pany, A. Cotton, Joseph Chew, the Imperial Shingle Company, all of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I did also visit and personally inspect the two shingle-manufacturing plants of Thomas Kirkpatrick and the shingle manufacturing plant of the Canada Shingle Company, located at Cedar Cove, British Columbia, Canada.

As a result of my personal investigation and inspection, I found that the number and kinds of workmen engaged in and about the plants of the above-named eight concerns were as follows:

From these figures it will be seen that the percentage of white, compared with the percentage of oriental employees engaged, was as follows: White workmen, 20 per cent; oriental workmen, 80 per

cent.

I, Richard W. Douglas, of Seattle, Wash., United States of America, did on Wednesday, November 11, 1908, visit and personally inspect the shingle-manufacturing plant of the Pacific Coast Lumber Mills (Limited), of Vancouver, British Columbia.

As a result of my personal inspection and investigation I found conditions in the plant hereinabove referred to to be as follows: Number of upright shingle machines installed and in operation in this plant, 11; also 1 hand shingle machine.

The number and kind of workmen engaged in and about the plant of the above-named concern were as follows:

From these figures it will be seen that the percentage of white compared with the percentage of oriental employees engaged was as follows: White workmen, 28 per cent; oriental workmen, 72 per cent.

The upright sawyers were receiving 13 cents per thousand of shingles cut, the packers 7 cents per thousand of shingles cut; common laborers were receiving $1 per day-a few $1.25 per day.

FOREST CONSERVATION.

The problem of the perpetuation of our forests and the future supply of timber in the United States is very largely and almost entirely a financial one. It is neither an academic theory nor an abstruse question in political economy. It is essentially nonpolitical. Foreign competition would only aggravate an already complex

situation.

The splendid stand taken by President Roosevelt regarding the conservation of our forests and the necessity for conserving our natural timber resources has the heartiest and most unqualified support and indorsement of American lumbermen.

In order to economically and judiciously harvest the timber, the lumber manufacturer and timber owner must receive a fair price for the entire product of the tree or he will be compelled to only harvest about 60 per cent of the best timber in the woods, which he is now doing, and leave 40 per cent to be wasted, and in most cases to be destroyed by fires, which almost inevitably follow logging operations. In order to demonstrate the force of this argument that the element of price received from the product of the forest absolutely determines the utilization of the contents of the tree to its minimum or maximum, it will only be necessary to cite one example, which is typical of Pacific coast logging methods.

A leading Columbia River logging firm, which sell their logs principally to the Portland (Oreg.) mills, made up from their own books the following almost startling figures of the terrific waste which now menaces our Pacific coast forests:

Example 1.

Cut to January 1, 1906.

_feet__

97, 808, 825 feet. 41, 671, 175 $6.71

Estimates of the amount of timber actually on the ground, but not
removed on account of the low ruling price for lumber__.
Average selling price of logs...---

Example 2.

Cut to January 1, 1907_

feet. 165, 852, 000

Estimates of the amount of timber actually on the ground, but not removed on account of the low ruling price for lumber_-_-_feet_ 25, 482, 000 Average selling price of logs_

$9.41

Example 8.

Cut to January 1, 1908_.

feet 230, 477, 003

Estimates of the amount of timber actually on the ground, but not removed on account of the low ruling price for lumber_-_-_feet. 18, 826, 997 Average selling price of logs---.

$9.87

Reasonable profit an essential factor in economical logging.

The photographs Nos. 1 and 2, taken on the lands of the BoothKelly Lumber Company, of Eugene, Oreg., are offered for the purpose of illustrating more clearly the figures which have been submitted showing the very necessary and close relationship which the prices of lumber bear to the conservation of the forests, as illustrated by the manner of logging.

By examining photograph marked No. 1, we find that the land has been practically swept bare of its timber. The logs were removed from the lands during the winter of 1906 and spring of 1907, when the lumber trade of the United States had reached the highest point for many years.

Photograph No. 2 indicates the system of logging in vogue during the winters of 1907-8, when the great lumber industry of the Pacific coast was prostrated and paralyzed by the agitation and imposition of the railroads of a 25 per cent higher freight rate to the Middle and Eastern States of the United States than had been formerly in force. The owners of these timber lands in common with hundreds of other operators found that the common grades of lumber, which constitute 75 per cent of the tree, could not be marketed on the freight rate and compete as formerly with similar common grades located nearer the base of consumption. The mills had to be operated. Fixed charges had to be met. A greater proportion of higher grades had to be shipped. The forests, as you will observe, were simply "gutted." History has proven that fire will inevitably sweep the remainder of this timber.

The illustrations show the necessity and wisdom of maintaining the duty on lumber in the vital matter of forest conservation through economical logging methods.

When the manufacturer receives a fair price for his product he is not only able to pay his workingmen the highest wages but retain the American market for ourselves as well.

This is a most happy example of the blending of the benefits of a protective tariff and the wise and beneficent results which flow from intelligent and cooperative conservation. The benefits of protection are mutual and reciprocal.

Growing timber as a business by the Government.

The removal of the duty on Canadian lumber will not aid us to grow a single tree. It will only hasten the destruction of our forests through enforced competition with timber from other countries.

Let Congress pass a law permitting the Government to have the right to condemn for national forest conservation purposes all lands from which the timber has been removed, at a nominal figure. The character of the land where the bulk of the timber growing in the United States is found consists of a rough, broken country, fit for only two things, the growth of timber and grass. The Government could lease the lands which are acquired for reforestation for grazing purposes in the West at, say, 5 cents an acre per year. The rental from these lands at 5 cents per acre would equal the interest on the outstanding bonds issued to purchase the lands at, say, $2.50 per acre.