22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



July 25, 1919 



long conference at Washington. I have already expressed the feeling of 

 the entire committee toward Mr. Mason and his associates. 



General Boyle has fittingly summed up the whole matter: "Taking the 

 situation by its four corners, no movement in connection with the In- 

 ilustry was ever inaugurated that gives such rich promise for constructive 

 result as this very tax program." 



This result depends on our associated efforts, our team work, onr 

 thorough co-operation. Granted this, and the result will not only be a 

 fair distribution of the tax but a better understanding of our industrial 

 responsibilities and importance, better accounting, more efficient utiliza- 

 tion of our forests, and a more definite realization of their value. The 

 data we develop for the industry will lay the foundation for an en- 

 lightened forestry within our industry. Our attention will be focused on 

 conservation measures for the protection of our growing timber and the 

 proper classification and development of our cut-over land. We may even 

 as an industry see the wisdom of an active interest in forest economics. 

 Our quondam aversion to the Forest Service will change. Mr. Gravesj is 

 already beginning to study our point of view. After we have diges,ted 

 our questionnaire, perhaps we will more rightly understand his point 

 of view. .All this and more will come as con.structive result from our 

 conscientious co-operative effort to prepare and compile the data the 

 timber section of the Bureau of Internal Revenue is about to ask 

 0? the lumber industry in filling out the questionnaire soon to be dis- 

 tributed. 



There were other interesting papers presented, one being a talli 

 by L. C. Boyle, of Kansas City, council for the National Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Association. 



Tlie mai-ket conditions committee reports as promulgated for the 



two associations and presented at the meetings contained informa- 

 tion as to market, stocks on hand and other statistics which will 

 undoubtedly have a very strengthening effect upon northern woods 

 in the future. The usual business routine was carried out, includ- 

 ing various committee reports, reports of respective presidents and 

 addresses on subjects of current interest. The main features, how- 

 ever, were the market conditions reports which as stated brought 

 out an exceedingly strong position regarding northern stocks and 

 promised a favorable future for a good many months ahead. It 

 developed that northern cut has not been up to expectations; that 

 the stock on hand now is verj' low compared to formerly; that 

 orders are coming in plentifully; that it is physically impossible 

 to speed up manufacturing sufficiently to catch up with the ever- 

 growing call for northern woods. Members of the association in- 

 terested in foreign trade listened to an interesting letter from Roy 

 H. Jones representing the export organization composed of mem- 

 bers of the two associations. C. A. Bigelow, Bay City, Mich., is 

 president of this corporation. 



The entertainment features were very well taken care of in every 

 particular, many of the members having taken their automobiles 

 with them on the boat trip north. Altogether the convention was 

 just as highly successful from a recreation and social standpoint 

 as from the standpoint of business transactions. 



Demand Still Exceeds Supply 



Tlie hardwood market continues exceptionally firm with the 

 tendency of prices toward a still higher level, according to the 

 American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. Relations be- 

 tween, supply and demand are becoming increasingly acute for the 

 reason that demand is expanding more rapidly than supply. Under 

 the more favorable weather conditions recently existing, hardwood 

 production is expanding to some extent, but, as has been anticipated 

 by the trade for some time, demand is growing more rapidly than 

 production, with the result that supply is having a very hard time 

 catching up with demand. The situation, according to prominent 

 members of the trade, very much reminds them of the frog in the 

 well which came up two feet in the day time and fell back three 

 feet at night. Every possible effort is being made to increase 

 output. Men and teams are being worked to the limit in getting 

 out logs and there is no doubt that the latter are coming out in 

 considerably larger volume than even thirty days ago. But dry 

 stocks are getting exceptionally light. Indeed, mill holdings of all 

 kinds are far and away below normal. In the language of one well 

 known authority, they are "approaching exhaustion." A very 

 large output will therefore be necessary to bring holdings back up 

 to normal, to say nothing of the tremendous Cjuantity that must be 

 produced in order to take care of the normal, every-day demands 

 of the trade. 



Most hardwood interests south believe that the strained rela- 

 tions between supplj' and demand will continue for a number of 

 weeks if not mouths and some go so far as to say that an unpre- 

 cedentedly strong situation will remain for the balance of the cur- 

 rent year. It was intimated some time ago that the advancing 

 tendency of prices would probably restrict purchases and bring 

 about a somewhat congested condition but it is now clear that this 

 forecast was erroneous. A price that would tend to check con- 

 sumption has apparently not yet been reached and there is nothing 

 to indicate, in the view of well known members of the trade here, 

 that it will be reached any time soon. Buyers are trying to secure 

 their requirements. Wholesalers are finding a wide field in which 

 to distribute their purchases and it is pointed out that, as long as 

 this condition exists and as long as wholesalers are the largest 

 buyers, there is nothing to be feared in the way of restricted use 

 of southern hardwoods because of prices. 



Furniture manufacturers are taking at least one-fourth of the 



hardwood lumber now being purchased in the Mempliis territory, 

 according to F. R. Gadd, manager of statistics for the American 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. Wholesalers are absorb- 

 ing twenty-seven per cent. These two interests alone, therefore, are 

 furnishing fifty-two per cent of the orders being received by pro- 

 ducers in this territory. Manufacturers of motor and horse-drawn 

 vehicles are taking nine and three per cent, respectively, while box 

 manufacturers and flooring producers are taking six per cent each. 

 Interior trim is requiring five per cent and car manufacturers are 

 taking two per cent. Domestic interests are using a much larger 

 percentage of hardwood lumber from this territory than is being 

 exported but there is gradual expansion in demand from overseas 

 and a much larger movement is anticipated when the marine strike 

 is settled and exporters are able to take advantage of the materially 

 increased facilities for handling business for Europe and other 

 foreign outlets. 



All hardwoods are in demand but it is quite clear from individual 

 manufacturers as well as from the American Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association, that the best call is for No. 1 common and 

 better in plain and quarter sawn oak and gum. No. 2 and No. 3 

 common gum is comparatively slow, but there is little complaint on 

 the score of any particular item. The situation is described as 

 exceptionally healthy from the standpoint of both demand and 

 prices. The onty complaint has to do with the lightness of stocks, 

 estimated officially at- fifty-six per cent of normal compared with 

 eighty-four per cent of normal on March 1, and with inability to 

 produce lumber on anything like the scale requisite to prompt fill- 

 ing of the very large number of outlets therefor in this country 

 and overseas. 



Mining Timber Needed in Wales 



Since the war, because of restricted shipping, some locally grown timber 

 has been used in the mines of Wales, although it is heavier and of more 

 crooked grain ; some has been imported from Newfoundland and Labrador. 

 The American exporter might find a profitable market here for lumber for 

 mining uses. 



Will Cut Mexican Timber 



Captain Frederick J. Riley, late of the Medical Corps of the United States 

 Army and who had been stationed on the Mexican border in New Mexico and 

 Arizona, recently spent a few days in Chicago in the interest of a company 

 that has a timber concession in the western part of Mexico and is preparing 

 to cut mahogany and Spanish cedar. 



