through corporations controlled by the subsidiaries, or affiliated with them. There is a still wider circle of influence due to the fact that officers and directors of the General Electric and its subsidiaries are also officers and directors of many other corporations, some of whose securities are owned by the General Electric Company.

The General Electric holds all the common stock in the United Electrical Securities Company, the Electrical Securities Corporation, and the Electric Bond and Share Company. Directly and through these corporations and their officers and directors, the General Electric controls a large part of the water power of the United States. The water power companies in the General Electric group are found in 18 states, in which there are 2,325,000 commercial horse power developed, and under construction of which the General Electric control includes 939,000 or 40.4 per cent. This control mounts to 80 per cent in the state of Pennsylvania, 61 per cent in New Hampshire, 58 per cent in Oregon, 55 in Washington, and 72 in Colorado. In addition, the General Electric group owns or controls, in the 18 states, 641,600 horse power not yet developed or under construction, making a grand total of power developed, under construction and undeveloped, in the 18 states, 1,580,000 horse power.

The companies subject to General Electric influence control the street railways in 16 cities and towns, the electric light plants in 78, the gas plants in 19, and even extend their influence to public service corporations in many cities not connected with horse power.

The General Electric group, by the statement of the bureau of corporations report, owns, controls or is closely affiliated with street railways in Portland and Salem, Oregon; Spokane, Washington; Great Falls, Montana; Winona, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin; Elmira, New York; Asheville and Raleigh, North Carolina, and other cities. In addition, the General Electric group owns and controls electric lighting, gas or both in nearly all the cities mentioned and also in Detroit, Michigan; Leadville, Colorado, and Butte, Montana.

Vacant Lands Productive

BY HON. OSWALD WEST

Like other states and nations, this State and nation possesses certain natural resources which were placed here by the hand of God as an aid in support, and for the promotion, of the pleasure and comfort of its citizens. It was undoubtedly the wish and intention of the All Wise Creator that each and all should share in the benefits of this great birthright, and any system of government which permits the rights of the individual, in this respect, to be invaded by a favored few is not one which will make for the happiness and prosperity of its citizens.

In theory, it has been the policy of our government to dispose of these resources in such a manner as would result in the greatest good to the greatest number, but we have in fact been, maintaining a policy which has favored the special interests, promoted monopoly, and built up a landed aristrocracy which is to become a menace to society.

The timber supply of continental United States is reported as being 2,800 billion feet, four-fifths of which has already passed into private ownership. One thousand six hundred ninety-four timber owners hold in fee over one-twentieth of the land area of the United States, from the Canadian to the Mexican border. While these holders own no land at all in some of the states, in the 900 counties, where their holdings lie, they own one-seventh of the area. These holdings amount to over 105,600,000 acres, an area greater than that of Italy, fourfifths the size of France, greater than that of California and equal to the combined area of Oregon and Washington.

Since the birth of the nation, Congress has given over 150,000,000 acres of land as an aid to the construction of railroads, and millions and millions of acres to aid the construction of canals and wagon roads. The Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and Northern Pacific interests received grants amounting to nearly 90,000,000 acres and about 40 per cent of these lands are in their hands today.

The government's land grant policy and its public land laws, particularly its scrip, timber and stone, and cash sale laws, afforded the timber barons easy methods for the accumulation

of enormous tracts of our most valuable timber. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 45 per cent of the land is held by 32 timber owners. In Florida, 52 holders own one-third of the land of the entire state.

The Weyerhaeuser Timber Company owns about 2,000,000 acres of land in Oregon, Washington and California, which carries 100 billion feet of merchantable timber. Eighty per cent of this timber company's holdings were purchased from the Northern Pacific Railway Company. A single purchase of 900,000 acres was made in 1900.

