Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1914-07-17
OWN M0ST0F TIMBER
OFFICIAL REPORT MADE TO PRES
lDENT WILSON AS TO WHO
is IN CONTROL.
TWO OWN HALF IN S.W. WASHINGTON
In North Central Idaho Four Holders
Have so Per Cent-About 1894
Owners Hold One-twentieth of
Land Area of U. S.

Washington.-Con of tim
Der lands in the United States in the
hands of a few owners is discussed at
length in the second and third parts of
the report of the bureau of corpora
lions on the lumber industry submit
ted to President Wilson by Commits
sioner Davies.
Two men hold 40 per cent of the
the report says; five men hold SO per
cent in western Oregon; six have 20
per cent in northeastern California; 10
have more than half in the redwood
area, and in north central Idaho four
holders have so per cent.
Timber in Big Holdings.
1.-The control of our standing timber
in a comparatively few enormous hold
ings, speculatively held far in advance
of any use thereof, and the great in
crease in the value of timber, result
ing in part from such speculative hold
ing, are underlying facts that will be-
ments in determining the price of lum-
Der as the supply of timber diminish
es," says the report.
1.-The main fact shown is that 1884
timber owners hold in fee over one
twentieth of the land area of the en-
tire United States from the Canadian
to the Mexican border. In many states
these 1894 own no lands at all. In the
900 timbered counties investigated
they own one-seventh of the area
"These 1894 holders own los, 10000
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 England states
Sixteen holders own 47,800,000 acres
or nearly ten times the land area OF
New Jersey. Three Immigrant rail
roads own enough to give Is acres to
every male of voting age in the nine
western states where almost all their
holdings lie.
Not All Can Be EARNED.
mot all this land is suitable fol-
agriculture. In the south, and in the
lake states and in part of the west 6
large portion of it can be used fol
agriculture after the timber is re
moved; but in many parts of the wes
the land is mountainous and adapted
chiefly to reforestation. Much of the
railroad-owned land outside the tim
| Der regions is arid or semi-arid.
Lavish land grants and loose, i'll
enforced land laws are the historical
background of the concentration o
land and timber ownership shown il
this report. A study of the presen
ownership of 1870 600 acres of rail
road, wagon road and canal gran
lands, covering most of the grantee
lands in the map area, and a littl
elsewhere, shows that of these particu
lar lands granted long ago to singh
corporations apparently with the ide
that they would be quickly sold to sci
tiers, only Is per cent are now dis
tributed in small holdings. Eighty-fiv
per cent are owned by the grantee
or their successors, or by large tin
Der holders. Of S2,50O,000 acres grant
ed to three western railroads in tn
Cos the roads still retain 40 per cen
in 1910.
States Have Been Derellct.
Moreover, the states appear to hav
disposed of the various federal grant
made to them in such a way as to COZ