Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-01-01
SLASH IS BIG
Reduction Places Prices Back to
Where They We're Year and
a Halt Ago
ENTIRE PINE LIST IS CUT
Weyerhaeuser, tho Lumber King, the
Moving Spirit in tho Reduction -
Bedrock Price for the Coming Year
Competition in Other Woods Re-
sponsible for the Slash in Prices.

Minneapolis, Jan. Humber prices
are down. Nearly everything in the
northern pine list is cut from 81 to 50
| a thousand.
Frederick Weyerhaeuser,s the lumber
king" Of the country, is known to
be the directing spirit in this move,
which was taken by the Weyerhaeuser
companies late yesterday. Other con-
Germs have been selling at concessions
from their August price lists, generally
so cents or 81 thousand, but the
Weyerhaeuser cut is deeper than any
yet made, and will undoubtedly be fol-
lowed by all the other Minnesota and
Wisconsin manufacturers.
The reductions from the August list
are as follows:
Dimension and timbers. 81 thou
sand.
Common boards. Nos. l, ?. 8. 4. and
5, 81 thousand.
Fencing, Nos. and 2. six-inch, 81 a
thousand; four-inch, 81; No. 3, six
inch. 81; four-inch, So thousand.
&C and better eight inches and
wider, 81 thousand.
Siding, c and better, 81; d and F.,
81; C and better, Norway, 81 O thou
sand.
|. Lath, SO cents thousand.
No reduction on inch d or on thick
select and shop.
Bed Rock for 1908.
Manufacturers say that ahis cut an
ticipates any possible weakness that
might have developed, and will be a
bedrock price for the coming year.
Under normal conditions of trade it is
likely to advance some before the
summer is over. Manufactured stocks
OIL hand are smaller now than they
were year ago, and as far as white
pine alone is concerned, there is no
reason for a reduction except lower
wages being paid in the logging camps.
The criticism has been made that lum-
bernen were getting their logging
done cheaper this winter, while the
consumer got no benefit The most Of
the lumbermen are paying contractors
as much as ever for their logging, Mr..
Weyerhaeuser thought the criticism q
just one.
The competition of other woods has
been cutting into white pine territory
considerably. Since the financial furry
a good many OF the smaller mills in the
south and the Pacific coast have been
in urgent need Of money, and have sold
=, 70,
what it would bring. A yellow pine
mill would load car and ship it to
John Doe at Minneapolis, wiring a
commission man to sell it. So consid
cradle yellow pine and some fir has been
unloaded at bargain-counter prices In
this section. The worst of this move
ment is over, as the mills have raised
their money and passed their financial
crisis, but 1t has produced a new mar
ket condition, and the white pine cut
will adjust prices on northern lumber
to those of competing woods.
Led by Weyerhaeuser.
The meeting at which the reduction
was ordered was held in the Weyer-
haeuser offices in ST. Paul, late yester-
day. Frederick Weyerhaeuser was, of
course, the dominating spirit, and I'M
der his directions the sales managers
of the different mills prepared a 'cut
to the bone"
The Weyerhaeuser mills in Minneso-
ia include three at Cloquet-the Clo-
quet Lumber Company, the Northern
Lumber Company and the Johnson
Wentworth Lumber Company. The
others are the Northland Pine Com
pany of Minneapolis, now the largest
local producing mill, and the Pine Tree
Lumber Company, of Little Falls.
The price reduction puts white pine
about where it was a year and halt
ago. In that time there have been
three advances in price, each one COW
ering a part of the list. All told, the
three advances are just about offset by
this one reduction
Retail lumbermen have complained
that high prices during the past season
reduced their sales in the country dis
tricts, tho they seemed to make no diff
ference in the cities. Lumbermen have
some idea that the price-cut will slim
ulate building in the coming season.