December 10, 191S 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Important Announcements from Washington 



By H. C. Hallam 



The Lumber Director, Charles Edgar, is taking a hard-earned rest 

 preparatory to resigning or retiring from office with the expiration 

 of the life of the War Industries Board, which will be January 1, 

 according to present plans and arrangements between President 

 Wilson and Chairman Baruch of the board. 



The staff of the director of lumber is disbanding after a most 

 enjoyable dinner given by him to them and their ladies at the 

 Willard Hotel the other night. Among the guests were Maj. and 

 Mrs. A. Mason Cooke, Mr. and Mrs. Philbrick, Capt. and Mrs. 

 Selfridge, Mr. Justine, Mr. Nibley, Mr. Aldrich and Secretary Earl 

 Smith of the lumber section. War Industries Board; L. D. Tanner, 

 manager of the North Carolina Pine Emergency Bureau; Harry De- 

 Muth, manager, and E. B. Baldinger, assistant manager of the 

 Southern Pine Emergency Bureau; L. M. Weeteu and Mrs. Weeten 

 of the Alabama-Mississippi Emergency Bureau; G. M. Tully of the 

 Cypress Emergency Bureau, and Mrs. TuUy and Eoy H. Jones of 

 the Northern Hardwood Bureau. 



The allocation of government lumber orders is no longer done by 

 the lumber director 's office. Each government department will buy 

 in the competitive field what it needs. 



Canceling Orders 



The government is understood to be canceling a number of or- 

 ders for lumber, etc. In doing so, especially with reference to air- 

 plane material, it is reported to be making adjustments that will 

 insure the manufacturers against loss if not guaranteeing a profit. 

 Uncle Sam, it is understood, will compensate contractors for ma- 

 terials purchased to carry out government contracts. 



The construction division of the army continues to hold up all 

 orders for lumber temporarily, which hold-up may become perma- 

 nent any time. At present the war department does not know what 

 construction projects it will abandon and what continue, if any. 

 There has been no hold-up of navy lumber orders or shipping board 

 orders, although the board is reported to have lumber on hand to 

 build forty wooden Ships. The housing bureau is understood to be 

 reinstating some orders for lumber needed for completing construc- 

 tion projects on which work has been begun. 



All government restrictions have been removed from building 

 operations and the government itself, through the supervising 

 architect of the treasury department, is calling for proposals for 

 constructing postoffiees and other federal buildings in thirty-seven 

 cities and towns. 



The navy department wants appropriations from Congress aggre- 

 gating $8.5,000,000 for rendering permanent the twenty-one coastal 

 air defense stations east, west and south, as well as in insular and 

 isthmian possessions of the United States. It is proposed to have 

 squadrons of aircraft stationed at convenient points. 



The war department has canceled forty-three great construction 

 projects for the American expeditionary forces in France which in- 

 clude a deep water dock for twenty ships, also warehouses, terminals, 

 railroads and orders for 61,000 railroad cars. 



Business Pointers 



That the building situation is looking up seems to be indicated by 

 the demand of the United States employment service for a large 

 number of carpenters, who are understood to be scarce and are 

 needed for construction work in the South and East. 



Automobile manufacturers have been meeting here since the 

 signing of the armistice and made plans for reconverting their 

 industry from the execution of a billion dollars' worth of war 

 contracts to the production of an equal value of automobiles for the 

 commercial and pleasure car trade. 



It is being reported that box manufacturers have purchased con- 

 siderable lumber for making export canned goods boxes to meet 

 expected demands of the government for next year, the material 

 emergency bureau of the wooden box industry advises that the 



ordering of such material be stopped and it is taking a census of 

 box material on hand at factories and at the sawmills. It is be- 

 lieved that there will still be a considerable demand for export box 

 material owing to plans to feed the starving millions of Europe. 

 Such boxes may be made from various hardwood lumber varieties 

 % and Vfe inches thick. 



Officials of the box bureau are planning to continue in business 

 for several months in order to assist the industry in solving 

 problems of readjustment. It would pay special attention to ques- 

 tions pertaining to the exportation of box shooks and to the re- 

 vision of railroad administration specifications or regulations rela- 

 tive to packing boxes with a view to reducing the loss and damage 

 claims of shippers. 



Forestry Troops in France 



American forestry troops in France performed one of the least 

 conspicuous and yet extremely important services. On November 

 1, the Twentieth Engineers regiment had a strength of 564 officers 

 and 12,655 men and equipped with modern American lumbering ma- 

 chinery produced great quantities of railroad ties, construction 

 timber, and firewood. 



Discussing the work of the aircraft forces of the government. 

 Secretary Baker says in his report that up to November 11 the 

 total quantity of spruce and fir shipped for airplane production 

 amounted to about 174,000,000 feet, of which more than two-thirds 

 went to the allied governments. 



To the same date 5,300 training airplanes had been produced by 

 the United States in addition to nearly 3,300 service planes. 



The amalgamated regiment may be in Prance five or ten months 

 longer, it is reported by officers. Maj. W. L. Hall and other officers 

 selected for commission in the new battalions proposed some weeks 

 ago for the twentieth regiment are reported to be in training at 

 Camp Forest. It is said they will be released from the army at the 

 conclusion of their term of instruction, but will be placed on the 

 reserve list. 



The Question of Ships 



The future of the wooden ship, so far as the government is con- 

 cerned, is very uncertain. According to one report, contracts for 

 160 such ships have been canceled by the shipping board. Accord- 

 ing to another, they have been simply held up. A third report i8 

 that some of the suspended contracts are reinstated, namely, about 

 eighteen. Certain it is that the shipping board wants to sell a 

 number of he wooden ships because its officials believe that there 

 is no peace need for such a large number of small vessels, includ- 

 ing the wooden ships and the steel ships built on the Great Lakes, 

 so far as this country is concerned. We are said to have some 1,100 

 of them. 



If the government can sell the wooden boats the building pro- 

 gram will not be conceled, writes Charles Piez, general manager 

 of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, in a letter to Eepresentative 

 Johnson of Washington state. If not, cancellations .will have to 

 proceed. 



Senator Fletcher of Florida, chairman of the commerce com- 

 mittee, is out with a strong statement defending the wooden ship 

 program, protesting against its abandonment or the sale of the 

 wooden ships, and charging that there is a propaganda against them 

 based on falsehood. According to information in the hands of 

 Senator Fletcher, 367 wooden ships have been launched up to No- 

 vember 20 of which ninety-eight have been completed and seventy- 

 six are in service. Besides the above, the senator says, work was 

 commenced on 193 wooden ships, and contracts were awarded but 

 work not started on 171 more. Of these latter, he says, the ship- 

 ping board has canceled forty-eight contracts and authorized the 

 cancellation of 100 more. In his statement the senator said: 



"No doubt the board is influenced by the propaganda against the ■wooden 

 ships and the many false statements put In circulation concerning them. 



