The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1907-11-30
A YELLOW PINE LUMBER CAUCUS.

pended circulation, or animation.
Delegates are in attendance from
Missouri, Arkansas. Texas, Louis
lana, Mississippi, Georgia, Flori-
da and the Carolinas. The pro-
ceedings of the gathering thus
recite the trouble in yellow pine:
For six or eight months many
mills have shut down, the market
for yellow pine has suffered a de-
cided decline, which has resulted
in an overrroduction on the part
of the mills. While the demand
was steadily Stacking off the mills
were kept going full tilt, until the
yards were filled to their capacity.
Officials of some of the larger
companies say that they are look
ing for reduction of the output
IS to IS per cent, by December /.
Those mills which have not al
ready closed will no doubt reduce
their forces about 60 per ceht.
The employers will consider a
plan to give men credit for all
household supplies, rent, etc., in
lieu of wages, but at the mills, a
majority of those now in opera
tion are kept going on the under
standing that there will be no
more paydays until the present
condition is materially improved.
They have all reduced wages to
nearly one-half what they were
paying inJthe flush times of a year
ago, and in some cases this re-
duction was made with the ex-
pectation that the hands would
quit, and the factories would be
able to shut down without the dis
agreeable necessity for discharg-
ing the employees. But it has
been found that, even at the re-
duced wages, the men are willing
to work, and, while many of the
smaller mills are closed, the larger
ones are all in operation to some
extent"
A marked similarity may be
noted in the above narrative of
saw mill troubles, with those
which overlook the copper indus.
try few months ago. Through
combinations that constitute q
restraint of trade, each one boost.
ed prices until they were largely
prohibitive. In each this cut
down the demand and stocks piled
up. Then the copper kings
sought, as the pine lumber trust
is seeking, to uphold prices by
reducing hours, wages and output
All sorts of devices were resortec
to, to obscure the real cause
monopoly extortion. The trutf
dawned on copper when, under
pressure of the heaped up supply,
prices dropped to half. The same
experience seems to be in store
for pine lumber greed, it has kill
ed another goose that laid COLDER
eggs. In all of the reports of the
proceedings of this Memphis con
vention-the talk of reducing
production and wages there IL
not word of reducing prices.
All the same, the break will
come. If the saw mill men come
from behind their closed door
agreements and interview theil
customers, the contractors anC
builders, the truth will reach
them. They will be shown thai
their trust prices killed trade.
From every city and town they
may learn of building plans helc
up and abandoned, when the cost
estimates were rendered. Anc
now on top of the depression thus
caused, comes the present finan
cial crisis which is restricting al
business.
The abnormal and outrageous
scale to which lumber prices have
been raised may be read in the
following from the New York
| World of a recent date:
'Freighted with so.calleo
|Oregon pine, the British steam
ship Earl of Douglas is coming te
New York around the Horn from
Mosquito Harbor, British Colum.
bla. She stops for coal at Ciallao
Peru; Coronel, Chill; Montevidec
and Barbados. Yet so valuable
is pine, or any workable substi
tute, that her consignors see
profit in the voyage of some 49,.
loco, miles. Redwood shingles and
special Totes of lumber and timber
have long paid the high freight
rates by rail across the continent. .
Before this ship is unloaded il
| New York her cargo will have tC
pay the tariff tax Of two dollars 8
thousand. And yet untaxed
American yellow pine mills are
lshutting down-over stocked with
lumber that is to be held for high
Ter prices. They will wait for 1
day that will never come. There
can be no stronger argument fol
free lumber than this chapter o.
the lumber industry; of prices
advanced through trust methods
until they are prohibitiye, anc
Ishut down of the mills to staryt
the public into paying them.
i This lumber situation is another
chapter in the lesson that life il
| full of compensations. First its
lprohihitiye prices have stimu
lated, as never would have beer
otherwise, tests Of the availability
of artificial stone and concrete al
a building material. II has had
perhaps, an even better result
1.-THE threatened early forest denu