Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-14
CENTERED IN FEW HANDS
Owners Have Power to Exact Any
Prices They Please.
HOLD IT FOR THE FUTURE
Little Timber Is Being Cut on the
Larger Tracts-Fifty-Five Years
Will Exhaust Supply.

vast speculative holdings far in adj
vance of any use thereof. an enormous
increase in the value of this dimin-
lshlng natural resource with great
prohts to its owners" and incidentally
an equally sinister land monopoly
and closely connected railroad domi-
nation these are the findings report
ed to the President by Herbert Knox
Smith. commissioner of corpora lions.
| in the first installment of his long
awaited report on the lumber industry
In the United States. The report, dated
yesterday. was made public today by
the Presidents sending it to Congress.
The report. which occupies a pamphlet
OF thirty-eight pages of print, is effec-
lively Summarized in the commissioner
letter of submittal. His conclusion, in a
| forecast Of the future, pertakes of the
sensational.
Possibilities of the Future.
There are many great combinations
In other industries says the commits
sloner. whose formation is complete. In
| the lumber industry, on the other hand.
the bureau finds now in the making a
combination caused, fundamentally by q.
| long-standing public policy. The concen-
tration already existing is sufficiently i'm
pressive. Still more impressive arc the
possibilities for the future.
I'm the last forty years concentration
has so proceeded that 1875 holders many
interrelated. now have practically one
half Of the privately owned timber in
| the investigation area (Which contains
80 per cent of the whole. This formi-
dabIe process of concentration, in timber
and in land, certainly involves grave flu
! ture possibilities of impregnable monopo-
| listic conditions, whose far-reaching con-
sequences to society it is now difficult to
| anticipate fully or to overestimate
The commissioner reserves -. later re-
port the subject of combinations in the
| manufacture or sale of lumber (as DIS
tinguished from ownerships of standing
timber). Following Is substantially the
full text of the letter Summar lZlng the
report:
'The foremost facts shown are:
"D The concentration Of a dominating
control Of our standing timber in COM
lily tending toward a central control of
the lumber industry. CO Vast specu!a-
tive purchase and holding of timber land
far in advance of any use thereof. - 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 holder
neither created nor substantially en-
hances.
these are the underlying facts, of
tremendous significance to the public well
fare. They are primarily the results Of
our public land policy, long continued
The laws that represent the status of our
standing timber drive home upon us the
imperative necessity of revising our pub
lie policy for the future management Of
| all our remaining natural resources.
Passed to Private Hands.
only forty years ago at least three
fourths of the timber now standing was.
1t is estimated, publicly owned. Now
about four-fifths of it is privately owned
The great bulk of it passed from the
government to private hands through,
| first, enormous railroad. canal and wag-
on-road grants by the federal govern
| ment; secondly. direct government sales
in unlimited quantities at S125 an acre,
and third, 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 gee
holders. In fact. they actually furthered
The 1902 largest holders of timber now
own S., 579, 900 acres of land, as COM
pared with a vastly wider distribution
Of public lands in non-timbered asrlcui-
tural sections.
latter half thereof, the value of standing
timber has increased tenfold. twenty
fold and even flftyfold. according to local
conditions The present annual growth is
only about one-third of the present an
nual cut Replacement by new growth is
very slow.
examples of the increase during this
interval are: From s. to $50 an acre, 81
to $40, $40 to $3.50. 81 to s13. 81 to $40. 81
-
first for $4,000 and later for $4,000:
$4,000 and later $124,OO0: $24OOt1 and
later s2,5OOOOO: So, 600 and later $;,OO,NO:
$4,000 and later $1.125 600. These exam
pies illustrate the remarkable profit made
by certain Individual holders.
Government Got Little.
what did the government get for the
| timber? OF the southern pine sold for
$1.25 an acre, much is now worth $50 an
acre. Large amounts Of Douglas fir in
western Washington and Oregon. which
the government gave away or sold at
$40 an acre, now range from 800 to
500 per acre The great redwood belt
in California was alienated in similar
terms, and some of it is now worth hum
dreds of dollars an acre. Practically
| none of the great forests in the public
| land states was sold by the government
for more than 500 an acre. The great
increase of value gives grave Importance
to the concentration OF ownership.
1.-The former chief of field service of
the general land office, II. H. Schwartz.
stated officially $500 that the timber and
stone act:
".Has resulted in the sale of over -,
OOO,UOU acres of valuable timber lands.
of which fully 100000 acres were
transferred to corporate or individual
timber land investors by the entrymen.
These lands brought to the people or
general government a gross sum or
| $50, 900 900. At the date of sale they
were reasonably worth $240,OOO.OOO.
The profit of over $2OO.OO0,OOO went not
to the needy settlers engaged in sub
wealthy investors Not over a frac-
tional part of I per cent of the timber
purchased from the United States under
this act is held consumed or even cut
by the men and women who made the
entries
IAN effective illustration of what has
happened under our land laws appears
in the report of the United states 1or-
ester for 1910:
IAN investigation emphasizes the proba-
| bility that heavily timbered lands. If
opened to entry, would pass into the
hands Of large owners of timber. "
1Q1 600 acres eliminated from the Olympic
national forest in 1900 and 1901. on the
ground that the land was chiefly valu-
ment of the country was being retarded.
5os,7ao acres passed ultimately into the
hands OF owners who are holding 1t
purely as a timber speculation. Three
companies and two individuals own over
$4,000 acres in holdings OF from 15,OOO
to over 5000 acres each. OF timbered
homestead claims on this eliminated area.
| S.An- tv,A t<to r,vnda