18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November 25, 1918 



ordinary commercial requirements there will be a heavy flow of 

 materials thus released to supply the demand for the great recon- 

 struetional work required by the European countries. At the same 

 time there is to be a gradual lifting of the restrictions and curtail- 

 ments that have been imposed upon industry by the exigency of the 

 war so as to allow as promptly as possible free flow of all supplies 

 into peace channels. The war industries board will continue to 

 exercise its functions until the peace treaty is signed. 



Cancelled Contracts 



Arrangements are being mad>' for terminating contracts when the 

 war does not require their completion, and proper investigations 

 will determine equitable allowances and compensation to meet the 

 needs of each case. A circular dealing with that phase of the situa- 

 tion has been issued by George W. Goothals, director of purchase, 

 storage, and traflic. 



It has been announced by the secretary of war that in returning 

 to a peace basis: 



The first units to be demobilized will be the development batt.ilions ar 

 all camps. The development battalions are made up of men who were 

 under physical requirements or who needed some special drill or discipline 

 to bring them into full military value — underdeveloped physically largely. 

 There are something like fifty thousand altogether. No furloughs will ha 

 granted, but they will be honorably discharged, of course. There is no cer- 

 tain date. Every man who is discharged from the army has to have a 

 physical examination and a verj- careful record made for statistical status. 

 and instead of furloughing them and then discharging, they will be dis- 

 charged, so that there may be no subsequent claims against the government. 

 .411 of those men will have to be examined by the doctors and the medical 

 department is prepared to take over the question of rapid examination 

 and discharge. No date has been set for examination, but I have an idea 

 it will be soon. It is not contingent upon anything, hut will be done as 

 soon as convenient. It is difficult to grant requests from business institu- 

 tions, etc., for men because it breaks up units and creates an inequality 

 of conditions, and it is not likely that individual requests can be granted. 

 The physical examination applies also to students at schools. The central 

 officers' training camp schools will be discontinued. The thing that we 

 have to do and the thing that we must do is to demobilize the men in this 

 country and all the others with reference to their occupational oppor- 

 tunities, so as to let them go back into normal lite of the country without 

 filling the country with unemployed men. The war department is working 

 in close cooperation with the department of labor and the war industries 

 board as much in the discharge of men as in the termination of contracts. 



. The following statement is issued by assistant secretary of war, 

 Benedict Crowell, who is specially charged with the industrial 

 aspects of demobilization: 



With the signing of the armistice the war department is faced with 

 an intricate problem and great responsibilities. The industries of the 

 country, which have responded whole-heartedly to the call of the govern- 

 ment for increased production and which were going at a rate never before 

 attained, must be diverted from war time prodnction to their normal occu- 

 pations in times of peace. 



The first and primary consideration in getting back to this normal basis 

 is to make this readjustment with as little inconveniences as possible, 

 and with a continuous employment of labor. 



It is also essential that the production o( material for war, which means 

 now a waste of material which could be used for civilian population both 

 here and for the purposes of reconstruction in Kurope. should be stopped 

 as speedily as is consistent with the primary consideration of lalior and 

 the industries. 



Instructions have therefore been issued to all bureaus of the war 

 department, governing the methods of slowing down of production, so 

 that as far as possible there sh.uild be a tapering off ot war work, giving 

 time for industrial readjustment and for the industry to take up civilian 

 work. 



In connection with the plans for readjusting the affairs of the 

 country from a war -to a peace basis, developments of special inter- 

 est to the hardwood interests are occurring. Negotiations are 

 understood to be under way with a view to terminating government 

 contracts for a quantity of hardwood material for airplane con- 

 struction, etc. 



While contracts have a clause permitting cancellation, it is 

 planned in many cases to terminate them instead. This method, 

 it is understood, permits more liberal adjustments than the can- 

 cellation clause would. Manufacturers who have accumulated 

 stocks of materials for use in carrying out government contracts 

 will be protected. Instead of buying such materials, the govern- 

 ment may make cash payments to the contractors. Thus would be 



obviated the necessity of the government going into the lumber 

 business. 



No more orders for aircraft material will be placed, according to 

 Gen. Disque, chief of the spruce production division of the war 

 department. This applies to hardwood materials as well. Quite 

 a lot of these have been collected for making propellers, veneer and 

 panel work, gun stocks, etc. The government itself is reported to 

 have a considerable stock of gunstocks and gunstock material on 

 hand at the big rifle manufacturing plants it owns and operates at 

 Eddystone, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn. 



The withdrawal of the government from the market might be 

 expected to cause a slump in things, but officials of the war indus- 

 tries board who are close to the lumber situation do not expect 

 there will be a sag continuing for any great length of time. They 

 say this is true because the lumber industry has been less affected 

 than many other industries as a result of government war orders. 



Officials see no reason for any considerable decline of lumber 

 prices, as they say that the demand for lumber will be large for 

 making boxes and containers for goverumeut and other shipments, 

 also in connection wdth construction, as pretty much all of the 

 government restrictions on building operations have been lifted. 



Conditions in the southern lumber industry are expected to be 

 better than on the west coast, as government orders for aircraft 

 material have constituted a very material part of the business of 

 the latter section and such orders have been chopped off short. Thd 

 chopping off is reported to have found the government with some 

 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 feet of aircraft stock in the log which, 

 however, it is not the present intention of the government to put 

 on the market for some time. 



Lumbermen who have been helping the government win the war 

 are looking forward to an early return to their homes. M. E. Phil- 

 brick, hardwood expert on the staff of Director of Lumber Edgar, 

 plans to return to Boston within a week. Capt. Selfridge, the red- 

 wood representative on the staff, is leaving for Chicago for a hear- 

 ing on the minima case before a representative of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission. Capt. Selfridge is chairman of the trans- 

 portation committee of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation. From Chicago he does not expect to return here. 



Mr. Edgar is planning a Thanksgiving at his home in New Jersey 

 and a winter in Florida. However, the work of his department will 

 continue for some time. If he is not in charge personally, Major A. 

 Mason Cooke will probably be in charge. Maj. Cooke says he hardly 

 hopes to get away before January. 



While no plans are known of as yet looking toward closing the 

 hardwood offices here, some of the softwood bureau offices are look- 

 ing for an early getaway for themselves. The Georgia-Florida Emer- 

 gency Bureau, for instance, may be closed in December. Reports 

 say that the Washington office of the Southern Pine Emergency 

 Bureau may close up shop any time, but the work of the bureau 

 at its main office in New Orleans will require some time to close 

 out, it is understood. 



There will be work for the lumber section of the war industries 

 board, if rumors are true concerning the national meeting of lum- 

 l>ermen at Chicago. It is reported that that meeting may ask the 

 government to continue regulation of the lumber industry for a 

 time during the reconstruction period. 



Government price fixation will continue at least until the expira- 

 tion of outstanding orders. It could continue until the formal 

 declaration of peace after the ratification of the treaty. It will 

 continue for at least a portion of that period after the expiration 

 of the existing orders, it is believed, if the trade requests it, as it 

 may do at Chicago, according to report here. 



The war department is holding up for a week or more all orders 

 for additional military construction projects in this country until 

 it can be determined what the policy of the government will be 

 regarding such work. 



Lumbermen expect that things will settle down to a satisfactory 

 basis. It is said that production has declined; that not many mills 



