The Lumber Export Market 



THE Government will cooperate with the lumber 

 manufacturers of the United States in sending 

 abroad a corps of experts to study the condition 

 of European lumber markets, with a view to a great ex- 

 pansion of the field of the American producer. This 

 was decided recently at one of the most important con- 

 ferences ever held in American business history, for the 

 conference marked the opening of steps for cooperation 

 between the nation's business men and the Government 

 itself for the extension of American trade abroad. 



Part of the result of the conference will be the urging 

 of the immediate passage of the Webb Bill, now pending in 

 Congress, to remove any question of the legality of the 

 organization, by lumber manufacturers and other groups 

 of business men of foreign sales agencies, to secure and 

 distribute orders for American goods to be sent to 

 foreign countries. 



The Government was represented at the conference by 

 two members of the Federal Trade Commission, Com- 

 missioners W. H. Parry and Joseph E. Davies, by the 

 head of the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, and by the 

 chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 

 Dr. E. E. Pratt. Dr. Wilson Compton, economist to the 

 Trade Commission, was also present in an advisory 

 capacity. On the part of the lumbermen, there were pres- 

 ent some score of manufacturers and secretaries of lum- 

 ber manufacturing organizations, including the National 

 Lumber Manufacturers' Association, the Southern Pine, 

 California Redwood, West Coast, Northern Pine, 

 Northern Hemlock and Hardwood and Gum Lumber 

 Associations. 



BEFORE taking up the question of how to organize 

 the American lumber industry to best secure the 

 great volume of foreign lumber business that must 

 come to the United States, even before the European war 

 ends, there were some detailed reports given of the con- 

 ditions abroad, by the various interested organizations, 

 as well as from governmental agencies. Briefly sum- 

 marized, these conditions are as follows : 



Belgium. — Forests entirely destroyed, the nation so 

 wrecked physically and financially that it will have to be 

 entirely rebuilt, and this rebuilding will have to be financed 

 by the major powers. 



France. — Northern France must be rebuilt, enormous 

 distances of railroad lines laid, with a consequent demand, 

 beyond estimate of quantity, for railroad ties, sleepers, 

 and lumber to entirely rebuild the farm buildings, villages 

 and cities of northern France. This need will be definite, 

 regardless of the outcome of the present war. 



England. — Its forests, as well as those of Scotland, 

 denuded, the supply of lumber already exhausted, and 

 imported lumber needed for all future building, until new 



forests grow to take the place of the timber cut to use 

 for war purposes. 



Italy. — The supply of timber is gone, used in war 

 operations, either for Italy herself or her allies, and great 

 quantities in immediate demand. 



Spain. — The forests cut, and the lumber sold to 

 warring nations. 



Germany. — No estimate made of conditions, but the 

 need is only less than that of the allied powers in propor- 

 tion to the extent to which the German Government has 

 foreseen the future and prepared to meet the emergency 

 by the holding of great tracts as public forest. 



Russia. — Has great supplies of standing timber, Bal- 

 tic pine, chiefly, but not during the war, at least, available 

 to the other allies and even after peace is declared not 

 suited to the demand, owing to its lower quaility. 



TO secure this business, it was declared to be only 

 necessary for the American lumbermen to go after 

 the trade systematically, with an advance knowledge 

 of the needs of the various nations, and the securing of in- 

 formation as to markets and business practices. It was 

 stated that the French Government has already offered 

 to buy enormous quantities of railroad timber on twelve 

 months' interest-bearing notes. 



The Government, through Dr. Pratt, called this con- 

 ference in the belief that it was a function of the Bureau 

 of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to assist the lumber- 

 men to develop this market efficiently and the lumbermen 

 voted to join in the movement by partially financing the 

 expenses of trade commissioners to proceed at once to 

 Europe and begin gathering information. The method 

 of working out the underwriting of this expense 

 was left to a committee headed by President R. H. 

 Downman, of New Orleans, of the National Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Association. 



The organization of exporting associations, or foreign 

 sales agencies, is favored by the Federal Trade Commis- 

 sion, and all question of the legality of such organizations 

 is to be removed by the Webb Bill, introduced with the 

 sponsorship of the Trade Commission. 



THE most illuminating exposition of conditions 

 abroad was made by John E. Rhodes, secretary of 

 the Southern Pine Association, which sent a repre- 

 sentative abroad several months ago, and whose reports, 

 already fragmentarily at hand, show that the demand for 

 lumber will be beyond belief. France, it was shown, as 

 well as other foreign powers, is strongly prejudiced in 

 favor of American lumber. The plan of rebuilding 

 France, as being outlined by French governmental authori- 

 ties, is to have towns and villages on the community basis, 



559 



