Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — Page 2

IT'S A BIG INDUSTRY

spicuous and supplies a most interesting subject for consideration. The lumber business of Washington is represented by figures that are almost incomprehensible. The Pacific Lumber Trade Journal presents statistics relating to the State, which show a total of 24,002 men employed the year round, receiving daily wages amounting to $55,645, making a grand total for the year of $14,265,175. Here are the figures in detail: Wages paid.—— Where employed. No. Daily. Yearly. Sawmills 7.025 $14,050 $ 4,215,000 Shingle mills .... 3,800 10,450 2,090,000 Logging camps .. 8,020 20,065 5,016,250 Sash and door sactories 631 1.420 425,925 Planing mills and box factories ... 1,140 2,565 769,500 Barrel, tub and pail factories .. 148 323 96,900 Shingle bolt camps 2,000 3,800 760,C0J Retail yards .... 217 434 130,200 Miscellaneous ... 1,015 2,538 761,400 T0ta1524,002 $55,645 $14,265,175 The daily output of the Western Washington mills alone is astounding. Each day there are 7,425,000 feet of lumber turned out and 28,580,000 feet of shingles. This is the product of 352 mills. In the Logging Camp. Hight in the heart of the forest the lumber Camp is located, and with its carpet of fragrant pine needles, its canopy of green branches and the little brook of pure spring water flowing past the door of the cook house, it is an ideal spot. It is such a spot as the city bred people travel hundreds of miles to find during the hot summer months, and yet this Is a place where the men congregate at night, and after the evening meal gather around the tire and swap stories, totally oblivious of their surroundings and of the beauties of nature. But this Is their shop—it is to them what the machine shop Is to the mechanic; what the store Is to the tired clerk, and the office to the business nutn— for It Is here that they toil for their daily bread. Many of them have been bred In the forest, and the scragty cedars and the tall firs are an old story to them. To them It Is nothing that their daily lifet Is one of constant

danger, for many a poor fellow has been carried into camp before the close of the day’s work maimed and bleeding and perhaps crushed in hideous manner by some accident—perhaps a tree falling on him and pinning him beneath its tremendous weight, or perhaps struck by a flying stick sent through the air like a rocket when the great tree crashes to earth. It is a matter of everyday occurrence to them. The day’s work commences when day breaks, and the men are hurrying to their places in the forest. The horses are taken from the stables, and before long steam has been raised in the many small boilers and the forest takes on an air of activity that only a few hours before seemed impossible. All through the long day the “fellers” are busy with their assistants and many a giant of the forest is laid low; the sawyers cut the big stick up into the proper lengths;

RAFTING LOGS AT THE FOOT OF A LANDING ON PUGET SOUND.

the “swamper” clears away the brush; the “barker” strips off the rough bark; the “hook-tender” performs his part of the work; the “hand-sklddex” causes the log to be conveyed to the railroad, and the work of the man of the logging camp is over. With the completion of the railroad and branches, landings, skid-roads from the landings, camp buildings, consisting of cook house, bunk house, barn and blacksmith shop, then it is that the actual work of logging commences. Every man has his particular work to do, and his business is to do his work well and to keep ahead of the fellow back of him. The first ones to start out are the “feller” and his “helper.” Their business is to fell the trees. The position of “feller” requires a man of experience and good judgment, for he must fell the trees so they will not break lip; he must fell them near the skid-road, so they may be as accessible as possible. This may, on the face of it, seem easy, but when it is taken into consideration that the trees lean in all directions, and that the wind blows from all points of the compass, it Is evident that it requires experience, skill and a lot of hard work to “throw a tree” in a different direction from that in which it would naturally fall. This is accomplished, first, by utider-cuttlng on the side toward which it is to fall; and.

PORT BLAKELEY SAWMILL, LARGEST IN THE WORLD.

HAULING THE LOGS ON THE SKIDWAY TO THE LANDING.

second, when the tree is nearly sawed through to the undercut, by driving steel wedges in the saw kerf on the opposite side of the tree to that in which the “feller” wants it to go. Many of these “fellers” become so expert that they can fell a tree so that it will fall and drive a stake set upright in the ground 100 feet away. The sawyers, usually two in number, follow the “fellers,” and having had instructions from the foreman as to what lengths are required, they saw the trees into the proper lengths in a good and workmanlike manner. This is a particular part of the work, for if the saw is allowed to run so that the cut varies six to eight inches from a straight line, in a log four feet in diameter or more, it would entail a serious loss.

