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HARDWOOD RECORD 



tions that are devoting much editorial matter to this important dis- 

 cussion. 



The power behind this innovation in passenger car construction, and 

 the support of many politicians in both Congress and the state legis- 

 lative bodies to the movement, up to this time has been a mystery 

 to railroad interests and the traveling public. Perhaps this great 

 mystery can be most easily explained by reviewing the list of direc- 

 tors of the United States Steel Corporation, and of the Pullman 

 Company, in Tvliich will be found quite a number of names in dupli- 

 cate, not among the least of which is that of the nation 's great 

 commercial philanthropist, J. Pierpont Morgan. 



The Pullman Company up to a recent period has been a marvel- 

 ousiy prosperous institution, but in its annual statement for the year 

 ended July 31, 1911, issued during the last few days, it shows a 

 shrinkage of $2,773,465 in net earnings as compared with 1910. This, 

 it is explained by the company, is occasioned partially by dull busi- 

 ness in the manufacturing department, and partially because of the 

 reduction in rates on upper berths; and that the ratio of operating 

 expenses to gross revenue has increased. No statement is vouchsafed 

 showing the reduction in revenues that was occasioned by the twenty- 

 five per cent or less reduction in the price of upper berths, but it is 

 safe to say that this item cuts but a very small figure in the immense 

 shrinkage. 



Would it not be fair to assume that the Pullman Company has been 

 plunged into a series of extravagances in the building of a large 

 number of steel cars which have been proved remarkably costly and 

 very much inferior to the former splendid type built and employed by 

 this company? 



The fact must not be lost sight of that the steel trust has been 

 exercising gieat ingenuity in securing new outlets for steel production 

 which is much in excess of the world 's logical requirements, and that 

 it is just possible that the Pullman Company has been selected as a 

 medium for working off a considerable portion of this extra capacity. 

 To be sure, steel cars have been built on the basis of a philanthropic 

 touting of insuring increased safety to the traveling public. 



It has been pretty clearly demonstrated in the series of articles 

 that have been published in Hardwood Kecord of late that this in- 

 creased safety by the use of this type of car is absolutely mythical, 

 and that on the contrary steel cars are a menace to the health of 

 travelers; that they do not afford nearly so much safety as the 

 former type of construction; that they are very costly to build and 

 remarkably expensive to haul; that they are wretchedly extravagant 

 consumers of steam for heating in cold weather, and veritable hell- 

 holes of discomfort during the heated period. 



Perhaps the wickedness of the ' ' powers behind the throne ' ' in the 

 matter of construction of these cars can be best figured out, when 

 the evidence is forthcoming from expert engineers, that this new- 

 type of car is overloaded with gross weight of steel for no reason 

 other than to insure greater consumption of steel materials, and in 

 place of insuring safety to the traveling public, these cars are now a 

 positive menace to public safety and healthfulness, and an unwar- 

 ranted extravagance in construction and haulage. 



Another Forthcoming Attack on the Lumber Trade 



In the la.st number of the Cosmopolitan Magazine it is anmiunced 

 that in the December issue will commence a series of articles by 

 Charles Edward Eussell, who "will tell you why you can't afford to 

 buy even kindling wood any more. He will tell you how rich timber 

 lands have been secured by fraud and theft from the government; 

 how the pockets of the lumber trust have been lined by legislative 

 bribery; how the corrupt money trail leads even to the United States 

 Senate and induces some of our noble patriots in Wa-shington to pass 

 favorable bills. It is a great and wonderful system. If it didn't 

 exist you might be able to build your house— your own house — 

 without spending the rest of your natural life paying for it." 



If there is any doubt in the mind of any member of the lumber 

 trade about the pernicious and iniquitous character of the forth- 

 coming articles by this author, it will only be necessary fo make a 

 review of the October issue of the now happily defunct Hampton- 

 Columbian Magazine, in which this distinguLshed muckraking genius 



has an article entitled "Speed," which is an onslaught on the entire 

 methods jjrevailing in American railway construction, equipment and 

 operation. It is a most vicious and uncalled for article, as it in- 

 dulges freely in half-truths, the wickedest weapon known to the liter- 

 ary demagog. 



If one-tenth of one per cent of the statements made in lliis article 

 by Russell were true, it is a ease of prima facia evidence that any- 

 one riding in a modern, heavy steel passenger car is making an at- 

 tempt at suicide. In this particular he may be right. 



It is an open secret that the Cosmopolitan Magazine is owned by 

 Hearst, and according 1o the evidence of the editorial manager of 

 Mr. Hearst's newspapers: "Mr. Hearst lielieves that a lumber trust 

 does exist." Apparently his chief effort in attempting to demonstrate 

 the existence of this biigaboo is to employ the perverted talents of 

 Charles Edward Russell to defame everyone associated with the in- 

 dustry. 



Why Canada Defeated Reciprocity 



A distinguished Canada-American lumberman writes Hardwood 

 Record criticising the suggestion made in a recent editorial on the 

 defeat of reciprocity that ' ' Canada never has made any trade with 

 the United States that it did not get much the better of the bargain." 



This observation was perhaps carelessly written, but it had par- 

 ticular reference to the time, twelve or fifteen years ago, when the 

 United States Congress in overhauling its tariff placed a two dollar 

 duty on lumber. Canadian authorities immediately prohibited the 

 exportation of logs, which for some years had been the chief source 

 of supply for a score or more of Lake Huron, Toledo and Cleveland 

 mills. This action was not in the form of a bargain, but it was a 

 matter of retaliation in which Canada got very much the better of 

 the deal. 



The writer calls attention to the map of the North American 

 continent in which he notes: "See w'here Maine is carved out of 

 Canada like a dog's tooth. Have you forgotten the American slogan 

 on the boundary question with Canada of 54-40 or fight, regardless 

 of the rights of the question? Surely you have not forgotten the 

 trade arrangement that once existed between Canada and the United 

 States, which was broken off abruptly by this country, and .vour 

 leading statesman publicly said the United States would starve 

 Canada into annexation. 



"Look up toward the western boundary of Canada and see how 

 one-half of Canada is unjustly shut in from the seaboard. Do not 

 forget that in the settlement of this and all other boundary questions 

 the United States jiositively refused to submit to an impartial 

 tribunal. This is a case of might against a smaller and weaker 

 nation, and Canada had to take her medicine. 



"The province of Ontario, which is the backbone of the Dominion 

 of Canada, is settled largely by descendants of the United Empire 

 Loj'alists; people of good stock and proud of their British connec- 

 tion; people whose ancestors were refused amnesty by the thirteen 

 colonies after the Revolutionary war, which was nothing more nor 

 less than a civil war. 



"On all these boundary and fishery questions, it was a case of 

 the weaker nation having to submit or fight, and there was nothing 

 else for Canada to do but to submit, but she has now come into her 

 own, and this country cannot blame her for the stand she took in the 

 recent election. Sho is only giving back, in a mild dose, a little of the 

 medicine that the United States has handed her for over fifty years. 



"Canada likes the Americans individually, and they are as welcome 

 as brothers when they go over there, but as a nation, from past 

 experience with the United States, she is afraid of them for sho cer- 

 tainly has had it handed to her with every question that has ever come 

 up between them. It is only a question of chickens going to roost. 



"Mo.st of the Canadian people hope some day to see the united 

 states of Great Britain — Canada, Australia, and other parts of the 

 empire occupying the same position in that empire as the different 

 states in the American government do to Washington. Such a con 

 dition will be an ideal one — an empire controlling every acre in 



