Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-05-11

ne OlV MIN SHOOK MS Heau. i
don't believe il. Bryce. Who's the
crazy MANI"
Ills name is Gregory, He's Scotch"
"Now | know he's crazy. When lie
hands you the money. you'll find he's
talking real money but thinking of
Confederate grcenhacks."
Bryce laughed. pal" he declared,
eff you and | have any brains, they
must roll around in our skulls like
buckshot in tin pan. Listen, now,
with all your ears. When Bill Hen
derSOn wanted to build the logging
railroad which he afterward sold to
Pennington. and which Pennington is
now using as club to beat our brains
out, did he have the money to build
it?"
mo. l loaned it to him."
"How did he pay you back?"
"Why. he gave me a ten-year con-
tract for hauling our logs at a dollar
and half thousand feet, and
merely credited his account with the
amount of the freight bills he sent me
until he'd squared up the loan, prin-
cipal and interest"
"Wel, if Bill Henderson financed
himself ON that plan, why didn't we
think of using the same time-honored
plan for financing road to parallel
Pennington's"
John Cardigan sat up with jerk.
"By thunder" he murmured. That
was as close as he ever came to utter
ing an oath.
"All right, John Cardigan. l forgive
you. Now, then. continue to listen:
To the north of that great block of
timber held by you and Pennington lie
the redwood holdings of the Trinidad
Redwood Timber company"
Never heard of them before"
well, timber away in there in back
of beyond has never been well adver-
tised. because it is regarded as prac-
tically inaccessible. You will remem-
Der that some ten years ago a COM
pany was Incorporated with the idea
of building railroad from Grants
Pass, Ore, on the line of the Southern
Pacific, down the Oregon and CalifOr-
MIA coast to tap the redwood belt"
81 remember. There was big
whoop and hurrah and then the propO
sitiOn died abOrnin'. The engineers
found that the cost Of construction
through that mountainous country
was prohibitive."
"Well, before the project died.
Gregory and his associates believed
that 1t was going to survive. They
quietly gathered together thirty thou
sand acres of good stuff and then sat
down to wait for the railroad. And
they are still waiting. Gregory, by the
way, is the president Of the Trinidad
Redwood Timber company. He's an
Edinburgh man, and the fly American
promoters got him to put up the price
Of the timber and then mortgaged
1 their interests to him as security for
the advance. He foreclosed on their
notes five years ago."
"And there he Is with his useless
TIMBER" John Cardigan murmured
thoughtfully. "The poor Scotch suck.
err
"Ile isn't poor The purchase Of
that timber didn't even dent his bank
roll. But he would like to sell his
timber. and being Scotch. naturally
he desires to sell 1t at profit. In
order to create market for it, how
ever, he has to have an outlet to that
market. We supply the outlet-with
his help: and what happens? Why,
| timber that cost him fifty and seventy
| five cents per thousand feet stumpage
| and the actual timber will overrun
| the cruisers estimate every time-will
he worth two dollars and fifty cents
perhaps more.
"He loans us the money to build
our road. We build ton through
our timber and into his. The coilat-
eral security which we put up will be
Il twenty five-year contract to haul
his logs to tidcwater on Humboldt
bay. ut base freight rate of one dol
lar and fifty cents with an increase
| of twenty-five cents per thousand
every five years thereafter, and an op-
| ton for a renewal of the contract
upon expiration, at the rate of freight
last paid. In addition we sell him. at
II reasonable figure. sufficient land
fronting on tidewater to enable him
to erect n sawmill, lay out his yards.
and build dock out into the deep
water.
"Thus Gregory will have that which
| he hasn't got nOw--an outlet to his
market by water; and when the rail
road to SeGuoia builds in from the
south. 1t will connect with the road
which we have built from Seluoia up
into Township nine to the north !;
hence Gregory will also have an ont
let to his market by rail. He can
easily get good manager to run his
| lumber business until he finds a Gus
toner for 1t. and in the meantime we
will be charging his account with our
freight bills against him and gradual
ly pay off the loan without pinching
ourselves"
John Cardigans old hand came crop
ingly forth and rested affectiOnately