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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1922 



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

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edwin W. Meeker, Vice Pres. and Editor 

 H. F. Ake, Secretary-Treasurer 

 Lloyd P. Robertson, Associate Editor 



Seventh Floor, Ellsworth Building 

 537 South Dearborn St., CHICAGO 

 Telephone: HARRISON 8087 



Vol. LIII 



CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 25, 1922 



No. 11 



Review and Outlook 



'»jN 



General Market Conditions 



IT IS USELESS to approach an analysis of the hardwood situation 

 as of the current date without squarely facing the fact that it 

 is not so much a matter of sales as of transportation, and that 

 transportation is in genuinely serious shape. Following the trails 

 of events, no matter how devious the courses pursued nor how 

 alluring may be the outlook from the heights attained, one inevita- 

 bly winds up with the present unsurmountable barrier, transporta- 

 tion, which, while more serious in some places than others, has 

 become the leading point of discussion and speculation the country 

 over. 



A news letter coming from a territory important in production 

 as well as consumption of hardwoods in the North, expresses belief 

 that the transportation bugaboo this year is nothing more than the 

 annual scare incident to heavy withdrawal of rolling stock for 

 grain movements. Such, however, would seem in view of all cir- 

 cumstances, to be a rather mild way of viewing the tie-up, because 

 during the past several months quite unusual circumstances have 

 contributed vastly to that crippling effect which grain and cotton 

 movements always exercise at this season of the year. The first 

 of these contributing causes was the coal situation. This had its 

 effect in various ways. The railroads either under this as a pre- 

 text or otherwise, considerably disorganized transportation forces 

 on the plea that coal was impossible to get. Beyond that the coal 

 strikes did not seriously militate against transportation efficiency 

 until those strikes were settled. When that important event tran- 

 spired there was immediate demand for coal cars from all over 

 the country, and while this extremely heavy withdrawal does not 

 seriously effect the outbound movement of finished lumber, it has 

 made it totally impossible to move logs in some sections and very 

 difficult in others, coal cars being largely used for log movement. 

 This infiuence is strongly at work at the present time, and for the 

 next month or two it will result in greatly cutting down inbound 

 movements of logs, and thus operate against hardwood production 

 principally in the South. While the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion has somewhat modified its priority order governing coal car 

 movements to the extent that coal cars may be used to but not 

 beyond coal shipping points, this mandate will not effect any 

 material improvement. 



It is futile to ignore the railroad strike as one serious and very 

 important reason why the transportation machinery is not moving 

 in altogether well-oiled fashion. This unfortunate and ill-advised 



tie-up placed both locomotives and cars under a tremendous strain, 

 and while the railroads at large had, of course, accumulated con- 

 siderable reserves principally of locomotives, the dearth of expert 

 mechanics made it impossible for them to keep up with bad order 

 jobs. As a result so many cars and locomotives have been with- 

 drawn from immediate service as to have substantially reduced 

 available equipment. 



.The second effect of the strike, the more or less demoralization 

 which resulted, vastly slowed up freight movement in many impor- 

 tant directions, causing the enforced use of thousands ai^ thou- 

 sands of freight cars for storage facilities. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances these ears would have cleared through important metro- 

 politan terminals and been released for reloading weeks, and, in 

 some cases, months before such processes have been effected this 

 year. With the roads coming into the grain and cotton movement 

 period with this discouraging background, it is hardly a wonder 

 that the freight movement of hardwoods will probably be re- 

 stricted twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. 



The above is a comparatively conservative picture of what is 

 now transpiring. The condition is at present considerably more 

 serious in the South than in the North, but there is little reason to 

 hope that the North will escape without considerably more than 

 the ordinary grain tie-up common to this time of the year. 



The question, of course, is what may be the outcome? This is a 

 matter subject to considerable speculation. It depends principally 

 upon how quickly the railroads can re-organize their repair forces 

 and release present bad order cars; how speedily the coal car 

 movement may be completed, and how expeditiously the roads can 

 so reorganize their general functions as to accomplish a compara- 

 tive clearing up of the alarming congestions which have developed 

 at many important points. Surely no material betterment can 

 be looked for prior to thirty days, and it is hardly likely that a 

 real change for the better will be brought about before practically 

 the end of the year. 



Substantial volumes of business have been placed over the past 

 month looking to a full protection on raw material requirements. 

 It has been intimated that such active buying will not carry further 

 because the car shortage scare has proven to be not serious. If 

 there existed fifteen to thirty days ago a threat of sufficiently exten- 

 sive tie-up in transportation to warrant hardwood purchases then, 

 it certainly is true that nothing has since transpired except the 

 formal settlement of the strike, that plainly promises early release 

 of the transportation tie-up. Thus where lumber can be purchased 



