First Great Lumber Mergef Loom-s

By,Iack, Dionne :

Few events in the history of the lumber industsy have created a greater furore than the announcernent through the press of the country during the last lrrcek in September of the proposed and imrninent great lumbeq tinrber, and milling merger in the iPacific Nofihurest.

Most men in the producing end of the lumber industry wherever located, have been aware of the fact that for the past year a powerful movement has been on foot on the Pacific Coast to bring about stabilization of the lumber industry of that territo,ry through the merging of ownership. Several plans have been formulated, and much work has been done. The original pla,ns that were fostered on the Coast have evidently been drop,ped. They aimed at several groups of mill mergers, covering all the coast including California. This plan appe:rrs to have been dropped, so far as we know, while the effoits of a group of powerful lumber manufacturers in Washington and Oregon aiming at one great milling company being organized in thosc two states to buy and operate a huge group of mills, is reported as close to fruition.

T\po former Southern lumbermen--one of them still an operator in Texas and Louisiana-are leaders in thc creation of the giant lumber corlrcration-C. D. Johnson and Chas. S. Keith. Urged on by the chaotic conditions that beset the Fir industry of the West and which threaten to follow it for years to come unless some stabilizing plan developed, tlrcse two gentlemen have beetr devoting their efforts to the development of a plan that they bclieve will be a saving grace to thc lumber business, not only of the Northwest, but of the South as well.

The plan, in short, is to organize a gtrant lumber company, and have this company buy a huge string of Northwestern mills together with all their timber, land, equipment, railroads, and whatever they possess, and operate these mills under one ownership. The plan does not call for a sales agency, or anything of that sort. It is an outright sale of the properties thatis contempl,ated, thc sellers to be paid two thirds in cash, and one third in stock in the big corpo,ration.

Reports on the number of firms and mills under option vary, and have not been definitely announced, but it is understood that options have been secured on twenty tothirty of the biggest mills in the two states, and on at least sixty billion feet of lumber. Two of the firms included in the tentative list we have seen, cut over a million feet of lumber a day, each, and all the others arc very large operations. How much money would be involved is also guessworf 'but it would probaply be four or five hundred million dollars.

Big eastern interests are'investigating thc proposition of financing the big company. It is reported that both stock and bonds wil! be sold to the public if the deal goes thru.

Naturally this is the bigges! proposition the ldmbcr industry ever conterrqrliated, and would be one of the biggest'industrial movements in thc woild's history.

__If consummated, it would undoubtedly do much to stabilize the lumber industry of the Northwest, and through that species, of thc nation. The huge possible lumber -production of the Northwest, and its extrerne elasticity which makes it possible for that territory to engulf any possible demand with a flood of lumber, if unwiscty handled, demands some sort of stabilization, and the committee handling this great proposition consider theirs the hst plan.

fn announ_ci1g the mgrger, the Committee in: charge stated that Long-Bell and Weyerhaeuser are NOT included in the deal, both being producers of about iwo million felt a day, and therefore large units in thernselves. We have confirmed this fact in both cases.