Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-06-07
Friday, June 7, 1907.
Prosperity in Maine Under the DingIey
Law,

lumber. wood pulp and paper inter-
ests. THE wages of the lumbcrmen"
1t says, lis spent largely for food, for
clothing, for rent, for house furnish
ings." 50 it is; and those are the prin-
cipal things that most of us spend our
money for. Perhaps" it suggests,
"the Journal can give us figures to
show how much of the food Of the
Maine lumbermen is actually produced
in Maine" We regret to say that we
cannot. We do know, however. from
a personal tour Of number Of the big
lumber camps in Northern ArnostOOk
made year ago last winter that the
amount is very large. All the surplus
hay ard oats of the northern section of
the State finds a ready market with
the lumber operators, and we person.
ally saw in every place we visited,
farm teams piled high with one or the
other Of these products, for use in the
woods Maine lumbermen do not pur-
chase their supplies in the Chicago or
other Western markets They buy
them almost wholly Of Maine dealers.
and the money they pay for them goes
into the pockets of Maine merchants.
When goods of any description,
wherever produced. become a part Of
the stocks in trade of Maine mcr-
chants. to be retailcd over their coun-
teTs OF sold out of their Storehouses.
they enter into and become Il part Of
the commercial life of our State and
constitute a part of the local market
where they are 50 kept and sold. They
are no longer Chicago stocks, or New
York stocks, or Boston stocks. They
are Maine stocks, and constitute a part
of the taxable property of the State.
The handling Of such stocks in trade
constitutes the business of large
number of citizens Of Maine who
and who are among the very best
customers our farmers have. These
mon are Indispensable to our agricul-
tUral interests since it is through
them that the products Of our
farms find a market. and are thereby
exchanged for manufactured products.
70 ignore the merchants of Maine, AMI
to credit their commerce to the com
m,rrial c"ntrrs where they purchase
their stocks in trade is the rankest
Kind Of a fallacy. It is largely through
our merchants that the money paid for
materials and for labor secures its
widest circulation
ASK any Of the merchants of Calais
Bangor. Houlton, Caribou. Fatt"n.
Ashland. Millinockct. Carihou. Bing
ham. GrccnvlIe. and Il score of other
thriving Maine communities whether
or not the expenditures made for lum-
Der camp supplies. and the wages Of
wn"d%mcn constitute Il vital factor in
their prosperity. ana soc what reply
YOU will got. The money that goes
for house furnishings does not 90 to
tIf il4fI, SciN lil' h'dii' ~ fanny
it doesn't. II goes {" the retail mcr-
chants in several hundred prosperous
Maine towns. The farmer is by no
means tn" only citizen who derives Il
benefit from our immense lumber bust
ness Its benefits are very widely dis
tributcd and reach. directly or indi-
IN g 1,n inf &c
in Maine. The Sun declares that We
could get all our tables. chairs. stoves,
bcLs, chinawarc, glassware, cutlery.
etc, cheaper /: the duties of the Ding
Icy tarim law were removed. Probably
we could; but this would make little
difference to us. if our Industries hay
ing been destroyed, and our great home
market lost through foreign COMPETE
tiIion we were left with no money in
our pockets. and no good chance to
earn any. The fact that pies have
been marked down to two for cent is
of little interest to the hungry and
pcnnilcss man outside the restaurant
windows. The first thing the American
workingman wants is a chance to earn
good living wages. The first thing
the American farmer wants is the hest
possible market for the products OF
his farm. These conditions exist today
in generous measure. The wage scale
has gone up and up under the Dingley
law. Only last Monday five per cent
increase affecting 100000 operatives
went into effect in the six New Eng
land states. making the present wage
scale in those industries the highest
since the Civil War. The agent of the
Pepperell Mills at Biddeford, a fair
type of the big mills of this character
in Maine, states that this is the fifth
advance of wages that has been made
in this mill since 1899, making total
advance of wages since that year of
35 per cent. One thing is certain If
we were able to buy our cotton goods
,la fran 10 thaSa