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HARDWOOD RECORD 



October 25. 1921 



Appalachian Loggers Hold Congress 



Large Assembly Hears Number of Valuable Addresses; F. G. Norcross 



Is Re-elected President 



The officers, members of the Appalachian Logging Congress, as 

 well as the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, experienced a feeling 

 of great satisfaction for their efforts during the past few months 

 when viewing the unusually large attendance at tlie congress, in 

 Knoxville, Tenn., October 18, 19 and 20. Tlie addresses in all cases 

 were most excellent and this, the sixth annual meeting, was the 

 biggest success the Appalachian Logging Congress has enjoyed. 



President Norcross opened the congress with an address which 

 took note of the spirit with which the members of the organization 

 have met the vicissitudes of depression and outlined the matters 

 in which the loggers should interest themselves. In part, he said: 



I weh-ome you, one ami all, to this, the sixth annual conveution of the 

 Appalchian Logging Congn-ss. 



It is with sincere interest I look into your faces today, and also a 

 pleasure to note that the past year of business depression has not chiUed 

 j-our confidence in tbe ultimate return to nonnal conditions. I know 

 full well by a life time spent with the logging and lumbennen tbe stuff 

 they are made of, and it takes more than has come to us to put us in the 

 doldrums. We are used to hard licks, and it is not the first business 

 stagnation we have passed through. 



I feel you all can see a few bright rays penetrating the business 

 obliv-ion which we have waded through, but I want to remind you there 

 is yet work to do which requires concentratwl action by all engaged in the 

 hardwood lumber industry. The time has come when a stronger co-opera- 

 tive spirit should exist, not only in the Appalachian Logging Congress, 

 but between all the hardwood associations, so that more beneficial results 

 may be obtained. I shall briefly refer to some of the important matters 

 I desire to bring before the congress. 



First — I desire to call to your attention and recommend for your earnest 

 consideration the question of present freight rates on lumber and an effort 

 should be made for a redxiction of rates on lumber. Also to have a classi- 

 fied or differential freight rate promulgated by the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, thereby making movement of the lower grades of lumber 

 which is prohibitive under the present rates in force. If a general reduc- 

 tion can be made with a lower classified rate for No. 1 common and poorer 

 this will have a tendency to stimulate building of moderate cost homes, of 

 which there are one million short of requirements. Home building will 

 stimulate buying of furniture and fittings. It will revive those industries 

 and will work to the conserving of your timber values by enabling you to 

 bring to the mill parts of the trees now left in the woods owing to. loss 



incurring to the operators. The government desires us to co-operate to 

 consen'e forests. Why not the government assist us to get a classified 

 freight rate on low grades of lumber, thereby co-operating with the manu- 

 facturers to conserve forest products by an appeal to the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission? The carriers can well afford to reduce freight rates 

 on lumber, which today are paying an excess charge compared with liability 

 as to damage attending in event of wrecks and the bulky weight of the 

 commodity, and when you take into consideration the low freight rates 

 on coal and the cost of reloading and risk taken by the carrier, I feel that 

 the lumber shippers are rightfully entitled to a lower rate. When coal is 

 wrecked it is worth it to reload. When a car of lumber is wrecked it can 

 be reloaded in a short time with little cost as to labor and a small damage 

 claim to the carrier. When you realize that lumber is one of the best 

 commodities the carriers receive for shipment, and also the stimulating 

 effect a reduction of freight charges will bring about a large increase of 

 shipments and consumption of wood products in all lines, we should have 

 a gooti cause for our pleading. 



Unemployment Conditions 



^ccondl}/ — 1 desire to call your attention to the conditions of unem- 

 ployment existing at the present time. This should be given your due 

 consideration at this meeting and an exchange of ideas between our mem- 

 bers should be had to try to formulate some way to relieve this undesir- 

 able condition. I feel if we can stinmlate the movement of lumber it will 

 eventually relieve to a large extent in many lines of industry this unem- 

 ployment. It will stimulate home building and all lines of manufacture 

 and material entering into house construction. It will put more car- 

 penters to work, also brick masons and hardwood manufacturers, concrete 

 <onstruction and all kindred industries. I recommend for your earnest 

 consideration ways and means to solve this problem. A man builds a 

 house. Ilis next desire is to purchase furniture and furnishings. Let 

 the machinery and supply men assist in co-operating to relieve as far as 

 possible the situation also. 



I desire to call to the attention of the members of this Congress and to 

 the executive officers the importance of formulating and adopting a plan 

 of holding regional meetings, throughout the several sections of the 

 Appalachian hardwood area, that the different operators not now inter- 

 ested as members of our association, may be extended an invitation to 

 attend these regional meetings, where they will be made more fully 

 acquainted with the methods and purposes of the congress, and also the 

 benefits which may be derived by them in becoming members, and awaken 

 an interest in the purposes of the association for the general good of 

 the industry. 



I woulii recommend that these regional meetings be hehl from time to 

 time, say each month, or every two months, as the executive committee 

 may deem best, at some designated center town or point in the different 

 sections and that due notice be given in advance of the holding of such 

 meeting, to all himber manufacturers and loggers, giving date and place 

 in such region. That the executive committee designate either one or two 

 memliers of their committee to be there and confer with those attending 

 at the request of the call as issued. This I call to the earnest consideration 

 of the members and the committee, and trust that some action be taken 

 regarding the same. At first your attendance may not be very large, but 

 you w'ill find on continually holding such meetings that your attendance 

 will be augmented and grow in numbers. I would suggest at such meet- 

 ings that a cordial invitation be extended to all in attendnnce to meet 

 with the congress at its annual and semiiinnual meetings. The members 

 taking the address of such as attend and report to the chairman of the 

 executive conmiittee. 



Gentlemen. I shall not encroach further upon your valuable time, as we 

 have with us in attendance at our meeting, through the courtesy of 

 CoJonel Greeley, Chief Forester of the United States Forestry Department. 

 I. F. Eldredge and A. H. Frothingham, his assistants, who will address 

 you upon the "General Progress of the United States Forestry Department" 

 anti "Minimum Requirements to Keep Cut-Over I>ands Productive." 



Captain Eldredge being in charge of the National Forest, eastern United 

 States, and Mr. Frothingham, acting director, Appalachian Forest Experi- 

 mental Station, Asheville, X. C. 



We also have with us, and who will address you, R. S. Maddox, State 

 Forester, Forestry Bureau, Nashville, Tenn., and his assistant, G. D. 

 Marckworth, who will also place before you. for your consideration and 

 co-operation, the matter of forest conservation, fire prevention and the 

 preservation of forest game, birds, fish and streams, by keeping the fires 

 in your forest down to a minimum. Through the delay in receiving the 

 information regarding the atlendance of Mr. Maddox nnd Mr. Marckwortb, 

 after our program had gone to print, we failed to embody the same, but 



(Continued on page 30) 



