Speech #550001552

I come from the portion of Michigan known as the Saginaw Valley. which has perhaps produced more lumber and more salt than any other portion of this great country. and in this bill it is proposed to place a tariff upon lumber of $2 per thousand. ostensibly for the purpose of benefiting "the dear laboring man." In the Saginaw Valley today we are peculiarly situated. The * great pine industry of Michigan is practically gone. The standing trees. the natural wealth of this country. years ago were gobbled up by speculators. bought at Government prices. a tariff put upon lumber for the purpose of protecting the operators in the woods. upon the rivers. and in the mills. ostensibly. but the men who purchased and acquired that timber. the men who converted it into lumber. and finally into money. after they had come to the American Congress and got their protection of $2 a thousand upon the lumber. went back home and into Canada and advertised in Canada. "A thousand men wanted in the American pineries." and they came and glutted the labor markiet of Michigan. and they employed these men. the pauper labor of Europe. as they termed them. imported for the very purpose of competing with the dear American workingmen whom they professed their tariff bill was intended to protectabsolute free trade in labor during all these years. Now. I say today. look at the situation of affairs.