HARD WOOD RECORD 



17 



Broad Questions of Policy 



•yWO LOGGING CONGEESSES iu one month may be taken to 

 i indicate a wider interest and a closer study of tliis branch of the 

 lumber business than formerly, though these were not the first meet- 

 ings of the kind to be held. That at New Orleans dealt with some 

 problems quite diflferent from those of the Pacific coast congress at 

 Spokane, because conditions are not the same in the two sections 

 of the country. In the South the operator handles logs of small 

 average size if compared with the Pacific coast species. The land 

 in the South is generally much more nearly level than the western 

 timberlands, and problems of equipment and transportation are dif- 

 ferent. In the southern region the presence of large swamps, many 

 of which are deeply inundated during much of the year, profoundly 

 influences the system of logging. The West has few swamps, though 

 navigable waters play an important part in some of the heavily tim- 

 bered regions. 



Certain lines of work and investigation are similar in the two parts 

 of the eoiiutry, but this applies less to the actual work of cutting and 

 transportiug logs than to the social, sanitary, and esthetic sides of the 

 question. Formerly the social side of the logger's life was not con- 

 sidered any part of the proprietor 's business ; and very little thought 

 was given to sanitation, while amusements after work hours were 

 wholly outside the field of the owners' activities. The men were left 

 to thoir own devices and inclinations in these matters. If they wanted 

 to occupy unclean bunks and breathe foul air, to gamble of evenings 

 and get drunk Sundays, the proprietors let them have their way. 

 The cooking end of the establishments were usually looked after 

 pretty well, because experience had shown that men must be well 

 fed or they will not be profitable as laborers. It has only recently 

 been learned that it pays to look after their welfare in other parts 

 of the camp besides the cook house. 



Both the southern and the western meetings gave the Y. M. C. A. 

 regular places on their programs; and the work which that associa- 

 tipn is doing for the improvement of camp conditions was discussed 

 by hard-headed business men with as much seriousness as they gave 

 to the discussion of tramways and the latest hauling devices. Beading 

 rooms keep men from the gambling table; lectures cut down the 

 attendance in saloons; and the proprietors of largo operations have 

 observed that the men show up for woi-k on Monday mornings in much 

 better shape than was usual before the welfare workers Inaugurated 

 new ways of entertaining the loggers. 



Another feature was noticeable at both meetings. It was the pres- 

 ence of professional foresters who were there by invitation and had 

 places on the programs. Twenty .vears ago a forester at a logging 

 congress would have been hooted, had he presumed to give advice. 

 Today he is listened to with close attention, because it is now thor- 

 oughly understood that cutting and slashing timber is not the whole of 

 successful logging. Two important topics were handled by the for- 

 esters in both meetings. One was the saving of as much as possible 

 of trees already large enough to use, and the ether related to provi- 

 sions for future supplies. Both are practical problems; but a genera- 

 tion ago neither would have been likely to receive a sympathetic 

 hearing. 



It is notable that the lumbermen of the Pacific coast are as earnest 

 advocates of provisions looking to new growth as the southern people 

 are, though the great timber resources of the West have yet been 

 scarcely touched, while those of the South are feeling the drain very 

 severely. Every western timberman knows that the Pacific forests 

 will hold out longer than he can hope to live, nevertheless, he is 

 ready to join any movement having for its purpose adequate provision 

 for the future. Those western men have a broad way of looking at 

 economical questions. 



Curtailment of Statistics Not Complete 



APEEVIOUS ISSUE OF HAEDWOOD RECCED contained a 

 reported statement from Washington to the effect that the officials 

 at the head of the census bureau contemplated a curtailment and 

 final discontinuance of the statistical work covering the cut of lumber 

 and the various other products of the American forests. It has 

 developed that this w'ill eventually be only a curtailment and will 



not result iu the complete discontinuance of this work. It appears 

 now, however, that in the future reports on the manufactures of forest 

 products will cover lumber only, while the reports on such other 

 products as veneers, poles, cooperage, etc., will not be compiled. 



