The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 9, 1920, Page 4

~ working upon the problem. - ‘than ours, so that we can not _best suits their convenience. Lumber—When Will It Be Cheaper? Nation Faces Timber Famine, Says Forestry Society— What 2] UNDREDS of farmers, planning new houses and barns, have discovered that lumber has doubled in price. They want to know why. Is.the high price likely to last? Can anything be done ‘about it? What? The S .ciety of American Foresters has had an expert committee, headed by Gifford Pinchot, for- mer head of the United States forestry service, This, in brief, is what the committee has found: Lumber is higher primarily because of an ap- proaching timber shortage. We are cutting each year approximately three times as much timber as is maturing. There is enough timber left to last 50 years, but speculators and profiteers al- ready are taking advantage of the approaching shortage. Local timber supplies are disappearing and freight charges increase, since the.largest available supply is now in the Pacific Northwest, far from the largest market. A timber famine 50 years off may seem a long distance in the future, but a timber crop ordinarily takes 100 years to ma- ture. So the timber market is in the same condition that the grain market would be if enough gran had been produced to last the country six 1zenths, with the next harvest a year away. This condition is likely to grow worse rather than better. We can not easily reduce our consumption of lumber, and Ewuropean stocks are shorter import. : Yet there is a remedy, the Pinchot committee says. Be- fore taking up the remedy let us see what brought present conditions about. Wilful waste of the timber of the country, not use, is re- sponsible for the present state of affairs, the committee says. This country has allowed its timber barons to pursue. a system that would not be tol- erated an instant in Europe. The committee says: “With rare exceptions American lumbermen leave the brush and slashings caused by logging in whatever condition Shortly the slashings become dry and inflammable and fire regularly follows Season after season fire succeeds fire across the old cuttings, Within a few years lands once covered with valuable " forests. which maintained and, renewed them- selves for century after cen- tury, are changed into strelches of ragged scrub, blackened ; stumps and bleaching snags, with here and there un- sound’or undesirable green trees or a group of sap- lings which happen to have escaped both axe and fire. This is the normal course of forest destruction. A FEW MEN AftE RESPONSIBLE - FOR WIDESPREAD DEVASTATION “Forest devastation has been so long continued and is so widespread that in the eastern half of the United States alone 100,000,000 acres have been changed from rich forests to idle wastes. This is an area three times that of Pennsyivania. “Forest devastation has created the present shortage in forest products. our tremendous deficit in growing timber. It has thrown great regions into virtual bankruptey and it has generated labor troubles of dangerous pro- portions. - “To cut and use mature timber is necessary and right; to devastate the forest is wrong and need- less and it must be stopped. : : “It is the privately owned forests, our chief de- pendence for the present and future, which are be- ing devastated. A few men have secured vast amounts of private timber and timber lands. Al- ready 1,802 -owners control more than 79,000,000 " further increases in value. It is responsible for - Can Be Done About It? acres of the forest lands of the United States. In Miehigan over 5,000,000 acres are held by 32 own- ers. In Louisizana 27 owners hold more than 6,- 000,000 acres. In the Pacific Northwest three . owners have more than 9,000,000 acres. “The United States. commissioner- of corpora- tions, having conducted a very detailed investiga- tion as to the timber situation, in his report to congress on the lumber industry says: “‘The largest holders are cutting little of their timber. . They' thus reserve to themselves those incalculable profits which are still to accrue with the growth of the country, the diminishing timber supply 'and the further concentration and control thercof. = The fact that mature timber is thus withheld from use is clear evidence that great ad- ditional profits are expected to accrue through Standing timber is not- the only question. ~When the timber is cut . the land remains. There has been created, there- fore, not only the framework of an enormous tim- ber monopoly but also an equally sinister land concentration. Finally, to timber concentration and land concentration is added in our most im- portant timber section, a closely connected railroad The concentration already existipg domination. When felled timber is removed the slashings that are left are a constant menace. Fire in- ; variably follows, spreading until vast forests are destroyed. is sufficiently impressive. Still more impressive are the possibilities for the future.’” The two classes primarily interested in better- ing- present conditions, the report states, are labor and the farmer. The report says: _“At least 2,000,000 people depend directly on the primary forest industries—logging, saw-milling, naval stores. Labor conditions in the lumber in- dustry have been notoriously bad. Housing, san- itary arangements and hours of labor too often have been outrageous, and this because the lumber camp and the lumber town exist only long enough to skin the timber from the land. There is little or no permanent employment for the lumberjack. “Under such circumstances the woods worker easily ~becomes ' voteless, landless, - womanless, homeless and hopeless and sympathetic with de- stiuctively radical doctrines. : ‘“The conditions of forest labor need prompt and adequate attention. Past experience gives little reason to hope that the timber operators will, of their own accord, meet the situation in the open. If they do not it is time for the public to act. “The farmer is the greatest consumer of wood in the United States—more than 50.per cent of our production of-all kinds: of wood is used on fie P pNeE FOUR & v the farm. Whatever raises.the price or lowers. the quality of his timber supply adds to his trou- bles and cuts down his returns. “The farmer of the prairie states has more in- terest in a permanent timber supply than any other consumer. Many a prairie farmer can yet remember the difficulties which went with sod and adobe houses and shortage in fencing and fuel. Many will recall the time when good white pine fence boards were cheaper than wire. They will have noted the rapid increases in price and the steady decrease in dimensions and quality of the lumber and posts in their local markets and they have doubtless realized that as forest after forest disappears the situation will grow steadily worse.” GOVERNMENT SHOULD GROW NEW “CROP” OF TIMBER Three things are to be done, the report states, to remedy existing conditions. - . First—Forest devastation must be stopped. = Second—Growth of forests now only partially productive must be increased: SR Third—Vast areas, once forested but now mere idle wastes, must be brought back into bearing. To bring these things about the committee sug- : ; gests legislation creating a commission, consisting of the secretary of agriculture, the secretary of lzbor and the chairman of the federal trade commission, with authority to promulgate rules for lumber- ing’ that will prevent devasta- tion. But 'this commission should have further authority than this,-the report states. It should have authority to purchase, lease or condemn timber and cutover-lands, so that the government may grow a -new ‘“crop” of timber when private greed would permit cutover lands to go to waste. The commission, should es- tablish a System of forest in- surance agencies to stabilize the industry and lessen danger of fire losses. : The commission should have authority to create a “national forest loan board” and “forest loan banks.” This would en- able the lumber industry to borrow on more equitable terms than at present and would place the small timber owner on a par with the great owners with bank affiliations. A uniform system of taxa- tion should be adopted which would penalize timber owners who ' refused to protect and manage their holdings in sub- . stantial conformity with state and national laws. Finally, the committee recommends the estab- lishment of regional boards of employers and em- ployes, under government Jjurisdiction, to see that * labor gets a square deal-and fair living conditions." .Any one who has read thus far and is conversant with what North Dakota is doing to promote better farn.ling will be struck by the close comparison. An insurance system, a better credit system and a taxation system that will penalize the speculator and law-breaker without penalizing industry— these are common to both programs. : The public ownership of forests probably will prove the real remedy. The Pinchot plan would bring this about gradually, the government taking lands as -they are cut over and reforesting. Thus the forests of the future would be the property of the nation. No such public ownership should or would ex- tend to the farmer’s woodlot. When personal in- dustry is responsible for the planting and care of trees the product should belong to the individual responsible. But ' the timber barons have not planted or cared for the millions of acres of for- ests that they are wasting. The cases of the {i--- beg baron and the farmer and his woodlo Ly 19 points in common, L 5