The following argument is respectfully submitted for tile candid consideration of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. and all those citizens who believethat the United States should still continue to invite the artisans of other lands to settle her yet unsettled prairies. in full enjoyment of the facilities for building cheap homes. which have hitherto been extended. but which are rapidly becoming contracted from the disapliearance of the American forests. and the increased value of the remaining timber: We believe most earnestly that Mbe time has come when it would be greatly to the interest and good of the people of the United States to remove the present import tax upon lumber. which may conveniently be brought to them from the Dominion of Canada. In support ofthisargumentwe would say that the wonderful growth of the United States. and especially the development of that portion lying west of the lakes. has been due to the readiness with w hich cheap dwellings. barns. fences. and granaries were obtainable through the plentifulness ofacheap building material. such as is found in the whitepine lumber supply. With the exhaustion of this supply. the still vast unsettled prairies and fields of the West will. lit a measure. cease to present inducements to the emigrant front foreign lands. the unoccupied overtlow front the older States of the Union or the inducements for development afforded by thabuildingof railroads and otler highways of commerce. That tile time is not far distant when the lumber supply of the Northwest will be practically exhausted. and that evidences of that exhaustion are even now quite apparent. will be disputed by no wellinformed person. It is but a few years since the value of standing pine of good quality averaged from as low as 50 cents to as high as $2.50 per thousand feet. the value of the same grades of timber has risen at the present time from $ to as high as 88 per thousand feet. an average value being probably fairly stated atfrom $4 to $5 per thousand.
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