SeiJtfiiiiiiT, 111. 1'j:;i 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



News from the National Capital 



Till.' National LuiiilxT Manufacturers AssuciatiuM at tliu (liruct 

 request of the Department of Commerce is cooperating with tlic 

 Bureau of the Census in an endeavor to gather monthly informa- 

 tion on production, orders, shipments, stocks and prices of lumber 

 commodities. The work has progressed so satisfactorily that the 

 National will seek the aid of the regional associations, as well as 

 individual members, in furnishing more complete data. 



In the monthly "Survey of Current Business" recently ]uil)lished 

 by the Department of Commerce a beginning was made in the 

 publication of lumber statistics on production and shipment. It is 

 expected to supplement this data with more comprehensive sta- 

 tistics from members of the regional associations for identical mills. 



In gathering information on lumber prices the Bureau has 

 selected a group of ten reasonably representative items on which 

 monthly figures will be based. The Bureau does not expect that 

 the descrijition of items and grades will exactly correspond with 

 the names, sizes and methods of manufacture of each regional as- 

 sociation and asks therefore that each association report such 

 changes as its particular grading rules may require. 



To make these statistics representative the Bureau desires to 

 secure this information from a substantial group of mills. It is 

 intended that the list shall include representative mills operating 

 under conditions generally characteristic of the region mills, which 

 are able and willing to furnish promptly each month to the Bureau 

 their prices on specific items for a given day, or a given week of 

 each mouth. Individual information is safeguarded in that it is 

 not available to anyone other than the sworn employees of the 

 Bureau. Only compiled data will be made public. 



On the compilation of these data the National, with cooperation 

 of the regional associations, expects to have the very latest and 

 most up-to-date lumber statistics available. Prompt cooperation 

 will by advantageous not only to the Department of Commerce 



but also to the industry. 



***** 



Edgar P. Allen, Publicity Director of the National Lumber Manu- 

 facturers' Association, has recently returned to Washington after 

 an extended trip of several weeks in the South and far West, where 

 he made an extensive survey of existing conditions in the lumber 

 industry and became more thoroughly acquainted with the indus- 

 try's leaders. In speaking of his trip Mr. Allen said: 



.\fter a rapid and necessaril.v .-Jomewhat superficial survey of the lumber 

 industry of the United States, I have returned to Washington wltli one 

 trenieudnusly impressive thuuglit that I would like to convey to every 

 newspaper writer in the nation. This survey was not complete in the 

 sense that it went exhanstively into all the prohlems and differentiated 

 vexations of the lumber mauufacturinff Imsiness, nor was I ahle in the 

 time at my ilisposai to so into some important areas of operation that I 

 hope to visit at a not too iltstant date. But with the eye and the mind 

 of a newspaper writer I have traveled thousands of miles and have cov- 

 ered the assignment in a way that convinces me I have a fairly clear 

 vision of the lumber industry as it is and should be understood by the 

 people of America. And the outstanding impression that is almost 

 oppressive in its effects upon my mind is that this industry is so vast, so 

 immensuralily useful to the public and so potentially great in its service 

 to itself and the nation, that upon a sure and speedy resumption of its 

 prosperity deiiends the welfare of all the people of our common country. 



In my study of lumber I have gone into offices and ndlls and talked 

 with hundreds of men identified with lumber service to the public. More 

 than that — infinitely more than that — at every opportunity and in every 

 region visited. I have gone Into the woods, talked with the loggers, trailed 

 through forests with lumber-Jacks, eaten at their camps ami lived fur the 



ninrncnt tlu'ir llv<-s uf vignriius. wbnb-sdme, primitive )-iidea\nr and dis- 

 cussed their part and pn.blems in this ndghly work of supplying wood 

 products to the natimi. In the sultry cypress swamps of the south and 

 in the pine and hardWDod ferests of the southeastern and Culf states I 

 have seen the treniendiois iiperations of getting the logs to the mills under 

 almost unbelievable difflculties. Then I have gime Into the forests of 

 northern pine and hanlwoods, of Idrch, hendocli, basswnod, asb, elm and 

 maple and followed the trail through the Inland ICnipire into the ilense 

 forests of western i)ini', larch and fir and on to the terrifying slopes of 

 the Cascades, where the vast stand of spruce and Douglas fir challenges 

 the Ingenuity of man to Invade their primeval silence. On down the 

 Pacific Coast 1 have wandered viewing operations that in magnitude, 

 physical ilifliieulties and monetary investment strain the imagination. 

 Finally I have gone deep Into the white and sugar pine forests, which 

 seem all but inaccessible to the logging railroads and woods crews. And, 

 as a fitting conclusion to this tour, the redwoods call me to their mystic 

 shadows where I would have lingered days in adoration of their grandeur 

 had I not been forced to break the spell they wove around me. 



The lumber industry I It is the most wonderful field for the efforts of 

 man. And the biggest, brainiest and most wholesono- pionei'rs I have ever 

 linown are <Ievoting their time, energy and money to furnishing that 

 vitally useful and most universal material of all history — LUMBER. 

 • • • • 



A new wood waste bureau, for industrial investigation, has been 

 added to the Forest Products Laboratory and, according to the 

 Forest Service, it will meet a real need. The work will embrace 

 the following lines: 



A survey of the primary ;uid secondary wood-using industries to 

 determine the possibility of more complete utilization of by-prod- 

 ucts, low-grade materials, and wood waste; dimension stock study, 

 including the standardization of small dimension stock require- 

 ments and determination of the most economical methods of con- 

 verting the standing tree into the form of material required in 

 secondary wood-using industries; standardization of nomenclature, 

 sizes, grades and specifications for lumber and cross-ties; wood 

 waste exchange to effect the utilization of raw materials now dis- 

 posed of as waste, by supplying a medium through which pro- 

 ducers can locate markets for woods, mill and factory by-products 

 and waste, and wood-consuming plants can locate material of this 

 character such as will meet their requirement; general work, in- 

 cluding the broad field of encouraging the wider use in the wood- 

 using industry of the results of technical research available at the 

 laboratory. 



The proposed personnel of the new section, partly recruited from 

 other laboratory sections, will consist of ten technical foresters, 

 one engineer, and four non-technical employes. 

 ***** 



Axel H. Oxholm, recently appointed chief of the Commerce De- 

 partment's new Lumber Division, has left Washington to confer 

 with lumbermen in various Northwestern states. He will visit 

 Buffalo, Boston, Portland and Bangor, Maine, and Williamsport, 

 Pa. 



During the trip he will confer with lumber associations, business 

 houses and individuals interested in selling American lumber in 

 foreign countries, with a view to improving and sjieeding up serv- 

 ice in the Department in assisting the sale of lumber abroad. 



During the middle part of September Mr. Oxholm plans to visit 

 the Middle West and the Pacific Coast. It is planned that he will 

 cover South Atlantic and Southern States some time after October 

 20. 



Then, again, manufacturers are watching the warnings the finan- 

 cial observers are sending out to the effect that the retailers, by 

 refusing to cut prices of all sorts of commodities in proportion as 

 the wholesalers', producers' and manufacturers' prices have been 

 cut are inviting another buyers' strike which will be aimed directly 

 at them. Furniture manufacturers know full well that furniture 



retailer* are guilty of holding up prices along with retailers in other 

 lines and when they read that there arc indications of another 

 buyers' strike, they find but small solace in the thought that if that 

 strike comes it will be due to the retailers' practices rather than 

 to the manufacturers. The effects will all be reflected back upon 

 the manufacturer anyway so what does it matter who is to blame? 



