Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1913-01-20

To increase government ownership
Of forest lands the commissioner
urges that the forests Of Alaska be.
included in reserve, as well as all
timbered lands recovered in forfeit
ure suits. He advises. a further
searching inquiry into land grants
Of the past with the view Of insti-
tuting additional forfeiture suits if
the facts justify the procedure
In the summary Of the report pre-
viously published, the then commits
sioner of corporations, Herbert Knox
Smith, set forth the Southern Pa
cific company is the greatest private
holder Of timber in the United States.
controlling 100 billion feet, the Wey-
erhanser Timber company, with 96
billion feet, the second largest and
the Northern Pacific Railway com
pany with 36 billion feet, the third.
Going further in detail the full report
declares that the following five inter-
ests control in the aggregate 102
billion feet of timber practically all
located in the Pacific northwest:
Companies controlled by Charles A.
Smith of Minneapolis Thomas B.
Walker of Minneapolis; concerns in
which N. P. Wheeler and w. e.
Wheeler of Endeavor, Pa, are the
chief stockholders; companies in
which the A. b. Hammond company
of New Jersey, in the principal in
terest and the timber interests of
the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget
Sound Railway company Subsidiary
to the Chicago. Milwaukee and st.
Paul Railway company.
After enormous sales, the commits
sioner points out that the Southern
Pacific, the Northern Pacific aud the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe own
together Ss,5O0,O0o acres of timbered
and non-timbered lands, an area as
large as England.
The Amalgamated Copper COM
pany, Conana adds, owns over l.,
100000 acres of timber land and
more than 100000 acres of non-tim-
bered land, all in Montana, and Thos.
b. Walker personally owns 100000
acres in California.
Despite the great increase in
stumpage values in recent years,
Commissioner Gonant forsees
growing rise in prices because of the
diminished lumber supply and in
creasing population, amounting, he
says, to almost a propaganda at the
present time, that the price of
stumpage should equal the cost OF
growing trees. The idea, he adds,
seems incredible when it is consider
\ ed that standing timber is the free
gift of nature requiring from scores
y to hundreds of years for its growth.
The proposal, brought forth in the
name of conservation, lis proposal
S deliberately to hasten the evil which
conservation ought to moderate-the
evil of excessive prices Taken in
connection with the increasing con
eentratien of timber control, he says,
q the proposition is matter of grave
i, concern to the consumer of lumber.
In advocating an extension of gov
~ ernment ownership of forest lands,
rs the commissioner points to the fact
no that there is a distinguishing charac
ed teristic of standing timber, as con
re trasted with such mineral resources
re as iron ore coal and petroleum, il
ct that no labor is required to discover
it,
re Discussing means of increasing thu
,k governments ownership of timbe
ar, lands, Conant suggests, If pending
to forfeiture suits are successful,
mis- searching investigation to determine
fu- whether there has been such homes
at fullfillment of the various condition
He attached TO the Northern Pacific an
,ys other grants as would give congress
ide Just and legal cause to seek furthe
mt, forfeitures.
Top 1t is clear, concludes the repor
dy that there has been a lavish diss
our patton of standing timber and othe
sit natural resources of the national d,
main and that the beneficiaries {
the this policy too frequently have bee
Sc not actual settlers, but capitalist
ing who have been able to take adya
up. tage of legislation or its faulty a
vas ministrations and thus aceumuia
he vast holdings of timber land at
lca- comparatively small cost and res
ear. therefrom an enormous profit.
ar. Subsequent parts Of the lumb
the investigation to be submitted by Il
bureau of corporations will tire
of concentration Of ownership in pa