Following the sawyers comes the “swamper.” His work consists in clearing all brush, windfalls, etc., away

from the space lying between the tree and the nearest skid-road. Sometimes the services of a team of horses are required to haul the old logs out of the way. The “swamper” is a busy man, and if so disposed is always able to find something to do. Alons the Skid Road. Following the "swamper” are the “barkers.” Their number depends largely upon the time of the year when the cutting is being done. In the spring, when the sap is running, and the bark comes off easily, two or three men are able to do the same amount of work which requires double that number later In the season. The bark of the Douglas fir tree is sometimes eight or ten inches thick, making it impossible to drag the log unless the bark is at least stripped from the side which lies next to the skids. The barkers usually cut through the bark along the top of the log with their broad-bladed barking axes, then use their barking irons to pry it off down each side of the log. These barking Irons resemble nothing so much as a steel crow bar, with one end flattened and bent a little to facilitate the prying off of the bark. When the log is barked the “hook tender” is the next man to take it in charge. He casts his eye along all sides of the log and decides on which

side it will "ride” mosjt easily, after which be “snips” or bevels the end of ihe log on that side which It Is to ride, in order to keep the log from bunting against a skid and throwing it out of place. A log well sniped and riding along easily on its proper side is the proof a “hook-tender’s” skill. The “hook-tender” has charge of the log until the team takes it away to the skid-road, and in this connection the “hand-skidder” comes in. The latter gets small skids, five or six inches in diameter, and arranges them along the path the log Is to take to the skid-road. The log being all barked and sniped and the hand skids arranged, the team comes along with the wire icpe and steel block. The log Is first rolled on its “riding side;” then the block and tackle are used several times, depending on the distance and the nature of the ground, until it is draggedto the skid-road, where the team hitches to it direct and starts for the landing. Not the least important workman in the logging camp is the “greaser,” who goes in front of the log with a pailful of grease and a stick with a cloth on one end, with which he swipes grease on every skid, so that the log will slip over easily. On the return trip he follows the team and sweeps off every skid, so that the road will be clean for the next log. From four to ten horses are required ro haul the logs, depending upon the size of the timber. The locomotive also plays an important part and it winds its way in and out among the stumps :tr.d valleys back to the landing for anil her load. The logs are rolled from the :’.rs on to the roadway down which .■ iiey slide into the water where they ire arranged into rafts witli from thirty to fifty logs to each section; then hey are ready for the tug to take them ;o market. Such a crew of men will put in during lie entire season an average of about IP.OOO feet a day. If the logger wishes c increase his output he must put in mother crew, as each man in a crew has his particular work to do and merely to increase the number of men in a rew is to lighten the work of some particular one without increasing the utput. Such a division of labor and apportionment of work as described forms what is commonly termed a logging camp. In comparing the old way of logging, where oxen were used In place of horses and also in place of the railroad, it is evident that steam and horses can do more, and in less time, than oxen, and it is only a question of lime when the horse will join the ox and modern machinery will supplant the one as it has already done the other. I he exit of the steam locomotive is also prophesied in the near future, and with it may go the “feller,” for it is within the bounds of possibility that the giants of the forest will be laid low by means of a hot electric wire and silent motors will carry the logs to the water’s edge. Largest Mill in the Worl’. The largest cargo lumber mill in the world is situated at Port Blakeley, nine miles across Puget Sound from Seattle. The mill proper is situated in a sheltered cove, and as the steamer approaches the boom limits containing millions of feet of logs can be seen. The mill is situated at the upper end of the cove, and the mill and yard area exceeds ten acres. The mill proper Is of the two-story kind, the dimensions being 102x450 feet, which enable it to saw the largest timbers In the woods. Last year the output of the Port Blakeley mill exceeded 109,000,000 feet, more than the output of any other mill in the United States. The company eaters exclusively to the cargo trade, and vessels may be seen at their docks almost any time loading for nearly every port In the world.

Begone, Dull Care!

A Droitwlch barber was Just finishing lathering a customer, and was talking volubly, as usual. “Yes, sir," he said, “there’s no carelessness allowed by our employer. Every time we cut a customer’s face we are fined sixpence, and if we make an ugly gash It costs us a shilling.’’ Then, picking up and brandishing his razor, he added: “But I don’t care a rap to-day. I’ve Just won a sovereign.’’— London Answers. v It Is not safe for a girl to let her steady see her In kitchen duds until after the wedding invitations are out After that he can't get away.

