REVIEWS 119 



this field, Compton sums up the significant facts and factors of 

 recent times about as follows : 



(a) A rise in lumber price started about 1880, general, but induced 

 primarily by the exhaustion of the best and handiest Lake States 

 timber. 



(b) A decline in price followed for a number of years ending with 

 1897, parallel with the course of general prices. 



(c) A rise in prices from 1897 to 1907 stronger than that for 

 commodities at large. 



(d) Moderate increases in price, involving, however, a slight 

 relative loss, from 1907 to 1913. 



Beneath all these phenomena are general causes common to all 

 industries and showing in general prices, as Compton explains. 

 Local exhaustion of timber supplies, separating producing from con- 

 suming centers, and adding cost in the way of freight accounts mainly 

 for the rest. The fact noted under (d) above is largely explained by 

 substitution. There are also educational and psychological factors. 

 While not denying that cooperation among lumbermen has at times 

 had some effect on prices, Compton concludes in a broad way that 

 "Natural influences furnish adequate explanation of lumber prices." 

 This conclusion is fortified by study of the history of prices in Europe 

 and in Canada. 



In the field of stumpage, conclusions of a generally similar nature 

 are likewise drawn, as indicated by the following: "Concentration (of 

 ownership) does not imply higher prices," although it constitutes a 

 "situation which promises in the future to become a serious challenge 

 to public policy." "Principle of competitive timber price fixation" ; 

 "the charge of speculative holding of standing timber therefore is 

 simply the admission of an inevitable economic fact." 



This book is professedly an economic one strictly. As such it 

 seems to be both adequate and fair. The author gives the impression 

 that he would have no quarrel with the man who sees things from 

 a somewhat different angle and lays more weight on other points, if 

 there were equal disposition to give just weight to economic considera- 

 tions where they apply. 



Austin Cary. 



