The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-19
 TO THE TARIFF Alabama Lumbermen
 Not Active. MARKET $ UNUSUALLY DULL Low Prices Would Not Follow
 Free Lumber. Most NH Men Agree That Cut ia Price wn Carry Fatal BIuader
 of cr.stias Nor.
pY CHARLEs .. HAROLD.


 Alabama lumbermen. manufacturers of the yellow pine region. have vari- ous views of the tariff. They have not loudly prayed for 1t, nor have they been noisy against free lumber. There Is not probably q mill operator in South Alabama who favors the retention of the tariff. But they have not bestir- business in opposition to the removal of the sl duty.
 Many of the mill men believe with National Forester Pinchot that free lumber would not give the consumer lower prices. At most. the tarin of $2 was cutting but little figure in the price of lumber. If 1t had been e10 per thousand feet. a ratio that would l be justified on an extreme protection policy. there might have been occa- sion for howl. The reason that the consumer Is expected not to profit by the splitting of the old duty Is that stumpage owners and middlemen would reap the small profit before the rough material left the foreign borders. Most mill men that have been inter- | viewed in Alabama since the tariff agi- ktation began agree with Forester Pin chot also on the waste phase. Should | the cutting down Of the tariff in the | end result in lowering the price of | lumber to the American consumer, 1t | will carry with 1t the fatal binnder, | according to Pfnchot and his followers. | of creating more waste. That seems
 to the knowing ones to be logical | consequence.
 There is not question: said Q lum- Der manufacturer yesterday, that the lower the price of lumber the more is | the waste of the forests. If 1t sold for a certain high figure one might get two or three logs out of tree. Now.
 with the sagging of the market all over | the country, 1t seems that No. com-
 mon cannot be cut with profit Ma | turaliy, to satisfy the dull market. all
 the labor1and attention has to be di-
 rected to getting out the choicest part of the tree. The rest is thrown away,
 left in the woods to rot.
 That would not be true were prices
 back to their just level It means more destruction of the trees than if
 higher prices prevailed Thatsis all a
 mistake. Waste Is destruction and there is 6 good deal of 1t when prices
 drop so that 1t Is not profitable to use l up the whole tree when it falls" Lumbermen, as a matter of fact, are l not worrying much over the tariff | proposition, because the market is al- ready unusually slow, and they have seemingly nothing to sacrifice even if | free lumber were to win out--an im- probability at this stage of the dis cussion in Congress. One operator de- clares that if prices were high there | would be a much bigger fight on free lumber. They would. in that case, l fear an influence on the prices. | It is admitted by many operators that they are cutting stun now oniy to keep labor and OK teams together, and to try to make the min partly pay l for its existence. It is often sound 1 business in the lumber making to | keep cutting even at a certain loss The theory is that to continue cutting. | though at some loss. Is better than to shut down. in which event there would be the high expense of feeding OK teams. idle machinery. and increasing | taxes on the stumpage. Some of the properties are said to be running at present alone on this principle. | A leading operator had this to say about the existing lumber market: There would be no bottom to the market if it were not for the farm de- mands Industrial consumption seems at Q standstill. Manufactwers in oth- | CT lines are not buying anything to speak of. The railroads are buying | but little. It is the extensive farm ing operations that, in my opinion, fur | nish the stamina to the market today.
 The farmer as e rule. is getting a good | round price for his products. and he is manifesting his prosperity in build | ing more homes. barns and appurten- anoes. This consumption Is remote from this section of the country for the most part. though there is Q large l activity in the farming sections of the l South"
 This man also stated his belief that better prices may be expected to pre- | vail in the near future. He is meas uring the near future on the basis of tarifr Legislation. The suspense over that pending tariff Is influencing the lumber consuming public as 1t is af- fecting adversely the iron and steel l and coal bushes. The buyer Is walt l ing in the houe that the 'tariff adjust | ment, even of s1 decrease in lumber. will put the lumber on the building l ground cheaper than even now obtains l As soon as he finds out that the stump age owner abroad will claim the profit, 1t is held, the consumer will return to the market. Then e concurrent demand will come with general renewed activ- ity in all trades.
 That, at least, Is the basis of hope among Southern lumbermen. Through all the depression the big timber land owners have not sold any of their holdings at . sacrifice. They believe that soon there is to be bull of the market.
 
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