DELIBERATE ACTION.

PRESIDENT NOT DISPOSED TO RUSH RECIPROCITY. Practical Details and Results to Be Carefully Considered Fefore Any of the Kasson Treaties Are Resubmitted to the Senate for Ratification. Free Trade and other newspapers which so glibly misinterpret the late President’s attitude with regard to foreign trade extension and who so confidently count upon President Roosevelt to make good their ministerpretation, would do well to pattern after the intelligent reasonableness of the following statement by the Washington correspondent of the New York Times: “There will be no precipitate action by the President on the subject of reciprocity. The agitation on this subject in sdme of the newspapers, witn assertions bolstered up by quotations from Mr. Roosevelt’s public assurances, whether intended to help the cause of reciprocity or to prejudice it, has no warrant further than that intended in the promise of the President to adhere to the policies of McKinley. The subject is a large and complicated oue, and not even Mr. McKinley, after years of experience, was prepared to say just what the details of a reciprocity treaty with a foreign country should be. A reciprocity policy cannot be defined in any but the most general terms by the Executive, and with the legislative branch must rest the task of providing the details.” It is well and truly said that the subject of reciprocity is “a large and complicated one”—so large and so complicated that not even President McKinley, with his wealth of practical knowledge in tariff matters, could or did claim to have mastered it. Unlike that rather numerous brood of quick thinkers who imagine they have solved the intricate problem after having given It a cursory glance, and who don't trouble themselves about the working details, Mr. McKinley considered it to be his duty to go into the reciprocity question deeply and thoroughly. He had previously turned the matter over to hands and heads which he supposed were competent, only to find out that they were bunglers and botchers. So, in the last few months of his life he had devoted himself studiously to the examination of reciprocity, alike on general principles and in detailed workings. The result of his painstaking investigation was the Buffalo speech, in which he declared for the enlargement of our foreign trade through a scheme of reciprocal concessions such as should not curtail domestic production. In bis judgment, reciprocity that should increase the imports of articles “which we ourselves produce” was not reciprocity at all; it was free trade in disguise. It was this deep-seated conviction which animated the statement by President McKinley to a close and confidential friend, in Washington, on the afternoon of June C, 1901, to the effect that he (the President) favored only that plan of reciprocity sanctioned by the Republican national platform of 1900— namely, reciprocity “in articles which we do not ourselves produce,” and that he was opposed to any scheme of trade extension that would take from a single American workman his job. There is precisely where William McKinley stood at the end of the first week in June, at a time when the quick thinkers had him all thought out as ready to abandon protection, and that is where he stood when at Buffalo in the first week of September he made- his last great speech. Hence, we say, the over-night theorists would do well to think again once or twice before they attribute to the dead President and to his successor in office views and purposes regarding reciprocity not entertained by either Mr. McKinley or Mr. Roosevelt. The policy of McKinley is to be continued absolutely unbroken by Roosevelt. The country has this pledge recorded, as It were, over McKinley’s coffin. Of its conscientious fulfillment by President Roosevelt there is no possible doubt. There will be, as the Times’ Washington correspondent states, “no precipitate action by the President on the subject of reciprocity.”—American Economist. A Queition of “Sugar.” The consumption of sugar last year in the United States averaged about fiftyseven pounds for each Inhabitant, which at 6% cents a pound would cost $3.42 apiece, or $16.10 for a family of five persons. If the duty were removed and the sugar trust allowed the people to get the benefit' thereof, the saving would be $1.14 for each person, or $5.70 for a family of five, for a whole year. There is neither certainty nor probability that the savings would be as great as that, but there is almost a certainty that whatever reduction should be alllowed would be made for the purpose of breaking down the domestic beet sugar Industry, which is now the source of wages and income to 1,600,000 perlons. Would the saving secured by removing the duty on raw sugar pay for endangering the life of so Important an American Industry and one which In a few years promises to supply all the sugar needed and at lower prices than ever before known? What Intelligent mau would consent to be bribed with $5.70 to bring about a possible disaster to so useful and beneficial a business. Mischief for Idle Honda. When men or women have plenty of serious work to do they don’t potter with trifles. It Is the idle who make mountains of molehills. If the Demo

