Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-20
HAS MONOPOLY IN TIMBER
Prices of Its Product Have Been An
nually Advanced.
PROFITS REACH MANY MILLIONS
How Competition Can Be Created by
the Government Pursuing An
other Policy.

Mr. Thomas 2. Ivy of New Hampshire,
who usually spends his winters in the
south. is staying here for the holidays. Mr..
Ivy devotes much of his time to the study
of numbering statistics and other Terrestrial
Investigations. In recent conversation
with q reporter of The Star he said Zone
of the most important resolutions intro
duced in Congress is that by Senator Kit
tredge calling upon the Department of Com
merce and Labor to investigate the lumber
trust.
Every Industry Taxed.
Every industry in the United States"
said he, from the toothpick to the steam
engine, is affected by the price of lumber
somewhere in the process of manufacture
or transportation. For example, take the
car shortage. How did that come about?
A few years back, when the lumber trust
first began to mark up prices arbitrarily,
car builders naturally heS.tated to buy large
stocks, and railroad managers hesitated to
let contracts at such increased cost for
freight ears, owing to the large amount of
lumber needed. This hesitation of builders
and contractors continued, because the lum-
Der trust yearly marked up the material
needed. Therefore nothing was done-no
cars were contracted for, in the belief that
the price of lumber would go doWn-Which
1t has not done-until the direst necessity
forced the railroads to bow to the lumber
trust. But this action was too late to fore
stdll ulSaSter, and owing to the lumber
trust we now see people freezing in the west
because there are not freight cars enough
to haul them fuel
Millions in Profits.
The lumber trust" continued Mr. Ivy.
has put its hands in the pockets of every
man and woman in the United States and
has every other industry by the throat
shipbuilders complain most bitterly Moth
ing in the cost of the ship has increased SO
much as the lumber In some trades pro-
auction mas most stopped. l think / do
mo- exaggerate when l say there are hum
dreds of thOuSa of men of small means
waiting and longing for the price of lumber
10 reach a normal level that will enable
.sen 10 oulid long-contemplated shelters
OF the1r own If the trust is permitted to
continue Its depredations we shall soon be
coLiroiiteu by shortage of houses and
with the continuation of our heavy immi-
srdton This day is not so far distant as II
inght seem. According to figures which 7
nave worked out. the lumber trust has CIV
acted of the homebuilders of the United
states, over and above legitimate husi
ness profit, s25, 600 yearly for tho lat
zen years, which about corresponds with
the age and growth of the trust-a grand
total of $40, COO OOO'
How were the trusts mower and nos;,io,,
gdined?" f'ioh
Control of Timber.
lts results are more readily seen than
'ne machinery is detected by which the re-
suits are produced. Every article of linn
ited supply is subject to monopoly There
are no more far-sighted and shrewder bust
ness men in this country than our lumber
men; We began numbering 200 years ahead
81 - england, and hold the lead over all ma
lions today. a governments lumber SIN
ply Is united by its standing timber | be-
neVe am within the circle of facts in
stating l that 100 individuals and corporations
own or control 10 per cent of the timber
Iand not stlll held by the government or
attached to farms. In another way the or
Ea a described much smaller circle
This larger body is subdivided into one-baIf
dozen smaaer bodies and known as asso-
cations the subdivision being based on
some species, as for example: The White
Pine Association, the Hemlock Associa tion
and the like. These small associations are
simply hotbeds CT monopoly-the claws of
an hEislbie trust. They control produce
non, they dominate markets, and no one in
the nlted States can use foot of lu,n-
Der without paying tribute to the trust