42 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 25, 1918 



the questionnaire is not affected either in regard to its abstract or its 

 practical purposes. The requirements of peace, as they pertain to lum- 

 ber at least, may prove even greater than those of war. Immense quanti- 

 ties of it must be shipped to Europe during the next year or two. In all 

 of the allied countries having devastated sections to deal with, it is under- 

 stood the decision was reached some time ago that to begin with prac- 

 tically all of this work must be done with wood. It is also understood 

 that for the present the bulk of the lunilier supplies to be drawn from the 

 United States for shipment to Europe will he moved under a centralized 

 control. Moreover, the tenure of the purchasing commissions established 

 in this country during the war by the different allied governments will be 

 prolonged, and the relations of this organization with these will continue 

 as close as heretofore. 



The questionnaire was mailed to each and all of our 972 members so 

 as to make sure that every bona fide manufacturer of lumber among the 

 membership would be brought into the record. The returns are now sub- 

 stantially complete (only a few producers out of the entire list having 

 for reasons best known to themselves refused to co-operate) and the total 

 shown strikes high. 



According to the figures received and tabulated to this writing the 

 aggregate annual output of the manufacturing element in this organiza- 

 tion is 5,907,000,000 feet. These figures are based strictly on accomplished 

 production and in no instances on mere capacity outlines. The number 

 of integral mills involved in this volume of industry as shown by the 

 returns is 1,010, many of our producing members of course carrying on 

 more than one operation. 



No small significance attaches to these figures. Apparently they indi- 

 cate that the cut of lumber for the year just closed has much overrun the 

 cut of 1016. our latest official figures. This is inferred from the fact that 

 1,010 sawmills this year show production ninety-six per cent as large as 

 1,770 sawmills in 1916. If returns from all the hardwood mills in the 

 country were collected, and the same ratio would hold out, the indica- 

 tions point to a total hardwood cut of 10.000,000,000 feet, which would 

 be considerably above the reported hardwood production in 1916. 



The census returns of lumber cut for this year will be awaited with 

 interest, and it is probable that the size of the cut, when full figures shall 

 be received, will contain surj)rises. 



Building Permits for November 

 The total value of building permits, issued in 151 principal cities 

 throughout the United States, as officially reported to The American 

 Contractor for November, 1918, was $6,593,857, as compared with $45,617,- 

 590 in November, 1917, a decrease of 85 per cent. The following talde 

 gives an interesting comparison of construction work in November for the 

 past five years : 



Number of Cities Estimated Vaiue 

 Reported. of Buildings. 



1918 151 .$6,593,857 



1917 151 45,623,885 



1916 114 69,278,617 



1915 114 69,465,791 



1914 75 34,342,475 



Gains are shown in 29 of the 151 cities listed, but these are only sig- 

 nificant as indicating centers of war activities. 



Foreign Restrictions Still Hold Down Exports 



All business in hardwood lumber and forest products in England and 

 France today is government business, and, so far as all other foreign 

 countries are concerned, there are no ships for the transportation of 

 these commodities. 



This is the significant statement made by G. A. Farber. vice-president 

 of Russe & Burgess, Inc., who has been .spending some time at the head- 

 quarters of this firm in Memphis. He is foreign representative of this 

 firm and has already left this city enroute to London, his headquarters, 

 for which point he will sail about the tenth of January. He is at present 

 in Baltimore and will visit other eastern points before sailing. He said : 



I anticipate that there will be a big business in American hardwoods 

 in Great Britain, France and other foreign countries and particularly in 

 the two former when the present timber control has been eliminated. 

 Until it has been eliminated, however, the government will have charge 

 of both the importation and distribution of American hardwoods and the 

 quantity purchased will probably be somewhat restricted. There will 

 certainly be no open market as long as this timber control is maintained 

 and I would like to emphasize the fact that it is up to American exporters 

 to use their influence toward elimination of this control. They have 

 ample ground in the fact that the market is not an open one under present 

 regulations and that there is, in a measure, restraint of trade. I would 

 suggest formal protests on the part of exporters to the proper authorities 

 in the United States, letting the latter take the subject up in proper 

 manner with the governments of Great Britain and France. I am rather 

 Inclined to believe that this control is likely to remain in effect for almost 

 a year unless something is done to hasten its removal. 



I base my views of ultimate large business on the fact that stocks of 

 hardwood lumber and timber in Great Britain, France and other foreign 

 countries are smaller than they have ever been, and on the additional fact 

 that there is most notable shortage of stocks of furniture and other 

 products manufactured therefrom. Prices of furniture in Great Britain 

 today are practically double what they were before the war and the same 

 is true of France. Second-hand furniture, almost the only kind available, 

 has advanced quite as much as new. If furniture manufacturers were 

 able to enter the market in an unrestricted wav now tliey would buy 

 very freely in order to get this industry on a satisfactory "basis and in 

 order to meet the enormous demand that is ahead of them. But thev 

 will have to take what the government gives them and this conditioii 



will continue tor some time unless I am very much mistaken. The gov- 

 ernment of Great Britain has already purchased some 12,000,000 to 

 14,000.000 feet of American hardwoods which is now at southern and 

 eastern ports awaiting transportation. This will not go very far, how- 

 ever, toward supplying the needs of furniture manufacturers or other 

 interests but they will have to be content, for the present at least, with 

 wliat the government provides for them. 



