Sherman fought for an increased rate on wool as he did for one on pig iron. He was as hard pressed in one case as the other. The fight caused more than one hard and open tilt between him and his Republican colleagues, particularly with Allison, who disapproved a higher tariff on wool. Sherman was determined, however, and again and again returned to the attack with threats of defeating the entire bill if he could not have his way. But Mr. Sherman was not the only Senator who openly held up the party for duties higher than the majority of his colleagues approved of. The Senators of Maine, Michigan, and Wisconsin fought for duty on lumber in the same way. The Tariff Commission had not changed the duties on lumber. It left them as they were without a word of explanation. Better so; for a more indefensible tax than that on lumber could not be conceived. It had already helped work a destruction which a hundred years could not repair, and its continuance seemed little less than crime. The duty on sawed boards was $1.00 and $2.00 per one thousand feet, according to variety. Under this protection, combined with the enormous demand which the growth of the country had created, the cutting of timber had been carried on recklessly and lawlessly, particularly in Wisconsin and Michigan. Ten years before, in 1873, the danger of exhausting the forests beyond repair had been shown and Congress had passed the Timber Culture Act to encourage planting; but while it gave a bonus for planting on one hand, it continued the bonus for cutting on the other. Pine in particular was being stripped off. A Federal Commission had just issued a report showing that there was only about 81,000,000,000 feet of white pine standing in the three principal states—enough for ten years only. The duty, combined with the knowledge that the supply was limited, kept prices so high that in the “treeless states,” like Nebraska and Kansas, new settlers were in great distress. From all over the West, indeed, came the cry for relief. People were living in dugouts, because of this tax, the Western Senators and Representatives told Congress. Their cattle had no shelter, their fodder was covered only with a thatch. What made the tax more vicious was the well known fact that the forests were largely in the hands of the “lumber barons,” men who had in one way or another secured vast tracts of land at from $1.25 to $2.50 an acre and who now were gathering in $8.00 or more an acre by unrestricted cutting of the timber. The Senate of the United States numbered one of the greatest of these barons—Philetus Sawyer, Esq., of Wisconsin.