26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



March 10. 1922 



(Continued from page 23) 

 ure as one could well conceive, not only in moving their production, 

 but also in getting less than 50 per cent of the cost to produce this 

 stock. Many are the doleful tales that have come to my desk, not 

 a few of which sternly hold me responsible for the situation. 



Particularly have we underestimated the economic significance of 

 this program of standardized dimension stock. Moreover, I am sure 

 we have all largely failed to realize the sociological consequences 

 which will follow as surely as the program of standard dimension 

 is made effective. With your permission I shall devote the balance 

 of my time to these controlling considerations. It is vastly im- 

 portant that we all get an adequate idea of the size of this job, and 

 its far reaching and revolutionary effect on industrial conditions, 

 and as an inevitable consequence, on social conditions. 



Our starting point is Transportation. Transportation has always 

 been fundamental 'to social progress. Wherever conquering civiliza- 

 tions have gone, they have gone on good roads. The Union Pacific 

 railroad is probably the greatest piece of constructive statesmanship 

 since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. America can put 

 food into famine stricken districts of Russia and China more cheaply 

 and speedily than neighboring provinces in the same countries. 



The key to the New Era is still Transportation. To assume that 

 the present high rate for carriage of low grade freights is the sole 

 or principal factor is not warranted. For we have not only the 

 factor of rates but also of distance. In our industry the length 

 of haul is rapidly increasing. Neither one alone, but both com- 

 bined h.avc forced an issue which must be met. How shall we 

 meet it? 



In South Bend wc have the huge cabinet shops of the Singer 

 Sewing Machine Company. Why are these shops in South Bend? 

 Because but a few years ago South Bend was in the heart of an 

 "inexhaustible" supply (to use Secretary Fall's description) of 

 white oak, black walnut, white ash, hard maple and other choice 

 hardwoods. Now the supplies of this cabinet plant come from 

 the far south, where their saw mills are located. The South Bend 

 plant is merely an assembling plant for the dimension output or 

 these distant mills. 



Before I attempt to suggest how we shall meet the transporta- 

 tion crisis, I wish to get before you two graphic pictures of the 

 economic forces that are compelling ns to take action without de- 

 lay. 



First, may I ask you to give renewed consideration to the Chart 

 on 100 per cent Utilization of the cubic content of a hardwood tree. 

 As the explanatory foot note states, most of the work on this chart 

 was done by the Forest Products Laboratory. But the stinger was 

 developed by the engineers of the National Association of Wood 

 Turners. This "stinger" shows that in actual wood fabrication, 

 on the basis of present methods, only 17 per cent of the tree is 

 utilized. After allowing as much as you pleii-se for fuel utiliza- 

 tion, the fact remains that here is a simply monstrous waste. Old 

 Man Prejudice now rises to remark: "This waste is necessary, 

 and it can not be prevented." It has previously been observed that 

 Old Man Prejudice is a liar, an ass and an economic prostitute. 



The second picture which I wish to get before you is the unpub- 

 lished Chart, prepared by the engineers of my office, on the freight 

 wastes involved in our present method of marketing the output of 

 a typical hardwood tree. The average lumber rate is figured at 

 30 cents. The factors of waste and utilization are figured on very 

 broad and extensive runs. Against the high .average of top outs 

 In gum we have to place the absence of such cuts in several other 

 hardwoods, especially second growth stumpage. The freight waste 

 is so enormous on low grades that on this day and date over .50 

 per cent of all the hardwood lumber in this country is valueless, ex- 

 cept as some neighboring flooring mill or other dimension opera- 

 tion is able to utilize a small portion. Undi-r the combined 

 economic pressure of wasteful harvesting of the forest crop, long 

 hauls and high rates, I dare make the assertion that we are not 

 utilizing 10 per cent of the content of our trees. The lumber in- 

 dustry itself wavers on. the verge of disaster. How can we hope 

 to ^ficceed in such flagrant violation of all the established laws 



of business f What are we going to do with our No. 3 Common? It 

 makes up 3.1 per cent to 40 per cent of our output, and seems to 

 be on the increase, year by year. 



The other side of this picture is shown by a tlfird graphic chart. 

 This has been published in all the lumber journals, so no doubt it 

 comes to most of us as a complete surprise. The point of this Chart 

 is that it shows that a hundred dollars worth each of the four 

 commercial grades of hardwoods have substantially the same utility 

 value at the producing sawmill. Eoughly speaking, a hundred dol- 

 lars worth of No. 3 Common will cut as much clear and clear one 

 face as a hundred dollars worth of FAS. If the producing saw mill 

 is properly connected with a modern utilization plant, the excessive 

 waste produced by cutting No. 3 Common to standardized dimen- 

 sion, will fully pay the extra costs involved. We do not have to go 

 outside the Middle West for full proof of the accuracy of this 

 statement. 



Remembering what has been done in the Singer cabinet plant at 

 South Bend, and by many a similar operation, it ought to be easy 

 for us to combine these three pictures into .a composite picture which 

 will clearly show what must take place in the hardwood industry, 

 and that this inevitable Revolution of industrial practices spells 

 "OPPORTUNITY" in capital letters. Instead of describing this 

 picture in my words, I will give you my recollection of the picture 

 as described by the sales manager of one of your largest member 

 companies. Said he, "Mr. Babbitt, the irresistible logic of the 

 Dimension Stock Program demands that hardwood lumber opera- 

 tions shall not only transfer the bulk of their operations to the pro- 

 duction of standardized dimension stock, but thej' must go further. 

 They must proceed to manufacture the most common units used in 

 wood fabricating plants, and ship these units ready for assembly 

 and finish." Little need be added to this remarkable forecast, 

 except to point out some of the more important byproducts of such 

 an industrial evolution — or shall we say revolution? 



From an economic point of view, I believe I have said enough 

 about the possibilities of high conservation of the forest crop. 

 These sawmill centers both hard and soft wood mills, will also be 

 centers for the production of wood distillates, paper pulp, wood in- 

 sulate and similar conservation products, which no doubt will be 

 cooperatively produced. 



Important as all these are, even more important is the fact that 

 the realization of such a program of conservation will forthwith put 

 the hardwood lumber industry on a continuous production basis. It 

 means that with continuous production there will be a steady 

 liquidation of overhead. Logging operations will cease to be a 

 risky adventure, sinA will be controlled by a known, instead of a 

 hoped for market. 



A further economic gain will be in the stabilization of mill labor 

 by means of steady employment. Moreover, a very large amount of 

 labor will become available from the families of these employees. 

 In other words, each considerable hardwood operation would be the 

 home town of a stable and industrious population, where the highest 

 ideals of citizenship are most easily established. On the other hand, 

 to the same extent that these industrial centers are built up for the 

 production of these primary units will there be a corresponding 

 demoliilization of the urban labor which is now performing the 

 labor for this class of production in congested urban centers. 



President Harding, voicing the alarm of every student of soci- 

 ology, has rejieatedly called attention to the necessity of bringing 

 about a redistribution of the population of this country. Not only 

 the numbers, hut the kind and character of these congested pop- 

 ulations, contribute to the gravity of this menace. By its very 

 nature, the steel industry will always be productive of dangerous 

 congestion. But the wood industry, steel's chief competitor for 

 labor, fares best beside the saw mill and in the shadow of the 

 forest from which its raw material comes. As a speaker pointed 

 out recently at a Congressional hearing, if one would look for the 

 maximum of average prosperity and solid citizenship, he will find 

 it where, as in the hill country of New England, barren as it seems, 

 most villages have comfortable wood working industries, flanked by 

 farms, with forest clad ridges round about. 



