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years, at three times that price. To any person capable of the mental processes of the multiplication-table, here was an entrancing outlook. Rapidly as the value of that land was increasing then, it must increase still more rapidly thereafter, as the population grew, the demand for lumber augmented, and the supply diminished. Where in all the world was ever the like golden opportunity? Without effort, without risk, without attention, without care, day and night must grow the tilth of such possessions. The fortunate owner had nothing to do but retain his titles and every hour he would become richer. While he slept, while he ate, while he busied himself with other matters, he was growing rich. Every night, when he returned to his home, he could feel that he was richer than he had been in the morning; every morning when he arose, he could rejoice in the fact that he was richer than when he went to bed. Land that was worth $1,000 to-day would be worth $2,000 next year and perhaps $5,000 the next. For all the time, the population would be growing, the demand would be increasing, the supply would be diminishing, the price would be ascending, until mortal mind could put no limit to the dazzling potentialities that the future held. And over all stood the national improvidence, a guarantee that this mint should not be disturbed, but should run on forever to enrich its happy owners.

Nothing was done to replant the timberland when it had been denuded of trees.

When, by the astounding rise in the value of the land that he had acquired, this prospect appeared before Mr. Weyerhaeuser's mind, he seized upon it with inflexible grasp. For himself, he adopted one policy from which to this day he has never swerved. Every dollar that he could from any source obtain he invested in something connected with lumber, but chiefly in timber-lands. He lived simply, he denied himself, he had no pleasures, he took neither rest nor recreation, he toiled on doggedly to get dollars, and as fast as his eager hand closed upon one, it went to buy more of the timber-land that rose in value day and night. Long after these rising values had made him several times a millionaire, he was often stripped bare of ready cash, and secure of bewildering wealth, he would be destitute of the means to buy him a meal.

A silent little man, he had not a confidant in the world, but went secretly to work,

a mole grubbing alone for money. Secretiveness, persistence, and an indomitable resolution about timber-lands are the only traits of greatness that I have ever heard attributed to him. If we talk of the character of this complex man, something else might be said; for in point of character, he is declared by his fervent eulogists to have a sense of personal honesty above that of his fellows; but I deal now with no more than his equipment in that superiority of intellect that is supposed to be the gift of his kind, and that here shows without refulgence. In the way of secrecy, he seemed to obey literally the Bible's injunction concerning the right hand and the left. About important and unimportant matters he was equally uncommunicative, and went his way in silence even when he might have saved trouble and annoyance by asking a few questions. As for example:

About thirty years ago, the waters of the upper Mississippi were plowed by an ancient side-wheeled tub called the C. J. Caffrey, though why the name I have not the slightest idea. Of a sudden, she disappeared from her accustomed haunts, and among us along the river arose some mild speculation as to her fate.

At Rock Island, the river is crossed by a handsome steel bridge, wherein is a drawspan, operated by the United States government. A steamer that desires the draw to be opened for her passage blows one long blast on her whistle; the bridge-tender responds with a similar signal, and the draw swings open. A few weeks after the disappearance of the C. J. Caffrey, a steamer showing the name Frederick Weyerhaeuser, just off the ways and very glittering in fresh paint, stood up for the bridge-draw and` whistled cheerfully. There was no response; the draw did not open. The Weyerhaeuser blew her whistle many times and cramped up to the draw as close as she dared, but the bridge remained closed. No such steamer as the Frederick Weyerhaeuser was on the bridge-tender's list, and he could swing for no vessels except those in the government records.

Sign-painters were hastily summoned, the name Frederick Weyerhaeuser was painted out, C. J. Caffrey appeared in its place, the steamer again stood up for the bridge and whistled. This time the draw promptly opened and the boat went through. An act of Congress was required to change the name of an American vessel, a fact that Mr. Wey

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and painful care the changing of an obscure steamer's name?

Nevertheless, the incident was not closed until he had exhibited the other side of his nature. Before the sun of that day had gone down, plans were being drawn for a new steamer. As soon as she was completed, she was duly registered as the Frederick Weyerhaeuser, under which name, by the way, she still sails the Mississippi (when there is water enough) — a curious illustration of the assiduous care with which the Weyerhaeuser property is preserved;

for of all her contemporaries of many ownerships, she, I believe, is the only survivor.

Two of Mr. Weyerhaeuser's steamboats. In connection with the purchase of the C. J. Caffrey, Mr. Weyerhaeuser learned that an Act of Congress is required to change the name of an American vessel. Without mentioning the matter to any one, he had the name Frederick Weyerhaeuser substituted for C. J. Caffrey; but when the rechristened boat whistled for passage

at the govern

ment drawbridge at Rock Island, there was no response.
such steamer as the Frederick Weyerhaeuser was on the govern-
ment list, and the bridge-tender could swing for no vessel
except those listed. The old name was hastily painted back
and the draw opened. That same day, plans were drawn
for a new steamer, which was duly registered as the
Frederick Weyerhaeuser

erhaeuser might easily have ascertained if
he had been willing to open his mouth.

