The Alaskan., 1931-04-03

tO the WOOQmen and we al! made k loney.
 | Remember, at that time the mills paid us five to six dollars per thousand feet for first class" timber. Their selling price to the market was in proportion and the market got on an aver age, better grade of lumber than the mills turn out to lay. Still we all made money.
 But the Forest Department came along and forced us to fool around cutting limbs on sticks I'D to a ten inch top and take it from me, there is much waste effort in looping off limbs on o91a per cent of Alaska spruce in order to get a ten inch top I had to take out hemlock when the mills had no use for hemlock at any price; I could not take put yellow cedar unless I took all the "merchantable" spruce and hemlock when my orders called for yellow cedar only; I had to take out "conky, check i ed, rotten, knotty logs" even if they were 50 per cent rotten be- cause the Forest Department agents declared that we could mot waste 'merchantable timber
 saw the handwriting or the wall. I saw that I was facing financial ruin and bankruptcy, would perhaps lose my home and etl my little accumulations if lcOntinued to operate under the direction of the Forest Bureau jagents. l quit while I was ahead Of the game; I quit owing no money to any business house for my logging operations. I was not forced, like the Mcdonald Bros. were on Vanks Island to leave the merchants and loggers rolding the sack for over thirty | thousand dollars; like Gordon Mcdonald, whose rafts were just Scld by marshaps sale at Wran- gell and whose equipment wa taken up by creditors to satisfy Judgement for debts incurred b
 his operations; nor was I forced ito take stock in the Juneau and iiKetchikan mills in order to pro Itect their indebtedness to ne, a, they have with Sawyer -McKay and SaWyer-Reynolds; and dur .Hg those days, the mills never for moment thought of float ing bonds" or selling stock to be able to continue to operate.
 1 Right now, if there was mar :i1et for average good timber, at least a hundred men could be employed with jacks and other small equipment, getting out timber. I have cruised along the shores, hunted along the beaches and back as far as the ordinary small gear needs go, and I state tight here and now that Henry Aitch does not know one tring about what the logger can do these days. Right between here and Wrangell, today with the right equipment and two other men, I can take out a million feet of timber in short order, which any mill would be willing to buy. And what is true of this much logged section, is also true Of other sections.
 But let us get down to some specific debatable question. Let Henry Aitch defend the regula ton of the Forest Department which forbids exporting of tim Der other than that which has been cut in our mills. Or let him defend, if he can, the rule which declares a "merchantable tim Der is any log that is at least 50 per cent sound and ten inches at the small end" Or let him defend the policy which says that must take out hemlock timber along with spruce when there is absolutely no market for hem lock, or that the principle of exporting timber is wrong.
 Then when he justifies this policy. perhaps he will convince