Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-05-03
into
LUMBER TRUST
BUREUA OF CORPORATIONS
MAKING INVESTIGATION.
SENSATIONAL INCREASES
The Study Of Prices Show That Start
ling and Uniform Advances Have
Been Made in Last Ten Years. Es-
pecially in 1906.

Washington.-With a view first TO
securing adequate data on the busi-
ness and to prosecute the lumber
trust, if it is found that punitive ac-
ton will lie, the government is enter
ing on the vital stage of an inves-
tigation of the lumber industry that
is national in its scope.
A preliminary investigation as to
prices has been concluded in Wash
ington, and the Bureau Of Corpora
tions is now sending agents to all the
principal numbering districts to Sc
cure facts in the field. New England,
the Northwest, the Far West, the
South and the Southwest, are to be
included in the inquiry. The activities
of The Mississippi Yellow Pine Asso-
citation, particularly, are to be probed.
The study Of prices as now made
shows the startly and uniform ad-
vances in the cost of practically all
lumber in the last ten years, and es-
paeially was there remarkable jump
in 1906. A mere glance at the quota
tions suggests that more than natural
shrinkage of supply is the cause Of
the increase. 1t IS furthermore well
understood in the lumber trade that
the wholesale lumber business is now
controlled by few centralized or as
sociated interests.
Under resolutions passed by the
last Congress, Herbert Knox Smith,
who succeeded James R. Garfield as
Commissioner of Corporations, has
set out to establish the fact of trust
control by indisputable evidence. He
is applying the same drag net used
against the beef trust and the Stan
dard Oil company. The process in
each of these former instances was
followed by criminal and civil prose-
cution by the Department of Justice.
The work in the lumber matter is
now entirely in the hands Of Commits
sioner Smith. The attention of the De
partment of Justice has been called
to the lumber situation, and the de-
partment urged to prosecute. Steps
will not be taken in that direction un-
til the Bureau of Corporations shall
have assimilated and sifted the facts.
Commissioner Smith, as assistant COM
missioner, was associated with Mr..
Garfield when he was directing the
inquest into the affairs of the oil and
the beef trust He finds the task
Of investigating the lumber fraught
with more difficulties than was the
case even with the oil business. This
is true because of two principal rea-
sons First, prices of any commodity
depend upon the quantity of supply,
and it is extremely difficult to figure
upon the stumpage or the available
supply of standing timber remaining
in the country. Second, the lumber
industry is much more scattered than
the oil business, which means more
factors to consider, and a wider range
of inquiry to be made.
Complaints of the exactions of the
lumber trust, if that be possible, have
been more numerous and more bitter
than those against the oil and the
beef trust. During the career Of the
oil trust the price of oil to the con-
sumner, on the whole, had ranged down
ward.
AS the lumber industry has become
centralized and dominated by the
"pool" that is said to fix prices to
the retailer, the price of lumber has
shot up to the point at which it has
become harder and often impossible
for the man of moderate means to
own or build his own house or place
of business.
A principal point which Commits
sioner Smith will seek to clear up
will be the sensational advance Of
lumber in 1906. A complete explana-
tion of this advance, lt is believed,
will demonstrate the fact of trust con-
troll in violation of the Sherman anti
trust law. In 1906, the price of hem
lock advanced So per 1000 feet; oak,
white, plain, So; quartered So, white
pine So; pellow pine 81, poplar $5 In
the last ten years the average price of
maple has increased IL per cent, oak
36 per cent, quartsred oak 49 per
cent, yellow pine 65 per cent, pop
lar 70 per cent, spruce IA per cent,
and hemlock 81 per cent.
Speaker Cannon says the report
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