RAILROAD VALUATION
Railroad Valuation IT will be remembered by the readers of La Follette's, that the First National Conference on Railroad Valuation convened in Chicago May 25 and 26. It met pursuant to a call...
...It was not...
...Other railroads are also owners of immense tracts...
...It seems that prior to the war the practice had been to manufacture lumber one-quarter inchr scant...
...The Federal Trade Commission gives some figures compiled by statisticians of the Southern Pine Association whieh are illuminating: May, 1916 1917 1918 1919 19S0 Price |16.28 $23.00 $28.10 $35.06 $55.00 Costs 14.39 16.58 22.69 26.12 28.65 Margin 1.96 6.42 6.41 8.94 26.35 These figures show that the profit margin in 1920 was more than 13 times as great as in 1916...
...Managing Editor...
...The first of these editorials appeared fat April, entitled "The Issue...
...Case that the action of the Weyerhaeuser sales company would do more to get the lumber industry into the Courts and before the Federal Trade Commission than any action recently taken by millmen regarding, prices...
...The fourth appears in the July issue entitled, "The Lumber Monopoly...
...The Lumber Monopoly, submitted to our readers in this issue, is master of American life, exactly in proportion as we are dependent upon the products of our forests for shelter...
...If I Cannot get across on- a legitimate basis...
...These prices were so exorbitant that many of the more conservative manufacturers were shocked into protest...
...That is the reason that as far as possible they are cutting timber from the lands of small holders and making great drives to open up to exploitation the national forest reserves...
...We cannot within the limits of these pages reproduce these incriminating documents in detail, but a few samples supporting the.charges outlined above will be convincing, When the_revenue bill to defray the enormous expenses of war was before Congress in 1918, the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, by methods which have not yet been fully revealed, secured the insertion of a clause which permitted the lumber corporations in making up their tax reports to calculate their- investment in standing timber on the basis of its alleged replacement value in 1913, instead of its actual cost...
...We find it conspiring to raise lumber prices to the government outrageously in the very midst of the war, conspiring to restrict the production of lumber at the very time when the President of the United States and every Cabinet officer were declaring that victory depended upon maximum production of lumber and other basic raw materials...
...On its face this may seem a very innocent and unimportant clause, but in reality it involves billions of dollars...
...I am speaking now of the larger operations...
...The courts will always sustain the rail road or other public utility in charging the people rates sufficiently high to protect such an investment igainst loss and insure to the investor a reasonable profit on his capital...
...The body of this monster is the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, and its tentacles are the eleven regional associations, which control all the principal sources of supply, and which have united to form the ppwerful national association, namely: 1. Southern Pine Association (manufacturers of southern yellow pine lumber...
...R. H. Downman, a leading cyprus manufacturer, wrote on April 5, 1919, to Mr...
...The Lumber Monopoly Senator La Follette is writing a series of editorials for La Follette's Magazine, on "Government by Private Monopoly...
...Boyle was "discussing certain of the state governments, but who can doubt that the influence of the trust reaches as effectively into the Federal Government, PARTICULARLY WHEN A MEMBER OF THE "Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoo," the secret society of the lumbermen, OCCUPIES THE WHITE HOUSE...
...These are sensational charges...
...Their votes and their associations reveal their subserviency to Monopoly...
...Some of them who call themselves "safe and sane progressives" sit conspicuously on the fence, and climb down and vote, first with one side and then with the other...
...It will wrong no one...
...Just how much truth there was in this propaganda is strikingly disclosed in a letter which Mr...
...But they are true...
...IT IS THE MOST VITAL REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW, It is the contention of the railroad owners that the value of their property should be fixed by the Commission at the estimated cost of reproducing such properties at WAR INFLATED PRICES...
...E. A. Selfridge: "You will remember that the price on yellow pine was fixed at $26.50 base or average price, and as a reasonable return to them according to their own figures of costs which had been found on their books by the reports of the Federal Trade Commission, and to $28.00 base or average price, to enable them to pay 30 cents per hour for common labor...
