JSeptpmber 2.". 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



News from the National Capital 



Philippine Mahogany Classifications Sustained 



The tariff classification rating of Philippine mahogany lumber 

 in official classification territory is not unreasonable or unduly 



I prejudicial, the Interstate Commerce Commission decided on Sep- 

 tember 19, in rendering a decision against the Indiana Quartered 

 Oak Company of Long Island, N. Y., importers of a species of 

 hardwood known as Philippine mahogany from the Philippine 

 Islands. 



Eecommendation was made by Examiner Myron Witters that the 

 complaint be dismissed, and the commission sustained the recom- 



I mendation, ordering the case closed. 



\ The complainant alleged that the classification of Philippine 



I mahogany in official classification territory was unjust, unreason- 

 able and unduly prejudicial to the extent that the ratings exceed 



I those of native wood, Canadian woods or Mexican pine. The com- 

 mission was asked to prescribe jus , reasonable and non-prejudicial 

 classification for the future and to award reparation. Black & 

 Yates, Inc., engaged in the hardwood lumber business at Paterson, 

 N. J., intervened asking for the same relief. 



The petition sets forth that the complainant makes all shipments 

 from Xew York harbor ports, and the destinations are mostly in 

 official classification territory. The carriers have put in a number 

 of commodity rates applying to Philippine mahogany. There are 

 commodity rates to the greater portion of Central Freight Associa- 

 tion territory, and they are generally on a six class basis for car- 

 load. The complaint related solely to movements under class rates, 

 which are principally to points in Eastern Trunk Line territory, 



■ and to points in southern territory governed by official classifi- 

 cation. 



The classification of woods by the United States Forestry Service, 

 as weU as the trade name used in the lumber business, the report 

 states, both indicate that technically and in ordinary commercial 

 usage Philippine mahogany is recognized as analogous in character 

 to the true and so-called mahoganies, rather than to any of the 

 native woods. Because of this, the examiner points out, the com- 

 mission should find that the complainants have not adduced suffi- 

 cient reasons for excepting Philippine mahogany from the foreign 

 wood classification, and should further find that the classification 

 rating assailed is not unjust, unreasonable or unduly prejudicial. 



* * * 



A slight decrease in the activities of the lumber industry, as 

 recorded by the total loadings of forest products, is recorded for 

 the week ending September 2. For the week there was a total of 

 58,706 cars loaded — a loss of 1,760 cars compared with the pre- 

 vious week. 



The figures indicate, however, a substantial gain over the same 

 week one year ago, being 12,907 gain. Compared wi h the same 

 week two years ago, the current forest loadings represent a decrease 

 of 3,523 cars. Total car movement for the week was the highest 

 during any one week in eleven months, being 931,598, which was 

 91 1/4 per cent of the total for the week of October 15, 1920, when 

 1,018,539 cars were loaded — the greatest number for any one week 

 in the history of American railroads. 



* * » 



If the food consumed by each man, woman and child were reduced 

 by one-third, the pinch of hunger would soon be felt and the cry 

 of famine undoubtedly raised. 



Yet substitute the word "wood" for "food" and you have 

 exactly what has happened in the use of lumber. The per capita 

 consumption has dropped from 500 board feet in 1906 to 316 board 

 feet in 1920, says the Forest Service, United States Department 

 of Agriculture. 



This decreasing use of a fundamental commodity, according to 



forest experts, is not a result of decreasing needs, but a result of 

 forest exhaustion. It is not being accomplished without economic 

 hardship or without eur ailment of industrial expansion. It is not 

 a temporary condition that will automatically adjust itself, for 

 even at this reduced rate of consumption we are still cutting our 

 forests more than four times as fast as they grow. The situation 

 proclaims, according to the Forest Service, that if we are to remain 

 a nation of timber users, we must become a nation of timber 

 growers. 



In 1906, when American lumber production reached its highest 

 point, the average per capita consumption of lumber in the United 

 States was approximately 500 board feet. Since that time the per 

 capita consumption has rapidly and consistently decreased until 

 in 1920 the average citizen used approximately 316 board feet. 

 This is a reduction of 37 per cent in 13 years, or nearly 3 per cent 

 a year. Should this decrease continue at its present rate, by 1940 

 the downward sweep of consumption would approach zero. This, 

 of course, will not happen. The average consumption will ulti- 

 mately reach a fairly stable level, which will depend mainly upon 

 the extent to which our devastated forests are made again pro- 

 ductive. 



The consumption of lumber is not evenly distributed. Previous 

 studies indicated that the states of the Pacific Northwest, now the 

 last great stronghold of big lumbering operations, had a much 

 higher per capita consumption than those of other regions, but the 

 present figures are the first to give information for all states upon 

 the same basis. Naturally the greatest per capita consumption 

 occurs where wood is plentiful and the population is relatively 

 small. In Washington and Oregon the consumption appears to be 

 between 900 and 1,000 board feet annually per person. 



Next come California, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, where the 

 rate of consumption is from 500 to 800 feet per person annually. 

 In these states timber is relatively plentiful, as compared with the 

 density of the population, and a very considerable expansion has 

 been taking place in the development of farms and other natural 

 resources. 



The group next lower in per capita consumption includes the 

 lake states, and sweeps southwesterly across the prairie states 

 through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. In this group the 

 annual consumption is between 300 and 500 feet board measure. 



Prac'ieally all the remaining states fall into a class in which the 

 annual consumption is 200 to 300 feet. This group extends in a 

 broad belt from Texas along the southern and eastern Atlantic 

 coast to Cape Cod, Mass. It also includes North Dakota, Iowa, 

 Utah and Nevada. 



The lowest consumption of all is in Ehode Island, the Distric' 

 of Columbia, South Carolina and Georgia, in which the average con- 

 sumption is rated between 100 and 200 feet per year. In the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia there is an extreme situation in density of popu- 

 lation. No lumber is produced, there is little farming or manufac- 

 turing, and the entire population consists of urban dwellers in the 

 city of Washington, who live mainly in houses of brick and stone 

 and require relatively little lumber. All the lumber used in the 

 District of Columbia, is imported from other states, just as it is in 

 some of the non-timbered prairie states. 



In general, the older and more densely settled states show the 

 lowest average consumption. The states characterized by heavy 

 agricultural opera' ions come next, and the greatest use per indi- 

 vidual is indicated in those states where there is still considerable 

 timber and where the extension of home building is proceeding at a 

 rapid rate, using the abundant material provided by the forests. 

 The states are going through an evolutionary process, building first 

 of lumber and later of more costly materials as the forests recede 

 before fire and axe. 



