382 



AMERICAN. FORESTRY 



moved until next winter. This twenty-five 

 per cent to thirty-five per cent represents ap- 

 proximately the profit margin of the win- 

 ter's cut, and the impossibility of getting it 

 to the mills may affect prices, though com- 

 petition from the west and south, which is 

 growing stronger, may make it unavoidable 

 for the Minnesota lumbermen to ask more 

 for their product. As the result of this tie-up 

 in the woods, many of the sawmills of the 

 state, especially those on the lower Missis- 

 sippi, will be unable to operate, and sawmill 

 labor will be cheapened for such mills as 

 are able to run on full or part time. Sev- 

 eral of the larger mills in Minneapolis which 

 usually begin sawing about May I, will not 

 open until June i, and will run only on half 

 time from that. The Minnesota lumbermen 

 are in a peculiar position in the market. The 

 overproduction of yellow pine in the south 

 is seeking a market in the north ; the west 

 stands ready to flood Minnesota markets 

 with high-grade Washington and Oregon 

 fir — more than enough to meet any deficiency 

 in the home market. The season's cut of 

 Norway and white pine will bring almost 

 any price that the lumbermen care to ask, 

 but at the present time they want to dis- 

 courage rather than encourage competition. 

 In this cement plays an important part. Lum- 

 bermen are noting with more or less alarm 

 the advance that cement is making as a 

 cheap and efficient substitute for pine, and 

 they realize that a raise in prices now will 

 give the cement manufacturers an advantage 

 which it would later be hard to overcome. — 

 Pioneer Western Lumberman. 



J^ )^ J^ 



The Question of Coercion 



The recent decision of the United States 

 supreme court in the Mississippi association 

 case has a far-reaching significance. It marks 

 the passing of the idea of coercion. That 

 policy was long since abandoned by prac- 

 tically all lumber associations as ineffective. 

 Years ago many of the associations by force 

 sought' to prevent competition, to control 

 prices, or to regulate the trade. 



Retail associations found that to boycott 

 manufacturers or wholesalers was a diffi- 

 cult and even dangerous undertaking, and 

 most of them long since contented themselves 

 with promulgating the facts, leaving sales to 

 consumers by the wholesaler and manufac- 

 turer a matter of conscience and policy. Man- 

 ufacturers have learned the futility of agree- 

 ments, "gentlemanly" or otherwise. More 

 conservative ideas have been indorsed and 

 these more effectually than any court deci- 

 sion have put an end to attempts at coercion. 



In the affairs of the Mississippi-Louisiana 

 association the court decision will have an 

 important effect. In the affairs of most of 

 the other associations it will have no effect 

 at all, because such a decision long had been 

 anticipated by most of them. 



It is always a question in the minds of 

 many association men whether coercion can 

 be permanently successful. Such men be- 

 lieve that the most an association can do is 

 to establish a principle and leave it to the 

 individual to follow his own judgment. 



The conviction is growing in all depart- 

 ments of trade that more is accomplished by 

 the "get-together" spirit than by alignment 

 in battle array. Men are endeavoring to en- 

 force their rights by logic rather than by 

 coercion. They are endeavoring to secure 

 their rights by education rather than by re- 

 course to force. Experience has demon- 

 strated that the man or the association that 

 goes about with a chip on the shoulder and 

 looking for trouble produces bitterness and 

 disputes that make the settlement of mooted 

 questions more difficult instead of more easy. 

 The days of passion are passed. The time of 

 cooperation, arbitration, and calm considera- 

 tion of disputed rights has come in its stead. 

 It may be that the man who deliberately dis- 

 regards the rights of others may not yield 

 to persuasion or logic; but, if he is thus set 

 in his ways, there is no reason to suppose 

 that he can be forced to be good. He is 

 an extreme type, no matter on which side 

 of the controversy he is aligned. A larger 

 class are those who commit error rather than 

 wrong. This larger class may be antagonized 

 by force. It can be converted by reason. — 

 American Lumberman. 



'M i^ *M 



Utilizing Hardwood Timber 



Manufacturers of southern hardwoods 

 might well take a leaf from the experience 

 of northern pine operators. At some of the 

 largest and most modern plants in Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota a system of economy 

 is employed that goes far toward proving 

 that practical conservation comes from util- 

 ization. Dead and down timber and short 

 top logs are sent to the mill. These are 

 thrown on to the carriage, split, and trans- 

 ferred to horizontal band resaws. There 

 they are sliced into boards, passed to the 

 edger, thence to the trimmer, and out into 

 the yard. At some points the mills are turn- 

 ing out sizes ranging from one by three, two 

 feet long, to heavy timbers. 



If an attempt were made to apply this sys- 

 tem to southern hardwood plants, the first 

 step would be in the woods. How many 

 manufacturers have ridden through their cut- 

 over lands and found in the top of a tree a 

 clear piece of timber anywhere from three 

 to ten feet long, or found that the loggers 

 left a good stick four to six feet long rather 

 than cut an unusually long-length log? 



Those portions of southern hardwood tim- 

 ber growing between clumps of limbs usually 

 are absolutely sound and free from defect.* 

 Many trees fork after the first limbs are 

 reached, and on some of the forks can be 

 found a stretch of trunk oiffht to sixteen 



