nr 7** >.T VI Supplement to [ fTlje County |^ecor&. | VOL. XXIV. KINGSTREE, SOUTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY AUGUST 11, 1910. N0722 I * LUMBER MAN COMES [TO EILEREE'S DEFENSE BY INGENIOUS ARGUMENT TRIE; TO JUSTIFY HIS VIOLATION OF PARTI' PLEDGE. | Editor County Record:? I \ I have read over twice your edit fr orials in The Record of August ? wherein you attack vigorously Ho t J E Ellerbe's vote against free lum ("ber. I am giad to note that you ar a persona] friend of Mr Ellerbe'f A Koc Kaon i\/> ^ntiricr I AUU MMIV VUWC iu? UVVM uv made of his work in Congress exoep his vote agains t free lumber. Thi ifr criticism is made on account of th .Democratic platform In the las - Presidential campaign declaring fo free lumber, and because of thi > declaration of the so-called Demc eiatic party at that time, it is clairr .ed that Democratic Congressme f and Senators were bound by thei pledges support thisdeclaratio in the platform,and that because M fUlerbe.with a very large number c pother strong and influential Derm ?patic Congressmen and Senator "voted against free lumber and in ft Ivor of a tariff for revenue, they ar vifforoush'- mostly bv Dolil Inents aad their friends, c faithful to their pledges, f course, as you well knov cian. and Am not writin letter fee publication, an engage in any political coi and if I -desired to do se, altogether useless and on , as Mr JEllerbe is fully j>ri defend his vote against f re nd,therefore, does not nee as 1 could render in a coi >r otherwise. I am writin 2rest -of fair play and, in r, to show my personal a] i of Mr Ellerbe's hard, a d effective work in Coi the beat interests of h izens and for the South i ; only in his vote on.tli riff hut in numerous -stht [lowing nre the points i >rials which i wish to ref( it, of course, that yon ai i be corrected where yc or): a to the increased price < o the local and Southai ICr Ellerbe is entirely oo Htect, and hk statement can be me Hfied by numerous affidavits, if nei Beasary, from J umber people and ais Konsnmers that not only the presei Bbriff but ako the Dingley tari Happed practically do increased pri< Ho the Southern consumer of lumtx Rkt large,and no increased price wha Hirer to the local consumer, Mr E Her be's constituents. This may see: Htraiige to you and difficult to u] Haer?tandtbut a partial explanation Hhis and should be easily understoo< Hermetically all of the Canadian lun Her brought across the line is ma Heted within a radius of from 100 1 HtOO miles from the dividing line b< Hween Canada and the United State md is of a low,coarse, knotty grad< Hcnown to the lumber trade as "bo Hmd roofer grade"; this grade < Humber in the South is manufacture Hrom the top cuts of the tree, bein Mhe coarse , knotty logs and these lo* jannot be manuiacturea inu> ar Hither grades except box or roofers ( Banall, low-grade scantling. Wht mi speak of "lumber" to a perse jot acquainted with the lumber trad* only means "lumber"; to the lun Hberman he does not know what ^ jeans without the word "lumber" ^Befined by lumber language or e: uressions, by using the grades ar specifications known to the lumbt xade. To illustrate, if you were 1 ^Sprite me for prices on 10,000 fe< Bf lumber, I would not know how 1 ^Bjake a reply; it would be necessai or you to advise me on the grad< and specifications wanted. Speaking! generally,! presume there are something like fifty to seventy-five differ- j ,i ent prices on Southern pine lumber j and equally as many grades or kinds,; S and the Southern consumer uses all; of the different grades and prices of lumber in the construction work of the South. About one-twentieth of the amount of lumber consumed in the South is the roofer or box grade, this being the grade on which the tarn iff helps the Southern manufacturer, and such a small portion of it used j South that the price to local con'' sumers is not affected, and as the n Southern mills have a large propor- j * tion of roofer and box grades, they i is I are compelled to seek a market di- j e rectly in competition with Canadian t common, low grade lumber on the1 r border line where this grade is used s extensively in the numerous box fach tones; there are very few box factol" ries South, and Canada offers nocomn petition whatever, regardless of tar-; r iffs, on the better and higher grades! n of our Southern pine,and no competi^ tion whatever on dimension sizes for j heavy construction work, house j K framing, railroad trestle work, etc,; ** and no competition whatever, reh gardless of tariffs or otherwise, on j e heart long leaf pine timbers -and tlumber, because they have no such i 18 timber to sell anywhere; therefore the Southern lumberman is helped! by the tariff to market a grade of ? lumber that would otherwise be d compelled to rot in the forest unl" touched, for want of a market at any price,as a great deal of it is now doing. This grade is called locally ^ >culls and very little used oy farmers. * 1 note with surprise your refer^ ence to a "lumber trust"; .you refer to this in a way that leads me to ? conclude that you do believe dhere is a a lumber trust. I have been in the lumber business for 25 years as manufacturer, retail and wholesale, and 1 am pretty well acquainted with the lumber trade in a general way, both North and Southland if ,e there is a lumber trust, ox -if there ever has been a lumber trust in 25 years, 1 do not know anything about n it, and I am positively oerlain that ;r there is no lumber trust nor any ?e kind of compact or agreement by >u lumbermen in this section of the country,including the whole of South )f Carolina and a large part of North n Carolina and Georgia, controlling r. the price of lumber; on the other r. hand,I know from every-day experi3_ ence that there is the keenest possi50 ble competition on every kind of rt | lumber manufactured in the South, ff and 1 am utterly amazed when 1 see x reference to a "lumber trust", and ,r it causes me to wonder if ail other trusts referred in the papers are fic]. Jtion and imagination, like the referm ence to a"lumber trust" is. r>- Now, with reference to Mr Elleris he's pledge to support the "princi i: pies" of the Democratic party, I do i- not think you will question my stater raent when I say that the national jo Democratic party, prior to the time ?- Mr W J Bryan gobbled it up and put s, it in his vest pocket, always advoe, cated a tari ff for necessary revenue, ix I do not think that you will say that >f the Democratic party before the d time referred to advocated free g trade, and certainly the tariff on js lumber under the Dingley iaw and iy the present law could not be con>r sidered anything like a protective in or prohibitory tariff, and if you will in take it up and compare the lumber e, tariff with the tariff on a great n- many other articles which a great it many Southern Democrats voted for, is you will find that the lumber tariff k- cannot be construed to be higher id than necessary for revenue. This iT was clearly shown by the lumber to " people in advocating a tariff in the last Congress; therefore Mr Ellerbe y and all other Southern Democrats in 2s voting for the lumber tariff are very much more loyal and better Derm crats than those who declared fc free trade. I suppose you know that the dt mand for free lumber was put in th platform by Mr W J Bryan,over th opposition of numerous delegates and to please the Western peopl and catch their votes for Bryar this,of course,was a shrewd politics move on Bryan's part and altogethe un-Democratic, as practically a his policies are. He knew the South ern people would vote for hir against a Republican candidate, i mattered not how much injury hi success at the polls would have don the South. I had occasion to visit Washingto when the tariff law was under cor sideration and called upon pract cally all of the South Carolina Cor gressmen, and without a single e> cepbon, so far as I can now remerr ber,they all agreed that there shoul be a tariff on Canadian lumber, an that the tariff then in existence wt aot too high as a tariff for revenu< Some of them, of course, refused t vote as Mr Ellerbe did,on account i what is known as the party pledgi I repeat, however, that I think it easy to sea that the platform fo free lumber was un-Democratic, an to vote for a tariff for revenue wr strictly in line with Democratic prii ciples. I think you are unfair to Mr E lerbe when you charge him with vo ing in the interest ?f a lumber trui when there is oo such thing in c^ istence; also you are unfair in charj ing against him as a result of h vote against free lumber that he hi increased the cost of lumber to coi sumers. j It seems to rae it is unfair, s ' though you wiLl no doubt differ wii me, to charge inm with unfaithfi ness because he could not coasciei tiously, in the discharge of his du to his constituents, vote for an u Democratic demand in the ptetfor J put there for no other purpose tht to please W J Jttryan. While this letter is not for pub! cation,and 1 irr?. LOT7I8 in at Home. HIGH SGHOOL fc i or business. Artesian Wellsgh Training in md Ventilated jndid Library. if Patrons Solicited. ,Septl9,1910 'I E. C. Epps, erk Board of Trustees. j r r. i Vi I :ilities. j to obtain prompt and 3 >eral treatment, is the 2 ens a bank account int features that have 3 he BANK OF WIL- gp officers and directors ?? e reposed in them and 3 lepositor, and have ex- ^5 best service it is pas- ^ ft :count 3 amsburg' | ' C s, Cashier. 3 swell, Asst Cashier. 3 liiiUiiiiiiiiiiiiiUiUiiiif s in General to secure for you the id by any other market rt atisfaction l and you believe that will pay your railroad e you may witness the f you concientiously be>r higher, you furnish ieliver your tobacco to rou. ALL ill necessary floor space to one and all a hearty the leading manufacmightier than ever. IEH0USE So. Car. '8 for our PULL BOOEEE8POOUB8B SCHOLARSHIP If wr at once and state where sr. v this ad. Regular price Is >. advertise this school, only olted number of scholarships be sold at the low rate of $2^ e ana nave one iwurvru buu r. We can also teach you by *S COLLEGE. INOOIPOKATID ISM VIL.LK. KT.