The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, January 14, 1918, Page 8

The Powder Trust Still Holds Swa Farmers of State of Washington Failed to Get Their Bill Through Prov1dmg That o - the State Make Dynamite to Clear Land gl e iR » M~ A B2 P ] PR S = - - -~ {! e B W & F @ = & i £] 4 3 A la i The picture shows a stump being blown up with powder during the farocess of clearing logged off lands preparatory to cultivating the land. The high price of powder is keeping thousands of acres of land out of cultivation. Farmers can not afford to pay current powder prices to clear their lands. HILE farmers in middle western states be cleared at a cost that will justify the expemse. just as the farmers of North Dakota were agitating e have been having trouble with the mill- This was the situation before the war began: for fair grain grading. There is a strong similarity Ay 4 | ing trust, farmers of the state of Wash- Today, with the prices of powder soaring, with between the experience of the farmers in the two i i ington and of other far western ‘states the Dupont company making unheard of war prof- states thus far. B¢ » ' have been having their troubles with the powder its, the-nation and the world are crying for more: . In the Washington legislature of 1913 the farmers | trust. ) food and these millions of unplanted acres stand made such a strong plea for cheaper powder that - { Most of western Washington and a considerable as a glaring indictment of the greed of the powder the legislature passed a bill calling for an investi- | part of eastern Washinglon originally was & great magnates. gation of the subject and appropriated $50,000 for i forest. Much of it is a forest yet, but on millions It has not been the farmers’ fault that these the construction of a factory, if an investigation »pe 4 of acres the trees have been cut, leaving what is acres have gone uncultivated. For years they have sliowed the plan to be feasible. An investigating & o known as “cut-over” or “logged off” land, filled been agitating in Washington for cheaper powder, committee was appointed and an eastern ‘expert, : with great tree stumps, many of them 12 or 15 feet =~ - - R. 8. Waddell, was engaged to study the situation w]¥ . i’ across and so close together that it is impossible and recommend whether a state owned gunpowder ! i to cultivate the land without removing the stumps ~plant could be made to pay. te and roots. : ] There are many ways of taking the stumps out. STATE DIDN'T BUILD There are stump pulling machines operated by ITS POWDER FACTORY : : “ dankey. engines and, thers; 15 ;4. stump burning:pro. Waddell made his investigation and report. He || i | cess known as “char pitting,” but the most effective showed that the state could manufacture powder e« ik .way and the only way with the large Douglas; fir stumps that are over most of western Washington, ‘is-to blow them up with dynamite. A hole is drilled "in the ground next to the stump, the dynamite is ~put in with a fuse and fulminating cap attached; the farmer lights the fuse and then scurries back out of danger’s way. Pretty soon there is a “boom” and the stump, with a cloud of dirt, is blown high in the air. Then a stump pulling machine pulls * - out .what roots are. left... The only difficulty with this method is ‘the ex- the dynamite. The E. I. du Pont de Nemours Pow- der company, commonly known as the Dupont com- pany, controls most of the output. Before the war its powder was sold to farmers at prices ranging from 10 to 14 cents a pound. This made the clear ing of land cost from $50 to $100 per acre—in many cases more. e R IR 50 L BN R T a3 I TN A ACRES STAND IDLE; - WORLD NEEDS FOOD In many cases the cost of clearing, owing to the high prices demanded by the Dupont company for its powder, was greater than the value of the land would be after it was cleared. As a result there are literally millions of acres of logged off lands, within a few miles of the large cities of Seattle and Tacoma, for sale for a song, in excellent dairy coun- try, yet of no use to anyone because they can not’ W‘Y&mmfiwwgflmnm—m-%m&”& g orbitant prices demanded by the powder trust for A giant trce being felled in Western Washlngton. The lumber companies take off the timber, leaving the stumps which later have to ‘be blown out with powder before the old stump- {and can be cultlvated. - PAGEEIGHT LG i R LR A N S R, oriemsing mesm“‘* at a cost of between six and seven cents a pound, depending upon the kind used, about half the retail price to the farmer at that time. The investigating committee, in summarizing their report, considered also the expense that would be met in distributing this powder. They said in their report to the governor: “‘Our farmers are paying 10 to 14 cents a pound approximately for powder. It can be_ supplied for 30 to 40 per cent less at a state factory. This is a saving of over $200,000 a year on an arbitrary estimate .of 250 tons a month.” But the committee found that in spite of the authority already granted by: the legislature in appropriating $50,000 for the factory, it could not be operated without further legislation. A factory _could be built for the $50,000, but there was no provision: for running expenses, no money appro- priated for buying the raw. material that would be needed in the powder manufacture. Instead of going ahead and build!ng the tactory, and trusting that the next legislature would provide the running expenses, the state administration sub- mitted the report to the 191§ legislature. 1915 legislature was one of the most reaotionary that had ever. assembled in Washington. = Its members were against every form of public own- ership. The In spite of the Treport- ‘of the inves- - tigating committee and the powder expert, ‘thata sme 'owned: uctory was teaalble and wouxd"