The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-15
Commissioner Smith Re- ports to Taft on Timber
 Industry
ENORMOUS INCREASE
 IN VALUE OF TIMBER
Report of Commissioner of Corpora tiOns Claim That Private Own ership and Railroad Domi-
 nation Threatens Public

11OuSe ana senate the fHrSt part or tne long awaited report of Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner of corporations. on the lumber industry of the United States The. report is in response to q resolutio the House passed in De- oemberi ,SS, and one of the Senate dated Z o sSiary 10, 1907. It presents the fl s,Imprehensive investigation of the a it and ownership of the stand ing .; Ser of the country.
 Q Sing the concentration of tho e '~s.S of standing timber among few ly 6 ne interests. Commissioner Smith | o Sres that the bulk of the timber Is
 .g held spec natively and Is "close-
 connected with railroad domination
 Concentrated control of standing timber in very few hands, vast speculative holdings far in advance of any use thereof" an enormous increase In the value of .this diminishing natural. re- source, with great profits to its owners" and incidentally ''an equally sinister land monopoly" and closely connected rail- road domination are the findings reported to the President by Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner of corpora tions, in the first installment of his long awaited report on the lumber industry in the United States. The report, dated yes- terday, was made public today by the Presidents sending it to Congress-
 The report is effectively summarized In the commissioner letter of submittal. His conclusion. in a forecast of the fu-
 4t.
 There are many great combinations in other industries, says the commits sioner, whose formation is complete. In the lumber industry. on the other hand, the bureau finds now in the making combination caused, fundamentally, by a long standing public policy. The concern tration already existing is sufficiently impressive. All the more '1nprfssive are the possibilities of the future
 'In the last 40 years concentration has SD proceeded that l95 holders, many inter related, now have practically one-half or the privately owned timber In the in- vestigation area (which contains 80 per cent of the whole). This formidable pro- cess of concentration. in timber and land, ceTtalnly lHNOlNts grave lueuiC PoSStDiiA ties of impregnable monopolistic condi- tions whose far-reaching consequences to society 1t is now difficult to anticipate fully or to overestimate."
 The commissioner reserves for later re- port the subject of combinations in the manufacture or sale of lumber Gas dis tinguished from ownership of standing timber) Following Is substantially the full text of the letter summarizing the report:
 Some Facts
 "The foremost facts shown are:
 "Q)-The concentration of dominating control of our standing timber in com paratively few enormous holdings, stead iv tending toward central control of the lumber industry. (2)-Vast specula- tive purchases holding of timber land far in advance of any use thereof. i3)-An enormous increase in the value of this diminishing natural resource, with great profits to it's owners This value, by the very nature of standing timber the hold CT neither created nor substantially en- hances.
 .'These are the underlying facts, of tre- mendous significance to the public wei fare. They are primarily the result of our public land policy, long continued. The laws that represent that policy are stili largely operative. The past history and present status cf our standing tim ber drove home upon us the imperative necessity of revising our public policy for the future management of all our re- maining natural resources.
 "Only 70 years ago as feast three-fourths of the timber now standing was tit Is estimated) publicly owned. Now about four-fifths of 1t Is privately owned. The great bulk of 1t passed from government to private hands through (a) enormous railroad, canal and wagon road grants by the federal government: (b) govern ment sale in unlimited quantities at $l.36 an acre; (c) certain public land laws, great tracts being assembled in spite of the legal requirements for small holdings. Such laws were wholly inappropriate to forest regions, but though vigorously condemned in several public reports, they are still largely In force. In theory they were intended to distribute the public lands in small tracts as homes for free holders Tn fact they actually furthered timber concentration in vast holdings. The 1882 largest holders of timber now own Ss,570,00 acres of land as compared with vastly wider distribution of pub lic lands in non-timbered agricultural sec tions.
 Value Increases
 
 During this interval and chiefly in tho latter half thereof, the value of standing timber has increased ten-fold. twenty-fold and even fifty-fold according to local conditions. The present annual growth Is only about one-third of the present annual cut Replacement by new growth is very slow. a1 f4a
 '.F,xamples of the increase during this iu. erval are: From s5 to $30 an acre, q to $40, $2o to $150. sl to SIS, s4 to $40. $1 t,, $b0 Specific tracts have been sold first for $24,000 and later for $153,0o0 sl0,00O and later s124.Oo0, $24O,o00 and later g, 50O.- coo, s2s,OoO and later $,oOo.ooO. $1s.oo0 and la-er $1, ,125.0o0 These examples illustrate the remarkable profit made by certain individual holders.
 what did the government get for the timber? Of the southern pine sold for S1.25 an acre much Is now worth s60 an acre. Large amounts of Douglas fir In |West Washington and Oregon. which the government gave away or sold at $2.50 an acre, now range from $1O0 to $2oO per acre. The great redwood belt in Cali fornia was alienated on similar terms, and some of 1t Is now worth hundreds of dollars an acre. Practically none of the great forests in the public land states was sold by the government for more than t2.5O an acre. The great increase <4~-zl ] CONTINUED ON PAGE O