Seattle Lumbermen Fight to Keep the Tariff
Local mill owners plead to keep import duties on British Columbia lumber, citing the threat of cheap Chinese labor to local wages.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Seattle Lumbermen's Association held a regular meeting last night at its headquarters in the Occidental hotel. The meeting was chiefly devoted to a discussion on the possibility of establishing a universal price list to cover sash, doors, and all kinds of factory work, as well as lumber. A strong resolution protesting against the removal of the tariff on lumber was adopted. The resolution sets forth that the thirteen mills represented in the association employ about 5,000 men; that the present duty is barely sufficient to shut out British Columbia lumber, which is manufactured by Chinese working for less than two-thirds the rate of wages paid in the mills in the association, and that in the event of a reduction in the tariff, the result would be to reduce the wages of American mill employees. For these reasons the protest is sent in the name of the mill employees as well as the owners.
“the present duty is barely sufficient to shut out British Columbia lumber, which is manufactured by Chinese working for less than two-thirds the rate of wages paid in the mills in the association”
This reflects the late 19th-century protectionist era, where Seattle’s timber industry relied heavily on political lobbying. Today, the debate over trade and labor has shifted from regional tariffs to global supply chains, but the tension between industry profit margins and the cost of labor remains a constant in Pacific Northwest economic history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.