...ican home...
...We find it using its great power and every artful device in order to prevent the government from reforesting the enormous tracts of land which have been made barren by the wasteful and unscientific methods which it practices in order to enhance the future value of the huge areas of standing timber which it still controls...
...Its tentacles reach into every part of the nation and suck the lifeblood from every Amer...
...3. Western Pine Manufacturers* Association (manufacturers of western white and yellow pine...
...It developed that with most of the members present and a few who were not present, but whose conditions were known, there would be a curtailment of approximately 308,000,000.' " (Ibid, Page 143...
...With reference to this meeting, Mr...
...Some of the yellow pine mills did give this 30 cents per hour, others'did not...
...It is the contention of the Progressives who are moving in this matter that the first requirement of the Railroad Valuation Act makes it the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission—as a basis for rate making—to ascertain and report— among other things—"The ORIGINAL COST of each railroad, the amount and value of all donations and the methods employed by the Commission in making valuations...
...But in the case of the honest and prudent investor in a public enterprise such as the building of a railroad or other public utility, the investor is accorded just and reasonable protection by the courts against the loss of his principal or the loss of reasonable profits on his investment...
...The report of the Federal Trade Commission says: "The councils of the association, even during the war, were frequently directed toward procuring a concerted curtailment of production...
...A Minneapolis salesman wrote his company under date of August 1, 1919, as follows: "Mr...
...Charles S. Keith, president of the Southern Pine Association and one of the directors of the national association, on August 15, 1915...
...Keith said: "1 am afraid we may bring the attention of Congress to the loss of income, which might accrue by writing off the brofcs Two or Three Billion dollars of invested capital, which might lead us into more serious difficulties...
...Redwood Manufacturers' Association (manufacturers of California redwood...
...They are proved conclusively by documents taken from the files of these lumber associations and corporations and reproduced in the reports of the Federal Trade Commission to the Congress of the United States...
...This will in the en;', result in a just and fair valuation of railroad property...
...We find it robbing its workers of wages which it had agreed with the government to pay as a condition of fixing high prices for its product...
...The value of this stopl pigeon's services is given by Secretary Compton in a letter dated July 2, 1919, in which he stated that they had resulted in saving "certainly not less than sev era...
...spired, as is shown by the documents reproduced on Pages 5 and 6 of the Federal Trade Commission's report, to place one of their own stool pigeons in the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue so that he might interpret the law for their benefit...
...Paul on the phone and told Mr...
...In the last 40 years concentration has so proceeded that 195 holders, many inter-related, now have practically one-half of the privately owned timber in the investigation area (which contains 80 per cent of the whole...
...Ibid, Page 124...
...Prices were again boosted at a meeting in Memphis on October 23, 1917...
...Charles S. Keith, in which he said: "It would' be unwise to spread broadcast the plan of organizing your committee and this especially if the organization is to be comprehensive of the industry, because the very magnitude of the plan would challenge attention and arouse suspicion...
...It is also the reason why the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association and all the other constituents of the trust have unceasingly opposed every movement for reforestation...
...We have also heard much of the outrageous profiteerine of labor during the war...
...Investment by private parties for the purpose of building a railroad or other public Utility, is a very different thing from investment T>y private parties in a private business enterprise, such as buying real estate, building a business block, a manufacturing plant or other private venture...
...That Conference esnployed*Don-ald R. Richberg, a leading member of the Chicago Bar as general counsel.' He was directed to apply for a hearing before the- Interstate Commerce Commission at Washing and to present briefs and submit argument in support of a motion for a full and complete compliance with the Railroad Valuation Law on the part of the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...All widths S4S will be V2 in...
...In the case of investment in private enterprise the investor takes all the chances of loss...
...Month by month Senator La FoUette will present the readers of this magazine with some phase of Government by Private Monopoly...
