Reasonable profit an essential factor in economical logging. The photographs Nos. 1 and 2, taken on the lands of the BoothKelly Lumber Company, of Eugene, Oreg., are offered for the purpose of illustrating more clearly the figures which have been submitted showing the very necessary and close relationship which the prices of lumber bear to the conservation of the forests, as illustrated by the manner of logging. By examining photograph marked No. 1, we find that the land. has been practically swept bare of its timber. The logs were removed from the lands during the winter of 1906 and spring of 1907, when the lumber trade of the United States had reached the highest point for many years. Photograph No. 2 indicates the system of logging in vogue during the winters of 1907-8, when the great lumber industry of the Pacific coast was prostrated and paralyzed by the agitation and imposition of the railroads of a 25 per cent higher freight rate to the Middle and Eastern States of the United States than had been formerly in force. The owners of these timber lands in common with hundreds of other operators found that the common grades of lumber, which constitute 75 per cent of the tree, could not be marketed on the freight rate and compete as formerly with similar common grades located nearer the base of consumption. The mills had to be operated. Fixed charges had to be met. A greater proportion of higher grades had to be shipped. The forests, as you will observe, were simply gutted." History has proven that fire will inevitably sweep the remainder of this timber. The illustrations show the necessity and wisdom of maintaining the duty on lumber in the vital matter of forest conservation through economical logging methods. When the manufacturer receives a fair price for his product he is not only able to pay his workingmen the highest wages but retain the American market for ourselves as well. This is a most happy example of the blending of the benefits of a protective tariff and the wise and beneficent results which flow from intelligent and cooperative conservation. The benefits of protection are mutual and reciprocal. Growing timber as a business by the Government. The removal of the duty on Canadian lumber will not aid us to grow a single tree. It will only hasten the destruction of our forests through enforced competition with timber from other countries. Let Congress pass a law permitting the Government to have the right to condemn for national forest conservation purposes all lands from which the timber has been removed, at a nominal figure. The character of the land where the bulk of the timber growing in the United States is found consists of a rough, broken country, fit for only two things, the growth of timber and grass. The Government could lease the lands which are acquired for reforestation for grazing purposes in the West at, say, 5 cents an acre per year. The rental from these lands at 5 cents per acre would equal the interest on the outstanding bonds issued to purchase the lands at, say, $2.50 per acre. The Government could, in this manner, finance a reforestation project of this kind without loss to itself, while the trees were growing. We should not sit idly down here and raise a hue and cry about the depletion of the forests without working out some practical plan for replenishment. Diversity of interest makes lumber combinations impossible. Combinations or trusts are only possible where the raw material entering into an article can be controlled. In the case of the lumber business of the United States this is an impossibility, for the sufficient reason that the number of firms, corporations, and individuals engaged in the manufacture of lumber aggregated, according to the last census, in excess of 43,000, and the number of sawmills aggregated 28,850. Just stop and analyze for a moment the utter absurdity of attempting to bring into anything like a combination 43,000 men, representing 28,500 different mills. The average man who has ever tried to get even his neighbor in the same line of trade to act with him in any legitimate form of policy or respect fair trade ethics will realize at once the weakness of this statement regarding combinations among lumbermen. So much for the producer of lumber. When it comes to the ownership of the raw material or stumpage from which the sawmill man must depend upon for the conduct of his business, it would be a fair statement to assume that there are at least six independent owners of timber to every sawmill in operation. All classes of people comprise this ownership. The extent of their holdings are as varied as their number. Take on the Pacific coast, for instance, every farmer in the timbered region owns more or less timber, which he sells to the country sawmill which settles near him. The titles to the timber holdings of this country are held by all classes of people. To assume that the ownership of the stumpage of the entire United States is held by only certain few individuals devoted to one industry is puerile. As well say that every man who buys stocks is necessarily engaged in the iron business. Men in any given line of business have a common interest. It does not imply that their interests are antagonistic to the general policy of the country as a whole, or it would fail. This principle is so elementary in political economy that it needs no further discussion, and the great lumber business of the United States, with its ramifications in every nook and corner of this land, is no exception to the rule. Lumber, constituting a necessarily important function in civilized life, is, however, one of the first industries to be affected by the general adverse conditions of trade and the slowest to recover from a slump. People do not have to build new houses, barns, or fences or make improvements involving lumber in hard times. Lumber is not like flour or any other article which is absolutely essential at whatever stage the commercial tide may be when hard times appear. Transportation charges. Freight rates are a positive and controlling factor in determining and fixing the price of lumber. The freight rates from the Pacific coast to the Middle and Eastern States are as follows: In order to arrive at a fair basis as to the average weight of the different classes of lumber shipped from the Pacific coast to the Middle and Eastern States, the following sworn statement of W. C. Miles, manager Globe Lumber Company, Globe, Wash., in the suit of the western sawmills against the transcontinental railroads, heard before the Interstate Commerce Commission in December, 1907, is herewith appended: Average shipping weights. 14 per cent shipped, at 2,000 pounds___ 6 per cent shipped, at 2,500 pounds.. Per 1,000 feet. $12.00 15.00 15. 84 16. 20 19.80 In order to illustrate from the above figures just what the effect of freight charges are as compared with the price of lumber we will cite one example for illustration. To-day common, rough, barn boards are worth $8 per thousand feet at the mill on the coast. The weight of these boards would be practically 3,000 pounds to the thousand feet. Take the rate to Omaha, for instance, of 50 cents per 100 pounds, and we find that the freight charges are $15 per thousand feet, or an average of one and one-half times the cost of the lumber. The reduction in the tariff on Canadian lumber would not reduce the transportation costs. The railroads have been successful in their recent suit before the Interstate Commerce Commission in advancing their rates to Minneapolis and Chicago 5 cents per 100 pounds, which is equal to an advance of $1.50 per thousand feet to the consumer. Another illustration: A recent shipment of lumber from Portland, Oreg., to Goldfield, Nev., a distance of 1,070 miles, where the rate is 80 cents per 100 pounds, showed by the expense bill that the railroad received $365.56 for freight charges and the Sunset Lumber Company, of Portland, Oreg., the manufacturer, received $161 for the lumber. The reasons for citing the Pacific coast transportation charges on lumber to the consumers of the Middle and Central States are: 1. The Pacific coast rates are the highest to any point of consumption. 2. The existence of these great virgin forests naturally implies lower value of the product at the mill. |