The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-01-26
USING The PROBE
INTERSTATE COMMISSION HEAR.
Ing BEGINS At TACOMA.
Lumbermen Hold Hill Respon-
sible for Present Conditions.
Many More Witnesses to Be
Examined at Seattle Hearing
this Week.


to the lumber car shortage by Inter-
state Commissioner Franklin z. Lane
at the United States court room Sat-
urday developed detailed facts show
ing the Northern Pacific railroad q
equipment to be entirely inadeq late
to handle the lumber products of
Western Washington. Sawmill owners
told now small concerns are gradually
being forced into bankruptcy, how the
larger companies have sustained losses
which will reach into hundreds Of
thousands of dollars, and how thou
sands of mechanics have been thrown
out of employment by failure of the
Northern Pacific railway to furnish
cars enough to enable the $50 wood
working plants on its line to market
their product.
The proceedings were exceedingly
quiet, in that no marked manifesto
tions of feeling were shown by either
lumbelmen or the railroad representa-
tives. Sawmill operators calmly de-
tailed how, through no fAult of their
own, they had lost thousands of dol
lars during the past eighteen months,
solely because they had not been able
to market their product. In the same
breath with which they narrated their
losses they compli.nented the strenu-
GUS efforts of local officials of the
Northern Pacific to relieve the situa-
ton and said that. while the Tacoma
railroad men had done all they could
to aid the mills. the fault lay in mis-
management of higher officials in the
East.
Different Since Hill Took Hold
Lumbermen stated that before James
J. Hill acquired control of the trans
continental lines serving this terrific
ry plans we're being made to double
track the entire Northern Pacific line
from st. Paul to the coast. While in
those days, seven or eight years ago,
shipments were sent from this city to
st. Louis in from two to three weeks,
today it takes lumber from 20 to 100
days to move over the same lines the
same distance. One witness recounted
an instance of shipment having been
sent by vessel around Cape Horn to
New York, leaving Tacoma at the same
time at which shipment of lumber
was started East by rail over the
Northern Pacific. The sailing ship
was out about FIVE months, but won
the race.
Everett g. Griggs, of Tacoma, told
the commissioner during the afternoon
that James J. Hill stated when the
lumbermen went to st. Paul last June
that the Northwest, and Washington
in particular, was growing too fast,
and, further, that the Great Northern
would pay dividends if it did not haul
stick of lumber.
Probing J. J. Hills Policy
Details of testimony in which Com
missioner Lane indicated that he was
most interested, and concerning which
he questioned the witnesses closely,
related to the policy, alleged to be
fathered by Mr.. Hill, of allowing cars
to accumulate on the sidetracks and
then running long trains across the
continent at very slow rate of speed.
The manufacturers stated that this
policy, shortsighted and unjust to
shippers, had caused the Car shortage
to be felt much more keenly than it
would otherwise have been.
Sixty to Hundred Days for Haul
Certain witnesses charged discrim-
ination as to the long and short haul
on the part of the Northern Pacific.
ALI agreed that it now takes from 60
to1OO days for the delivery of car
from Puget sound to Minnesota trans
fer points, while before the Northern
Pacific and other Western lines passed
into the control of Mr.. Hill shipments
we're delivered in an average time OF
three weeks.
Seattle Has Much to Tell
Seattle, Jan. 19.-At meeting OF
the lumber manufacturers here this
evening plans were formulated for the
<lok mill ho an hmittQd IN