Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1914-07-13
Concentration of Lumber
Acreage in Hands of 1894
Holders Brings Forth
Some Observations from
Commissioner Davis
MEANS CONTROL,
OF THE PRICES
Points Out These Enormous
Holdings Are Being Held
Speculatively in An
ticipation Of the Near
Future
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPATcHJ

ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPATCH1
WASHINGTON, July 12.-Concen-
tration of timber lands in the Unit
ed States in the hands of a few own
els is discussed at length in the Sc
cond and third parts of the report Of
the Bureau of Corporations on the
Lumber Industry. submitted to Pres
! ident Wilson today by Commissioner
Davies.
Two men hold 40 per cent of the
timber in southwestern Washington.
the report says; five men hold Sc
per cent in western oregon; six have
20 per cent in northeastern Cali
fornia: ten have more than half in
the redwood area, and in north CEN
tral Idaho four holders have 20 per
cent.
The control of our standing tim
Der in a comparatively few enormous
holdings, speculatively held far in ad-
vance of any use thereof, and the
great increase in hte vaiuA Of timber
resulting in part from such specula
tive holdings, are underlying facts
that will become more and more i'm
altant ellen q IS in determining the
price Of lumber as the supply of tim
Der diminishes," says the report.
The main fact shown is that
1894 timhe' owners h)il in fee over
enc twentieth Of the land area of the
entire United States from the Cana
dian to the Mexican border. In many
states these 1854 owa ro lauls IT
all In the 80 timbered countries
| investigated they own one-seventh Of
the area.
These 1854 holders own 105, ,600,-
| 600 acres. This is an area four -fifths
| the size of France; or greater than
| the entire state of California; or
more than two and one half times
the land area of the six New Eng
land states. Sixteen holders own 47,-
100000 acres, or nearly ten times the
| land area of New Jersey. Three
landgrant railroads own enough to
give Is acres to every male of voting
age in the western states where al
most all their holdings lie.
| Not all this land is suitable for
agriculture In the south and in the
| l<dht STATES anu III part aOI t1e west
large portion of it can be used for
agriculture after the timber is re-
lmoved: but in many parts of the
west the land is mountainous and
adapted chiefly to reforestation. Much
of the railroads owned land outside
the timber regions is arid or semi
arid
I'm the Upper Peninsula of Michi-
gan As per cent of the land is held.
mostly in fee by 80 timber owners.
In Florida 80 holders, (mostly timber
owners) hold onethird of the land
in the entire state.
Lavish land grants and loose. i'll
enforced land laws are the historical
background of the concentration of
land and timber ownership shown in
this report. A study of the present
ownership of 100000 acres of rail-
road, wagon-rOad, and canal grants
Towering most of the granted lands
in the map area, and a little else
where, shows that of these particu-
lar lands, granted long ago to single
corporations apparently with the idea
that they would be quickly sold to
i settlers, only Is per cent are now dis
ltributed in small holdings. Eighty
five per cent are owned by the grant,
ees or their successors, or by large
timber holders. OF S2,5O000O acres
granted to three western railroads in
the sixties, the roads still retained 40
per cent in 1910
Moreover, the states appear TO
have disI2sed of the various federal
lgrants made to them in such a way
as to contribute to the concentration
of land and timber ownership. Flor
da is striking example of this
again. the public-land laws, the cash
isaIe law (now repealed), the scrip
laws, and the homestead and tim
Der and stone laws operated, at least
in timber regions, to transfer govern
ment lands directly or almost directly
to great holders.
| Ninety eight per cent of the L.
100000 acres comprised in the larg-
est timber holding in the Lake States
, was acquired in a wholesale manner,
, chiefly from tracts disposed of by the
| government through grants to the
, state or under the scrip and the cash
sale laws.
This marked concentration in the
ownership of land has two important
, aspects The first is the concentra-
. ton of control of the natural re-
. sources. other than agricultural in
the area comprised in these great
holdings. Besides its timber now
standing. part of the land must be
depended on, together with the ma
tonal forests. to supply future crops
of timber. Furthermore. some of it
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