March 25, 1919 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



pose of surplus government property. In this agcney are seventeen 

 sections dealing with lumber, timber, building material, huts, furni- 

 ture, buildings, etc. 



The ordnance department of the army has some tliousands of box 

 shocks to dispose of that are not now needed. It is reported that 

 there is a surplus of some 100,000,000 feet of box lumber in the 

 hands of government war contractors in different parts of the 

 country, especially concerns that entered the box business only for 

 war ])urposes. This material is reported to be of high grades. 



The air service of the army is being reorganized or disorganized. 

 Most of the flying fields are to be abandoned, according to report. 

 The personnel of the service is being discharged. High officers are 

 being transferred and demoted and it is reported that many army 

 airplanes are to be placed in storage. At the same time Secretary 

 of the Navy Daniels says that this country will lead all others in 

 aeronautics, the postal air service is being expanded, and there are 

 rumors of transcontinental air passenger service being started soon. 



Brigadier General B. P. Disque, who had charge of the produc- 

 tion of airplane lumber on the Pacific coast, has been honorably 

 discharged from the army, by direction of the president. 



There were slightly over 3,000 Liberty airplanes on the west 

 front ready for service when the armistice was signed, according to 

 report by Maj. B. J. Bates of Michigan, who commanded the prin- 

 cipal American aviation camp in France. 



March 31 there will be a meeting of artificial leg manufacturers 

 in Washington to standardize artificial limbs. The suggested stand- 

 ard will displace the "victory" artificial leg which the govern- 

 ment has been furnishing wounded soldiers. 



Airplanes are taxable at 20 per cent under the tariff law as a 

 "manufactured article," according to ruling of the customs de- 

 partment of the government, but if machines are imported by 

 flying into the country and remain here for six months or less they 

 are treated as on a tour and free of tariff duty. 

 Miscellaneous Matters 



A. G. T. Moore, assistant secretary Southern Pine Association, 

 has been in Washington looking into various matters of interest 

 to the trade. He was advised that reports that the railroad ad- 

 ministration will reduce freight rates on lumber and other building 

 materials *were incorrect. Mr. Moore looked into the situation as 

 regards the possibiFity of legislation to provide farms for soldiers 

 by developing cut-over and other waste lands. The prospect is 

 that the bill will be reintroduced when the new congress meets 

 and that other bills on the same subject will also be introduced. 



The navy department bureau of supplies and accounts wants bids 

 for furnishing 32,000 feet of white ash lumber to the Brooklyn 

 navy yard, 290,000 feet white oak at the Washington navy yard, 

 also miscellaneous lots of switch ties and white oak ties, white and 

 yellow pine lumber, and 50,000 feet North Carolina pine. 



Specifications are out for lumber, millwork, packing boxes, saw- 

 dust and building material, and furniture, bids for furnishing which 

 are scheduled to be opened by the General Supply Committee April 

 21, for the benefit of government departments and other establish- 

 ments in Washington and for certain portions of the field service of 

 the government in other parts of the country. The stuff to be 

 bought during the fiscal year beginning July 1 next is of a wide 

 variety, the lumber, etc., being of many sizes, kinds and grades, 

 but mostly in small lots for repair and comparatively minor i:iur- 

 poses, although the aggregate is considerable. Thousands of pieces 

 of furniture were bought by the government last year, but pur- 

 chases are not expected to be so large next year, owing to the let- 

 down of government business to a peace basis and the policy of 

 the government of transferring used furniture and equipment from 

 offices going out of business to those that need such articles. 



Under a law enacted at the recent session of congress providing 

 for hospitals for wounded and disabled soldiers, it is expected that 

 the government will avail itself of the proposition of Edward 

 Hines, the Chicago lumberman, that the government take over the 

 Speedway Hospital which Hines has been building at his own ex- 

 pense, use it for a time for the soldiers, and turn it back to Hines, 



who will then donate it to the city as a memorial to his son, Capt. 

 Edward Hines, Jr., who died in France. 



Col. H. S. Graves, United States Forester, advocated compulsory 

 practice of forestry in a speech before the New England Forestry 

 Congress, and urged that destructive methods of cutting injure 

 the public and should be prohibited. 



Five hundred men returning from military service may be un- 

 able to obtain their old employment in the Forest Service, owing to 

 failure of the general deficiency appropriation bill in the last con- 

 gress with its item of $231,000 for general expenses of the Forest 

 Service. 



The Forest Service recommends that black and yellow locust trees 

 and shortleaf pine be planted in gullies to check erosion; that tim- 

 ber be peeled in the spring for fence posts. Foresters say that fuel 

 wood ought to be sold by weight because weight is the test of the 

 fuel value of wood. 



Secretary of Labor Wilson contemplates a speaking tour of the 

 country in' the interest of the campaign for increased building. 

 Ten thousand members of the National Association of Real Estate 

 Boards will assist the government in this work. 



The War Department is to complete Camp Benning, Ga., at a cost 

 of $6,000,000 and maintain it. 



Hardwoods Increasing in Favor 



Ernest W. Tickle of the firm Tickle, Bell & Co., Liverpool, 

 England, known dealers in hardwoods, is spending a few weeks 

 in America and expects to sail for home from Boston on April 7. 

 This is Mr. Tickle's first visit to this side of the Atlantic since the 

 war began, and he is calling on his many friends here and arrang- 

 ing to get at once into active business, now that the principal war 

 restrictions have been removed. 



Mr. Tickle spent two days in Chicago, and from this city he went 

 to lumber centers in Michigan and further east. He is confident 

 that among the changed conditions growing out of the war, hard- 

 wood business will be most favorably aft'ected. England is plannnig 

 to build a million houses for the people who work, and in addition 

 to that, there is a movement among the well to do people to leave 

 their large residences in the congested parts of cities and move into 

 the country or into the suburbs of cities where light, ground, and 

 room are more abundant. The large buildings thus vacated in the 

 cities will be converted into apartments and will house those who 

 do not care to go into the suburbs. 



These new constructions and remodelings will call for much lum- 

 ber, and hardwoods are being favorably considered, particularly 

 for floors. American oak, maple, birch, and beech stand a chance 

 of receiving much more frequent calls than ever in the past. Most 

 floors of moderately priced houses in England have been made §f 

 Norway spruce, the boards being about six inches wide. This wood 

 is so soft and shrinks and swells so badly that it is almost indis- 

 pensable that such floors be kept covered with carpet. 



The cost of such a floor and th? linoleum or other carpet to keep 

 it covered is equal to the cost of a good hardwood floor, to begin 

 with, while the expense of upkeep and renewals is much less for 

 the hardwood floor, to say nothing of the advantage of the better 

 sanitary condition. 



The best and most economical hardwood flooring must come from 

 America. It is relatively cheap at first cost, and its wearing qual- 

 ities are so extraordinary that renewals and repairs will be far 

 apart and few. It has been proved in large stores and other buiUl- 

 ings in this country that a good maple floor will outwear one of 

 marble similarly situated. 



The British Isles have so little hardwood of their own that it ■ 

 cannot be considered as flooring. The home timbers of England and 

 Scotland were so severely depleted during the war that new forests 

 must, in many instances, be brought on from new plantings. For- 

 tunately, America has plenty, which it will gladly share with those 

 who need it; and hardwood flooring in particular, and interior house 

 finish in general, should constitute the basis of a prosperous 

 exchange of commodities between this country and Britain. 



