Oitubor LTi. HUT 



Lumber ISleivs from Washington 



Good Prospect for Centralized Government Purchases 

 The liimlier purclmse and building construction work of the War 

 Department, it is reported, has been centered in the division of which 

 Brigadier General I. W. LitteU, the quartermaster officer who had 

 charge of constructing the army cantonment, is chief. This action 

 reported to liave been taken by Secret;iry of War Baker is approved 

 generally by lumber manufacturers who have been busy here on war 

 work for some time, because it is believed it will result in simplifying 

 the method for lumbermen to deal witli the War Department. 



It would stop the practice, it is said, of army purchasing officers iu 

 various branches of the service buying lumber in competition with 

 each other, which has resulted in very high prices being paid by the 

 government in some cases. It would consolidate under one head build- 

 ing cperations that have been distributed among the quartermaster 

 department, which erected the cantonments and army camps; the signal 

 corps, which has been building aviation schools, camps, fields and store- 

 houses in many jiarts jf the country; the ordnance bureau, whicli has 

 been doing some building in connection with the artillery branch of 

 the service, and the engineer corps, which is concerned in the construc- 

 tion of fortifications, storehouses, certain wharves, etc., in this country, 

 as well as military construction work with the United States army in 

 France. Ttie last class of work, it is thought, however, may be left with 

 the engineer corps. 



The reorganization of the army construction bureau has been marked 

 by tlie departure of Major Hamilton of the reserve corps, who had 

 charge of certain lumber purchases for cantonment construction under 

 Gen. (then Col.) LitteU. Major Hamilton favored large lumber pur- 

 chases of local lumbermen on the open market instead of buying direct 

 from the manufacturers through the committee on lumber, and he fre- 

 quently cla.shed with members of that committee and other lumbermen. 

 Major Hamilton is reported to have become purchasing officer for the 

 American International Shipbuilding Corjioration, which is to make 

 fabricated steel ships for the government. 



Gen. LitteU is a strong believer in doing business through the 

 lumber committee and the lumber trade emergency bureaus, and some 

 of the latter, which have not had much government business, hope 

 to receive better treatment from him than they have had from some 

 of the other purchasing officers of the government. It is thought, for 

 instance, in some quarters that there is room for budding up a big 

 government business with hardwood emergency bureaus. Some hard- 

 wood lumbermen feel quite badly because they say their organization 

 has been discriminated against by the shipping board, which on the 

 other hand refuses to buy pine and fir ship stock except from emer- 

 gency bureaus representing these trades. 



There would be still more opportunity for the trade bureaus to do 

 business systematically with the government if all the government 

 emergency construction work were centralized under Gen. LitteU and 

 if all the government purchases of lumber were centralized under one 

 [■urchasing agency. However, it is doubted if the former of these 



"tingencies will occur, and certain government departments never 



ive gotten into the joint purchasing scheme. 



The Na\'y Department is one of these, but there are reports that it 

 soon wUl be working in full accord with the joint purchasing agency 

 of the war industries board. Council of National Defense. Recently 

 confusion was created by the Navy Department going upon the market 

 for some 20,000,000 feet of lumber and timber, hardwood and soft- 

 wood, much of it like that commandeered by the Emergency Fleet 

 •^'orporation for wooden shipbuilding. This apparent conflict, it is 

 understood, is being smoothed out by government officers with the 

 assistance and cooperation of the Council of National Defense and 

 the lumbermen. The understanding is that whichever branch of the 

 service needs the stuff most will get it first. 



The priority committee of the war industries board, CouneU of 

 National Defense, has been created for that purpose, and Mr. Demsey 

 of the Long Bell Lumber Company, secretary of the committee, will 

 try to see that everybody gets a square deal. The navy wants the 



stuff it is now on the market for, it is reported, to lay aside in navy 

 yards for use as required later. The shipping board has emergency 

 need for ship stock immediately. The navy proposition, it is said, 

 is not good policy any more than was the plan proposed in the War 

 Department to establish a big government storage yard at Mobile, 

 Ala., to stack up quantities of timber for possible use in Franco at 

 an indefinitely later date. 



Several of the lumber trade emergency bureaus have proposed 

 reduced jirices for cantonment stock for the month October H to 

 November 10. There has been an average reduction of 1.25 per 1,000 

 feet on lumber furnished by the Southern Pine Bureau for this purpose, 

 and it is reported that that price has been met by certain other 

 bureaus, although some have refused to meet it. The reduced prices 

 are understood to have been approved by the lumber committee and 

 the War Department. Reductions on some items have been as much 

 as $i or ^'j per 1,000 feet. The general rule is to follow the com- 

 mercial market. 



Wood Indispensable to Government 



Wood as a construction material has been approved by the govern- 

 ment not only in the case of the cantonments- — it has ordered nearly 

 10,000,000 feet of lumber for the construction of a big frame struc- 

 ture at Washington to accommodate the army bureaus that have been 

 squeezed oufe of the War Department building. The budding will 

 have 1,000,000 feet of floor space, it is understood. The government 

 is also building here of wood buildings for the Council of National 

 Defense and other branches of the war service. 



It is reported that the sixteen national guard camps are to be 

 increased to the full size of the national army cantonments. If so, 

 there will be orders for fifteen or twenty million more feet for each 

 camp. 



The Douglas Fir Emergency Bureau reports having receiveil orders 

 for nearly 500,000,000 feet of lumber for wooden ships, cantonments. 

 Hog Island, etc., including 41,000,000 feet of Douglas fir airplane 

 stock for several of the anti-German governments, at $55 per 1,000 

 feet f . 0. b. mill, and 117,000,000 feet of spruce aircraft stock, for 

 the American and other allied governments. 



The hardwood and hemlock bureaus are said to have received orders 

 for about 75,000,000 feet of lumber from the government for war 

 purposes, the Southern Pine Bureau for perhaps 325,000,000, the North 

 Carolina bureau for over 200,000,000 feet and the Georgia-Florida 

 bureau for a large quantity. 



Buying Hardvyood Schedules Below Maximum Figures 

 Hardwood ship schedules for the vessels that are being built for 

 the United States Shipping Board, it is reported, luive been ordered 

 of various lumbermen at prices ranging from $<38 to $8G per 1000 feet. 

 The shipping board, through the Emergency Fleet Corporation, is 

 understood to have fixed a maximum price of $90 per 1000 feet it 

 would pay for hardwood ship schedules. This was after the Southern 

 Hardwood Emergency Bureau did not reduce its price on hardwood 

 ship schedules below $100 per 1000 feet for all except one stick, 

 which was quoted on the basis of $150 per 1000 feet, which prices 

 were agreed upon by the committee representing the hardwood emer- 

 gency bureau and were deemed reasonable by the lumber committee, 

 Council of National Defense. 



Having fixed the maximum price of $90 per 1000 feet for hardwood 

 schedules, the fleet corporation, it is said, has never had to pay that 

 much. Whether it will be projiosed later that the jirices now agreed 

 upon between the corjioration and many hardwood hewers, wholesale 

 and retail dealers, small mills and other individual concerns with 

 whom it has placed orders for hardwood ship schedules, be increased 

 as was done in the case of yellow pine ship schedules is not known. 



F. K. Paxton, assistant purchasing agent of the fleet corporation, 

 says that there is no change in the policy that has been adopted of 

 purchasing hardwood schedules from individual concerns instead of 

 from the Southern Hardwood Emergency Bureau. However, the 



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