Forest Resources of the Pacific N^orth^^•esf 



67 



tliese suppliers with services and conuuodities, plus 

 * * * could go on indefinitely. \Vliilc each step 

 woukl add to the measure of importance of the forest 

 industry, it would also add to the questionableness of 

 the conclusions. It is possible, however, to speak with 

 confidence of the importance of the forest industries 

 to an immediately related serWce, such as that of 

 transporting the products of forests. Such a presenta- 

 tion will understate, rather than overstate, the im- 

 portance of the basic industry considered. 



Importance for Railroad Traffic 



Forest products are responsible for more of the 

 freight tonnage originatuig in the Pacific Northwest 

 than all other commodities combined. This may be 

 seen from figures 7 and 8 (and Appendix 2, table T) 

 which show the tonnage of different categories of 

 freight originating in the Region." More than 63 percent 

 of the revenue freight originating in the Pacific North- 

 west consisted of forest products. The highest relative 

 importance was in Oregon, where 79 percent of the 

 freight originating consisted of products of forests. 

 In Washington the percentage was 69, while in Idaho 

 it was 50, and in Montana 21. The significance of 

 these products to particular railroads may be seen in 

 figure 9, data for which are to be fouiul in Appendi.x 2, 

 table K. It may be seen that the movement of forest 

 products is most important for the Southern Pacific 

 Railway. Of the tonnage originating on the Southern 

 Pacific lines in the Pacific Northwest, 83.7 percent con- 

 sisted of forest products, and this constituted 12.5 

 percent of the traffic originatuig on the Southern 

 Pacific system. Of traffic originating on the Canadian 

 Pacific, in the four Pacific Northwest States, 76.8 

 ])ercent was forest products, although this tonnage 

 accouiilcil for only 2 jicrcent of the total movement 

 on the Canadian Pacific as a whole. In terms of the 

 entire .system, the forest products orignating in the 

 Pacific Northwest were most important for the North- 

 ern Pacific. Of the tonnage originating in the Pacific 

 Northwest on this railroad, 59 percent was forest 

 products, and 42 percent of the tomiage originating 

 anywhere on the Northern Pacific system was made 

 up of forest products originating in the Pacific North- 

 west. In summary for the railroads serving the 

 Pacific Northwest, 63 percent of the tonnage originatinr 

 in this ai'ca was forest ])roducts, ant! almost 16 jx'rcent 

 of the traffic originating on the entii'e systems of these 

 niilroads was contributed by forest ]iroducts in (liis 

 Region. 



" The (lassifl'-'ation of co!nino<lities used is tliat followed in the annual report forms 

 prepared hy the Interstate Commerce Comnii.s.'ijon. and used by the railroacls in 

 report inp to the public utility commissions of the various States, except that the 

 fillowinti commodities, classed a.s Manufactures and ^^scellaneous, have been en- 

 te'ed as Forest Products: furniture, other than metal; newsprint paper; printing 

 paper, n. o. s.; pai>er bags and wrapping pai)er; paperboard, pulpboard and wall- 

 board (paper); and building woodwork (millwork). 



Importance for Railroad Revenues 



Wlien we turn to the estimates of revenue earned 

 in hiuiling various classes of commodities, the picture 

 is somewhat changed. These estimates were made by 

 computing the average revenue earned per ton by 

 each railroiul on each commodity hauled. It was then 

 assumed that the revenue earned by the railroad on 

 products originating in the Pacific Northwest was the 

 average amount earned on that commodity on tlie 

 entire system. In some cases this may have led to 

 considerable error since the average length of hiiiil 

 for Pacific Northwest products might be greater or 

 less than the average for the sj'stem as n whole. It 

 seems likely, however, that when the results are 

 combined by commodity classes, the total error is not 

 large, and there is some reason to believe that revenues 

 from forest products are underestimated rather than 

 overestimated. 



The tonnage of forest products was greater than that 

 of any other commodity group. In every State but 

 Montana, where products of mines and agricultural 

 products were both more important than forest prod- 



ESTIMATED REVENUE EARNED BY RAILROADS 

 ON FREIGHT ORIGINATING 

 IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 

 IN 1929 



10 20 30 to 50 60 70 80 



PERCENTAGE OF COMMODITY GROUPS 



NORTHERN 

 PACIFIC 



GREAT 

 NORTHERN 



UNION 

 PACIFIC 



SOUTHERN 

 PACIFIC 



C M STP 

 a PACIFIC 



SPSS. 

 ALL OTHER 

 RAILROADS 



^ 



FOREST PRODUCTS 



MANUFACTURES 8 

 MISCELLANEOUS 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 



I ANIMALS AND 

 I PRODUCTS 



LESS THAN 

 CAR LOADS 



AREA OF SQUARE REPRESENTS ENTIRE REVENUE EARNED 

 BY RAILROADS ON FREIGHT ORIGINATING IN THE REGION 

 128,2 MILLION DOLLARS 



AREAS OF RECTANGLES REPRESENT REVENUE EARNED 

 BY RAILROADS ON FREIGHT ACCORDING TO ABOVE LEGEND 



NUMERALS ARE REVENUE IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS 



Kh. IKK II. 



