THE PASSING OF AN INDUSTRY 



337 



the logging, they brought to their aid "bulls," "donkeys," 



"gypsies" a whole menagerie of improved machinery 



they built great flumes of unheard-of length, they logged 



single trees 



which pro- 

 duced as much 



lumber as 



many a "forty" 



cut in the Lake 



States, they 



logged on a 



scale that the 



world had 



never before 



seen, they 

 shipped lumber 



to South 

 America, t o 

 Hawaii, Japan, 



China, A u s- 

 tralia, to South 

 Africa, to the 

 farthest cor- 



n e r s of the 

 earth. Human 

 effort and the 

 logger's skill 

 could do no 

 more, and yet 

 the giant only 

 stirred uneas- 

 ily in his sleep, 

 he did not 

 awake. When 

 the war came 

 he turned over 

 once more, but 

 peace came to 

 him more 

 quickly than it 

 did to the rest 

 of the world 

 and he slept 

 again. Most of the owners were wide awake now, even 

 though the giant slept. When their money was all invest- 

 ed, when their credit was strained to the breaking point, 

 when the taxes began to come due and the banks began 

 to inquire uneasily about their bonds and interest, when 

 all of their frantic efforts failed to make the giant move, 

 then, indeed, they began to see the shackles which had 

 held him from the first, and which they, blinded by their 

 enthusiasm, had been unable to see before. 



It was clear enough now and they marveled that 

 they had not seen it before. Some of the lumbermen 

 had seen it, they had bought with their eyes open and 

 known they would have to wait, but they had not 

 foreseen that these moneyless speculators with their 

 forced sales would block legitimate business for two 

 score of years. They saw the thousands of miles of high 



THE SPLENDID PORTS OF THE WEST CO.-XSr Ui-FER THE 1 RANSPORTATION 

 FACILITIES NEEDED FOR THE SHIPMENT OF SUCH TIMBER AS THIS DOUG- 

 LAS FIR, OF WHICH MORE LUMBER IS NOW CUT IN THIS COUNTRY THAN OF 

 ANY OTHER ONE SPECIES. IT IS IN DEMAND IN THE EASTERN STATES AS 

 WELL AS IN MOST TIMBER IMPORTING COUNTRIES. 



freight rates between them and their much needed 

 markets, they saw that neither the Lake States nor the 

 South was dead enough, they saw the manufacturers 



of cement, tile, 

 steel and brick 

 sitting dogged- 

 ly on the price 

 lid, and far 

 worse than all 

 of the rest 

 they at last re- 

 alized the stu- 

 pendous bulk 

 of the Pacific 

 Coast forests 

 themselves and 

 the staggering 

 burden of car- 

 rying charges 

 which their 

 ownership in- 

 volved. 



There was 

 the rub. Those 

 overwhelmi n g 

 carrying 

 charges which 

 whispered 

 insistently and 

 imperious- 

 ly, "Sell, sell, 

 no matter what 

 your price, no 

 matter what 

 your loss, no 

 matter how ut- 

 ter your ruin. 

 Sell before you 

 suffocate." 



So the own- 

 ers sold at 

 every thing 

 which even 



looked like an opportunity, sold at ridiculous prices and 

 stupefying losses, but sold because they could not wait. 



There was no time when the "timber barons" had 

 held more than a twenty years' supply for their own 

 mills in the Lake States. There was enough timber 

 in this distant West to supply the whole United States 

 for three quarters of a century. There are owners 

 there who cannot hope to sell for sixty years. 



And so the giant sleeps. But he's a mighty giant 

 all the same and even sleeping he will soon wrest the 

 crown from the dying South. It is that that he is 

 waiting for. The death of the South will be the fairy 

 kiss which will bring him to life, not only to life but 

 to rule the country. For most certainly he will rule, 

 rule with an iron hand, set the lumber prices of the 

 country to suit his taste, impose on the nation a freight 



