18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



August 10. 1910 



The Eternal Question 



CONTRO\'ERSY CONTINUES, uoncorning what should be done 

 and how to do it, in providing for the future timber supply. 

 Certain officials of the Forest Service believe that the proper action 

 will consist in persuading, inducing, or compelling private timber 

 owners to cut their present holdings economically and provide for 

 reforestation, because most timberlands are in private hands. On 

 the other side of the controversy are writers and talkers who do not 

 believe that it is practicable or equitable to lay that load on private 

 shoulders, but that the government should care for forestry at 

 public expense. There seems to be general agreement that steps 

 should be taken to provide timber for years to come, and most of 

 the differences appear when concrete action is discussed, par- 

 ticularly as to who is to stand the expense. It is quite generally 

 admitted that forestry will pay in the long run, but the run is most 

 too long to suit the private owner who may have to meet the bills 

 a great many years before returns begin to come in. 



It is well known that timber is being out somewhat faster than 

 it is growing; but just how much faster, nobody seems quite sure. 

 The yearly cut for all purposes is believed to be 110,000,000,000 

 feet, while the yearly growth is an unknown quantity, but perhaps 

 is about one-half as much as the cut. The Bureau of Corporation's 

 figures have been interpreted to mean that merchantable hardwoods 

 in the United States total 400,000,000,000 feet of standing timber, 

 and softwoods 2,400,000,000,000, making a total of 2,800,000,000,000 

 feet. If the present rate of cutting is kept up, this will last twenty- 

 five years provided there is nothing wrong with the figures. But, 

 if growing goes on, about a ten years supply will be grown while 

 the present forests will be in process of cutting. 



But that is a stale story and an old argument, and does not in the 

 least affect the question of providing for the future by changing 

 the methods of caring for timberlands. Possibly, by lessening the 

 cut and increased the production of what is left, the rate of growth 

 may overtake the rate of cutting, and the question will be answered, 

 in theory, at least; but theory and practice do not always gee, par- 

 ticularly when there are too many ifs. 



Probably half as much timber remains in the country as has been 

 used for all purposes during the past three hundred years, or our 

 whole period of history. 



This total drain upon the forests during past time includes no 

 waste, and represents nearly twice as much timber as now remains 

 — provided, of course, that the foregoing figures showing present 

 stand and past use are within reasonable distance of the facts. 



Which Way Out? 



WHEN MARK TWAIN'S TOURISTS were lost in a fog, they 

 "advanced in a circle." That is about what is now being 

 done in the attempts made by wages to overtake the cost of living, 

 and of cost of living to keep up with wages. They are going rounil 

 and round and what is gained by one, the other is sure to gain, and 

 nobody can tell which it is. The worker asks for more wages to 

 enable him to meet the cost of what he buys; and the manufac- 

 turer marks up the price of his commodity so he can meet his pay 

 roll. "What he gives his workman as pay, he takes from him under 

 the guise of price; and what the workman pays out as ju-iee, he 

 takes back in the form of advanced wages. 



The problem in practice is not always quite so simple, but it 

 amounts to the same thing. What a manufacturer gives as higher 

 pay to his workmen, he (or some other manufacturer) takes from 

 them when they buy his product; or the terms are precisely the 

 same if reversed, and then, what the laborer receives as increase 

 in pay, he hands back to his employer in purchase price of com- 

 nuidities. 



That is the meaning of the scramble now going on, a race between 

 wages and prices to see wlfich can develop most speed. Theoreti- 

 cally, there is no limit. It is as easy to add to price as to wages. 

 But, while there is no limit in theory, there may be a limit in prac- 

 tice. The futility of the senseless race and scramble for the highest 



notch is becoming apparent. Neither side is sure to win, but in 

 the long run, both are bound to lose, because unnatural prices, 

 whether of labor or of commodities, cannot continue forever. What 

 is wanted is a reasonable level, and not each contestant chasing 

 the other to death round a circle. What is wanted worst, is more 

 power for the dollar, rather than more cheap dollars; more produc- 

 tion at reasonable prices, rather than reduced production at higher 

 prices; more contentment based on justice and reason, rather than 

 high-strung demands to be met only with froth and effervescence 

 to be obtained at the end of the world. 



Make more, produce more, do more, sliould be the text from 

 which labor and industry leaders should preach their sermons and 

 call sinners to repentence. The warning cry of scarcity of labor 

 should be changed into scarcity of production; for the trouble is 

 less with hours and wages than with prices and conditions. Manu- 

 facturers say that production is falling in spite of mounting wages; 

 in fact it seems to be declining in exactly the same ratio as wages 

 are advancing. That has gone far enough. The solution of the 

 problem lies in manufacturing more, filling the markets with food 

 and merchandise, so that when a laborer gets a dollar he can buy 

 something with it that is worth the money. 



The Metal Crosstie Again 



THE METAL CROSSTIE seems to come back as frequently as 

 Homer heard old songs tune up again. Representative Dyer 

 of Missouri has introduced a bill in Congress intended to promote 

 the use of metal railroad ties and thereby save wood. Such a thing 

 may happen sometime, but not just yet. Metal ties have long been 

 known, have been made the subject of reports by numerous com- 

 mittees, commissions, and posse comitatuses in this country and 

 elsewhere, and have been patented so often that a list of such 

 patents looks like a mail order house catalogue. But always some- 

 thing has been wrong with the metal tie. The cost has usually 

 been the sticking point, but other handicaps are discouragingly 

 abundant. Some foreign railroads have used them with good 

 enough success where cost is no consideration. 



A metal tie cannot be used if in a solid piece, like a wooden tie. 

 It is so rigid that it will break under traffic or it will pound to 

 pieces the cars that pass over. It must be constructed with springs, 

 hinges, or other appurtenances intended to render it elastic and 

 yielding. This means excessive cost as well as a tie that is pecu- 

 liarly liable to accidents. Many years ago the Forest Service at 

 Washington made an elaborate report on metal ties, and persons 

 who are now disposed to take hasty steps looking to the introduc- 

 tion of such ties into the railroads of the country would do well to 

 procure the old report and give it a careful reading. 



A Limit in Lumber Production 



IT WAS FORMERLY SAID and believed that the sawmills of 

 the United States could, if necessary, quickly increase their out- 

 put of lumber, or perhaps double it. The country has between 

 40,000 and 50,000 sawmills, counting large and small. The actual 

 number at work that reported to the census takers in 1909, at the 

 last general census, was 46,584. It is not believed that this total is 

 much larger or smaller now than it was then; but the mills are not 

 all at work now, notwithstanding the advances in the prices of 

 lumber since 1909. 



Today, with an excellent market and strong demand, the produc- 

 tion of lumber is said to be declining. It has been discovered that 

 it takes something more than sawmills and a good market to pro- 

 duce a large cut of lumber. It requires efficient labor and plenty 

 of it; suitable weather conditions for getting out logs; ample trans- 

 portation facilities for distributing lumber in the best markets; 

 and, most important of all, the sawmill men must see a fair prospect 

 of profit, before the output of the mills will show much increase, 

 (iood prices and strong demand do not mean much to the mill man 

 whose operating costs mount faster than the increase in the selling 

 price of lumber. 



