November 10, 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Important Announcements from Washington 



By H. C. Hallam 



Hardwood Co-Operation Would Give Wonderful Results 



The value of co-operation in tlie hardwood industry has been 

 demonstrated here recently, according to Gen. L. C. Boyle, counsel 

 for important hardwood interests, in connection with a movement 

 to have the income and excess profits tax laws and provisions of 

 the pending revenue bill amended so as to meet the peculiar needs 

 of the lumber industry. 



"If hardwood operators generally would co-operate with the 

 same zeal as they display individually in helping the government 

 and meeting the problems confronting them," remarked Gen. Boyle 

 to Hardwood Eecord correspondent the other day, "they would 

 easily overcome many of their economic difficulties." 



He said that the result-getting possibilities in co-operation have 

 been illustrated by the good impression created by hardwood men 

 here among members of the senate whom they have been inter- 

 viewing about tax changes. Gen. Boyle said that hardwood and 

 other branches of the lumber trade need to be taken care of in 

 enacting the new law, if the industry is not to be wrecked, due to 

 a combination of high taxes, high costs, limited markets, curtail- 

 ment, embargoes, labor shortage and other conditions due to the 

 war and government activities incidental thereto. 



Senators have been told that while the government is doing what 

 it can to encourage the production of steel, oil, food, and other 

 war necessities, lumber is also necessary in carrying on the war, 

 and that lumber operations should be put in the class of hazardous 

 enterprises, along with mining and some others, and should be al- 

 lowed depletion, depreciation and other deductions from gross in- 

 come before figuring taxes. Recognition of borrowed capital in 

 connection with the definition of invested capital is desired. 



There is a provision in the tax bill authorizing the internal 

 revenue bureau to meet special conditions where there appear to 

 be extra large property, values as of March 1, 1913, by taking 

 representative concerns in the same industry as a guide in calcu- 

 lating what proper allowances and values should be, but the point 

 is made that this is not practicable in the case of the lumber in- 

 dustry, as the vast majority of concerns in it are declared to be in 

 the exceptional class that needs relief, there being few if any 

 representative concerns that could be fairly taken as a guide for 

 their comrades in the industry. 



That the industry needs relief at the hands of Congress in con- 

 nection with the tax bill is declared to be proved by the report 

 that many mills are closing and others may close, so that there 

 might not be much for the tax gatherers to collect next spring. 

 It is also said that the short leaf pine industry is thought in official 

 circles to be largely non-essential; that the North Carolina pine 

 operators work on leased property on which they must pay rentals 

 or royalties regularly, in the face of declining markets for their 

 product. 



It is deemed important that there should not be found a crippled 

 or bankrupt lumber industry at the end of the war, as the world is 

 expected to demand American lumber in unlimited quantities, while 

 the postponed building construction in the United States will have 

 to be taken up. The hardwood industry is said to be restricted by 

 the slackened demand for its products. The government is said 

 to be able to obtain its war lumber supply from 25 per cent of the 

 capacity of the country's mills. 



On this matter of tax amendment there have been in Washington 

 recently the following lumbermen among others: Secretary Wilson 

 Compton of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association; F. 

 H. Babcock, Pittsburgh; John Eaine, Meadow Eiver Lumber Co., 

 Rainelle, W. Va.; R. L. Jurden, J. Pritchard, J. W. McClure, 

 Memphis; S. H. Nich, Catlettsburg, Ky.; W. M. Bitter, Columbus, 

 and Washington; Frank B. Houston, Chicago; A. W. Shands, 

 Sardis, Miss., and others. 



Dr. Compton has been seeking to elucidate some puzzling eco- 

 nomic problems touching lumber taxation that have been raised by 

 official experts. He has also been co-operating with B. C. Bryant 

 of the Forest Service in connection with a statistical investigation 

 being made of the lumber industry for the benefit of the lumber 

 director and the priorities commissioner. This investigation in- 

 volves the correlation of information furnished by trade associa- 

 tions and other sources relating to lumber production, the per- 

 centage of different grades, sources of supply, capacity of mills, 

 markets, distribution of product, etc. These data are of mutual 

 value to the trade and to the government, according to Forester 

 Graves. 



It is believed by authorities that the data having government 

 approval will be far more valuable than special pleading of various 

 branches of the trade or factional representation of the industry. 



The matter of an export lumber trade policy for after the war is 

 being worked on by Dr. Compton with Homer Hoyt, economist of 

 the war trade board. In this connection the reports of American 

 lumber trade commissioners to Europe will be valuable. 



C. A. Goodman, George M. Harder, O. T. Swan, Messrs. Osborn, 

 McCullough, Holt, Campbell, and others have worked out a plan 

 covering prices and supplies of birch logs for making veneer for 

 airplane production. They were assisted by the price fixing com- 

 mittee and the lumber director. The latest plan contemplates the 

 purchase of the birch logs by the veneer and panel makers. Veneer 

 prices may be fixed later. 



Lumbermen and foresters entering the military service are afraid 

 that the show will be over before they get over there. W. L. Hall 

 of the Forest Service, who had charge of Appalachian forest work, 

 has a major's commission in the Twentieth engineer regiment, and 

 F. L. Sanford the Zona, La., lumberman, has a captaincy. Forester 

 Graves expects to have to let some of his western forestry men join 

 the new battalions of the Twentieth. 



Will Probably Have But One Furniture Show 



At the suggestion of the government the Furniture Industries 

 War Service Committee, of which Adolpli Karpen is chairman and 

 W. H. Coye, secretary, has instituted a survey of the industry to 

 sound the sentiment of the manufacturers as to the proposal of 

 doing away with one of the furniture shows, and having but one 

 show that will be at a uniform date in all sections and of a uniform 

 duration throughout the country. The date preferably would be 

 in April and May on account of less severe tax on transportation 

 service in those months. 



The War Service Committee heartily seconds the recommenda- 

 tion of the War Industries Board at Washington on the foregoing 

 proposal, suggesting that the next furniture show be held in May, 

 1919, and that the practice become an established practice of the 

 industry thereafter. 



Manufacturers so addressed are asked to express their opinion 

 and it is stated so far ninety per cent of the industry approves 

 the move. 



Facts Regarding the Shipbuilding Program 



Chairman Hurley of the shipping board denies that the cancel- 

 lation of contracts for wooden ships let to from fifteen to twenty 

 yards found to be inefficient, indicates that the wooden shipbuilding 

 program will be dropped. He intimates that changes might be 

 made to inodernize this industry and predicts that the wooden ship 

 construction will go far in advance of original plans. 



Contracts for fifty wooden barges and fifty composite tugs de- 

 signed for New England coal carrying trade have been cancelled 

 as some of the 3500-ton wooden ships will be utilized for this pur- 

 pose. One hundred wooden ships now building will be designed for 

 use in carrying oil for Mexico, thus releasing steel tankers for th* 

 trans-Atlantic trade. 