And yet I do not know that you could blame him. A German, discovering a country that had no forestry laws, might reasonably conclude that it had no laws of any kind. Or, taking another slant at it, why should he imagine that a country so utterly reckless of its people's interests in their most vital concerns should guard with such elaborate

important of the places where rafts were assembled. A crude and embryonic trust, all the other mill and rafting interests were at the new company's mercy; they must pay tribute to it; and for years their bitter complaints echoed up and down the

[graphic]

Year after year, this man continued to extend his activities, but always in the one direction. His vision, limited to the one great fact of a rapidly increasing population and a rapidly diminishing timber supply, was, as to this, of unequaled clearness. He saw, too, that as this condition grew, the value of economy, of close organization, and of unified effort must also be magnified. There was that matter of the waste in the cutting of timber and the forming of rafts. So far as he was concerned, he had provided for much of it by owning timber-land and cutting the logs thereon; and to provide for the rest he now formed the Mississippi Boom and Logging Company, which presently appeared in possession of Beef Slough at the mouth of the Chippewa, the most

modern business trinity of consolidation, combination, and simplification, he was doing well. He now cut his own timber, made up his own rafts as well as other people's, owned his steamers, used them to convey his rafts to his own mills, saved his own money, took other people's, and steadily poured his

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

tractile means into timber-lands against the assured future of an increasing population and a diminishing timber supply.

Now he pushed north, northeast, and northwest, buying when necessary, obtaining in other ways, holding fast to what he acquired, counting his hourly gains, selling when the last cent of profit had been exhausted, until he saw approaching the end of the white-pine belt of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Then he began to gather timber'lands on the Pacific coast and in the South; anything that had standing timber on it looked good to him. Cypress forests he bought in Louisiana; yellow-pine forests in Mississippi; forests of Oregon pine, fir, and spruce in the Northwest; sometimes in his own name, sometimes in the names of others; but acquiring, always acquiring.

As the price of lumber rose with the failure of the white-pine supply of the upper Mississippi, he built sawmill after sawmill in his new possessions North and South, and began to ship out the products on advancing pricelists, always making money, always putting the money he made into more timber-lands. He went into the retail trade, and opening some lumber-yards, became unobtrusively interested in many others that never bore his name. He formed many partnerships, organized many companies, maintained toward all men the same attitude of silent suspicion, went his singular way, and rejoiced when the increasing population and the diminishing lumber supply piled upon him fortune after fortune until he himself had no accurate idea of his wealth.

And now we come to the phase of the story that is of the most direct and pertinent appeal to the patriot who hates to think of his country as the political fief and chattel of a group of rich men. It was inevitable that a fortune so acquired and so actively in use should become involved in politics. I have never known an exception. Sooner or later, Big Business is always found in some defiling intimacy with machine politics always. There can be no such thing as their separate existence. In this instance, the men who found themselves in control of the great lumber interests learned early that their continued welfare depended largely upon the attitude of government, state and national. At all times there was the specter of hostile tariff legislation. Suppose Congress should put lumber on the free list and open the doors to Canada's untouched

and almost boundless supply? There were always some uneasy souls agitating for free lumber. Suppose, even, it should largely reduce the high duties on lumber? Suppose the northwestern states, whose wealth was thus being excavated for the benefit of the fortunate, should awaken from this madman's dream of every man for himself? Suppose they should pass laws like those of Germany, compelling reforestation, or laws limiting the holdings of timber-land, or laws otherwise restricting the privileges of plunder? Suppose government should render impossible the means by which vast areas of the public timber-land were being acquired for little or nothing? Suppose it should break up the close alliance between the lumber interests and the railroads?

For the sake of self-preservation among these perils, the lumber interests were driven into politics. In six states in the Northwest, they became, with their railroad allies, the dominating political force. They put up this man and pulled down that, they controlled conventions and dictated to legislatures. I must in fairness admit that they were without partisan bias and without. sensitiveness to criticism. In a Republican state they were Republican, and in a Democratic state they were Democratic; and everywhere they changed dexterously from side to side as the political barometer gave warning of shifting conditions. All they desired was that certain things should not be done; as for merely saying things, why, gọ as far as you like.

As an example, I recall now a candidate for Congress who based his successful campaign solely upon his announced opposition to the lumber interests and the railroads. One-half of his campaign fund was contributed by one of the monsters that he assailed, and the rest by the other. They did not care what he said, but only what he did, and his doings, I may add, never gave them the slightest cause for dissatisfaction with their investment in him. He earned his campaign fund.

Through all these changing conditions in the trade, the Weyerhaeuser ship was steered upon the one charted course; the Weyerhaeuser acquisitions steadily augmented. The cloak of mystery wherewith Mr. Weyerhaeuser covered his movements extended to his vast dealings with the railroads. In some strange way, never likely to be revealed, possibly related to the exigen

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