Speaking of the basis on which lumber would have to be sold in Great 

 Britain. France and Belgium, Mr. Farber said : 



I anticipate that importers in England, when present timber control 

 is removed, will be able to pay cash for whatever they bu.v' in America. 

 I am rather inclined to believe that some credit arrangement will have 

 to be effected in the case of French buyers and I am certain that con- 

 siderable credit accommodations will have to be worked out in the case 

 of buyers in Belgium. 



Hardwood 'News Notes 



■< MISCELLANEOUS > 



The capital stock of the Huntiogburg Wagon Works has been increased 

 to $90,000 at Huntingburg, Ind. 



The Bolivia Lumber Company has been incorporated at Bolivia, N. C. 



The death is announced of J. A. Covode, secretary of the Berkey & Gay 

 Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., and also of Charles S. Holt, 

 secretary of the Holt Lumber Company, Oconto, Wis. 



— < CHICAGO >■ 



Prominent southern hardwood men who. came on to Chicago from the 

 big Louisville meeting were W. B. Burke, Lamb-Fish Lumber Company, 

 Charleston, Miss. ; Sam Thompson, manager lumber department, Anderson- 

 Tully Company, Memphis, Tenn. ; R. J. Lockwood, manager of the Memphis 

 Hardwood Flooring Company, Memphis, and D. B. Frampton, Frampton- 

 Foster Lumber Company, Pittsburgh, Pa. All these men had business to 

 do in Chicago and all of them reported that they had succeeded with their 

 work. 



Members of the Chicago Hoo-Hoo held an interesting concatenation on 

 Thursday night, December 19. Twelve kittens were put through the ropes 

 and three former members were reinstated. The event took place in the 

 Lumbermen's Association quarters and was preceded by a banquet. Vice- 

 gerent Snark G. A. Vangness was in charge. 



W. G. Collar, manager of the West Lumber Company, Lugerville, Wis., 

 passed through Chicago last week on a hurry-up trip to Washington, where, 

 he went to see his son, Lieut. G. C. Collar, just returned from France in a 

 severely wounded condition. Mr. Collar had no knowledge of the injuries 

 of his son until a wire was received from Lieut. Collar on this side. Lieut. 

 Collar received his injuries in the Chateau Thierry fighting, and is now 

 in the government recuperating hospital in Wasliington. He rose from 

 private in the marine corps to first lieutenant. 



Wm. Beebe, general sales manager for the Long-Bell Lumber Company, 

 Kansas City, passed through Chicago last week on his way to the big Louis- 

 ville amalgamation meeting of the two hardwood manufacturing associa- 

 tions. Mr. Beebe was very optimistic over the general situation. 



H, H. Butts, sales manager of the Park Falls Lumber Company, Park 

 Falls, Wis., was in town for a couple days last week. 



John F. Ross of the Brooks & Ross Lumber Company, Schofield, Wis., 

 was a prominent local visitor in the Chicago market a week ago. 



=-< BUFFALO >= 



The Buffalo Lumber Exchange at a recent meeting appointed a com- 

 mittee of three to draw up resolutions of regret and sympathy at the 

 death of Sergeant Maurice A. Wall, reported as dying of wounds received 

 in action in France, The committee is composed of William L. Blakeslee, 

 -Millard S. Burns and H. A. Plumley. 



Lieut. Fleming Sullivan, son of Fred M. Sullivan, and former man- 

 ager of the retail business of T, Sullivan & Co., has written home several 

 interesting letters recently in regard to the fighting in the Argonne, in 

 which he took part. 



The Curtiss Aeroplane & Motors Corporation has reduced its force to 

 about one-fourth its former number and is giving up the Elmwood avenue 

 plant, which covers twenty-six acres of fioor space and is the largest air- 

 plane plant in the world. Work will now be centralized at the Churchill 

 street factory ou a much smaller scale than during war time. The de- 

 mand for airplanes has of course greatly decreased since the cancelation 

 of the government's orders, but the company is hopeful of doing a fair 

 business the coming year. The Elmwood avenue factory is well-adapted 

 to automobile manufacture and it Is possible that it will be used for 

 such purpose. 



The .$1,650,000 housing program at Niagara Falls was about five per 

 cent completed when the United States Senate adopted a resolution call- 

 ing for the suspension of such projects when less than seventy-five per 

 cent completed. The Falls interests behind the project believe that work 

 will not be entirely stopped and assurances have been obtained that 

 labor can be secured to carry on the work. 



The .\eroplane Lumber Company, wUch was organized by Frank T. 



