May 25, 1917 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



General food provisions have averaged from 75 to 200 per cent 

 higher, notably beans from $2.80 to $7.50, flour $4.50 to $9.30 and up, 

 potatoes 60e to $2.00, and so on. 



You are all familiar with the increased labor costs. In the woods 

 in two years, about 100 per cent and with at least 25 per cent less 

 efficiency, the average extra costs running around $4.00 per thousand 

 feet. At the lumber plants labor has gone up about 50 per cent — 

 skilled help 10 to 15 per cent. 



If we are to hold our own, maintaining values at a level commen- 

 surate with those that we must secure in order to show a fair value 

 for our stunipage with added costs of operation, taxes, interest, depre- 

 ciation, overhead charges, and last but not least, the risk of the ele- 

 ments, destroying in many instances millions of feet of timber by the 

 ravages of wind and fire, we have indeed a problem, the solution of 

 which will put to the test our best efforts and our most intelligent 

 co-operation. There must also be a better Hnderstanding of the oppos- 

 ing forces that are sure to compel our attention, once we return to a 

 more normal level of business conditions. Temporary advantages 

 such as we are now enjoying, cannot be made enduring without a 

 broader and more liberal intercourse and a more confiding and less 

 restricted understanding as between the widely diversified interests 

 of our industry. The weaknesses that disrupt closer relations between 

 the various elements of so great and vast an undertaking must be 

 eliminated root and stem, and there must come an harmonious blend- 

 ing of all these elements. 



Willows are weak but they bind the fagot. There is mighty little 

 strength in a single unit or of many units acting without the singleness 

 of purpose that characterizes the success of any project or undertak- 

 ing. Harmoniously blended in unison and of one accord, they securely 

 , weave their great influence throughout the webb and woof of our com- 

 mercial life and firmly bind the object of our efforts with irresistible 

 . and irrepre'^sible solidity. 



Of the many splendid opportunities that present themselves for our 

 careful thought and consideration, as offering inducements to our bet- 

 ter conception and understanding of these opportunities, witness the 

 recent return of a world-wide demand for wooden ships — of a type 

 long since discarded but now deemed to be useful again since the de- 

 mand for tonnage is so much greater than the supply. On both the 

 Atlantic and Pacific coasts, shipwrights who learned their trade a gen- 

 eration ago have come back to work with mallet and adze, trimming 

 the frames of wooden ships. Who shall say that this resumption of 

 activity in this industry may not foretell a long and useful career for 

 wooden ships, and the amount of lumber required in this new channel 

 is beyond our conception, and is bound to have its effect on aU kinds 

 of lumber values. 



In recent years, the new type of wooden block pavement, made of 

 creosoted wood, has found a place as a practical utility for purposes 

 of serving a public need for a better street pavement. There has been 

 some concerted effect on the part of manufacturers of lumber here 

 and there, to create a favorable public sentiment for this useful mate- 

 rial, but it has not gone far enough ; it has not penetrated beyond the 

 ephemeral popularity of a new product, and the real value of its suit- 

 ability has not been revealed to the la.yman who needs to know facts 

 before he becomes thoroughly interested. This also furnishes food for 

 thought for the future in considering the demand for common lumber. 



In the twentieth century demand for fireproof construction in build- 

 ings, there is open a field of great possibilities for us in educating 

 architects and engineers to the larger use of wood in the erection of a 

 type of slow-burning construction that answers to every practical de- 

 mand for the ideal fireproof building. Some effort has been expended 

 in the direction of educating the public to the excellence of this class 

 of buildings, but in this too we have not progressed as the exigencies 

 of the situation demand. 