We have in the Northwest about 1,500 billion feet of standing timber, being a little more than 50 per cent of that of the Continental United States. Two-thirds of this timber is in private hands. One-half of it is held by 37 owners and three owners hold one-fourth of it. The Northwest holdings of the Big Three are more than one-half as great as the entire holdings of the federal government. Their holdings in Oregon and Washington are as great as those of the federal government in the said states. The Oregon holdings of two of these concerns are two-thirds as great as those of the federal government in said State, and greater than those of the federal government in either Washington or Idaho.

The Northern Pacific still owns 3,000,000 acres of land in the Northwest. These lands carry about 36 billion feet of merchantable timber. The department of commerce in discussing the Northern Pacific's holdings in its bulletin on our timber industry, says:

"The Northern Pacific's present timber holding is composed of lands patented to it and lands claimed by it. For instance, much of the company's land, especially within the national forest, is unpatented, even unsurveyed. But this land, if within the primary limits, is nevertheless claimed by the company under its grant, the claim having attached at the date of the definite location of its road through the particular region. In the indemnity limits, however, its right to select lands as indemnity can not attach prior to survey, and can not attach at all if there is any valid adverse claim existing at the time the company makes the selection. The reserving of lands for a national forest prior to their being surveyed constitutes such an adverse claim. Consequently, the railway company can not claim unsurveyed lands within its indemnity strip if they have been withdrawn for a national forest. The amount of unsurveyed land which the Northern Pacific might have found available for indemnity selections, but which has been put beyond its reach by the creation of national forests is, a rough estimate, 340,000 acres, carrying in the neighborhood of 11.5 billion feet of timber."

By an Act of Congress, slipped through a few years ago, the Northern Pacific was given the right to surrender a large acreage of the worthless lands within the boundaries of the Olympic National Park, in the State of Washington, and select a like acreage of surveyed or unsurveyed lands from the public domain in lieu thereof. This right has been largely exercised within the borders of this State. Thousands of acres of magnificent timber, unsurveyed and, therefore, not otherwise open to entry under the federal laws, have been covered by the said Olympic forest reserve scrip. Being still unsurveyed and unpatented, these lands are not listed for taxation.

Oregon has within her boundaries 545,800,000,000 feet (board measure) of standing timber, or about one-fifth of the timber supply of the United States. Two-thirds of this timber is held in private ownership, the balance by the federal government. About 35,000,000,000 feet of the said privately-owned timber was once owned by the State as part of her school grant, but from which the school fund did not realize to exceed an average price of ten cents per thousand feet.

The acreage of the privately-owned timber in this State is distributed as follows:

Not over 5 per cent of the holders of timber in this State reside on the land and their number is steadily decreasing. Holders are classified as to residence as follows:

It will be seen, therefore, that a single holder controls 22.5 per cent and 31 holders 42 per cent of the privately owned timber acreage of this State. Sixty-eight holders are reported as controlling 56 per cent of our privately owned timber,

The Southern Pacific Company (through the O. & C. R. R. land grant now in litigation) claims ownership to 71 billion feet of timber in this State, and the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company owns 18.7 billion feet. At the rate of cutting which has prevailed during past busy years, these two holdings could supply the 46,500 saw mills in the United States for four and one-half years and all of the saw mills in Oregon, Washington and California for nearly thirty years.

A careful study of past events and the records show that had not the federal government withdrawn certain of our timber lands from entry, practically every surveyed acre in this State would now be in private ownership and the larger part of it would have passed to the hands of the big interests. Oregon's land grant from the federal government amounted to nearly 4,000,000 acres, as follows:

Prior to the year 1903 these lands sold without regard to their true value, the prices being as follows:

The records of the State Land Office appear to show that prior to January 1, 1903, three-quarters of the said grant, or 3,000,000 acres, had been sold at an average price of $1.40 per acre. Although this magnificent grant to the State carried about 35 billion feet of merchantable timber, it does not appear to have netted the school fund to exceed 10 cents per thousand feet. Since the said date, however, an effort has been made, and with some success, to secure for the school fund something near the true value of its lands, with the result that the prices which now prevail are far in excess of those of former years.