The fact that figures on lumber manufacture. will be continued as 

 heretofore offers some consolation, but it is without doubt a serious 

 mistake to discontinue similar statistics on other products of the 

 forest, particularly on veneer. It is unquestionably a fact that the 

 veneer industry is not only here to stay but is developing into one 

 of the most important branches of the manufactures of the products 

 of the American forests. Unquestionably the manufacture of veneers 

 will grow to increasingly great proportions as time goes on and 

 stumjiage becomes more valuable. 



Figures pertaining to the veneer business are at best incomplete 

 and any effort which wiU result in taking from veneer manufac- 

 tures such additional information as they can gather from govern- 

 ment statistics on veneer manufacture, is surely a mistake. 



It is to be hoped that the proper pressure will be brought to bear 

 to secure for this branch of the trade proper consideration in this 

 particular. 



Railroad Man Endorses Wooden Car 



"-pHE EEPEATED CONTENTION OF Hakdwood Eecord that the 

 ■l adoption of the steel car was in most cases in spite of the better 

 judgment of big railroad officials of the country, and was forced by 

 unwarranted public clamor, is being proven as correct in various 

 instances these days. The latest proof is seen in an article in the 

 Manufacturers ' News, written by S. N. Felton, president of the Great 

 Western, in which he discusses at some length the matter of steel 

 ears. 



The old ' ' fire scare ' ' excuse which was given as part reason for the 

 abolition of the wooden coach is refuted in Mr. Felton 's article, in 

 which he states that the abolition of oil and gas for illumination pur- 

 poses makes the wooden car as safe as the murh desired steel car 

 of today. 



Mr. Felton 's opinion of the steel car as a protecting factor in rail- 

 road passenger transportation follows: 



"The danger of the wooden cars from possibilities of fire in connection 

 with accidents has been largely removed by the introduction of steam heat 

 and electric lights and the entire absence of any oil or gas. The added 

 strength supposed to be secured from the steel car construction has not 

 been satisfactorily proven, for the reason that with the advent of the steel 

 car very much heavier locomotives were required to haul the trains. 

 These heavier locomotives, with heavy steel equipment behind them, 

 running at high speed, in case of accident became more destructive 

 than any of the trains in the days of the wooden car ; in fact, we have 

 records of complete destruction of steel sleeping cars in rear-end collisions, 

 and it would be impossible to build a steel car that would resist the shock 

 of a rear-end collision from a train running fifty or sixty miles an 

 hour. It is only necessary for a person to look at the immense Pacific 

 type passenger engines standing in any of oar stations 'and one of the 

 steel cars and consider the result of a collision between them at such 

 speed. There is little doubt but what st?el sleeping cars in the recent 

 ac'"-ideut en the New Haven road would have been as completely destroyeci 

 as the wooden cars. Kothing could have resisted the impact of the 

 following train riuniing at such a high rate of speed." 



The lumber trade should take heart from this declaration coming 

 from a source absolutely unbiased as far as the merits of the two 

 types of car construction are concerned. 



The article illustrates the fact that while the public clamor for steel 

 cars is blinding the eyes of our officials at Washington, the practical 

 railroad man, who is in a position to know, is alive to the real condi- 

 tion of things. 



Clever Ad Makes Lumber the Goat 



THE MANUFACTURERS OF INNUMERABLE ARTICLES 

 wherein various materials are substituted for lumber, are surely 

 making an impression upon the lumber trade. Every day brings out 

 some new article of this sort, the real merits or demerits of which 

 are usually concealed in cleverly written advertisements which rely 

 for their pulling power upon a comparison with similar articles made 

 of wood, and in which the effort is usually made to prove the immense 

 superiority of the new type of construction. 



One of tho latest of these is "shop boxe.s. " A metal concern is 