Doubtful results have been attained in the substitution of steel for 

 wood in many types of cars and I am not so sure that railroad offi- 

 cials have not concluded to discontinue entirely, the use of steel in a 

 great many instances. Granting that obviously good reasons exist 

 why, in certain parts of car construction, steel is preferable to wood, 

 by the same token, wood should replace steel in other parts and it is 

 our duty to ascertain the facts and present them in a practical way for 



a more logical selection of materials that shall hereafter be used in 

 this work. There will shortly be an enormous amount of material 

 used for constructing new cars and repairs, to relieve the unprece- 

 dented shortage, and we are certainly entitled to our share of this 

 business. 



Many other examples of substitution of materials for wood and wood 

 products may easily occupy our valuable time in our efforts to get at 

 the facts pertaining to these substitutions. There are good and suffi- 

 cient reasons why concrete serves numerous and useful purposes to the 

 exclusion of wood ; but there are likewise correspondingly good and 

 valid reasons why wood should retain its safe estate in many instances, 

 where previously it has been misplaced without good cause. 



While we have had some information that the high costs of general 

 building material that have been in effect during the past year, and 

 the very recent talk of some slight advances on lumber as compared 

 with other commodities lumber comes in competition with in the build- 

 ing line, that it would affect and retard buUding in the larger cities, 

 particularly of a speculative character, flat-buUdings, the cheaper- 

 class of homes, etc., it is true only to a limited extent, and probably 

 in the larger cities it has affected trade as compared with a year ago 

 from 15 to 25 per cent, but this must not be given too much considera^ 

 tion as we have found in many instances that the increase has beei 

 most marked, for instance towns like Lorain, Ohio, several hundre< 

 per cent over a year ago, Youngstown — and Akron, where" industrial 

 coijcerns are building several thousand houses. In addition to that, 

 the tremendous amount of money in the rural districts and apparent 

 crop prospects will further stimulate and bring about further returns 

 in home deposits, the farming community, the smaller town com- 

 munities must have more money to buOd with now than ever before, 

 so that the year of 1917 should show as much if not a greater volume 

 of building than ever before, and when you consider the enormous num- 

 ber of new boats being built, for ocean service, lake service, and river 

 barges, for transportation of coal and other commodities, the amount 

 of lumber which the government will use for construction of barracks, 

 together with the increased mining necessarily taking timbers and 

 other lumber; the increased building of factories and enlarging of 

 others, in which to manufacture the many products formerly brought 

 here from Europe, which wUl also create an enormous demand for 

 crating material — the industry has every reason to look forward to a 

 greatly increased volume in shipments, and a materially less produc- 

 tion in all lines necessarily creating a shortage in the actual stock on 

 hand, as each month will show this year. 



In the marketing of our products there has been all too little real 

 sagacity shown, and unfortunately the sales end of our business has 

 not kept pace with the activity displayed in what may truthfully be 

 said to be twentieth century salesmanship. A dilatory consideration 

 of the need for more intelligent direction of this extremely important 

 department of our business, fully justifies criticism and censure, and 

 I am hopeful that a more intensive effort and a keener perception of 

 the need for improvement in this department may soon eventuate. 



The evolution of ideas defying traditional fallacies and replacing 

 ancient and timeworn customs with modern and down-to-the-minute 

 twelve-cylinder activity, promises the solution of our difficulties. 

 Events of the past few years have disclosed the urgent need for re- 

 forms and the stern necessity for the zealous pursuit of precepts that 

 make for the general betterment of the industry. Strength lies in 

 the fortifications against intrusion and invasion, and to secure such 

 strength we must forget personal aggrandizement and work for the 

 general betterment of our industrv as a whole. 



The sawmill man with a dry kiln can not only market his lum- 

 ber more promptly during the rainy season than the man who depends 

 upon air drying, but if he handles it right he can turn out lumber 

 in nicer shape, and he is always in a position to get rid of paying 

 freight on the moisture in only partly dried lumber. 



Good piling sticks are worth while on any lumber yard, and 

 since dry sticks are preferable to green ones, taking the trouble 

 to make good ones will do much to insure their being taken care 

 of and used after they have become dry. 