...There has been created, therefore, not only the framework of an enormous timber monopoly, but also an equally sinister land concentration in extensive sections...
...Attorney General Daugherty, like Attorney General Palmer before him, has not even secured indictments in the most flagrant eases...
...The National is beneficial largely to particular large interests like Blodgett, Hines, Weyerhaeuser interests, etc, but what is the use of a man who does not own a foot of timber and whose interests are small and who is poor, devoting his time to such a cause...
...His right to speculative profits, however large, is recognized and protected by law...
...There has been fine publicity and if the law can help, we will have the benefit of it...
...Compton, its secre-« tary: • "I do not think it is well, at least not psychological, to attract attention to the extent in dollars and cents to which the industry may be affected, and believe it would be better to direct attention to the inequalities produced on the basis of the situation as applied to each thousand feet of lumber produced...
...Barker is my friend and will be helpful...
...If I cannot keep my taxes within reason by following the legitimate course of procedure, I would rather pay more...
...Some of the manufacturers, in order to attract business, did not adhere to this extreme practice, so we find that in May, 1919, the Western Pine Manufacturers* Association held a meeting at which this subject was discussed...
...What they demand is a representative who owes allegiance to the American Citizen and to no other power on earth...
...We find it engaging in petty theft by conspiring to rob every lumber user in the United States of half an inch on the width of every board by the barefaced theft known as "scant sawing...
...Ibid, Page 5.) Replying to Secretary Compton, or November 30, Mr...
...Ibid, Page 8.) This is characteristic of the attitude of this monopoly toward the government...
...It will protect the public against extortionate rates basea an unjust valuation, and it will protect the capital invested in every honest railroad constructed in the United States...
...In 1923, the United States Bureau of Corporations, after an exhaustive investigation covering several years, made the following illuminating ¦ statement in its report to the President: "The concentration already existing is sufficiently impressive...
...During the past two years the Federal Trade Commission^has made a series of reports" to Congress covering the more recent activities of the lumber trust and its constituent organizations...
...However, let me say this, ' that the Lumbermen's hearing which you originally initiated has been a great success...
...It apparently believes that the government is an instrument to be Used to create special privileges and confer valuable donations of land and other resources...
...But few people have any conception of the enormous profits which were realized by the lumber trust as a result of a conspiracy to raise prices and restrict pro* duction...
...Keep this to yourself and consider it strictly confidential" (Ibid, Page 16...
...Report of Bureau of Corporations— The Lumber Industry, p, xxii...
...It was founded upon Jand grants and other special privileges, secured from the government,, in a majority of cases, by fraud and corruption It was founded upon persistent and un-scrupulous violation of law...
...This involves also a great wealth in minerals...
...Case the Weyerhaeuser interests were crazy and that if he, Mr...
...Mr...
...Lucas: Through the help of Kirby, we ought to get a pretty definite angle on the Texas situation...
...I do not believe that it is necessary to tell American readers of the exorbitant prices whiqjh have been charged for lumber during recent years...
...The formidable possibilities of this combination in the Pacific-Northwest and elsewhere are of the gravest public importance...
...The three greatest owners of standing timber in the United States are the Southern Pacific Company, the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, and the Northern Pacific Railway Company (including their subsidiaries...
...If some independent Senator or Representative moves to curtail the power of any one of these monopolies, and thereby protect the public against their ruthless tyranny, straightway the call goes out to the other monopolies of national importance and they line up their henchmen in Congress and Cabinet, and at the White House as well, against any such attempt to break their power...
...The National Conference on Railroad Valuation which brought on this proceeding before the Interstate Commerce Commission, was called and its action taken to institute these proceedings upon reliable information that the Commission is not fully complying with the provisions of the Valuation Act...
...And this we propose to secure...
