20 THE AMES FORESTER 



as possible, and thus try to secure a large enough proportion 

 of the timberland so that it can set prices for the public. 



The "trust-busting" policy was naturally the first one to be 

 tried in this country, and since about 1906 the Federal Gov- 

 ernment and some of the state governments have been very 

 active in their efforts to break up lumber combinations. In 

 considering this government activity two questions arose : first, 

 is it desirable to break up such combinations ; and second, is it 

 possible to do so. 



The problem of breaking up combinations in the lumber in- 

 dustry brings with it the whole question as to the advantages 

 or economics of large-scale organization. It is impossible to 

 go into a minute analysis of this question here, but it will be 

 pertinent to suggest that many of the advantages claimed for 

 large-scale organization in general are not of great importance 

 in the manufacturing of lumber, because the most efficient unit 

 in the business is comparatively small. "To enlarge a mill 

 beyond a capacity of 20 or 25 million feet a year is to duplicate 

 mechanical units, with small or doubtful advantage in manu- 

 facture, and with certain disadvantage in the cost of transport- 

 ing logs. It is a matter of dispute among lumbermen whether 

 a mill of 20 million feet capacity, under the usual conditions of 

 transportation in the southern pine territory, is not more 

 economical than a larger one/' 2 



There is without a doubt considerable economy in the so- 

 called "integration of industry," that is, in the union of va- 

 rious successive related processes under the same management. 

 In certain regions it may frequently be in the interest of effi- 

 ciency and economy that a single organization should control 

 the standing timber, own and operate all the logging equip- 

 ment, the saw-mill and perhaps even wholesale and retail es- 

 tablishments. It is almost everywhere desirable that mill own- 

 ers should own their own standing timber because in this way 

 they can eliminate much of the element of uncertainty in the 

 securing of timber supplies, and so insure the most economical 

 use of milling capital. The contests between the loggers and 

 the mill men on the Pacific coast, often resulting in very se- 

 vere losses to those concerned, indicate that logging and mill- 



2 Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Lumber Industry, I, 35, 36. 



