THE EUROPEAN WAR AND THE LUMBER TRADE 



883 



low grade product either in the state in 

 which it is produced or in neighboring 

 states on a low freight rate, hence the 

 elimination of the fanner as a consumer 

 is of vital consequence. 



Another strong element mitigating 

 against the Southern lumbermen is the 

 fact that the naval stores crop, valued 

 at nearly thirty million dollars, has not 

 been successfully marketed. The bulk 

 of the naval stores products are sold in 

 Europe, and the elimination of the 

 greater part of the demand from this 

 region has caused financial loss not only 

 to operators but to thosuands of em- 

 ployees who were discharged at an 

 earlier date than has been the custom. 



Competition from sawmills in British 

 Coliunbia, and over-production in local 

 mills, with the resulting unloading on 

 the market of large quantities of lum- 

 ber are among the chief factors which 

 have wrought havoc with the lumber 

 industry in the Northwest. 



The removal of the tariff on forest 

 products has been a severe blow to 

 liimbermen on the Coast, since it has 

 opened our western markets to Canada 

 — an especially unfortunate circum- 

 stance at this particiilar time. The in- 

 dustrial depression prevailing for the 

 past year in Canada has greatly reduced 

 the local demand for lumber and 

 shingles, and, in order to keep their 

 mills nmning, Canadian lumbermen 

 have made a strong effort to dispose of 

 their products in the United States. 



Some idea of the extent of our trade 

 in Canadian lumber may be gained by 

 an examination of our imports previous 

 to and following the removal of the 

 tariff. Canada, chiefly British Colum- 

 bia, sold in this country, during the 

 first six months of the present year, 

 nearly 170 million shingles more than 

 she sold to us during the entire year of 

 1913. This was an increase of 217 

 per cent. The lirmber imports from 

 western Canada are still more striking, 

 those for the first six months of 1914 

 exceeding the total for the entire year of 

 1913 by 246 per cent. 



The western lumber manufacturers, 

 as a whole, are facing serious financial 

 difficulties due to their heavy invest- 

 ments in stumpage and the rapidly 



increasing carrying charges. Taxes and 

 the cost of fire protection have increased 

 yearly, and in order to prevent these 

 charges and also interest on the invest- 

 ments from compounding and auto- 

 matically doubling the cost of the raw 

 product every nine or ten years, stump- 

 age owners have increased their mill 

 capacity to a point which now exceeds 

 the present market requirements. The 

 over supply of lumber has led to such 

 keen competition, during the present 

 business depression, that lumber prices 

 f.o.b. mill are now so low that the best 

 grades are selling for about $22 per 

 thousand board feet; an excellent qual- 

 ity of building lumber for about $8 per 

 thousand feet; and low grade lumber 

 for $3.50 per thousand feet. The aver- 

 age price per thousand feet, f.o.b. mill 

 for all grades marketed has not aver- 

 aged, during the present year, more than 

 $11, a drop of several dollars over the 

 average mill value of two or three years 

 ago. 



The lumber-consimiing population 

 within a given radius of the western 

 manufactiuing centers is much less 

 than for an equal radius in the other 

 lumber-producing centers of the United 

 States. The high freight rate into the 

 most desirable consuming centers, name- 

 ly, the great prairie region of the Middle 

 West, combined with the very low 

 price at which lumber is now sold, due 

 to unrestrained competition, has prac- 

 tically made it impossible to conduct 

 the business so as to \deld even a .small 

 profit. It will take more than a revival 

 of good business conditions to patch up 

 the badly demoralized industry in this 

 section, and some means must be found 

 to increase the efficiency of the market- 

 ing methods and curb the ruinous com- 

 petition which now threatens to sap the 

 life of the industr3\ 



The money stringency which has pre- 

 vailed in this country during the last 

 three months has been reflected most 

 markedly in the amount of building 

 which has been done, reports for the 

 month of September showing a decrease 

 of from 25 to 32 per cent over the 

 previous month. This is due to the 

 decreased banking resources of the 



