January 10, 1919 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Important Announcements from Washington 



By H. C. Hallam 



Surplus furniture not required for abandoned housing projects 

 of the government is to be disjjosed of on a considerable scale. 

 Some has already been sold to the trade, and more will probably 

 be sold, but a detinite policy controlling its disposition has not yet 

 been worked out by the operating division of the United States 

 Housing Corporation. Preparatory to the execution of such a policy 

 an inventory of housing furniture not now needed is being made. 



One method of disposing of surplus government materials is in- 

 dicated by the following statement issued by the commission for 

 relief in Belgium: 



In order to remedy this situation to some extent the commission for 

 relief in Belgium has ohtained the services of one hundred ami fifty 

 volunteers from the American navy, and is taking over a large amount 

 of second-hand barrack material from the navy and army. Those bar- 

 racks are in course of erection adjacent to the destroyed villages, under 

 the superintendence of the navy volunteers. 



The War Service Committee of the Millwork Industry is e-xpected 

 to close its Washington office soon. George Hicks, chairman of the 

 Southern pine war service committee, is understood to liav-e re- 

 signed. The joint office of the Southern pine and Georgia-Florida 

 emergency bureaus have decided to remain open in Washington for 

 another month. 



About sixty per cent of the projects of the housing bureau have 

 been abandoned, states Robert Watson, assistant to the secretary of 

 labor and assigned to duty with the bureau. There is a hearing 

 scheduled before the house committee on public buildings and 

 grounds on the resolution for abandoning all government housing 

 projects not sevcnty-tive per cent completed. 



Organizing for Export Trade 



With the purpose of engaging in export trade in office equipment, 

 the Globe-Wernicke Company, Cincinnati; The B. L. Marble Chair 

 Company, Bedford, Ohio, and the Commercial Furniture Company, 

 Chicago, have filed with the Federal Trade Commission a statement 

 of their combination under the Webb export law. The statement 

 sets forth that the concerns will appoint a joint representative to 

 be the manager of their association which shall be known as the 

 United States Office Equipment Export Association. Necessary 

 funds for putting the enterprise into operation, the statement says, 

 are to be contributed as follows: Globe-Wernieke, $10,000; Marble 

 Company, $.5,000, and Commercial, $5,000. 



All foreign business of the three concerns, except Canadian, shall 

 go through the association; the costs of carrying on which shall be 

 pro-rated among the three on the basis of volume of sales of each 

 party through the association. Bad debts will be treated as joint 

 expense. 



The manager will have no authority to contract debts for the 

 association, but shall have authority to act "in all matters per- 

 taining to prices and terms, also endorsing for discount or collec- 

 tion drafts, notes, checks, etc., in favor of the association and to 

 pay the necessary expenses of operation and shall carry on a bank 

 account for these purposes." 



Most active in preparing for the foreign trade is the National 

 Bureau of Wholesale Lumber Distributbrs, which proposes to form 

 a subsidiary corporation to engage in the export business. A meet- 

 ing of subscribers to the proposed corporation has been called for 

 Philadelphia at the Bellevue-Stratford Ijotel on January 10. 



Domestic Trade Activities 



For the domestic trade the wholesalers' bureau has been select- 

 ing a committee on trade relations of fifty members to study local 

 conditions and report on them and on the relation of other branches 

 of the lumber industry to the wholesalers cult, to watch for things 

 adverse to the wholesalers, etc. It is also creating a committee on 

 arbitration and inspection to settle disputes between the parties to 



a transaction in which members of the wholesalers' bureau partici- 

 pate as to grades, quality, etc.; also a committee on costs and a 

 committee on traffic. 



The wholesalers' bureau has energetically protested in a letter 

 from its secretary, C. W. CantreU, to the railroad administration, 

 and from J. E. Davies, its attorney, to John Skelton Williams, head 

 of the railroad department of purchases, against the new plan of 

 centralized purchasing of railroad and car material west of the 

 Mississippi River, as being discriminatory, unfair, tending to create 

 a monoi)oly, and otherwise undesirable. 



The following instructions have been issued by the railroad ad- 

 ministration regarding the purchase of hardwood railroad material: 



The purchasing agent on each administration line should purchase all 

 the hardwood he can un his own lines at the best prices obtainable. 



If necessary to purchase on another line within his region, requisitions 

 should be referred to regional purchasing committee for handling. 



If necessary to purchase from another region requisitions should be re- 

 ferred by regional purchasing committee to the forest products section for 

 allocation to an exporting region. 



Each road will furnish a list of all producing mills along its line with 

 information as to capacity, etc., to be forwarded by regional purchasing 

 committee to the forest products section. 



Regional purchasing committee will report bi-monthly prices paid within 

 their region for switch ties, bridge ties, car and engine oak, and crossing 

 plank. 



Steps are being taken to issue uniform specifications and to act 

 uniformly in the use of the grading rules. 



Trade Restrictions Modified 



Licenses will be issued freely for the exportation to Holland, 

 Denmark, Sweden and Norway of liousehold furnishings, certain 

 furniture, musicial instruments, phonograjihs, pianos, sewing ma- 

 chines, turners' wares of wood, walking sticks, and umbrellas. 



It is also announced by the board that wooden baskets, bamboo, 

 compositions of wood, etc., have been removed from lists of re- 

 stricted imports Nos. 1 and 2 and that licenses will be issued freely 

 for importing the same, when applications are otherwise in order, 

 and when the shipments are from any primary or overseas market, 

 beginning with this month. 



Shellac and extracts for tanning, except chestnut and quebracho, 

 also sumac, have been removed by the war trade board from the 

 export conservation list. 



A license has been issued by the British government permitting 

 unlimited imports until March 1 of a large variety of sawmill and 

 woodworking machinery. 



The Wooden Ships 



Wooden ships are expected to receive more attention in connec- 

 tion with investigations of war activities as a result of the adop- 

 tion recently by the senate committee on commerce of Senator 

 Nelson's resolutions asking the shipping board for full information 

 about all its work since the shipbuilding program was undertaken. 

 It calls speciticall.y for information concerning reports that the 

 building program has slowed up. Director General Piez of the 

 fleet corporation testified before the committee that deliveries have 

 slowed up so that the corporation can have time to learn whether 

 peace conditions will bring about a change in the specifications of 

 ships. 



It is understood that Chairman Hurley of the shipping board is 

 conferring in Paris on questions pertaining to the shipping situa- 

 tion, including the following phases: Whether the American mer- 

 chant marine should be government or privately owned; whether 

 there should be a system of American ship subsidies; whether the 

 seamen's law should be amended, etc. 



Official announcement is made at Washington that ships up to 

 4,000 tons deadweight capacity that have been requisitioned by 



