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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1917 



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



Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the K)th and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker, Managing Edilor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor' 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 



Vol. XLII 



CHICAGO, MARCH 25, 1917 



No. 11 



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Review and Outlook 



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General Market Conditions 



WITH THE STRIKE PROSPECT DEFINITELY SETTLED and 

 out of the way, and every faculty from every quarter concentrated 

 on the question of providing more efficient and expeditious transpor- 

 tation, with a view to providing for imminent national necessity, the 

 problem of moving lumber is, while still a matter of considerable chaos, 

 slightly less complicated than it was a while back. Possibly the 

 slightly more favorable attitude results to a substantial degree from 

 the relief effected by the settlement of the controversy between em- 

 ployers and employes. The prospect for shipments if the strike went 

 into effect was absolutely hopeless. Therefore a return even to the 

 conditions which have existed right along would seem favorable as 

 compared to what was promised when it appeared that the two parties 

 could not get together. However, shipping conditions and shipping 

 facilities still occupy the center of the stage in the lumber business, 

 and today constitute the most serious retardaut that the trade must 

 face and overcome to the best of its ability. 



The conditions which have been outlined in these columns on 

 several occasions in the past hold today, particidarly as they have 

 existed for some time back. Any improvement has in the main been 

 local and in many cases temporary, and in fact in some sections the 

 apex of chaos is still ahead and not a matter of history. Thus, with 

 prices holding firm and getting continually firmer, with stocks still 

 badly culled out, the prospect of any long continuance of present 

 transportation conditions is discouraging to say the least. A sum- 

 mary of conditions at this date would of necessity be practically a 

 repetition-of previous summaries, and it is essentially a simple matter 

 to record the main facts, being the continued great difficulty in 

 moving stuff, the scarcity of many stocks in shipping condition, the 

 piling up of sold lumber at the mills awaiting shipment, a continued 

 strengthening in all of the primary woods, oak being conspicuous in 

 the list, and the impossibility of proper replenishing of consumers ' 

 stocks being worked up into finished articles. 



The one new development which seems to have become of sufficient 

 moment to afford general consideration is the effect of shipping 

 troubles on collections, as the impossibility of getting cars and of 

 getting stuff through affects all lines of industry. It results in a 

 general holding up of payments all the way down to the ultimate 

 purchaser. The final buyer, receiving his goods long after he had 

 expected to receive them, is naturally going to hold up his payment 

 until the goods are delivered. The man who sells to him buys of 

 somebody else who has the same difficulty in delivering on orders, 

 and so on up the line to the lumberman who ships out the hardwood 

 lumber. 



This condition has been remarked about in a good many instances 

 of late and has assumed quite serious proportions, although it is not 

 likely under present general circumstances that anything of perma- 

 nent moment can come of it. 



The Cover Picture 



TF THERE ARE ANY INSTINCTS OF THE WILD MAN in you, 

 1 they will come to the surface when you look at the cover picture 

 accompanying this issue of Hardwood Record. The call of the wild 

 will be- well nigh irresistible. You will want to turn Indian and 

 make a break for the wilderness where 



' ' The tall cedars grow 

 And the white waters flow. ' ' 



The photograph shows no Igaping trout, or galloping deer, but the 

 imagination puts them there, and fancy can paint the smoke of the 

 hunters' camp-fire curling upward among the firs, just beyond the 

 boulder-strewn bank of the torrent. 



The photograph was the work of Darius Kinsey, with the tripod 

 of his camera on the very brink of Sunset Falls, and the rugged peaks 

 of Index Mountain rising high above the forest beyond the river. 

 The scene is in the state of Washington.' 



The campaign to "see America first" gains enormous impulse 

 from pictures such as this. No peak of the Alps rises with more in- 

 spiring awfulness: no torrest of Switerland or the Tryol roars with 

 greater energy or flashes with more beauty. As for deep forests, the 

 old world has none such as these. Forrests of that nature disap- 

 peared from Europe a thousand years ago; and the wildest there 

 now is tame and domestic compared with such as fringe the base of 

 Index mountain. So far as appearances go, the foot of civilized man 

 has never been there. The river rushes through a primeval wilder- 

 ness. "As creations morn beheld, -thou roUest now." 



Douglas fir appears to be the prevailing timber in the picture, but 

 other splendid evergreens are mixed in the growth, while as an un- 

 derstory next to the river are a few hardwoods which are difficult 

 to identify with certainty by the photograph; but they are prob- 

 ably aspen or birch, though the precise species might be open to 

 question. The birches of the far northwestern country furnished 

 debate for botanists many years, and all the technical questions may 

 not }-et be thrashed out. But no matter what the technical name 

 may be, a birch tree is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. 



Nature is fighting a great battle within the area shown in the 

 picture. The geologist watches it with as much interest as that with 

 which the military general watches the battle of the Somme. The 

 sixteen-inch guns employed to level trenches at Verdun are more 



