of the prosperity and comfort of the people. As would naturally be sup posed. the greater per capita consumption is near the center of population. At the present time, as nearly as can be ascer- tained, the area of the largest per capita consumption of lumber is Ohio, Indiana Illinois and the states along that drec- tion west of the Mississippi. The lowest per capita consumption of lumber is in the South Atlantic and gulf states, and. with possibly one exception, the state of
 
 any other east of the Mississippi. Her very large proportion of negro popula- tion will account for this. TO illustrate we will compare Mississippi with Illinois a state that consumes much of her lum- Der and is in direct line of shipment
 Mississppi-Total population, 1,551, ,270; whites 64l,200 negroes 907, ,63O Chinese, 2s7: Indians, 2203. Number of families. SIS. .94s; number of dwellings 31O,963 of which 73159 are owned free, 23.517 are mortgaged 5969 ownership unknown, 194,- 637 are rented or hired and 1S,S32 are oc- cupied upon terms unknown
 Illinols-Total population. 4,S2i,55O; whites 4.734S73: negroes, 85,07S; number of families, 1,036,15S number of dwell- ings. s45 ,S36 of which 273594 are owned free, 16l 615 are mortgaged, 16,33S title unknown, 547, ,369 rented, and 25,22S occu- pied on terms unknown.
 1t will be seen that there are not very glaring differences in the natural pro portions of population to families, or of families to dwellings, but the per capita of lumber (thls includes all wood goods) is more than ten times as great in Illinois as in Mississippi llli- nois is a consumer Mississippi q pro- ducer of wood goods. Who ever before heard of a producer complaining that the price of his product is too high2
 Lumber Associations in Mississippi.
 Mississippi is essentially lumber pro d,icing state We have the names and locations of 960 saw and blaming mills. of which sos turn out yellow pine and 152 eonfine themselves to the preparation of hardwoods The association that has most to do with control of the yellow nine trade is known as the Southern iumber Manufacturers association, of which George K. Smith Is secretary. Of inc sos yellow pine mills in the state of Mississippi. just thirty-seven of them are members of the association that is alleged to set the price of all grades of yellow pine lumber If the other I'll veliow nine mills in the state see proper to demand for their products the prices that the thirty-seven who belong to the association suggest is about what the market demands justify, they have