316 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP IN TERMS OF BOARD FEET 



The privately owned timber of the United States, according to the 

 best estimates, amounts to some 2,197,000,000,000 feet. Of this total 

 amount about four fifths was included in the area investigated by the 

 Bureau of Corporations ; and of the amount in the investigation area 

 nearly half was owned by holders of 1,000,000,000 feet each or over; 

 39 per cent was owned by holders of 2,000,000,000 feet or over ; 32.2 

 per cent by holders of 3,500,000,000 feet or over ; 26 per cent by hold- 

 ers of 5,000,000,000 feet or over; and 19 per cent — nearly one fifth — 

 by holders of 13,000,000,000 feet or over. Over 69 per cent of the un- 

 reserved timber in the investigation area was owned by holders of 

 60,000,000 feet or over. To illustrate the magnitude of some of these 

 figures, it may be stated that a billion feet of lumber would load a 

 freight train 417 miles long, or would build about 65,000 ordinary 

 five- or six-room houses. 



The three largest holders in the country owned in 1914 over 237,- 



1332. Owing to the fact that most of the material on the subject of concentration of 

 ownership of standing timber is taken from the Report of the Commissioner of 

 Corporations on the Lumber Industry, few citations to references are here given. 

 The first three parts of the report are provided with excellent and detailed indexes, 

 and anyone wishing to follow up information contained in this chapter can easily 

 find the source by referring to them. 



Certain considerations unfortunately render the information contained in the 

 Report on the Lumber Industry somewhat less accurate than the writer could wish. 

 In the first place, the report was published several years ago (1913 and 1914), and 

 some of the details of ownership have certainly changed since then. One change 

 that should be noted at the outset, is that, since the report was published, the 

 Southern Pacific has lost about 2,000,000 acres of its most valuable timber land, 

 through the forfeiture act of 1916. Many smaller changes might be mentioned. 

 Thus the Gould estate is reported to have sold its holding of about 100,000 acres 

 in Louisiana; and many such changes in ownership are constantly being made. 



In the second place, the Report on the Lumber Industry was written with a 

 too evident purpose of proving the existence of something approaching a monopoly 

 condition in the timber and lumber industry; and, as a result, some of the con- 

 clusions drawn are hardly justified by the evidence at hand. 



In spite of all this, it has seemed wise to include some of the material relating 

 to the subject of timber ownership. Such changes in the details as are constantly 

 occurring do not affect seriously the general situation as presented in this chapter, 

 and the inclusion of some such details give definiteness and coricreteness to the 

 general statements. Also, while some of the conclusions drawn in the Report on the 

 Lumber Industry are not justified, the data and statistics presented are for the 

 most part fairly accurate — the best, and indeed almost the only data available on 

 the subject. Some material which was too clearly forced and biased, the writer has 

 been careful not to include here. 



