Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-22

| CORPORATION are SIMPLY those WHO Op-
| crate upon that rive. Their officers are
elected annually. they have mutual
! interests and il is found by experience that
that is the only true way 10 drive The lum-
Der upon the river Now this situation
has arisen In regard 10 the upper ST. John.
: Tho s.; John interests in New Brunswick.
| the mmbermen want all tho lumber they
| can GET manufactured at st. John. The
Maine interests represented largely by the
! Van Buren, Lumber Company, want TO
manufacture al they can in Maine and
their mills. Now the Van buren, lumber
men pu' in large crews on the upper ST.
John on the Maine side The st. John in
terestS put large crews upon both sides 10
get lumber. There are from six to seven
operations up there and six or seven large
drives to come down the Upper st. John
waters every qprins. What IS the result!
Outside of the Van Buren, Lumber Com
pany the 81. John interests combined 80
10 hang the driye upon that river, the
. conflicting Interests i do not wish ID say
| that j. Intentional or that there j. n pre-
concerted movement on tn" part Of The St
John people 10 hang the drives coming
| out bCt you have to meet the facts As
| they are, the drives do not get out in the
! spring. For seven years The lumber OF tn"
/ Van Buren, Lumber Company has been
mingled with and kept there By the ST.
! john Interests. Why because in getting
| il out in the spring il freezes in he ice
| The logs are frozen in the ice and on the
| April freshets in the spring the loss come
| out with the ice. They come down the
81. John river End you cannot sort them
YOU cannot stop them. When they get to
Van Buren, they must go on to 81. .Ioln, and
vast quantities of logs in the last six or
seven years from me Van Buren, Lumber
Company have gene 10 St. John instead OF
Van Buren, with the ice. There they are
sorted out at Fredericton and here they
are manufactured in Frederickton or ST
John. lGe American people have sub
mitt"d 10 that down TO the present time
and they say they ought not 10 submit; to
il any longer. 1t is for the St John in
lerest and for the interest OF New Bruins
wick 10 do that thing and TO keep It up.
Now this charter. if granted, will give
men or enterprise, men who do business,
the chance to take the drives upon that
-. John river and get them ont in time
take them on the flood tide, get them
down 10 connect with the log driving in
terest, the Madawaska Driving Company
and get those drives to Van Buren, and
get the logs from Il" Van Buren, Com
pany into their os.n I...rs and manufac-
ture them In Maine. Although none OF
these men are my Clients, | am pleased
ro rott l..it the Van Buren, Lumber Com
raay Lave carried on its fight for years
befor, r., departments # both nations,
al Washington and at Ottawa, and they
have won. Their interests have peen pro-
tect-d. -. John first tried TO injure them
by building booms in the river under the
tcoatY. They won out on that PROPOSE
ton Now they are trying to hinder them
and delay them b. allowing the lumber
Ia he frozen in the ice. And, Mr.. Speak
or when they come before this Legisla-
ture and ask the privilege that the lum-
Der may be driven out in the spring Of
the year and not carried out in the ice
what are they met with? They are met
with simply this: They went before the
committee of this Legislature and they
had a unanimous report in favor of this.
and then certain interests came into the
Legislature. representing the ST. John in
terests, through Steson & Cutler and the
Cushings of st. John, and they said: mo
do not give these people 4 charter to
drive their logs" Why? Because they
say they will look after il by the inter-
national commission upon the st. John
waters: and I understand my friend, the
gentleman from Calais (Mr. Trimble) has
Il letter from one OF those commission
ers saying that the commission will settle
this matter, that he thinks ii ought not to
be handled by the Legislature of Maine
Now | think something about the COM
mission that has worked, or has not
worked, upon the st. John waters 1t is
composed of three men on the American
side and as many from the Provincial
side. The three commissioners on the
American side are composed of two Re
pubicans and one Democrat. That is q
good division all right and they have been
at work, or have not been at WORK. for a
long time and what the result will be
don't know. When the appropriation is
exhausted and they don't get any more
money they will make a report. iney
won't make any report until they have
got the appropriation. If by the incoming
Congress the commission should be con-
tinued there will be two Democrats and
one Republican, and that will be all
right. They may make n report some
day but they will never make a report
while they can see big pay as commits
sion Now it has been suggested by my
friend from Bangor (Mr. Connors) that
it would be all right for the commission
to settle the matter. These commission
crs have been appointed under the trea-
/ ", the Ashburton treaty. They cannot
settle the matter of log driving. They
cannot settle this question of log driving
on the upper st. John river. And even if
| they think they can. when will they set
! tie it? If they should make report
which would give any result whatever to
the log drivers on the upper St John.
when will that report come in? They will
have to 90 into Congress. they will have
to so into the Parliament. n treaty will
nave to be agreed upon by both nations.
DO you think 1t will be done very soon?
don't; and in the meantime what relief
nave these men? For seven long years
they have struggled to get their rights
They now ask you to give them a charter
to drive their logs to an American mar