all but destroyed, and now produce lumber for little else than wood pulp. The lumbermen moved over to the Great Lakes region and there wrought the same havoc that marked their progress in the virgin forests of New England and New York. Finally the forests of the lake region were denuded of all their desirable timber and the manufacturers scattered, some to the South which had been but little exploited 15 years ago, and others to the Pacific Coast. It was not until they reached the Coast that they encountered the Government's forestry policy, and it has only been within the last year or so that the lumber manufacturers have found it necessary to go into reserves and buy up timber at a fair stumpage value. Yet the time is coming when the demand for reserved timber will assume large proportions.
But even before that time, it is argued by the writer that the reserves, or National forests, as they are now called, will act as a regulator of the price of timber in the forest. in that they will compel the payment of a fair price for private stumpage during the present days of plenty on the Coast, and will act as a restraint against exorbitant prices when the timber in private ownership has largely disappeared. All in all, the article presents a number of forceful arguments.
The following extracts present the salient features:
"The old process of exhausting the supply of timber in a region and then seeking new fields is very nearly over. Already the industry is turning back on its tracks. A quality of timber is eagerly sought in the Lake States which a few years ago was passed over as utterly worthless, and certain sawmills have depended for a part of their supply upon the recovery of logs which have sunk in the waterways in process of transportation. In the South the whole pine region is being gone over in close search of the old field pine. This inferior and once despised growth of timber is now bought up at prices greatly in excess of those once paid for the magnificent timber of the virgin forests.
"Great improvement in logging and sawmill machinery, signal success in reducing the waste in manufacture, wonderful railroad extension, concentration, and systematic organization of producers to reach the consumer most effectively through the markets, have all combined to cheapen the cost of production and increase the profit in the lumber business. Yet the price of lumber has never before been as high as in the year 1900. This increased price is in spite of an increased production which it taxes the railroads to transport.
"The price of stumpage is far more stable than that of lumber, and responds very tardily to fluctations in the lumber market. The usual policy of disposing of Federal and State timber for practically nothing has acted powerfully, particularly in the West, to keep the selling price of stumpage far below its legitimate value. It is not surprising that it has always been impossible for the bulk of the owners of timber to have a broad view of the lumber industry and close acquaintance with the lumber market, for most of the cost of producing lumber lies in logging and manufacture, and the margin of profit has varied widely. The price of stumpage has always been artificially depressed, and has lagged far behind the constantly increasing value of lumber.
"The timber and stone act provides for the purchase of public timberland at the uniform price of $2.50 per acre. The purpose of Congress in enacting this law was to make it possible for settlers, miners, and other actual users of timber to satisfy their needs. Records of the General Land Office show that in 1904 over 55,000 entries had been made under this act, covering an area of nearly 8,000,000 acres. Probably 10,000,000 acres of carefully selected public timberland has by this time passed into the control of private owners under this law alone.
"It is well known that most of the entries under this law have been made, indirectly, by nonresidents for speculation. And the great bulk of the entries have almost immediately passed into the hands of timber .syndicates, with profit to the original entryman amounting to no more than bare wages. Thus the law has reacted greatly to the disadvantage of the very classes whom it was intended to help, and the bona fide settler and miner and the small sawmill man have seen the public timber rapidly withdrawn and pass into the hands of speculative syndicates.
"The land laws, while they have provided for the rapid disposal of public timberlands, have tended strongly to the segregation of large holdings of timberland for speculative purposes.
"Money receipts from the sale of timber for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1905. were $50,000. During the present fiscal year receipts from timber sold will probably exceed $500,000, and contracts for the sale of timber, extending from one to five years, will reach a value of over $1,500,000.
"The money return which the Government realizes from these sales is in striking contrast to that received from the sale of timberland under the land laws. Under the timber and stone act timberland could be bought for $$2.50 per acre, and under the lieu land law it could be acquired in exchange for denuded and worthless land without money payment. Timber from the forests is now purchased by the thousand board feet, and payment is made upon the actual scale of the logs when cut. The cut varies from 5000 to 20,000 feet per acre, so that, at the comparatively low stumpage rate of $2.50 per thousand feet. the Government receives from five to 20 times as much for the timber as it received under
the timber and stone act and retains the land. To cite a single example: A sale of
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