The Alaska citizen., 1913-12-15

'
 h..H. working in perfect accord and
 an the interests of the great private | timber owncrsftp to produce a mon ] arly of the timber supply and to in crease the price of forest products. They ar" following the very effective method of increasing the price. hy ! limiting the supply, method that of recent years has gotten some cstim- able men not rcprvse enting the govern
 mtnt into the ponitentiary
 Here are some figures taken from the last annual report of the Forester He estimates that 5.700. 900. .0ea feet If timber can annually be cut from the national forest reserves without de er, asins their value. In other words. that k what he estimates to be the crop that rirens each year for the harvesting. and if not cut. like any other crop. is forever lost. The amount of this crop harvested for the bene- flt of the people. for those who are | today protesting aEainSt the high price of timber products, is oHly per cent af The Whole. In other words per e'ut of the peoples crop of timber is used and = per cent rotS in th,. forest. And this is called "conserya- ion" And also remember that the million dollars worth that the people, w're permitted to use cost them more than s2.o0o,oOo. Tho Forest Service Hot only fails to cut hut per cent nf tneir own crop but In the state of Washington they have included in tn. ",s'rvts dff.o9o acres of ttmhertana that belongs to the state and so afel@ed il about that the state can not eHt any portion of q. taking this vast amount absolutely from the mar
 lct: and on all these thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions ef acres tac timber rnts and decays for the benefit of the people and to tHe glory of "conseftation'
 IT the government should acquire ana=fonrth of all the wheat growin. tn tHe country. and then WAen il Ind ripenea te the harvest. while the peu- 4le were clauoring for bread. permit only : per cent of il to he harvested,
 while the 9& per cent routed in the ttat4, il would be pursuing eNaetie tho policy that the Forest Service is loing today in regard to the great timber crops of the Nation The For est Service claims that they can nut rut more than what they are cutting from the national forest and sell 4 for a reasonable price This is prob ably true, for they demand the same ariee that is acmanled by the great timher barons of the west But ccr- tainy the purpose of the Forest Scr- Aice is not Ia get high price for timber. hut to permit the public. the
 | ,rfT
 wise will hc wasted But this k not and never has been tine result of con serFation IS practiecd in relation fo the national forests Their idea of conservation as practiccd is not to use the timber products of the United states but to waste il and compel the people of the United States to pay for per cen of that crop what they should pay for the entire loo per cent Much of the timber that tho Forest Service does sell is sold upon l"n2-term contracts, giving the pur- chaser many years in which to re move the timber. This. again, leads to monopoly, and to keeping it off the market It leads to speculation. especially as the purchaser can hold the timber so purchased through all of these years without the payment of taxes, a privilege that, so far as I know, is not extended to any oti CT class of property. But all these trans actions, of course, tremendously in crease the Value of the timber that is privately owned, and consequently strengthens the monoply that owns the timber lands on the Pacific coast. It Is that the system of national forests as it has been practiced since it's esta- blshment has given to the railroads and to the Weyehaeuser syndicate, in the state of Washington alone not less than S50,000, 900, and that the same system has given to the rail roads and the Weyerhaeuser syndicate i'll the Pacific Coast states of Wash inston, California. Oregon. and Idaho not less than the vast and incompro- hensible sum of $20G, 900 This vast sum that belonged to tine people has been given to these great pri- vate interests in the name of ''con- scrNation." Not only have these vast sums been given to these private in Icrests, but the Forest Service. by it's policy of taking one-fourth of all the timherel lands of the Pacific coast, or one-eiSht of the lands in the United States off the market. is con stantly increasing the price of every foot of timber that is sold in the United States.
 According to the annual report of the Forest Service, they give to the American people sl.0OO.0 900 worth of forest products from the great na- tional reserves each year and per init s15,000,000 worth to rot in the woods Is it any wonder since the establishment of the forest reserves in the Pacific northwest that the orice of timber products has constant ly increased?
 ,tr MURDOCH. Will the gentle man yield?
 MT HUMPHREY of Washington. 1 will yield to the gentleman briefly for a question Mr. MURDOCH. The gentleman realizes that 75 per cent of the government timber is inaccessible?
 NIT. HUMPHREY of Washington. l do not realize anything of the kind I think the statement of the gentleman
 is perfectly absurd. Why do not they sell the timber that is accessible; why uo they heep It Oil tue lldrkel They do it because they require the prices fixed by the Weyerhaeuser syn dicate. They practically state that it
 is as much benefit to them to let the timber rot as it is to put it on the market, because they can get as much for a part of it as they would for the whole. owing to the increase in price
 THE SOURCE OF "coNsERvArIoN."