Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-04-02
Forest Kings Must Explain
Their Vast Deals in the
West
INQUIRY .w'LL GO TO BOTTOM
weyerhauser, Walker and Others te'
Be lnvestisated-carefuIiy Guarded
Secrets of Most Elusive combina"
ton Are to Be Sought by Govern
ment-May Seek to Dodge Query.

Washington, April 2.-"How many
acres Of timber lands have been bought
by Frederick Weyerhauser, L. B. Wa
ker, the Bradleys. the Smiths. the
{, Wentworths and the other vastly veal
| thy men who have consolidated the
forests of the western states in a few
hands,"
The federal government will endeav-
or to answer this question by virtue
Of the authority vested in the depart
ment of commerce and labor by the
Kittredge senate resolution directing
At the present time, twenty young
men of the bureau of corporations are
studying the timber and lumber and
sawmill business as faithfully as tho
/ they intended to organize a corpora
ton to control the business for the ma
tion.
The original object of the investga-
| ton was to analyZe the reputed lllm-
her trust. Preparations were made to
begin the inquiry by Chief Smith Of
the bureau of corporations incidents
ally came the proclamation of the
president on March 9. creating forest
reserves from 15,500.000 acres of 'tim-
Der lands in the public domain. There
was cutlery by opponents of Forester
Pinchot. The president said. and Mr..
Pinchot reiterated, that the creation Of
| the reserves was largely to forestall
the timber barons, who are gathering
| in the forests until they have virtual
control Of the future OF the lumber in
dustry in few hanos.
| How many acres of timber lands
are owned by the dozen big aggrega-
tons of timber men who are known as
| the most prominent in the west--men
who have exhausted the forests of
| Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota,
went to the Pacific coast and in the
past ten years have cornered the tim
Der land market? 2"
This was asked of government Off
Gals, by a gentleman who is interested
| in the lumber investigation.
I'VE don't know" they answered
CIlli YOU CdIl dlSWeE lutSc QuSSS
tions.' the gentleman said. you can
not adequately reply to your critics and
prove the wisdom of the forestry
| policy"
"We'H get those facts" the officials
answered. and straightway enlarged
the scope of the inquiry under the Kit
tredge resolution to include the pur-
| chase of timber lands in the west by
the men who are owners of empires of
wooded areas and who in few years
will be able to dictate terms 10 the
users OF lumber on the entire conti-
nent.
| Report has it that Weyerhauser and
associates own 150.000,000 acres of
| timber lands on the Pacific slope. And
| it is asserted that Mr.. Weyerhauser
owns the majority of this holding. He
has been reputed in some quarters to
| be the richest man on the American
| contingent. exceeding John ID. Rookie
| Teller several times. 1t will be SO ar
ranged by the head of the corpora
| tons bureau here that Mr. Weyer-
hauser will have the opportunity to say
under oath how many miles square he
owns of western forests. 1t is antici-
He may be mandamused by the fed
eral' court. He may still refuse. The
| case in that event would go to the
supreme court for determination of the
rights of the government to compel
a timber baron to disclose to the world
| his holdings. And in that manner 1t
may be that the government will lay
bare the facts and be able to draw a
correct map showing the boundaries
of the timber provinces ruled by the
| men of the Weyerhauser class.
| Some government officials believe
! that the so-called lumber trust will be
| the most elusive trust yet investigated
by the trust busters. So far, abso-
lutely nothing has been discovered
which gives clue to the proper course
| of procedure The trust, if there be
one. is today quite as mysterious as any
| ever believed to have been organized
| But these facts have been revealed
that there are trusts in certain Sec
| tions which rule absolutely the pres
ent selling al wholesale of all classes
of sawed timber For instance, there
| are associations of sawmill men in GER
tain localities, which agree on the
price which shall be charged retail
dealers within the scope of their terri
tory, and the success of the plan has
been known to the buying public for
years. Ever since the boom now in
progress on the Pacific coast started a
few years ago, and added thousands
annually to the population of every
considerable city of that region and
hundreds of thousands yearly to eacf
states population, lumber has beer
stiffened in price and the needs o.
builders have been capitalized to the
profit of the industry.
1t is understood that these facts viii
be brought out in the inquiry undel
the Kittredge resolution, and men who
have basked in the sun of prosperit,
because of these local lumber trust
probably will have to visit Washing
ton: for the authority under the reso
luton is sufficient to enable the de
partment to issue and enforce "duce:
tecun'' subpoenas and compel wit
nesses to come in person and brinl
with them their books.
DEATH AT ROWAN.
J. Mitchell Was Early Settler in low;
n