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Copyright, Thb Hardwood Company, 1917 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging. Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the lOth and 25lh of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker, Managing Editor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor' 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 



Vol. XLII 



CHICAGO, MARCH 10, 1917 



No. 10 



S cro^i^roita^t^i^o^^'iiMi'iti'^^i^^ 



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Review and Outlook 



General Market Conditions 



EMBARGOES — the word has become a veritable red flag before 

 the eyes of the hardwood man. Embargoes and their co-agitator, 

 car shortage, are heaping worries upon tlic trade in almost unbearable 

 quantities. Tales come daily from the big mills of forced shut-downs 

 — "Yard room is completely occupied — we can't pile any more lum- 

 ber." Or, "We can't get cars enough to haul sufficient logs to keep 

 the mill running. ' ' 



From the other end — the factories — emanate complaints that have 

 an immediate and pressing connection with the hardwood business and 

 that originate at the same source — transportation difficulties. If the 

 woodworker isn 't crippled by inability to get coal shipped in for fuel, 

 he is beginning to reach the limit of his warehouse capacity with sold 

 goods which he can 't ship out. Or, if his outbound freight is not 

 giving him cause to kick, he is having all sorts of trouble in getting 

 in raw material which he must have to keep running. So the wheel 

 keeps revolving, cutting deeper and deeper into profits and causing 

 ever increasing worry and disorganization. There is not another con- 

 dition which as a menace to domestic business is comparable to our 

 chaotic transportation system. It has passed the nuisance stage and 

 reached the point where an absence of solution threatens disaster. 



Two prominent furniture retailers talking a few days ago reached 

 the conclusion after several hours of analysis, that some lirms are 

 going to be hit and hit hard, and in the near future. They referred, 

 of course, to fellow retailers, and had in mind the continued inability 

 to get goods through from the factory. Naturally if goods cannot 

 be bought they cannot be sold, and if the retailer cannot stock up 

 on -what he needs it simply means that the manufacturer is unable to 

 ship. This inability is primarily due to the impossibility of getting 

 shipping facilities. 



So the slackening up of new orders for hardwood lumber, which has 

 been noted rather extensively in the past couple of weeks, is traceable 

 directly to the fact that the factory man is not willing to go very 

 much further in the matter of holding other peoples' goods in his 

 ■warehouses to the exclusion of the normal lines which he would carry 

 ahead for his own purposes. This leads us liack again then direct to 

 the car situation and, combined with the inability to get hardwood 

 lumber through from the mill to the factory, it constitutes the double 

 peril with which present shipping conditions threaten the operator. 



The belief would hardly be given general credence that in the 

 absence of present unparalleled difficidty in shipping, the threat of 

 foreign complications would materially retard domestic business. It 

 has been previously suggested in this report that the country is not 

 in the mood to give way to alarmists ' agitation or to surrender to the 



theory that business stagnation should follow such moves as have been 

 made at Washington — that in its present attitude business would 

 demand proofs of basic influences of a reactionary character before 

 being willing to surrender any degree of its present prosperity. The 

 evidence is increasing that that analysis of the state of mind of 

 American business was correct. So it is doubly unfortunate that the 

 extremity of the car shortage difficulty with the drastic character of 

 embargoes should come at a time when no other conditions existed or 

 were promised which should have an upsetting effect. 



The summary of the situation then reveals difficulty in some places 

 in shipping out goods manufactured from hardwood lumber, with the 

 consequent piling up of such goods in factory warehouses, and the 

 constant hesitancy in taking any more raw material in the face of this 

 condition. In other cases where goods are going out in normal 

 quantities, the great difficulty is in getting in raw materials, including 

 hardwood lumber. But in all cases woodworkers are loaded practically 

 to the limit with orders that would take care of immediate and future 

 manufacture. Thus the basis is strong there and it can be said that 

 in general the quantity of hardwood lumber on factory yards is still 

 not up to what it should be by any means. 



Then we have a promising buUding situation with a slightly more 

 favorable tendency toward dwelling construction. The year started 

 off with favorable records as to construction and permits, and this 

 record seems to be holding up as the year progresses. 



The large purchasers of materials, the railroads and other immense 

 corporations, are continuing their activity with an even more notice- 

 able benefit to the limiber business. 



Going back to the mUls, lumber has been piling up rapidly at many 

 points, but practically all of this accumulated stock that is in ship- 

 ping condition is already sold and stays on the mill yard merely 

 because it can't be shipped. Thus with any easing up in transpor- 

 tation this surplus of material should move out quickly, and as its 

 occupancy of yard room precludes the possibility of pUing green 

 lumber which normally would occupy the foundations used in storing 

 this already sold material, there wUl follow immediately upon any 

 general betterment of hardwood shipping facilities a period when 

 there wUl be a paucity of dry stock. 



And of greatest moment is the evidence of general advance 

 in values on almost all hardwood items, this including a substantial 

 improvement in oak. If hardwood lumber could continue to make this 

 progress under such unfavorable developments, it is apparent that 

 with genuine encouragement the hands of distributors will be 

 very much strengthened. So while hardwood is still good property in 

 producers' hands and will undoubtedly continue so, even under the 

 strain of present circumstances, woodworkers should not hesitate to 



