The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-09-03
CONGRESSMAN cLARKs RECORD


his record is very bad on very mate
rial points. One was his vote against
the democratic platform adopted at
Denver last summer, which platform,
CT course, was binding on him be-
cause of his being a candidate for re-
I election unGer that very platform. II
bound him in party honor and party
fealty to vote for the immediate re-
peal of all tariff tax on lumber, logs
and timber the very first chance he
got. he misused the very first chance
he got by voting squarely in favor OF
the lumber tariff and against the mil
lions of people who have TO buy lum-
Der for houses, school houses, church
es, fences, bridges and for many 9Th
er building purposes. The enorm.ty
of this violation of party honor and
party pledge can only be realized by
one who makes a study of the uues-
ton. First-who is it that gets the
benefit of a lumber tariff? Second
what is the magnitude of that benefit?
During the tendency of the Payne
tariff bill in the senate there was
group of lumber men in the commit
/ tee room of Senator Burrows of Mich
igan. One of these gentlemen who
halls from Minnesota, figured a few
minutes upon an envelope, and then
remarked: "Mr. Burrows, do you
know what a tariff of one dollar
thousand would mean to this little
crowd of men in here?" There were
only half a dozen in the room at the
time. This man who had been fgur-
ing on an envelope said that a tariff
of 81 a Thousand on lumber meant
$6,125,O0O OIL last years cut of lum-
Der to the few men who were in that
room. In other words, tariff of 81 a
thousand was a proposition to take
more than six million dollars out of
the pockets of the people who con-
sumed lumber and put it in the peck
cts of that little group of capitalists
Now, dealing with the local situa-
ton. who was it that Frank Clark
served when he voted against the |
plain, positive plSdge of the platform
upon which he was elected?
In the Savannah papers of June IA
and Is, is an account of the proceed |
ings of a meeting of the Georgia-Flor-
ida Sawmill Association. Captain H. |
H. Tiff of Triton, Ca, is the presi- |
dent of that association. John Paul, |
president of the East Coast Lumber
Company of WATERFOWL, Florida, was
one of the members of that assccia- |
ton. Notice of his death having /
reached the meeting, a resolution of |
coincidence was adopted and a copy of
it telegraphed to Mr.. Paurs brother.
Now, these men, associated together
in that big corporation, owned more
than half million acres of timber
land in Georgia and Florida Captain
Tiff, in person, went to Washington
to lobby for that lumber tariff They
resorted to all the usual methods of
influencing congressman. They gave
banquets at night, where delicacies
were eaten and delicious champagne
drunk, and they had the very best
talent employed to present their case
to the committee and to the individ-
ual congressman. If tariff of 81 per
thousand was worth more than six
million dollars to the lumber men OF
Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin,
what was Il worth to this corpora
ton which operates in Florida, Geor-
gia and perhaps Alabama? Certainly
these figures run up into the millions.
From whom is this tribute taken?
From those who have to buy any kind |
of lumber, rough or dressed.
They not only got the 81 per thcus-
and on rough lumber, but got $125, !
TO which is added an outrageous ad- |
vance on dressed lumber, reaching |
up to $2.37 IL per thousand. The |
statement is universally true that |
with the modern machines there is !
little or no cost in dressing two sides, /
three sides or four sides of a plank
the fiat surface and the two edges
than there is for a plane surfacing of
one side. 1t is a mere matter of set
ting the bits. 1t is as easy to dress
both sides and to tongue and groove
at one passage through the planer as
it is to surface. Certainly a very
small additional charge is made, as /
rule, between plain dressed lumber
and tongueing and growing Yet this
new tariff law jumps from s1.25 on
rough lumber to S2,37 IL on the fin
iSlpd DrOducr