The battle for control of the Puget Sound cedar trade

War has been declared by Weyerhaeuser representatives and a combination of Eastern jobbers on the Washington and Oregon shingle trust, which now controls the red cedar shingle output of the Pacific Northwest. The shingle trust managers positively refuse to sell shingles to Eastern jobbers, and the Weyerhaeuser people and the Eastern jobbers declare that the trust will be sorry if it does not. John C. Hill, of St. Paul, representing Hill & Co. and Weyerhaeuser, says they will have shingles, and intimates that mills may be established to furnish them. He says the only way to sell red cedar shingles in the East is to stock Eastern yards with them. The trust may go East itself and fight the jobbers in their own territory. On the other hand, representatives of Chicago, Omaha and other shingle and lumber firms announce that if they cannot contract direct with the mills here, they will put up their own mills and 'bust' the shingle trust. Local jobbers claim they cannot be driven out of the market because they control the shingle output. The Eastern jobbers, however, are confident that, with a large stock of white pine and other lumber to sell at heavy discounts in connection with their shingles, the Washington and Oregon trust cannot compete.