...On August 10, 1922, in response to a request, the Federal Trade Commission wrote me a letter giving a list of some forty anti-trust cases in which it had furnished substantial evidence to Attorney General Daugherty, head of the so-called Department of Justice, and upon which NO ACTION HAD BEEN TAKEN, even though the Commission had repeatedly called attention to certain of the more important cases...
...In the same report, Herbert Knox Smith, Commissioner of Corporations, also declares: "Standing timber is not the only question...
...Soon after they con...
...But no action has yet been taken to send to jail these lumber manufacturers who criminally eon-spired to restrict and who actually restricted the output of their product during the war...
...Justice to the public and to the railroads alike requires the Commission to "find and report the Original Cost, the amount and value of all donations and the methods employed by the Commission in making valuations...
...Lumber Monopoly that its immense weath and power are still being built up and by and through Monopoly control of the government at Washington...
...Most of them wear the collars of their masters...
...L. C. Boyle, chief lobbyist for the association, referred to this committee in a letter of May 8, 1919, to Mr...
...California Sugar and White Pine Manufacturers' Association...
...Hence just about as of ten as the American voter is given the opportunity, in these times, he goes to the polls and defeats one after another, the servants of Private Monopoly...
...The advances were referred to by some manufacturers as "wild," "incredible," "radical," and "tremendous...
...We find it conspiring to raise the price Of every kind of lumber to such uncon-v scionable heights that the more decent or timid lumbermen characterized the prices as "anarchistic" and "incredible," thus forcing the housing shortage which in 1919 and 19*20 was responsible for the deaths of thousands of men and women and children, according to leading medical authorities...
...6. Northern Pine Manufacturers Association (manufacturers of Minnesota and Wisconsin northern pine...
...THE Lumber, Monopoly is a_hydra-headed monster...
...We will have no trouble in Kansas, As far as the Attorney General's office of Missouri is concerned I know that we are all right...
...Here Mr...
...They are not only crooks, but they are cowards...
...the third in June, entitled "The Packers' Monopoly...
...This, it may be noted in passing, is in princit pal the same thing that the railroads are trying to accomplish in the valuation of their properties...
...scant...
...I have called this series of articles "GOVERNMENT BY PRIVATE MONOPOLY," because I believe it is of the utmost importance that the American, people understand that these monopolies control not only the industry of the nation but also its government, and that the peOple cannot rescue themselves from the grip of these monopolies until they have themselves RECAPTURED control of their government in all its branches...
...it is now up to the industry to readjust itself and get on a substantia...
...This formidable process of concentration, in timber and in land, certainly in-„ volves grave future possibilities of impregnable monopolistic conditions, whose far-reaching consequences to society it is now difficult to anticipate fully or to overestimate...
...Ibid, Page 5.) This criminal combination did not limit itself to thus writing the tax laws for its own benefit...
...In accord with the action of the National Conference, on July 5, 6, and 7, Mr...
...Even before the huge frauds on the Federal Treasury, which have Just been described, were perpetrated, one of the directors of the national association wrote a letter, dated January 29, 1918, in which he said: "Personally, I do not believe in maintaining a Lobbyist at a salary to exceed $10,000 a year and really do not believe in that kind of business anyway...
...Chisholm told Mr...
...The most that has been done has been to enter abortive petitions in equity, which, as everyone knows, do not even amount to so much as a "slap on the wrist...
...The ownership of the standing timber and the huge areas of land upon which it" grows has long ago become concentrated in the hands of a relatively few powerful holders, who are in turn...
...It is master of the Government at Washington, exactly in the proportion which its wealth and organized power bears to the aggregate wealth and systematic organization of its brothers in blood, the Transportation, the Coal, the Iron, the Oil, and other nation-wide Monopolies...
...When we study the recent activities of this sinister monopoly, as revealed in "the letters and other documents taken from the corporation files and reproduced by the Federal Trade Commission, we discover enormities which stagger even the most hardened student/of corporate crime...
...As to the Supreme Court judges, we will have to discuss that of course with Mr...
