bad feature is the total disability clause. One member told of an 

 experience whereby a shingle sawyer on losing one finger was awarded 

 damages to the extent of his total earning capacity, whereas a fair 

 award would undoubtedly hare been the difference between his earning 

 power before the accident and after. 



W. C. Landon said that the entire expense to his concern under the 

 new act was $500 for the past year, based on a payroll of $187,000. 

 The consensus of opinion was that the act with the total disability 

 clause eliminated is very good. 



HARD WOOD RECORD 



25 



A resolution was adopted to the effect that letters will be addressed 

 to senators and representatives at Washington urging them to get 

 action on the Stephenson bill, providing that hand brakes shall not be 

 required on cars for logging service. 



On motion, the question of extra freight charges based on weight 

 of car stakes was referred to the railroad committee, which was 

 instructed to try to get the roads to allow the actual weight of stakes 

 and to stand one-half the expense of such stakes. 



The meeting then adjourned. 



^ C«;:/;■v;^.^>:-x/^:.:c>ia.x,t;:>5^:.w.v>^<>^t..\l-■^^ 



"kjx" Hardwoods on the Pacific Coast 





^ 



In all the principal cities on the Pacific coast are marketed no 

 inconsiderable quantities of hardwoods. There are dealers in hard- 

 wood lumber in Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, 

 Los Angeles and San Diego. In some of these cities, notably in 

 Portland and San Francisco, hardwood lumber is manufactured to 

 quite a little extent, but taken altogether the total would not consti- 

 tute an output greater than that of one big hardwood sawmill in the 

 Mississippi valley, ranging considerably less than fifty million feet. 



The sources of supply of hardwoods that are manufactured on the 

 Pacific coast are Japanese oak from the southern portion of the 

 northernmost island of that group and from adjacent parts of Siberia ; 

 koa wood from the Hawaiian Islands; several varieties of Philip- 

 pine woods (notably the peawood variety, which passes for mahog- 

 any) ; and genezero or prima vera, a beautiful, brown-toned wood 

 simulating in texture and character a laguna-striped mahogany, and 

 some mahogany from the AVest coast of Mexico and Central American 

 states. 



This timber reaches the coast cities in the form of hewn sticks, 

 usually butt cuts, and the freight is very moderate as it largely 

 comes over as ballast. In minor quantities there are a few hardwoods 

 of the Pacific coast region that are sawn at small mills, and find 

 their way into the coast markets. These are made up of Oregon ash, 

 a wood of very inferior quality; laurel or myrtle wood; Oregon oak, 

 which in its chief utUization is in the form of oak boat knees, and 

 in southern California a very small quantity of eucalyptus. As 

 before noted, the total of hardwoods produced on the Pacific coast 

 will not aggregate fifty million feet annually. 



Hence, the chief sources of supply for the comparatively limited 

 quantity of hardwoods employed for various purposes on the Pacific 

 coast comes from Michigan, Wisconsin and lower Mississippi valley. 

 These purchases consist largely of white and red oak, white ash, red 

 and white birch and hard maple, and to a limited extent basswood, 

 cherry, red gum, hickory, poplar, Circassian walnut and black walnut. 

 No inconsiderable quantity of 3/8 and 13/16 tongued and grooved 

 hardwood flooring is marketed on the coast, part of it being oak and 

 part maple. There seems to be but a limited demand for jointed 

 flooring strips either in parquetry strips or thicker stocks. The larg- 

 est center of hardwood grouping and distribution on the coast is at 

 San Francisco, where one yard carries a large stock of American and 

 imported woods. 



The general run of finishing lumber on the coast, no^t only in resi- 

 dences and low-priced buildings, but also in skyscrapers, is made 

 from conifers growing in that region, the prevailing fashion being in 

 finish made from Douglas fir, stained and finished to imitate hard- 

 woods, although birch is employed to no inconsiderable extent for 

 finishing purposes, stained to imitate mahogany. 



There is a large trade all along the coast in three-ply panels, also 

 employed in walnut finishing in connection with finishing strips. The 

 best sellers in this region are three-ply birch panels, both in plain 

 and figured wood, but as before noted, many splendid office buildings 

 are finished in Douglas fir or Port Orford cedar, and occasionally one 

 finds a building where the interior finish is made of sugar pine or 

 California pine. 



In some classes of finished panels, elm, plain maple, birds '-eye 



maple, red gum, mahogany, plain and quartered, are found, but 

 the big trade lies in the panels with birch faces. These panels 

 range in size from 24x60 inches to 30x72 inches, and, while the most 

 is three-ply stock, some of it is made up in five-ply form. Altogether, 

 about eighteen million feet of square Japanese oak finds its way 

 into coast cities for manufacture into lumber each year, and latterly 

 quite a quantity of this wood in the form of lumber has come across. 



By no means is Japanese oak a bad wood. It bears quite a close 

 resemblance (only being lighter in color) to chestnut oak of the 

 East, although it has not nearly as much breaking strength or gen- 

 eral character of toughness. The figure is smaU, but for ordinary 

 purposes it is a highly satisfactory wood. While this timber reaching 

 the coast is very low-priced, unfortunately it cannot fail to be noted 

 that the people engaged in its manufacture apparently are making 

 little or no money out of their business, as plain sawed firsts and 

 seconds Japanese oak is being sold in the San Francisco market at 

 this time in lots of a thousand feet at as low as $68 a thousand, and 

 in some cases at even less than this price, while one-inch No. 1 

 common plain is selling at the yards at $50 per thousand and less. 



Very little Japanese oak is quartered and does not constitute much 

 of an item in the market. Such as is quartered is sold at from $100 

 to $120 a thousand for firsts and seconds in retail lots out of the 

 yard. 



It appears that in the future the Japanese will send more sawed 

 lumber and fewer logs than in the past. Lumber which they pro- 

 duce as a rule is of very good quality. From the prices herewith 

 quoted it will be noted that this sort of competition is a very serious 

 menace to anything like values for eastern oak delivered on the coast, 

 because the Japanese variety will be substituted wherever possible. 



Where it is necessary to obtain oak of high quality in figure, or 

 oak of good working strength, Japanese oak will not answer, and it 

 has to be shipped from eastern points. 



Next to birch in the coast cities, perhaps maple is the favorite. 

 This is used not only in flooring, but for small timbers where 

 strength is required. There are two or three very considerable stocks 

 of hard maple in various coast cities. 



With the growing of wealth and taste for the best there is in wood 

 finish, it would not be remarkable to see quite an evolution in the 

 Pacific coast hardwood demand during the next few years. The pres- 

 ent iniquitous freight rate of 80 to 85 cents a hundred on shipments 

 of hardwoods from the East to the Pacific coast renders the broaden- 

 ing of the hardwood merchandizing industry in that region very 

 difficult, but with the opening of the Panama Canal, it may be antici- 

 pated that there wUl be a material lowering in the cost of shipments 

 of eastern hardwoods to the coast, and beyond question the railroads 

 will cut their rates to correspond quite closely with their eastbound 

 rates, which would naturally lower the price of American hardwoods 

 on the coast from ten to twelve dollars a thousand feet. 



With this diminution in cost, and a desire on the part of Pacific 

 coast builders to secure the best there is for interior finish purposes, 

 and their financial ability to pay for the best, it is deemed quite 

 certain that hardwood manufacturers can look for a considerable 

 broadening of a market for hardwoods on the Pacific coast very 

 shortly. 



Of the finishing of various varieties of wood in the chief Pacific 



