Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1901)
Conservative * 9 more equitably assessed as between shippers , with a lower basis of rates generally. The Sherman anti-trust act and the anti-trnst legislation enacted by various state legislatures have had , it seems to me , just the opposite effect to that which was desired. These laws have prevented combinations or actual consolidations of property. Competition has been so severe , and the outlook so cloudy that many manufacturers who would have much preferred to have kept their plants in their own families and have handed them down to the next generation , have been obliged to con solidate with their competitors. While concentration of railroad owner ship is making rapid progress in the East , the wave has not yet made much impression west of the Mississippi. It will undoubtedly come , and , while I am in favor of it , I doubt if the western country is yet quite prepared for it , and advocate legalized pooling as a temporary ary substitute. With permission to con tract with each other for a division of their tonnage or their earnings , there will not be the pressure there is now for joint ownership. The logical result of unrestricted competition is the death of competition or consolidation. Prosperity. Railroads are now generally prosper ous , though there will not be much new railroad built for some time owing to the increase in the cost of material. It is estimated that the increase in the cost of supplies and material over that of a year ago or more , amounts to about $800 per mile in maintenance , or about one-third. American railroad labor is the highest paid labor in the world. It has had more constant and regular em ployment since the railroad business has improved. There has been some in crease in the wages paid , and if the business continues as prosperous as it is now , it is not unlikely there will be demands made for further increase. Labor and capital are now on a parity , both organized , and will deal with each other in respect to each others' rights. Both will be strong confederations , neither one having the upper hand. Owning : Not Owing1. The general situation in the railroad world is at present satisfactory. The advance in the price of supplies , the prospective demands of labor , and the prohibition of combinations to maintain reasonable charges , are the only three things in the transportation business today which are discouraging. The general condition of the country is the best we have ever experienced. The people of the West never owned so much or owed so little. TIMBER IS GOING FAST. A valuable report on the lumber trade is now being prepared for public infer .mation by the bureau of statistics which estimates that the standing tim ber in the United States now covers an area of 1,094,490 square miles and con- ains a supply of 2,800,000,000,000 feet. The states having the largest supply of imber are as follows : Bq. Miles. Texas 04,009 Oregon 54,800 ilinnesota.i 52,200 Washington 47,700 Arkansas 45,000 California 44,700 Montana 42,000 Geortria 42,000 Missouri 41,000 We are cutting our timber at the rate of about 40,000,000,000 feet a year , and f the same average is continued our supply will last about sixty years. The following tables show the estimated sup ply and the annual out : Total supply , ft. Annual cut , ft. Southern states. . 700,000,000.000 10,000,000,000 Lake region 500,000,000000 18,000.000,000 Mountain states. 100,000,000,000 2,000.000,000 Pacific states. . . . 1,000,000,000,000 4,000,000,000 In Minnesota , Wisconsin and Michigan last year the lumber out amounted to 6.158,040,000 feet , which was a decided falling off from the average during the lost ten years. The maximum was reached in 18Q0 , when the total lumber out was 8,898,588,857 feet , but it has been growing less annually until it had reached the minimum in 1808 with a total of 6,158,397,000 feet. The shingle out in the lake region has been falling off in a similar manner , the total in 1890 being 4,820,838,850 , which has fallen off in ten years to 2.861,407,000. Chicago and Cleveland are the great lumber markets of the lakes. Last year Chicago handled 878,546,000 feet and Cleveland 899,704,000. If you add South Chicago it will increase the total of the Chicago district to 486,286,000. Although the general trade has fallen off consider ably during the last four years it has been increasing in Chicago. The export of lumber is becoming a very important feature of our foreign commerce , having nearly doubled within the last ten years. The total exports of wood and manufactures of wood lasl year were valued at $50,598,416 , most of the lumber having been sent from the Pacific coast to South America and the Asiatic countries. Owing to the activity of the American Forestry association the government has at last inaugurated a systematic forestry policy. Sustained by public sentiment congress has passed laws to protect the forest reserves by providing what amounts to a self-supporting administra tion. By this departure the permanen interests of communities dependent upon the forests are protected , the enormous waste that has been going on for many years is prevented and the oommercia supply of timber is increased. There has been considerable apprehension of a timber famine. Industries whose de pendenoe upon timber is direct have looked upon the disappearance of ou crests with fear for the future. Among umbermen also there has appeared an awakening as to the best policy to be followed in the shrinkage of the tim bered acreage. This discussion has taken various forms , but the newer policy is marked by a far-sighted system of management and the consolidation of properties into tracts organized as large estates or as corporations. They are based on the belief it enhanced prices. Therefore corporations and individuals are seeking timber as an investment whose value is destined to increase with the demand and the reduction of the supply of lum ber. This policy has found place in the management of timber lands owned by railway corporations in the southwest and the northwest. A recent volume by A. Melard , a French official , on the lumber situation in the world's trade , sounds a note of warning at the astonishing rate at which consumption is proceeding in the lead ing countries. France , it is estimated , consumes about 20,000.000 cubic meters for firewood and about 6,000,000 meters of lumber , nearly half of which latter requirement has to be imported. Eng land , Germany and Belgium are in a similar position , as in all these countries the industries requiring lumber as material of development are in a most flourishing condition. For the present these deficiencies in lumber supply are made up from Austria-Hungary , from Sweden and Norway , from Finland , from Russia , from Roumania , from Bosnia-Herzegovina and from the United States and Canada. These deficiencies , according to MMelard , are made good by the continued destruction of forests. The world as a whole , especially the European and North American world in the north temperate zone , is rapidly exhausting its capital investment instead of living on its yearly interest in the lumber resources of these nations taken as a whole. In all these possibilities the lumber trade of the United States has a more or less immediate interest. That interest , however , does not center in our ability to compete with other countries in the sale of manufactured lumber , but in the' capacity to foresee that in many respects the United States has a monopoly of the best available timber resources in the world. Of course Canada is now to some extent a competitor , but to a greater extent a source of raw materials for our manufacturers. If such fore sight prevails in our lumber-trade policy , the United States will sooner or later send less of her lumber and more wood manufactures into the world's markets. For the fiscal year ended June 80 , 1900 , the timber and lumber exports amounted to $80,000,000 in value , compared with $11,200,000 for manufactures of wood. The wiser policy of the future is to put the emphasis on the domestic consump-