...These master monopolies, in control of our Government at Washington, from President down, are always for themselves and for each other, as against the public...
...It seems, according to the Federal Trade Commission, that the lumber industry has long been in the habit of sawing lumber into sizes which fall short of the dimensions by which the stock is designated...
...The profit margin of the lumber manufacturers in May, 1920, was 50 per cent,greater than the total price of the product only four years before...
...The voters are beginning to show a determination to get these slippery chaps and get them first...
...clqsely bound together by interlocking directorates, identical policies, and general community of interest...
...At the same time that these huge advances were being made in prices, lumber manufacturers were conspiring to still further rob the public by the practice known as "scant sawing...
...There were few, if any, of the host of smaller mills that did pay more than ,$2.00 per day and most of these operations were based on 11 hours, even some of them 12 hours...
...Report of Federal Trade Commission—Lumber Manufacturers' Trade Associations — Page 4.) Secretary Compton, replying on November 29, said: "The prominence of my mention of the amount of a billion and a half or two billion dollars as the total amount involved is rather for home consumption, so that lumbermen themselves might know what the proper solution of this revenue matter means to the industry in dollars and cents...
...The wasteful methods used in timber cutting by these monopolistic interests are rapidly exhausting the huge forests which once seemed to he inexhaustible...
...All that the National Conference on Railroad Valuation demands is that the Interstate Commerce Commission COMPLY WITH THE LAW...
...It was for this reason that the Commissioner of Corporations in 1913 declared: "Finally, to timber concentration and to land concentration is added, in our most important timber section, a closely connected railroad domination...
...If the railroad contention is ao-' cepted by the Commission it-would give the railroads an estimated value, for rate making purposes, at least TEN BILLION DOLLARS GREATER than they EVER INVESTED in their properties...
...After through discussion the members went on record as agreeing to adhere to the association standards as follows: All inch lumber to be 25-32 S2S...
...The superstition as to a Lumbermen's Trust has been dispelled...
...I realize that it will be necessary to take into account the State authorities of Texas and Missouri...
...Observe the fine beginning the voters are making...
...was founded upon bribery and theft, and, above all, it was founded upon CORRUPT CORPORATE CONTROL OB THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT, ~ The greater part of the immense public domain once owned by the Federal Gov eminent has, largely through fraud anc corruption, passed into the hands oi these monopolists...
...Here we see in miniature a picture of what I call GOVERNMENT BY PRIVATE MONOPOLY...
...Any lumber S2S hit or miss to 13-16 will be $2 above the price of 25-32...
...Edward Hines, who is one of the leading figures in the lumber industry and who will be remembered by the general public as the man behind the Lorimer election scandals, wrote a memorandum for his sales "manager, in which he said: "A committee was appointed to go to Washington to raise, prices to the government...
...The voters are becoming more and more independent and are giving less and less heed to party names...
...Edward Hines, who was prominent in the deliberations of this meeting and de-V, scribed the advances made in a telegram sent to his Minnesota mill, urging the Minnesota manufacturers to advance their prices correspondingly...
...I would rather stay en this side...
...Ibid, Page 21...
...To exactly that extent we are slaves to this Monopoly...
...9. Southern Cypress Manufacturers' Association (manufacturers of cypress lumber...
...millions of dollars to the lumber industry and other owners of timber properties.** (Ibid, page 6.) The activities of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association were too raw for some of its members...
...But some light may perhaps be thrown upon the situation by a letter which Mr...
...the" second in May, entitled "The Sugar Monopoly...
...Was this huge and menacing monopoly of timber, land, and transportation facilities founded upon superior ability, self-sacrifice, enterprise, or any other similar qualities which are constantly referred to by the defenders of monopoly...
...On November 27, 1918, Mr, Charles S. Keith, the leading spirit in the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, wrote to Mr...
...I do not care to attempt to account for the inactivity of the Department of Justice in these matters...
...They are only too well known to all of the millions of Americans who have thought of building homes or of repairing their old homes...
