34 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 



By H. C. 



Next to the settlement of the price question, as a problem of 

 reconstruction, the lumber trade is interested in the disposition 

 that is to be made of the half billion feet, more or less, of surplus 

 lumber stocks the government now has on hand. All sorts of plans 

 liave been suggested for sueh disposal, ranging from the exporta- 

 tion of the stuff to the allied countries for rebuilding devastated 

 regions to the peddling of surplus government luml>er in retail 

 lots to the consumers of this country. 



Xo plan has yet been decided upon, so far as has been learned in 

 Washington, but there have been numerous conferences held on the 

 subject and a decision may be arrived at shortly. Efforts are being 

 made to obtain co-operation among several government departments 

 having surplus lumber regarding its disposal and also co-operation 

 between the government and the trade in regard to the same matter. 

 The probable results of a policy of reselling were indicated by 

 slight breaking of the market, or rather by a few private sales 

 well below the market, following the temporary authorization that 

 was granted to local purchasing officers of the army at Petersburg, 

 Va., and perhaps otlier places, to sell surplus government lumber 

 in small lots up to a maximum of .$.5,nOO. This authorization is 

 reported to have been withdrawn. 



It is not believed there will be any trouble about the government 

 lumber provided no attempt is made to dump.it on the market at 

 low ijrices, and the liest information is tliat the government has no 

 intention to do that. On the contrary, it is reported that Cajit. 

 Chambers, lumber purchasing officer of the construction division 

 of the army, may be placed in charge of the disposal of most if not 

 all government lumber. 



Lumbermen have been conferring with sale agents of the gov- 

 ernment and there are signs of a general getting together all along 

 the line. It has been proposed that a meeting of representatives 

 of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing lumber interests with 

 government officials on the subject be held soon. 



Partial relief for the situation is promised by the railroad ad- 

 ministration which has offered to take from 20,000,000 to 40,000,000 

 feet of lumber per month from the government at present market 

 prices. 



Surplus government holdings of lumber may aggregate as much 

 as 600,000,000 feet, according to some authorities. The total is 

 understood to include a quantity of hardwood material, also some 

 hemlock, a good deal of spruce and fir, but the bulk of the aggregate 

 is understood to be yellow pine. 



The navy will not have much lumber or other material to un- 

 load, it is said. Mr. McDonald says that the housing bureau will 

 not have over 5,000,000 feet of lumber to dispose of unless congress 

 completes the enactment of proposed legislation requiring abandon- 

 ment of the government housing projects that are not 7u per cent 

 or more completed. 



While United States government orders for lumber are few and 

 far between now, it is learned that the United States naval academy 

 at Annapolis wants bids on some oak by December 30. 



Foreign governments have not entirely withdrawn from the 

 American market since the signing of the armistice. The Italian 

 government, for instance, has placed orders recently for 10,000,000 

 feet of big timbers, mostly with the fir people, although it is under- 

 stood that some 2i/-j million feet went to the southern pine pro- 

 ducers. 



Some sizable bills of railroad car material are being shipped by 

 yellow pine emergency bureaus, which are closing up. Army con- 

 struction lumber orders that have been held up for some time are 

 being canceled. 



Charles Edgar has retired as director of lumber and has left the 

 city. Major A. Mason Cooke is sitting on the lid at the director's 



Hallam 



office until the death of the war industries board with the coming 

 of the New Year, and there is little or nothing under the lid. 

 Major Cooke is expecting his discharge from the army almost any 

 day. With him are still Mr. Justus, a West Virginia lumberman 

 drafted into the army and who has been specializing in Appalachian 

 hardwoods and spruce, and Earl Smith, secretary of the lumber 

 section, who has been dickering with the department of justice 

 with a view to obtaining employment in connection with the prose- 

 cution of a number of retail lumbermen at Newark for alleged 

 fraud in getting lumber shipments through the freight embargo. 



The last hardwood bureau will close up in Washington .January 

 1.3, when the Northern Hardwood Emergency Bureau will cease 

 existence. Eoy H. Jones, manager, is away for the holidays. 



L. M. Tully has shut up the Cypress Emergency Bureau and 

 gone back to St. Louis. M. L. Wootten, manager of the Alabama 

 and Mississippi Emergency Bureau, has left the national capital 

 and that bureau has closed. The Southern Pine Emergency Bureau 

 has closed and its men have left except W. J. Hartman, who tem- 

 porarily occupies a desk in the office of the Georgia-Florida Emer- 

 gency Bureau. The latter will close with the year 1918. 



Looking After Export Matters 



There is just one war lumber bureau here that may last in- 

 definitely. It is the National Bureau of Wholesale Lumber Dis- 

 tributors, which is jilauning to enter into the field of foreign trade 

 with a big stride. The scheme is to organize an export trade cor- 

 poration among members of the wholesalers' bureau, making the 

 corporation subsidiary to the bureau. It is contemplated to send 

 out sales agents to foreign fields and to allocate orders received 

 among members of the corporation. An interesting report on the 

 foreign trade propo.sition has been sent to members of the bureau, 

 who are responding freely with statements that they are interested 

 in the matter. The report referred to is by .1. W. Turnbull, chair- 

 man of the e.xport committee of the bureau. 



It says that American business men do not have to enter the 

 export business, but if they are to take their part in the world's 

 business the scope of their operations must be broader than ever 

 before. "We all agree," the report says, "that the future in the 

 lumber business will be influenced to a great extent by lumber 

 which is exported. ' ' 



If the wholesale lumbermen decide not to do anything in that 

 field, the report declares, they will surely seal the fate of them- 

 selves. At least seventy per cent of the export business has been 

 done by wholesalers, the report says, but millions of feet of lumber 

 have been exported by firms which are not lumbermen because 

 there was a demand which they were too self-centered to grasp. 

 The report goes on to state that the possibility for margins in the 

 export business far exceeds that in the general wholesale trade. 

 If wholesale lumbermen enter it in the right way and apply the 

 right methods, the report says that the name of the American 

 wholesale lumberman will be placed on a pedestal never attained 

 before. 



The projjosed foreign trade corporation, it is claimed, would 

 place the wholesaler in a position to enter the export trade while 

 carrying on his regular business. Alluding to the fact that lum- 

 ber manufacturers are preparing to engage actively in the export 

 trade, the report says that wholesalers are in a better position to 

 do so because they are not confined to one particular line. They 

 are declared to be the greatest salesmen in the industry. The 

 manufacturers are said in the report to be interested in the export 

 trade only spasmodically, according to the condition of the domes- 

 tic market and the character of their stocks. 



The wholesaler can afford to sell in competition witli the manu- 

 yContinucd .patjt: 3fi) 



