30 THE AMES FORESTER 



prices will for a long time tend to rise, the commission might 

 thus reduce its work to merely " sitting tight", allowing few 

 advances, and meantime regulating such matters as unjust 

 discrimination and unfair practices. 



It seems probable that the price regulating commission would 

 adopt a policy somewhat similar to this ; and possibly it would 

 prove successful. It may be well to point out, however, that 

 many of the difficulties urged above to the general scheme of 

 price regulation would be encountered in this procedure as 

 well. The questions of personnel, manner of appointment, and 

 jurisdiction would not be simplified. A careful accounting sys- 

 tem would be needed, although perhaps it would not be so 

 important as if price schedules were to be fixed immediately 

 by the commission. 



The questions regarding joint products and the relation of 

 prices of different woods might be largely solved by the lum- 

 ber companies themselves without much interference from the 

 commission. The problem of adjusting supply to demand 

 would not be simplified ; low prices would in any case stimulate 

 forest destruction; and if the value of standing timber were 

 to be reckoned in the determination of prices, it would involve 

 the same circle of reasoning that was pointed out above. 



One objection which is sometimes urged against price regu- 

 lation in general, is that it leads to Government ownership and 

 socialism; but this objection has very little force when applied 

 to the lumber industry, for Government ownership is the ideal 

 toward which we should be working. 



Perhaps it may seem that since monopoly conditions in the 

 manufacture and distribution of lumber are dependent on 

 ownership of the standing timber, the logical procedure would 

 be to attack the question there, to break up in some way the 

 monopolistic control of standing timber, break up the large 

 holdings. 4 



There are several reasons why the present situation in regard 

 to the ownership of standing timber would seem to demand 

 some kind of a remedy ; some reasons why, as a matter of equity 



4 See E. Dana Durand, The Trust Problem, in the Quarterly Journal of Eco- 

 nomics; August, 1914, 672-674. 