...These independent voters know that when they free their Government at Washington from the control of the Organized and combined power of Private Monopoly, that they will at the same time free their markets and their homes from Economic Despotism...
...He has learned to spot these traitors to representative government on sight...
...Now while a half inch may not seem a great deal in the width of a single board or 7-32 of an inch a great deal in its thickness, when this is distributed over billions of feet of lumber annually sold in the United States, the enormity, of this fraud becomes manifest...
...Chisholm | of the Shevlin-Carpenter interests called the Weyerhaeuser sales office in St...
...Ibid, Page 144...
...Note the able, independent, unafraid progressive men they are sending to the Senate to represent their States and the people of the entire Country: BrOokhart, Frazier, Wheeler, Dill, Shipstead, Johnson...
...We shall see when we study the later history of this great...
...in which he said: "I cannot undertake to review the entire field in the scope of this tetter, as I know your dislike for long letters...
...Although these reports have been before Congress and the Department of Justice for many months, no action of any consequence has been taken, and the public generally does not even know of the important disclosures which these reports contain...
...Chisholm, was on a jury he world surely vote to bring in a verdict of guilt...
...These "safe and sane" misrepresenta-tives, are the most despicable of the entire lot...
...A great deal of this propaganda came from lumber manufacturers, who demanded exorbitant prices on the basis of the high wages which they claimed to be paying to their employes...
...Ownership of standing timber insures the domination of every branch of the industry...
...Thus, at the semi-annual meeting of the Western Pine Manufacturers' Association held on August 1, 1917, the following developed, as shown by the official minutes of the meeting: " 'Various members then related conditions in their localities and it was suggested that a roll call be taken of members present to determine what their curtailment would be during the year as compared with what they had originally planned to produce...
...They know that Private Monopoly controls the markets in which they sell and the markets in which they buy...
...You are about to reap the harvest of your great labors, and if there is a man in the entire indus-' try that is entitled to credit, you are the man...
...As the national supply of standing timber diminishes, that which remains in the- hands of the monopoly becomes immensely more valuable...
...I am not the kind of a man to represent our association in the National and will probably resign...
...For example, a piece of 2 by 4 is cut a fraction of an inch less than full size...
...Here again, as in the case of other monopolies, we find the close and intimate relation of the railroads to this great evil...
...There is no question the Government needs funds and there is no disposition on the part of manufacturers of lumber not to pay their just proportion of taxes, but I am afraid if it is shown there is Two Billion Dollars more invested capital in the business than the definition will permit, a deduction of ten per cent on which would mean a loss of Two Hundred Million Dollars in taxes, it might have the effect of causing the Senate Committee to conclude to let the proposition stand and permit the courts "to determine whether or not the interpretation of the Treasury Department is correct or otherwise...
...These lumber associations comprise substantially all the manufacturers at lumber, large and small, In the United States, as well as those individuals and corporations that control nearly all th< prfva^dy-owned /rtaadfttf timber from which the homes of fbe Anteriean people must be built In the comic* fenerations, Fhe national association, as weB a* ths regional associations, is in turn controlled and dominated by the great lumber corporations, which have virtually a monopoly grip upon all branches of the industry...
...But they are out to defeat all of the political menials of Monopoly...
...They also repeatedly conspired to raise the prices of their product to the government...
...Ibid, p. xxii...
...Ibid, p. xxii...
...Ibid, Page 112...
...footing...
...When the timber has been cut the land remains...
...We find this monster combination draining the very lifeblood of the government while it was at war...
...Still more impressive are the possibilities for the future...
...This ha3 been one of the chief functions of the special "committee upon government relations" of the national association...
...The official minutes of the meeting state: It developed that there has recently been a decided difference between the various mills as to standard widths, many mills reporting that they have been manufacturing their lumber % inch scant instead of the association standard of || inch scant...
...It has some reason to have this attitude toward the government, because there has never been an effective Federal prosecution of this sinister' monopoly...
