| OCR Text |
Show Elsewhere in this issue will be seen the minutes of a convention held by the lumber men of this Stake of Zion, for the purpose of fixing the prices of lumber &c., at something near just and equitable rates. The prices fixed upon are given in the minutes. It seems to us that there has been in this portion of the Territory, for a long time, a demand for the action taken by this convention The price of lumber, under sharp competition has been allowed to fall, and keep on falling, till at the present time lumber is not bringing nearly the figure that it should bring, and the only way in which manufacturers can make any profit at all, is to pinch their workmen, by reducing their wages. Thus two great evils are created; workmen are not receiving adequate wages, and a great natural resource of this region-lumber-that should add greatly to the wealth of Cache and adjoining counties is being rapidly consumed and without bringing back in any other form, an adequate return for its value, and the cost of it[s] manufacture. To allow the price of so valuable commodity as lumber,--one so absolutely indespensible [indispensible] as it is -- to fall so low as it has been, is folly, and amounts to the squandering of a vast amount of natural wealth that might, if due wisdom were exercised, be made to greatly enrich the people. <br><br> Grain is a staple production of Cache county, and nothing can be more obvious than the fact that if the price of grain can be increased, the wealth of the people is also increased. Lumber is another of our staple productions to which the same rule may be applied with even greater fore, for the grain market is supplied by annual crops, while it would take generations to renew the present growth of timber in our mountains, so that, practically, when the timber is gone, it is gone forever, and that source of our county's wealth is entirely exhausted. In its efforts to prevent the price of lumber from continuing so low as it has been, Zion's Board of Trade should receive the earnest support of all who have any interest in the temporal welfare of this Stake of Zion, or in making the most of all our natural sources of wealth, and this should include all who dwell in it, either as producers or consumers. |
