24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



of sawed, rotary-cut and sliced veneer, and the resultant panel work, 

 which is in excess of current demand. Tliis situation has induced 

 some producers to make very low prices in order to secure enough 

 ■business to keep their plants going. Many have made concessions 

 in the price of dimension sized panels that have resulted in scarcely 

 trading an old uollar for a nen- one. 



The cousensus of opinion expressed at the meeting was that cur- 

 rent prices on dimension sizes of both veneers and panels were not 

 only altogether too low, but out of reasonable proportion to log 

 run veneer product. 



The lack of «fBciency in manufacture, the problems of waste, and 

 cost accounting were among the chief subjects discussed and an- 

 alyzed. It is believed, considering the fact that there are more than 

 one hundred less veneer plants in commission than there were two 

 year ago, that very soon the veneer and panel business will probably 

 come into an adjustment of supply and demand that will warrant 

 a considerable increase in price, and result in putting the business 

 on a more profitable basis. 



What the Lumber Trade is "Up Against" 



It has been suggested in Hakdwood Record from time to time 

 that it is doubtful if the average lumber manufacturer, in viewing 

 both the decadence of volume and profit in his business, really 

 knows what he is "up against." Here is one of many things: 



In connection with this article there is a graphic table showing 

 the increase of Portland cement production in the United States 

 in the last two decades. This table is food for study for every 

 lumberman. Think of it! From a paltry output of Portland cement 

 in 1895 of five million barrels, the total has risen to more than 

 seventy-five million barrels. A student of commercial affairs will 

 ask himself if this is a natural increase, based on the superior 

 merits of cement for materials it substitutes, or if the trade has 

 been artificially and unnaturally stimulated. The answer is easy: 

 There are many places in which cement is used where it is in- 

 finitely superior and more economical than wood, or any other 

 material it has supplanted. On the contrary, it has been forced 

 into utilization in many places where wood is not only manifestly 

 better, but much the cheaper. 



The depiand has been forced, and has been forced by a system 

 of exploitation with which the lumber trade unfortunately is un- 

 familiar. The Portland cement people expended more money in 

 1911 to e.xploit their product than the lumber industry has spent 

 in its entire history, and they are spending it in a way that counts, 

 as is evidenced by the increase in consumption. 



But other things in connection with this wonderful increase in 

 cement consumption must be considered. This industry to a con- 

 siderable extent is owned and controlled by the Universal Port- 

 land Cement Company and the Atlas Portland Cement Company, 

 the majority of whose stock is said to be owned by the Morgan in- 

 terests. This element of production of cement controls the cement 

 situation to a large extent in all the territory of the United 

 States, east of the Missouri river. It still has some competitors, 

 but with the rule or ruin policy of Morganized business, many of 

 these competitors are not in a very good standing with their 

 banks. 



Less than sixty-five cents a barrel at the mUl will buy Portland 

 cement at any point east of the Missouri river, which is about 

 thirty cents a barrel less than the poorhouse price at which it was 

 sold five years ago, and which represents a price at which no con- 

 cern, save very large producers, working with ample capital and the 

 highest efficiency, can produce the material on a cost basis. 



A fierce competition is being waged against the independent plants, 

 ■with an apparent effort to their ultimate absorption by the "money- 

 trust," or wiping them off the commercial map. If cither result bo 

 consummated, the public will not continue to buy Portland cement 

 at this ridiculous price. 



Hakdwood Kecoed has it on competent authority that the ukaso 

 has gone out from the powers behind the throne of the Universal 

 Portland Cement Company, that it is expected that in the state of 

 Ohio, for example, its sales force is required to increase its sales 



of cement during 1912 by twenty-five per cent over the volume of 

 1911. This means what? It means the forcing of cement agaiust 

 the utilization of other materials, regardless of superiority, and it 

 furthermore !ui:i"s t!i:it the iudeiiendent cement people doing busi- 

 ness in any territory that the cement trust holds as its own, are 

 going to do business at a good deal less than cost or shut up shop. 



This fight for supremacy in the cement business being urged by 

 the distinguished coterie of gentlemen with headquarters in Wall 

 street, is fraught with great danger to the prosperity of the lum- 

 ber trade. 



IliillliMlllMiliiii 



PRODUCTION OK PORTLAND AND NATURAL C'K.MKNT :S<10-1910. 



Notwithstanding the repeated failures of concrete construction 

 in dams, buildings, bridges and for other purposes, which are con- 

 stantly coming to light, when the public can buy cement as a sub- 

 stitute for wood at less than the cost of production, it is still going 

 to experiment with it, which will result in a still further deca- 

 dence of lumber demand. 



A campaign of education to the public in self-defense is the only 

 recourse left to the lumber industry, and the sooner it goes about 

 it, the less money it will cost to accomplish it. 



Incidentally, the lumber trade has an excellent object lesson in 

 the literature that is being put out by the cement industry. It 

 publishes millions of alluring advertising and pamphlet literature, 

 extolling concrete for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes, 

 and it is literature in character of text, make-up and printing, that 

 involves the most consummate skill in both demonstratablo and 

 specious argument. 



It is a question whether the lunilier trade wants to iidopt the 

 sales tactics of the cement industry or not — probably not — because 

 the basic* principle of selling cement by practically every institu- 

 tion is to sell it to anybody and everybody who has the price to 

 pay for it, whether he bo dealer, contractor or consumer. There 

 is so little protection and profit to the dealer in cement that it is 

 ;i ninrvel tliMt auv uieri'h;uit will roiisiMit to li:iiiilli' it. 



