Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-07-15
Weyerhauser Company and Two Railroads Have 238
 Billion Feet.
SPECULATE AT THE
 PEOPLES EXPENSE
Immense Holdings Built Up Through Federal Grants as Result of Loose. ly Drawn Laws, Poorly
 Enforced.

Washington, July 14.-That three corporations own 23S,0Oo, o,O0O,O00 feet or more than il per cent of the priv ately-owned timber in the United States will be shown in a report which will be published within a short time by the bureau of corpor- ations, following an investigation which has occupied four years. The Southern Pacific railroad, the Weyer- hauser Timber company and the Northern Pacific railroad from the combination which owns tho cream of the remaining timber in this coun- try. The three concerns own one fourth of the total privately-owned timber.
 The report of the bureau of corpor- ations will deal at length with the increasing concentration of timber lands by these and few other large concerns for speculative purposes, and will charge that the big mono polies are not business rivals, but ,ather that they cooperate in keep ing the timber lands within their grasp. It also will be charged that he combination threw many diff ,ulties in the way of the investlga- ion by withholding information or flisputing the right of the investigae ors to access to their books. /,
 Suggests Remedy.~
 The report attributes the concen- ration of the timbef' lands to the 'oosely-drawn and' laxlv administered public land laws, under which the imber graBbers are allowed to build p theiE holdings TO save as much IS possible of the remaining public lGdmain. program of legislation for Simber lands will be submitted in the report.
 The three largest timber holdings fl the Southern Pacific, the Weyer- hauser company and the Northern on federal land grants. Up to. June ,0, 1910, the immense total of 113,- s60,000 acres had been actually patented to railroads through these grants.
 Under the vicious foreign new land legislation" since repealed, these three companies. with other transcontinental railroads, relin- quished poor land within the national park and forest reserve areas and were given in exchange the privilege of selection of surveyed or unsurvey- ed nol-mineral lands in any state trough which the road ran.
 1.-The control of our standing tim per in comparatively few enormous holdings, speoulatively held far in ad- vance of any use thereof, and the treat increase in the value of tim per, resulting in part from Such spec llative holding, are underlying facts hat will become more and more inn portant elements in determining the price of lumber as the supply of tim per diminishes" says the report.
 "The main fact shown is that 1894 imber owners hold in fee over one twentieth of the land area of the en- ire United States from the Canadian 0 the Mexican border. In many states these 1894 own no lands at all. In the 900 timbered counties in vestigated they own one-seventh of he area.
 Own Area Large as France. "These 1894 holders own 195 .600,0 ,000 acres. This is an area fOur-fifths the size of France; or greater than the entire state of California or more han two and one-half times the lard area of the six New England states. Sixteen holders own, 47.SO000O acres, | or nearly ten times the land area ot New Jersey. Three ,and-grant rail- l roads own enough to give 15 acres to every male of voting age in the nine 1 western states where almost all their holdings lie.
 Not all this land is suitable for | agriculture. Tn the south and in the | Lake states and in part of the west | large portion of it can be used fol l agriculture after the timber is re. 1 moved, but in many parts of the wes ] the land is mountainous and adapted chiefly to reforestation. Much of tho railroads owned land outside tn, timber regions is arid or semiarid.
 "ln the upper peninsula of Michi gan 45 per cent of the lana is held mostly in fee, by 32 timber owners. II Florida 52 holders. (mostly timbe owners) hold one-third of the land i the entire state.
 Lavish land grants and loose, ill enforced land laws are the histori cal background of the concentration of land and timber ownership show in this report A study of the pres ent ownership of 7,37O,00O acres c railraod wagoa-road. and canal gran lands covering most of the grante lands in the map area, and a littl elsewhere shows that of these parti cular lands, granted long ago t
 single corporations apparently wit the idea that they would be quickl sold to settlers, only l5a per cent ar now distributed in small holding. Eighty,five per cent are owned by tn grantees or their successors, Or b large timber holders. Of S2.50O. .00 acres granted to three western raj