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Impressions of a Tenderfoot 



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First 

 I have been "out West." 



To be sure, I know I am not the first lumberman or lumber 

 newspaper man who has gone on a tour of discovery to the Pacific 

 Coast, ami without any assumption that my impressions, analyses 

 and deductions are in any wise accurate, it is just possible that 

 they may interest Hardwood Record readers. 



It so happened that a couple of citizens of the effete East made 

 a similar trip some years ago, and in the smoking compartment 

 of the Pullman encountered a group of typical Pacific Coast 

 boomers. The two friends listened to the conversation that pre- 

 vailed. They heard recited details of stupendous enterprises in 

 which the figures ran up into the billions in both quantities and 

 dollars, and they glanced at each other and shook their heads. 

 They got glimmering verbal vistas of stupendous reclamation 

 projects, the irrigation of principalities, wonderful development in 

 mines, stupendous timber areas, marvelous propositions in lumber- 

 ing, mining, etc. They were interested but astounded by the 

 figures and the alleged facts presented. 



It so happened that the two tenderfeet dropped in to dinner at 

 the restaurant of the Washington hotel at Seattle on their arrival 

 at this city, and saw sitting at an adjoining table the bunch of 

 exploiters. Being interested in the culinary possibilities of the 

 Coast, the two friends listened to the order being given the waiter 

 by 6ne of the "barkers." He said to the white-aproned attendant: 

 ' ' Bring me twelve dozen oysters. ' ' 



One friend turned to the other and observed: "Bill, they're 

 just as big eaters as they are liars, ain't they?" 



The nub of this story hinges on the fact that a native Pacific 

 Coast oyster is a coppery-flavored bivalve about the size of a 

 hazel nut. 



This anecdote simplj' makes a basis for the prejudice that gets 

 on the nerves of the conservative easterner as he hears the re- 

 sounding, glittering and reiterated praises from every citizen of 

 the West concerning the land in which he is a visitor. Every 

 last man in that country is a "booster." To his mind there is 

 no region on earth like the Inland Empire and the Pacific Coast. 

 Its resources, its possibilities, its wonders, its climate, its soil, its 

 inhabitants, its crops, its fruit, its flowers, and everything else 

 concerning it is thrown at you from daylight until bedtime. Of 

 course, j'ou must believe part of the stories that reach you, but all 

 in all it looks to a tenderfoot like a gigantic game of promotion. 

 And still — they are doing wonderful things in the Inland 

 Empire and the Northwest. There are lots of features that appeal 

 to the stranger. Primarily, in due course of nature it is not an 

 alluring land, the soil is not marvelous, even with the aid of 

 water obtained from the mountains by means of irrigation ditches; 

 the climate is not good — it 's either too cold or too hot — too wet 

 or too dry. There is nothing alluring in the landscape, it's cold, 

 it's rugged, it's depressing, but these people of the Inland Empire 

 and the Pacific Coast are doing wonderful things, and every last 

 man is a "boomer." He preaches the gospel of the Great West 

 day in and day out, and the visitor can't fail to be impressed by 

 his enthusiasm and his earnest belief in the fact that he thinks 

 he is telling the truth. 



They are doing great things in this country. They are building 

 good towns with good buildings. They are building splendid school 

 houses. They are building fine streets. They are equipping them- 

 selves with electric light and electric transportation facilities. 

 They are building monster conduits for water which they are 

 getting out of the foothills of the mountains. They are really 

 making a semi-arid country productive. They are raising grains, 

 fruit, flowers. They are building substantial and handsome homes. 

 Yes, they are doing wonderful things in the Inland Empire of 

 Montana, Idaho and western Washington as well as along the 

 entire length of the Pacific Coast. 



The lumber operations are generally on a stupendous scale. 



Paper 



There are comparatively few small operators. Timber holdings 

 generally run up into the billions of feet. They are manufacturing 

 lumber fast, but only reasonably well. They seem to have very 

 little idea about the finer manipulation, seasoning and utilization 

 of their product, but they are crowding the game for all it is 

 worth, and are making what money they can out of it, and doing 

 it as promptly as possible. The general lumber proposition is 

 almost a duplicate of that which obtained in Jlichigan and Wis- 

 consin a quarter of a century ago, only it is being <lonp on a 

 bigger scale and faster. As a general proposition it doesn't look 

 particularly alluring to the conservative eastern lumberman. Not 

 only is the lumber business growing too fast, but the general 

 expense account is too big a factor. 



The foregoing statement is a general proposition, and by no 

 means intended to be specific, because there are sagacious and 

 experienced lumbermen in that region who have a system embrac- 

 ing low cost and high efficiency that is scarcely excelled in any 

 other part of the United States. 



Referring specifically to the region known as the Inland Empire, 

 which forms a source of supply to the general consuming building 

 world markets of the East, a high freight rate obtains, not very 

 much less than from the Coast. Apparently the real salvation of 

 anything like money-making in the lumber business results from 

 the local demand and the business developed in the nearby terri- 

 tory of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Of course, it is well known 

 that marvelous things are being done in the way of developing the 

 gigantic agricultural provinces immediately north of the Inland 

 Empire, and a vast quantity of low-grade lumber is being mar- 

 keted in that region. The good end of the lumber product (the 

 so-called western pine, white pine and larch) apparently "can 

 stand the freight" of the long eastern shipments, but the per- 

 centage of this good end of stock is comparatively small. 



There are quite a uumoer of things that contribute to this 

 hurried and on the whole rather careless lumber production in the 

 Inland Empire and the Pacific Coast. Lumbermen in the East 

 scarcely realize the immediate, almost constant fire hazard that 

 obtains in that region. Every timber owner is sitting on a powder 

 magazine knowing not at what instant his big holdings will be 

 fire swejjt. He is crowding the game to get what he can get 

 quickly out of his timber holdings rather than take the chance of 

 fire depredations. 



Again, with the stupendous internal improvements prevailing, 

 taxation is not an unimportant item. It costs money and big 

 bunches of money to hold an important timber area in the Inland 

 Empire or on the Pacific Coast. The timber may have been pur- 

 chased almost for a song, but the cumulative cost, resulting from 

 constantly increased taxation, very quickly builds up a scale of 

 stumpage valuation that impels the operator to work fast and 

 put his timber into lumber as quickly as possible. 



Back of all these timber holdings again are the immense areas of 

 government timber. This delightful paternal government of these 

 Vnited States holding that it should do everything possible to 

 "hold down the cost of living," of which house-building is an 

 important feature, and that furthermore its timber ia ripe and 

 ready for the saw, piles on top of operators more and more tim- 

 ber. In short, it is a matter of over-production, and under existing 

 policies there seems to be no possible chance that timber owners 

 in this region are going to have an opportunity to hold timber 

 back as an investment, reach high efliciency, low cost of produc- 

 tion, or refrain from excessive production until the whole region 

 is depredated of its forest wealth. The whole scheme doesn't 

 look good to the conservative tenderfoot. 



At an earlier date mining enterprises in which there are untold 

 millions invested, and timber properties in which there are other 

 untold millions involved, were the principal commercial projects 

 of this region. Now the game is going over to agriculture and 



