The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-03-12
CONGRESSMAN BYRD
DISCUSSES TARIFF
CONTINUED from Page One.)

duty Also, upon investigation, l find
| that there is annually brought into
this county wood for paper pulp to the
amount of nearly five million dollars.
This is imported from Canada, also
free of duty, and but for the fact that
they get it there, many of the pulp
mills would be compelled to move to
the South, or at least to come South
and get our second growth pine, which
is the best paper producing wood in
the world.
Another thing that should be con-
sidered is that we are annually ship
ping into Canada over six million dol
lars worth of lumber, large per cent
of which is yellow pine from the
South-principally used in railroad
construction and for other purposes
requiring strength and durability of
material. On account of the water
transportation. especially from the At
lantic sea coast, it can be placed into
Canada cheaper than from elsewhere.
The only yellow pine in her Dominion
is in British Columbia but the over
land freight rates prohibit its shipment
into Eastern Canada in competition
with the Southern product Also, there
is no yellow pine in the United States
except in the South, and in the states
of, Washington, Oregon and California
that is at all suitable for purposes re"
quiring strength of material. Now. |
| have copy of petition to the Can
adam parliament, bu the lumber man.
ufacturers of British Columbia, insist
ing that a retaliatory tariff be levied
on the American product, so as to give
| them a monopoly of the entire Cana
dian market, and should this be done,
1 am quite sure that no part of the
lumber industry would suffer like that
of the South. So, it will be we'll for
our people to remember that they are
deeply interested in the export mar
ket, which has increased from twenty
million dollars in 1895 to nearly fifty
million dollars annually and hence
they should do nothing to invite retail
iation by any foreign country. 1t
seems that an expanding foreign mar
ket for all grades of lumber would be
than
home market on one or more grades.
Both, we cannot have, without danger
of ruinous retaliation.
1T may be, as claimed by some of
our lumbermen, that the duty now i'm
posed enables them to realize better
prices for their cheaper grades, but it
must not be forgotten that all lumber
made in this country from the scrubby
Canadian logs RATED across the lakes
free of duty, is placed on the market
in competition with the same grade of
Southern lumber. Should Canada re-
taliate by placing two-dollar duty on
American lumber, it would not only
close that market to the Southern lum
Der. but would not improve their con
dition in the markets at home.
Also, l am apprehensive that oul
Southern mill people are being de
ceived about the wages paid to la
borers in the Canadian mills. UpoI
an examination of the American ant
Canadian statistics, | find that the
mill laborers in Eastern Canada re
ceive practically the same wages al
those of Michigan, Wisconsin, anC
elsewhere in the lumber districts o
the North. 1t may be true that cheal
labor has heretofore been employed II
the lumber districts of British Colum
bia, and this to certain extent ma!
have operated against. the lumber in
terests along the Pacific coast, but
did not in any wise affect the Southern
mill men, since the lumber from Brit
ish Columbia cannot be sold ia
enough East to affect the home maj
| kets from the Southern product. Blu
this cheap labor has been dispense
: within that section, since the mills Gu
their timber almost wholly from tn
I public domain in British Columbia, an
every grant now made for this purpos
contains an express stipulation that Z
Chinese or Japanese abor shall be eI
ployed either in cutting or in manufa
ilg the timber granted. This ca
not be questioned, because / have b
fore me an official form of every til
Der grant made by the Canadian go
eminent.
II From the number of letters recei
ed by us on this subject, one mig
conclude that Canada produced lumb
sufficient to supply the world, b
upon investigation find her total pr