The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1911-02-25
Commissioner Of Corporations Re.
ports Facts of Tremendous
Significance to All.
TRUSTS MON0POLIZE THE
NATIONS TIMBER LANDS
Evil Effects of Such Conditions
Upon Society Can Hardly be
Overestimated.
Special to the Labor World.


WASHINGTON, Feb. 23.-Concen-
tration of the control Of the standing
timber in a very few hands, vast,
speculative holdings, far in advance
of any use thereof" an enormous
increase in the value of this dimin-
ishing natural resource with great
profit to it's owners and incidentally
IAN equally sinister land monopoly"
and a closely connected railroad
domination'-these are the findings
reported to the president by Herbert
Knox Smith, commissioner of cor
porations, in the first installment Of
! his long awaited report on the lum-
Der industry in the United States.
The report was made public by the
! president sending it to congress.
Summary of Report.
The report which. occupies a PAM
phlet of 50 pages of print is effective-
ly summarized in the commissioner S
letter of submittal. His conclusion in
a forecast of the future, partakes
of the sensational.
There are many great com bina-
tions in other INDUSTRIES, says the
| commissioner, whose formation is
complete. In the lumber industry,
on the other hand, the bureau now
| finds in the making a combination,
! caused fundamentally by long stand
| ing public policy. The concentration
already existing is sufficiently impress
/ sive. Still more impressive are the
possibilities for the future.
| In the last 40 years concentration
has so proceeded that 1875 holders,
| many inter-related, now have practi-
cally one-half of the privately owned
| timber in the investigation area
(Which contains 80 per cent Of the
| whole). This formidable process of
concentration in timber and on the
! possibilities of impregnable monopo-
! listic conditions, whose far reaching
| consequences to society it is now diff
ficult to anticipate fully or to over
| estimate,''
There is now left in continental
United States about 2,200,OO0,0O
board feet of privately owned stand
ing timber, Of which 1,147, 100000 is
in investigation covered in great
detail by the bureau. This aera in
clldes the Pacific northwest, the
southern pine region and the lake
states, and contains eighty per cent
of all the private timber in the coun-
try. In addition there are about
39,000.000,000 feet in the national
forests and about 10000, 100000 feet
| on other non-private lands. Thus,
the total amount of standing timber
in continental United States is about
100000 board feet The
present annual drain upon the supply
of saw timber is about 5O,0OO,OOO, 900
feet. At this rate the timber now
standing without allowance for growth
| or decay, would last about 55 years
The present commercial value of
the privately owned standing tim
Der in the country, not including the
value of the land, is estimated (though
such an estimate must be very rough),
as at least $4,000, 100000.
The lake ,states-in Minnesota.
Wisconsin and Michigan-there are
100, 000,O00,000 feet of privately own
ed timber. In Wisconsin SO holders
have three-fourths of all the timber.
In Michigan 113 holders have sc per
cent. In Minnesota six holders have
| "a per cent of the very valuable
white and Norway pine, 16 per cent
of the other conifers and two per
cent of the hardwoods. Taking all
fthree states, 215 holders have 65 per
! cent of all the TIMBER