Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-03-18
REMOVE THE J. L NJ b f K
TARIFF

tt would seem that congress cannot
much longer Withstand the demand OF
the people for the removal of the
tariff on lumber. The tariff on lum-
Der has enabled the lumber barons to
become rich at the expense OF the
people in general. The press of the
country is aroused to the situation
and is vigorously protesting against
the retention of the present tariff on
lumber. In it's issue of March ID, the
Northwestern Agriculturist thus sums
up the matter:
'EThe tariff on lumber ranges from
50 to So. 50 per thousand and is large
ly prohibitiVe.
1.-THE only demand that can in any
degree be called popular that comes
up to congress for the retention Of the
present tariff on lumber comes from
the Pacific coast, especially the states
of Washington and Oregon, and from
certain southern states, which always
vote for free trade and which are now
clamOrlng for the retention Of the in
defengible protective duty on lumber.
The great bulk of the population from
which our present government derives
its power, the people of the great
central valley, the agricultural peo-
pie and those directly and indirectly
dependent on agriculture, and the
consuming millions of the east, are
almost a unit in clamoring for the
repeal of the tariff on lumber.
Even in the Pacific coast states, the
farming classes demand a repeal of
the duty on lumber. In the middle
west states even the retail lumbermen
demands free trade in lumber.
1.-THE country has been promised
tariff revision. Throughout the agri-
cultural west the test of the genuiness
of this revision will largely be taken
to be the action in regard to the lum-
Der tariff.
"Our forests are dwindling and
unless we choose to speak in defiance
of all available statistics, they are
almost on the verge of exhaustion.
On the whole, the price of lumber
scars over higher and higher, and
the value of timber holdings advances
with leaps and bounds. Here in
Minnesota we have seen standing tim
Der advances in value from 81 to $l2
per thousand inside of ten years.
Everywhere there has been a big ad-
vance in timber values. Yet, now the
lumbermen come to US and plead for
a tariff largely because their timber
is so much much more valuable than
it used to be.
Here is the situation in nutshell
The price of lumber and timber has
increased enormously within a few
years. In good times our domestic
mills cannot supply the demand. The
forests are almost gone. Every year
the demand on them increases. Soon
they will be wiped out. Canada has
vast forest resources on which we can
draw both to the relief of our forests
and to the benefit of our consumers.
But our lumbermen, after all their
years Of prosperity, fattened on the
richest forests the world has ever
known, enjoying the greatest home
market that any industry ever had,
competing with Canada and all other
timber countries in the markets of the
world, (even in those of Canada it.
self, to the extent of one-hundred
twenty-five million dollars a year,
now have the nerve" to ask congress
to retain an obsolete duty.
1t is up to congress now but little
a TO will no % hn bo
people of the great agricultural val
legs and plains of the nation. What
will congress do?