...7. North Carolina Pine Association (manufacturers of yellow pine lumber), 8. Georgia-Florida Sawmill Association (manufacturers of yellow pine lumber...
...The report of the Federal Trade Commission says: "In April, 1917, the same month war was declared, prices were advanced at a meeting held in Memphis in connection with a meeting of the association directors, as shown by correspondence of Mr...
...Gren-ville S. McFarland, an eminent lawyer of Boston, Attorney General J. W. Murphy of Arizona, and Mr...
...The voters at every opportunity furnish reliable evidence that they have made up their minds to take personal charge of their own business...
...I hate the kind of system as expounded by Hines, Keith and the remainder of that tribe," (Ibid, Page 7.) Nor was the looting of the Federal •Treasury during the war by these lumber interests limited to tax dodging...
...The decision -of the Commission will be awaited with great interest by the public and the railroads...
...L. C. Boyle, chief counsel and head lobbyist of the national association, wrote to Mr...
...The president of the Western Association himself wrote that "this last advance strikes me as being anarchistic...
...They know this control of the markets was achieved and is maintained by Monopoly, through its power over Presidents, Cabinets, Senators, and Representatives and that _the Courts are brought under the same influence through the appointive power of a Monopoly-controlled President...
...Government By Private Monopoly THE election of Magnus Johnson in Minnesota on July 16th served but to strengthen my conviction, that the great body of the American people can be relied upon to restore and perpetuate real Representative Government in this Country...
...On the statement of its own officers, it brazenly robbed the Federal Government of more than two hundred million dollars a year in taxes, and fraudulently arranged to write off between two and three billion dollars of its property in order to dodge taxes...
...Many men are in Leavenworth anc other Federal prisons because during th« war they made statements which it was alleged might possibly have interfered with war production...
...John E. Burton, of Washington, D. C, counsel for the National Association of Railway and Utility Commissions, appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission and submitted able and convincing briefs and arguments for a strict compliance, on the part of the Commission, with the terms of the Valuation Law for an investigation and report on original cost...
...Its principal function is polities and I am a mighty poor politician and do not like that kind of procedure anyway...
...During the war this scant sawing was increased to one-half inch as a standard...
...Much careful work must be done, but believe me, we can solve our trouble if we go at it right and stick to it...
...Ibid, Page 62...
...Again, on September 18, 1918, Secretary Cooper of the same association issued a circular in whieh he said: "My own belief is that the immediate need* is a reasonable general curtailment perhaps on the part of all mills in our own territory, and on the part of the majority of coast mills, or at any rate those who are, not sawing ship timbers or airplane stock...
...And that is Government by Private Monopoly...
...It met pursuant to a call issued by the Progressive Committee of Senators and Representatives on transportation in which the Progressive Governors of seven States joined...
...Such action on the part of the Commission would be an outrageous wrong upon the people,*just as it would be an outrageous wrong upon the railroads, during an era of very low prices—such as may come with a smashing panic—to impose upon them a "valuation" TEN BILLION DOLLARS LESS than their original cost...
...And still Hines goes unwhipped of justice...
...Original Cost will show the amount invested by the railroad owners and lay the foundation for squeezing the water out of their false and fraudulent over-capitalization...
...Ibid, pages 10 and 11...
...5. Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association (manufacturers of hemlock and hard woods in Lower Peninsula of Michigan...
...For months, even for years, there has been in the hands of the so-called Department of Justice evidence collected by the Federal Trade Commission which if properly handled, would be sufficient to convict before any jury...
...4. Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers' Association (manufacturers' of hemlock and hard woods in Wisconsin and upper Michigan...
...Richberg as general counsel for the National Conference on Valuation, assisted by Attorney General Ekern of Wisconsin, Mr...
...2. West Coast Lumbermen's Association (manufacturers of Douglas fir lumber...
Vol. 15 • July 1923 • No. 7
