White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1923-03-23
Laid Declares for Forest Nation.
aIlzatIon.

Laid Declares for Forest Nation.
aIlxatIon.
Senator Ladd of North Dakota is
the mildest-mannered bit of political
dynamite in congress. La Toilette is
political rage incarnate; Brookhart is
like bull, but the North Dakota
senator is suave, soft-voiced and pa
tient-just dear, good professor who
happened to be taken away from his
chemical laboratory and hoisted into
congress by the non-partizans, who, as
tisans we have with us at the pres
emit time. Every once in a while the
bland North Dakotan springs some
thing that is utterly opposed to all the
political economy that he acquired In
the classic shades of the University
Of Maine. He is worrying his own
farm bloc with scheme for congress
to stabilize the prices of wheat, corr
and cotton, and now he has caused
the Pacific coast lumbermen to sit
up and take notice by his declaration
that the forests must be nationalized.
Nothing could be more unfair than to
deprive the west coast men of their
chance at the forests just when they
are about the only ones left. Fifty
years hence, when the forestry prob
lem is exclusively one of replanting
or regrowing, would be about the right
time for naturalization of timber
lands, they opine. Still, they needn't
worry too much; the senator admits
that first we must have better govern
ment. That preliminary job may be
done when today's redwood saplings
are mature.
A Little Boost for Western Lumber.
The Pacific coast invasion of the
Atlantic coast via the Panama canal
got a big boost the other day when
the Panama canal commission made
its peace with the west coast lumber
men and agreed not to count lumber
deck-loads as part Of the tonnage that
must pay dues for the use of the
canal. Other commodity deckloads are
counted This distinction Is attributed
to one of those unsung deals by which
the wheels of government are kept
turning. The commission has been
trying to get bill through congress
revising the scheme of tonnage
charges, but the lumbermen could al
ways pull more legislative strings
than the commission Now they have
made a pact, and the commission will
take It out Of the less adroit shipping
interests. They say the same willy
coast lumbermen are responsible for
the excision Of the paragraph Of the
shipping bill which gave the shipping
board power to regulate maritime
freight rates. The argument was that
1t would never do to leave foreign
vessels free and United States vessels
regulated. Something in it, too. Re-
member how the Interstate Commerce
commission regulated the late J. j.
Hill out of the Pacific shipping trade,
through its control of railway rates?
The same Panama canal works both
ways. Owing to lack Of adequate
serviie between Canadian Atlantic
ports and Vancouver, B. G., eastern
Canadian manufacturers find them
selves in fair way to be ousted
from the British Columbia markets
because low freight rates via the
canal are enabling eastern American
producers to overcome the Canadian
tariff.
How Long IL an Inch?
Mr.. Hoover's industrial simplfica-
ton plan has got the whole lumber
world into lively row. One Of the
stumbling blocks is the question:
how thick is an inch board? The Pa
cific coast lumbermen, with an eye to
long distance freight rates (comput-
ed by the pound and not by the
board FOOT, hold that an inch-board
is one that is thick enough. say
about three-fourths Of an inch. The
North Carolina Pine association
looks heavenward and protests-not
forgetting that Its markets are near
by-that an inch Is an inch, histor-
ically, fundamentally and morally.
An ill-mannered New York lumber
dealer said that the devotion of the
west coast lumbermen to the scant
board was due to sagacious desire
to make the consumer pay for the
sawdust. Other New York lumbermen