WAR, FORESTS AND LUMBER 



329 



forestry lines. For this reason it was inevitable that the 

 man-po\\-er of the American Forestry Association should be 

 generoush- drafted into the work of the Council of Defense 

 through its Lumber Committee. This draft has given the 

 Council the benefit of the skill and experience of such indi- 

 vidual members of the Association as R. H. Downman, of 

 New Orleans, who was made chaimian of the committee; 

 Henry S. Graves, chief forester of the United States a.nd 

 vice-president of the Association, and E. T. Allen, of Port- 

 land, Oregon, and W. R. Brown, of Berlin, New Hamp- 

 shire, directors of the Association. These experts are all 

 members of the committee, as are the following named 

 members of the Association : G. S. Long, of Tacoma, Wash- 

 ington; Charles S. Keith, of Kansas City; C. H.Worcester, 

 of Chicago, and W. H. Sulhvan, of Bogalusa, Louisiana. 

 In his work as a member of the committee Forester Graves 

 has the active assistance of William B. Greeley, assistant 

 Forester of the United States, who is a director of the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association. On the Federal Shipping Com- 

 mission the directorate of the Association is represented by 

 Capt. J. B. White, of Kansas City, a recognized authority 

 on Lumber Conservation and utilization. This list indi- 

 cates the importance of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion's contribution to the national work. 



An important result already achieved by the Lumber 

 Committee is in the matter of purchases of Irmiber for 

 building the big new aimy cantonments. Through the 

 work of the committee the Government has been placed in 

 position to save from $3 to $5 a thousand as against the 

 prevailing market prices in the several sections from which 

 the limiber will be taken. The basis is not one of arbitrary 

 price fixing, but of infonnal agreements assuring a maxi- 

 mum price varying according to cost of production in 

 dift'erent parts of the country and the grades of lumber 

 involved. As the building contractors will be paid a fixed 

 percentage of the cost of construction the Government will 

 reap another direct advantage of the lower lumber cost, 

 making possible a vast saving in addition to that involved 

 in the purchases themselves. The arrangement between 

 the Lumber Committee and the lumbermen is so elastic 

 that it will leave the Government entire freedom of choice 

 in placing orders, while contractors purchasing direct on 

 emergenc}' requirements will have the names of dealers 

 with whom they can deal at Government prices. 



THE committee has also concentrated on arranging a 

 proper apportionment of the lumber in the indi- 

 vidual cantonment districts so as to avoid waste 

 in transportation. Through improved specifications, a 

 carefully worked out disposition of supply sources and 

 railroad facilities it has been conservatively estimated, 

 according to a bulletin of the Government Committee 

 on Public Information, that the Lumber Committee has 

 already saved the Government at least $5,000,000 in 

 addition to the saving through price agreements. 



It is not only through their forestry knowledge and 

 training but through their familiarity with lumber manu- 

 facture and transportation problems as well that these men 

 are giving the Council of National Defense and the Ship- 

 ping Commission a measure of helpfulness that cannot 

 be computed in dollars and cents. The real gauge of 



this assistance will be in the efficiency which it will make 

 possible in prompt meeting of the requirements for lumber 

 and simplification of the problems of distribution, no less 

 than in the money that may be saved to the Government 

 through centralized purchasing and volimtary cooperation 

 on the part of the lumber interests of the country. 



One of the primary needs of the situation, as pointed 

 out by the Lumber Committee, is that the Government 

 should adapt its requirements, as far as possible, to existing 

 lumber stocks and manufacturing conditions, to the end 

 that delays may be prevented, cost minimized and the best 

 possible output achieved. Another basic need is the pre- 

 vention of extreme inflation in prices, which would nor- 

 mally follow such a sudden increase in demand. It is fig- 

 ured that this inflation might readily increase the cost of 

 the lumber needed for public use to the extent of $5 ,000,000 

 or more and at the same time work a hardship on private 

 consumers. 



CAREFUL handling of transportation is another 

 vital point in the situarion. The Committee recog- 

 nizes the importance of eliminating cross-shipments 

 of lumljer, doing away with unnecessary long hauls and 

 in every way holding transportation cost to a minimum. 

 It is pointed out that transportation charges might 

 easily be increased 25 per cent or more by the haphaz- 

 ard placing of orders, and that this increased expend- 

 iture would be incidental to the general loss involved 

 in a failure to achieve the maximum use of the country's 

 transportation facilities. 



Con-elation of the requirements of the various Depart- 

 ments and the needs for different classes of lumber is an- 

 other point to which the Committee has given careful at- 

 tention. This calls for systematic planning as far in advance 

 of deliveries as may be possible. In order that available 

 stocks may be best utilized and lumber manufacture best 

 adapted to the products to be needed by the Government 

 it is deemed necessary that all requisitions be brought 

 together and orders placed, as far as practicable, with 

 regard to the whole hst rather than individual items. One 

 example of the appUcation of this method is to be found in 

 the plan that the large volume of small dimension lumber 

 and boards necessarily produced in manufacturing ship 

 timbers for the emergency fleet shoidd be used as far as 

 possible in the construction of cantormients and other pur- 

 poses for which they may be suited. It is foreseen that 

 unless all public needs for Irunber be thus tied together 

 there is certain to be serious delay in supplying some of 

 these needs and a greater or less disruption of normal man- 

 ufacturing conditions, with resultant decrease of output 

 and increase of cost. 



To overcome the various difficulties necessitates co- 

 operation of Government, lumber manufacturers and 

 lumber trade organizations to insure the production of 

 the necessary grades and quantities, stabilize prices and 

 provide for the most direct deliveries. To make this co- 

 operation effective requires that the lumber needs of the 

 Government be brought together at one central point. 



In order to accompHsh these important objects the 

 Lumber Committee has suggested that it serve as a clear- 



