12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Juno 10. 1917 



thrives as far north as Connecticut and a few are growing in Chi- 

 cago and along the north shore where they keep alive but do not appear 

 vigorous. It likes deep, loose, rich soil, which it fails to find in the 

 vicinity of Chicago. 



Plantations of ginkgo trees in the country might have economic 

 value. The wood is of fair quality and if not examined too care- 

 fully it might pass for balm of gilead. Growth is rapid, but no more 

 rapid than cottonwood and several other species native of the United 

 States, and there seems to be little likelihood that ginkgo will ever 

 be imported in this country except for ornamental planting. 



A Definite Obligation 



SOUTHERN LUMBER SHIPl'ERS can congratulate themselves 

 on the fact that they approached the present business situation 

 prepared. The outstanding development has been the effect ujion 

 rail shipping of the tremendous increase over normal volume handled 

 by the roads. In fact, so severe has been the strain on carriers' 

 facilities that they have not been willing or able to retire even for 

 repairs the great quantity of equipment that needs it.- The result is 

 depreciated rolling stock and motive power and overworked trackage 

 — making slower movement of freight inevitable. With embargoes, 

 congestion and other inrtuenc»6 this has brought on the disastrous 

 car shortage. 



So for poorer service the roads ' <lcmand for fifteen per cent in- 

 crease in rates is doubly unfair — at least it will appear so until the 

 roads have proven they are entitled to it. 



That is the cause — now as to the remedy. Southern hardwood men 

 are back of one of the strongest of lumber associations — the Southern 

 Hardwood Traffic Association. Due to the organized and intelligent 

 work of this bunch of scrappers there is a very good chance that the 

 fifteen per cent petition will not be granted on southern hardwood 

 lumber. 



But the fight must not end there — in fact winning that argument 

 would impose an added weight to the southern shippers' moral obli- 

 gation to load bigger and still bigger loads; to crowd the time of 

 loading and unloading to the utmost. Memphis lumbermen were 

 given some interesting figures lately from (iractical men who showed 

 that loading to fidl cajiacity in all industries would result in sup[ily- 

 ing more than enough cars. The thing is, though, that it must be 

 done and not merely talked of. 



Charity Begins at Home 



THE UNITED STATES HAS SENT A RAILROAD' COMMIS- 

 SION to Russia to untangle the transportation trbubles there and 

 set the wheels in motion. That has been pointed out as the most ur- 

 gent need in Rufsia at present. Meanwhile, railroad embargoes con- 

 tinue in our own country and shijink'nts are held up and delayed in 

 many regions until it has become almost impossible to carry on some 

 lines of business. The remedy has not been found or apjilied here. 

 Lumbermen, in particular, are suffering from lack of shipping facili- 

 ties, and the out]iut of mills has been curtailed. The condition has 

 continued for a long time and nothing indicates that it will not 

 continue. 



The dispatch of a eciiiunission to Russia under Stephens to put the 

 railroails to work is only half of our duty. The other half will con- 

 sist of a similar connuission in this country to straighten out our 

 railroails and obtain better results. This is as essential to winning 

 the war as to molnlizc the Russian railroads; perhaps it is more so, 

 for the Americans are in earnest about it, and the Russians seem to be 

 half hearted and about ready to lie down. 



Our railroads should be doing better work than they are doing. 

 They either cannot or will not carry the freight that is offered them. 

 If they cannot, they should be helped; if they will not, they should 

 be jiunished. At any raie, it would seem that the American shippers, 

 who are ready and willing to do everything in their power for their 

 couTitry and for business, should have at least as much help as we are 

 offering the Russians. If our cars can be started and kept going, it 

 ought to be done. .-^ ]iretty strong belief is gaining ground that our 

 railroails are not doing their best to deliver freight promiitly. It may 

 be unju.st to accuse them of deliberately hindering shipments iu order 



to force a rate increase, but that belief is by no means absent from 

 the minds of a good many people. Somehow, no remedy for the bad 

 transportation conditions has been found and applied here, and it 

 seems ijeculiar that a commission should be sent to Europe to cure 

 Russia's transportation troubles when we have not cured those of 

 our country. 



Selling on Percentage Basis 



THE DESIRE TO PREVENT EXCESJSIVE PROFITS when 

 large sales of war supplies are made to the government is re- 

 sponsible for the proposal in some quarters that the seller be allowed 

 a certain and moderate per cent above cost, and no more. That plan 

 has met with favor ; but a little experience has shown its weak places. 

 The trouble consists in keeping the cost within bounds. If a contrac- 

 tor is to receive ten per cent more than cost for what he sells, what 

 does he care for cost? The higher the cost, the more his profit. Ten 

 per cent above a cost of $10,000 nets the seller $1,000, while ten 

 per cent above a cost of $15,000 nets him $1,500. It is to his interest 

 to run the cost up. 



This is not a theoretical objection to the percentage basis of profit 

 paying. Cases have already been brought to light since the beginning 

 of the war where contractors have paid seven dollars a day wages 

 where the wage might have been four dollars. They made money by 

 it, if their profit on the high priced man was seventy cents a day, and 

 on the low man only forty cents. The same rule holds in buying 

 material. There is every inducement to gouge the government, on 

 the profit basis. The government pays the cost and also the profit 

 which goes into the contractor 's pocket, and the contractor faces 

 no risk whatever of loss, so long as he is able to finance the operation 

 and deliver the goods. 



The specifications and terms sent out by the government, for pur- 

 chases of lumber, do not propose payment on a basis of a certain per 

 cent above cost. That proposition comes from other sources, and 

 perhaps the wish is father to the thought. The government's call is 

 for straight bids. 



Something About Bird Nests 



A CRITIC OF THE WOODEN SHIP PROGRAM recently bol- 

 stered his opposition with the argument that ' ' birds are building 

 their nests in the trees from which the ship tindjor must be cut." 



Suppose that is true; the bird nests do not hurt the trees. But the 

 point of the criticism evidently was that the period of conversion 

 between the standing tree and the completed shij) is too long for the 

 present emergency, and that delay will result if the attempt is made 

 to build ships from trees which have not yet been sent to the sawmill. 



Possibly the criticism is well taken, but it is open to question. Dur- 

 ing the war of 1812 birds built nests in trees on the shore of Lake Erie 

 ia northern Ohio, and within ninety days the trees had been cut, hewed 

 liy hand, ships had been built of them, and the victory of Lake Erie 

 had been won. People do not remember nuich about the bird 

 nests, but they do remember the victory won with ships which were 

 growing in the green woods three months before. 



Are American lumbermen any slower than they were when Perry 

 built his ships? He did not have so much as a single sawmill, yet 

 he came in on the home-stretch with as clean a victory as any ships 

 ever won; in spite of the bird nests which were wndisturbed ninety 

 days before. The fact was, he thought less about difliculties than 

 of the work in hand. If he and his officers had spent several weeks 

 powwowing about obstacles, there would have been no battle of 

 Lake Erie. 



Facilities 'for getting out timber in large quantities and in small 

 time are a thousand fold greater today than when Perry built his 

 fleet. Means of sawing, cutting, seasoning, and transporting are 

 infinitely greater. What, then, is lacking? Has the i)oet sized uji the 

 situation in these lines? 



We count, yet cast our strength away. 

 Our aihniral with the soul of Drake 

 Would break the fleets of hell today. 



