20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



March 25, 1919 



can not bo cut without loss to the inchistry. Milling cost figures 

 were laid before the board and we will furnish additional informa- 

 tion. Our disposition is to bo sympathetic with the board's policy 

 of bringing about resumption of the country's business as soon as 

 possible, but I do not see how we can reduce prices." 



It is the lumbermen's job to educate the government to take this 

 view of the situation. Chairman Peek has intimated that there is 

 no apparent obstacle to an understanding with the lumbermen, and 

 that ho is sure they will be no less willing than were the steel men 

 toward removing obstacles to industrial development. 



M. W. Stark, who was reported to have data on the cost of hard- 

 wood production to present to the board, denied this, saying laugh- 

 ingly "There ain't no such animal." Stark attended the confer- 

 ence with F. E. Gadd as representative of the hardwood trade. 

 Others present included Wilson Compton, secretary of the National 

 Lumber Manufacturers' Association; A. L. Clark, president South- 

 ern Pine Association; M. B. Nelson, Long-Bell Lumber Company; 

 J. E. Graves, Georgia-Florida Sawmill Association; Mr. Knapp, 

 New York representative of California redwood interests; E. T. 

 Allen, Portland, Ore.; G. L. Hume, North Carolina Pine Associa- 

 tion; G. A. Townsend, Great Southern Lumber Company, and 

 others. 



A communication from Pacific coast lumber interests was pre- 

 sented by L. C. Boyle, saying that those interests have been selling 

 their product at .$-5 less than the cost of production in order to 

 prevent unemployment. 



"There seems to be every indication," says Secretary Bowen 

 of the Retail Lumber Dealers' Association, that the present price 

 of lumber will not be lowered and the fact that the war depart- 

 ment has withdrawn from the manufacturers, with whom it con- 

 tracted to handle government owned surplus lumber, about 160,- 

 000,000 feet of the 200,000,000 feet which it had to sell, reduces 

 by just that much the lumber which the manufacturers can dis- 

 pose of to the retailers either from their stock or from their mills, 

 and there is still a shortage of labor at the mills." 



It is reported in official circles and believed in lumber circles 

 in Washington that large government orders for lumber and other 

 materials needed in carrying out the naval building program and 

 other construction operations are being held up pending the results 

 of the conferences initiated by the industrial board. If prices are 

 reduced it is intimated that government orders will increase. 



One feature of the situation that is engaging attention is the 

 question whether, in case the lumber trade agreed with the gov- 

 ernment to reduce prices, that would involve an action contrary 

 to the anti-trust laws. It is presumed not, in view of the state- 

 ment of the industrial board and the opinion of the attorney 

 general in the case of the recent steel price reduction agreoment, 

 that no violation of the law is presented and that there will be 

 no anti-trust prosecution. 



Latest Developments Regarding Conference 

 (Special wire to II.\rti)Wonr» Recoud) 



The Industrial Board's conference with the lumber industry com- 

 mittee expected to be held on March 24 has been postponed until 

 later to enable the lumber" committee to find out whether the whole 

 industry will go with the committee in agreeing to possible slight 

 lumber price reductions. The fir interests were not represented 

 at the March 22 meeting or on the committee. 



J. H. Kirby and other members of the committee have left town. 

 It is said the committee will attempt to supply figures over the cost 

 of production in each section of the industry, but that there is no 

 intention of reducing prices. The committee will meet with the 

 board again at an early date. 



No one on the committee has authority to submit schedule or 

 reduced prices for approval by the board except as individuals 

 representing their own companies. 



It is declared costs have increased even since the end of the 

 fighting last November. 



Lumbermen are doubtful about price agreements being legal and 

 said trade associations w-ould not stand for price fixing through 



conspiracy. However, it is believed generally that the assurances 

 given by the attorney general that reduced steel prices fixed by 

 agreement between the board and the trade will not lead to prosecu- 

 tion, would be extended to a lumber price list made up under 

 similar circumstances. 



Retail lumbermen at Washington for the conference say lumber 

 price reductions will make little difference in the cost of building 

 but that price stabilization would tend to promote the revival of 

 building. 



Government people are disappointed that there was no spokes- 

 man for the lumber industry as a whole, and no basis at hand to 

 effect adjustments between various sections of the industry, each 

 of which has its own peculiar problems. 



No Reduction in Freight Rates 



Director General of Railroads Hinos denies the recent report 

 that freight rate reductions are contemplated by the railroad 

 administration on lumber and other building materials. 



Resumption of building on a considerable scale is indicated by 

 reports received by the Department of Labor. Contracts let in 

 February aggregated $95,000,000 or only .$11,000,000 less than the 

 February average for the last four years. The department officials 

 also say that building costs are less than were estimated. 



Adjustment of contracts for building wooden ships and relief 

 from the situation created by the cancellation of contracts is 

 sought by a number of wooden shipbuilders who have been in 

 conference in Washington recently. They belong to the Emer- 

 gency Wood Shipbuilders' Association and represent builders on 

 the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. About thirty yards are affected by 

 the cancellation of Ferris wood ship contracts by the shipping 

 board, it is said. Orders for fifty or sixty such ships were canceled 

 recently in addition to contracts for 100 or more that were can- 

 celed last year. 



The shipping board is asked to meet the situation created by 

 the recent stoppage of work on partly built vessels. Workmen 

 have been discharged and it is rumored that the partly built hulls 

 may be burned, or they may be converted into barges or schoon- 

 ers. The builders have asked immediate consideration of their 

 plight and settlement on some satisfactory basis. It is understood 

 that Chairman Hurley of the shipping board will announce a pro- 

 gram for the shipping board, including a plan of adjusting can- 

 celed contracts, at a dinner in New York at an early date. 



E. T. Allen, of Portland, Ore., is in Washington interested in 

 tlie matter of obtaining employment for forestry and lumbermen 

 troops as demobilized. He is co-operating with officials of the 

 war and other departments who are working on the unemploy- 

 ment problem. Mr. Allen is also discussing the matter of the 

 use of funds collected for the relief of lumbermen soldiers. 



The War Department is to buy the sites of fifteen army camps 

 and thirteen aviation and balloon fields at a cost of less than 

 $15,000,000, according to announcement by Acting Secretary of 

 War Crowell. The government now owns fifteen other army camps 

 and several flying fields. About $310,000,000 has been expended 

 on the camps and fields to be retained by the government, while 

 construction work on twenty-seven camps to be abandoned cost 

 about $110,000,000. Fifteen aviation fields are also to be 

 abandoned. 



Surplus Stock Question 



A committee composed of C. A. Goodman, Horace F. Taylor and 

 R. M. Carrier is at work on the problem of disposing of surplus 

 government stocks of hardwood lumber. The committee has been 

 agreed upon to represent the hardwood industry. Mr. Taylor, who 

 is president of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Associa- 

 tion, is chairman of the committee. The intention of the War De- 

 partment is to work in conjunction with the committee in offering 

 its hardwood stocks in such a way that the market for hardwood 

 lumber will not be unduly disturbed. The government hardwood 

 stocks are not large. They are partly walnut gunstock material 

 and material for airplane propellors. 



The British Ministry of Munitions has created an agency to dis- 



