The Lumber Cartel Cracks
A weakening of the Pacific export agreement threatens to destabilize local timber prices as industry giants fall out of line.
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.
According to the statement made by R. L. McCormick, secretary of the Weyerhaeuser Timber company, the agreement between Pacific coast lumbermen engaged in export trade is bound to be broken. All efforts to keep Pope & Talbot, owners of the Port Gamble mill, a party to the agreement are of no avail. Others will follow if one falls out, unless a new arrangement can be made. The break in the agreement will likely mean a reduction in the price of lumber. Tacoma lumbermen say that there will be a disposition among themselves to stand together, but note that cutting the price of lumber is a game that two can play.
“Cutting the price of lumber is a game that two can play.”
The Weyerhaeuser company and the dominance of the Pacific Northwest timber export market defined Tacoma's early economy, mirroring today's anxieties about corporate consolidation. Just as in 1901, the tension between regional cartel-like agreements and market competition remains a central, unresolved struggle for the city’s economic identity.
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