16 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



August 25. 1922 



throughout the autumn. As a consequence of the return of the box 

 plants to substantial activities there is a heavier movement of 

 low grade hardwoods than at any time since depression se in. 

 This movement is especially helpful, as the large surplus of low 

 grade lumber has been a heavy burden to both northern and south- 

 ern hardwood operators. It is believed that the fall will also bring 

 an increase in the activities of the furniture and piano factories 

 and the railroads are expected to do considerable buying. In short, 

 all signs point to a good all around demand for hardwood lumber 

 and veneers during the next few months, with only a normal surplus 

 of stocks at the mills, in fact, a shortage in certain upper grade 

 items, notably in birch, FAS and No. 1 common. Prices, therefore, 

 are certain to remain firm and may advance considerably. The 

 scarcity occasioned during the last few weeks by the transportation 

 situation has already brought about a firming of prices and an 

 upward tendency. With continued transportation shortage and 

 deniand expanding, this condition is likely to be sustained for some 

 time. 



Give Us Federal Industrial Courts with Teeth 



THE RAILROAD SHOPMEN'S imbroglio and the coal miners' 

 strike, in the former of which the Government has played a 

 particularly impotent role, constrains us to wonder how much longer 

 the American people must endure such trao^c follies. We were 

 gratified to see that in his appeal to Congress the President de- 

 clared that the "decisions of the board (the Railway Labor Board) 

 must be made enforceable and effective against carriers and 

 employes alike." But he did not recommend that an attempt 

 be made to do this at once, because the acuteness of the present 

 emergency would not permit the dispassionate, exhaustive delib- 

 eration which should properly be given to a matter so far reach- 

 ing and revolutionary in its effect. He told the Congress that 

 he would invoke the existing civil and criminal statutes to meet 

 the emergency, depending upon Congress to formulate the needed 

 permanent remedies for recurrent anarchy in the railroad industry. 



Federal Industrial Courts, with power to enforce their decisions, 

 must be set up, if we are to have industrial peace and the country 

 is to be spared, with increasing frequency, the recurrence of such 

 disasters as the shopmen's and miners' strikes. We have had 

 enough of these industrial wars, and it is time that the Government 

 rendered them unnecessary and unlawful by providing the proper 

 machinery for the settlement of disputes by the orderly processes 

 of law. 



The factions that have engaged in these disputes, settling them 

 by violence, are not free agents, privileged to do as they damned 

 please (as they have been doing), but servants of the people. As 

 such they must be treated. We do not propose that labor shall be 

 enslaved. We want labor to remain free and prosperous, but we 

 do want to see the power of labor, and of capital, too, restrained 

 within proper bounds and made subservient tb the public welfare, 

 as it should be. Therefore, the Government should no longer permit 

 industrial factions to fight out their private quarrels to the 

 detriment of the public. We can not legislate away the conflicting 

 interests and desires of capital and labor — make the Lion and the 

 Lamb lie do^\^l together. But we can provide for the reconcile- 



ment of these conflicting desires and interests without disrupting 

 the peace of the nation. The strike and the lockout must be out- 

 lawed. The Government must provide that when the employes 

 of an essential industry, such as the railways and coal mines, quit 

 en masse, they must not thereafter interfere in any way with 

 employment of men to take their places, nor with any of the other 

 measures necessary to keep the industry which tho-^ i. --o ,io^<„-fprl 

 functioning. Nor must the men who thus quit be able to return to 

 their former employment except as new workmen in new jobs. It 

 should be provided that when one of its industrial courts has 

 handed down a decision the Government can say: "This is the law, 

 break it, and you provoke the full might of the Government to 

 punish you as a lawbreaker." Ample provision must be made for 

 review and appeal, but when the final decision has been handed 

 down, the Government must be prepared to enforce that decision 

 to the limit of its power. During the period of review and appeal 

 there must be no interruption of industry. All of this should apply 

 with equal force to employers and men. 



Under such a sy.item of enforceable adjudication we would not be 

 treated to the painful spectacle of a Government board being 

 flouted, and issuing impotent ukases; of our President, timidly 

 stumbling and groping about for some suggestion of compromise, 

 so fearfully and wonderfully constructed as to meet the endorse- 

 ment of selfish factions with interests diametrically opposed. We 

 would see, instead, a court sure of itself and able to make its power 

 felt, and a President knowing just what he should do to enforce 

 the law. Under such a sj'stem the shopmen's strike would never 

 liave occurred, for the decision of the Railroad Labor Board would 

 hiive been respected. 



We cannot go on in the way we have been going. Is it not a 

 sad commentary upon our boasted civilization and our boasted 

 democracy, to see industrial factions in open warfare over adju- 

 dicable questions, and the Government impotent to stop them, while 

 the people suffer vast loss, inconvenience and danger, while the 

 heroic struggle to recover prosperity is estopped, while murder and 

 sabotage and all kinds of terrorism go unpunished and unchecked, 

 and national disaster threatens? All this is incompatible with 

 civilization and good government — and it is unnecessary. To 

 abolish such barbarism forever, all that is needed is for our Federal 

 law-makers to forget the elections, to consider themselves for a 

 time responsible statesmen and patriots, and not politicians seeking- 

 perpetuation in office. We would have had the necessary pre- 

 ventatives long ago if there had been less fear and more courage in 

 Washington — more of the kind of courage exemplified by Governor 

 Allen in Kansas. 



At present we are surely drifting toward a dictatorship of the 

 proletariat, or a dictatorship of organized labor, which is the same 

 thing. We will come to it sooner than we think if the Government 

 does not undertake its very plain duty to outlaw the settlement of 

 industrial differences by violence. These frequent industrial wara 

 are eating away the very foundations of our Government; rever- 

 ence for Government, respect for law and order are deteriorating 

 swiftly. The spectacle of a Government impotent to protect its 

 people from injustice and disaster, of feebleness such as has been 

 displayed in Washington during the miners' and shopmen's strikes, 

 is hastening immeasurably the debacle. 



Table of 



REVIEW AND OUTLOOK: 



General Market Conditions 15-16 



Give Us Federal Industrial Courts With Teeth 16 



SPECIAL ARTICLES: 



Hardwood Traffic Victories Reviewed 17-18 



Hardwood Movement Cut 25 Percent 18 



National Aims of Institute Emphasized 19-20 



The Hoover Idea 21-22 



Some Fundamentals of Plywood Construction 35-36 & 42 & 44 & 50 



YARD AND KILN: 



A Novel French Kiln Drying Stunt 25 



CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS: 



Miscellaneous 28&29 



Contents 



HARDWOOD NEWS NOTES 32-33 & 51-52 



HARDWOOD MARKETS 52-5« 



CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS 60-61 



HARDWOODS FOR SALE 62-64 



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