cratlc party had any great or true aim for the real good of the country It would not bother Itself and harass the voters over such a petty and utterly useless Issue as the repeal of duties which, it claims, are outgrown and therefore inoperative. Its patron saint for such enterprises is Don Quixote. The party can only make Itself respectable by tackling the main question and fighting protection squarely on. its merits. In doing so it may expose Its blindness to a thousand obvious facts and its obtuseness to sound reason, but it does thereby escape contempt. Wastes an I Living:. The old stock argument of the free traders used tq be when, in spite of their squirming, they were brought face to face with the fact that wages were higher in this country than abroad, that, although wages were higher, the cost of living was higher, too, and that, therefore, workmen In this country were at no advantage, and that free trade, while it would lower wages, would at the same time lower the cost of living. This argument has fallen somewhat into “innocuous desuetude” of late, yet occasionally it stalks abroad, like Banquo’s ghost. It Is interesting, therefore, to note that Mr. Jacob Weidmann, a prominent silk dyer of Paterson, N. J., states that, while the wages of the workmen employed in his mill at Paterson are from two to four times as large as the wages paid to similar labor in Switzerland, which is Mr. Weldmann’s native country, the cost of living is less. In Switzerland a good silk dyer Is paid $4 per week; in this country the poorest dyers get $9 per week. The best dyers in Switzerland are paid from $5 to $8 per week, while in this country the best dyers earn from sls to S3O per week. These are actual figures given by a man who knows. There is no guesswork about them, neither is there any guesswork about Mr. Weldmann’s statement concerning the comparative cost of living, for, as he states, some of the men employed In his mills who have come to this country from abroad have kept records, and have found that they can live more cheaply in this country. When free trade is forced to meet facts it always gets the worst of things. The German Tariff. All the commercial barriers that could be raised against other lands would not enable Germany to raise all her breadstuffs. During the year ending June 30, 1899, Germany imported from the United States 290,710,196 pounds of hog products alone, much greater than we sold to any other nation except the United Kingdom. It is a safe assumption, therefore, that the tariff law that Is now before the Federal Council and which will be passed for the agrarians is not the same schedule of impost duties that will go into effect on January 1, 1904.—Chicago Record-Herald. Blind Prejudice. “No nation can get rich by taxing Itself,” said the anti-tariff folks year after year. “Down with the tariff taxes.” And now that we have got rich in spite of their theories they will want to “down” the tariff. It looks more like a case of blind prejudice than of sane reasoning. Why? Let the tariff remain on steel rails. It does not affect their price, they being already as low as in free trade England. Why cause an industrial disturbance? What I» Best. That kind of a tariff law is best that causes the most and the best wages in the country.

Mr. Choate Didn’t Know Her.

A very well-known lawyer and his wife were in London this summer, and the wife had to be operated on for appendicitis as soon as she arrived. They were great friends of Mr. Choate, and the ambassador sent at once to inquire of her condition and kept her room supplied with flowers. The first day she was able to walk out husband and wife met the ambassador on the street. Mr. Choate quickly jumped from his hansom and joined them with eager protestations of delight at meeting bis friend again. He warmly shook both the hands of his comrade and asked a dozen questions about his health, his address and his probable stay in London. The wife, who had been standing by waiting for her turn, finally said with a pout, “Why, Mr. Choate, you don’t take any notice of me. You haven’t spoken a word to me yet. I really believe you have forgotten me.” “My dear madame,” said Mr. Choate, “I must confess that I did not recognize you without your appendix.”— Philadelphia Post.

Natural Waters.

All natural waters contain a greater or less amount of mineral matter in solution. Rain water has the smallest percentage of solid Impurities of any, and therefore it is taken as the standard of soft water. The terms of soft and hard, however, as applied to water are scientifically considered purely relative. Water is usually reckoned to be “soft” when it contains less than one five-thou-sandth part of its weight of mineral ingredients and "hard” when It contains more than one four-thousandth. Soft water has the property of easily forming a lather with soap and is therefore suitable for washing purposes, while hard water will only form a lather, and that Imperfectly, with considerable difficulty. A mineral water has more than one two-thousandth of its weight of natural dissolved solids, and a medicinal water Is a variety of mineral water containing a varying percentage of dissolved natural mN or gaseous drugs.