HARDWOOD RECORD 



NovriiilKT 10, 1111^ 



suited in a threat by the shipping board that it would take over 

 on less than a week's notice certain lumber mills in the Houtli 

 unless shipments of yellow pine ship stock were speeded up. That 

 threat brought a distinguished committee to Washington, including 

 the most rejiresentative and prominent men in the south<'rn jiiue 

 industry, who s])ent a day or two in coiiferenii' with tlic sliipping 

 board and otlier ofticials. 



The conferences closed with the Understanding that the lumber- 

 men would hasten the delivery of '2r>0 ship schedules by December 

 ;!1, 1918, if iiossible; that an average price of $40 per 1000 feet 

 would be iiaiil for the material in the first 100 shi|>s as in the 

 second 150; that ship schedules will be split U]) among two or more 

 mills where certain mills can cut some items in tlie schedule and 

 not others; that planking and other ship material must be lieart- 

 wood where two surfaces toucli each other; that the heartwood 

 items will bo paid for at increased item prices; that shipments of 

 pine ship stock if possible will approximate the 100 carloads per 

 day needed instead of the .jO or 60 now being shipiied, according 

 to W. J. Haynen, assistant purchasing agent for the Emergency 

 Fleet Corporation of the shipping l)oard; that further changes in 

 the ship schedule will not be made unless askcil for by the lumber- 

 men; that orders and deliveries will be systematized and redis- 

 tributed; that ship stock will have priority in cutting and in sliip- 

 ment. 



W. il. Hitter of tlio \V. ,\I. Kittcr I^umber Company, ('oliiml)us, 

 O., was in Washington recently witli the lumber committee of 

 which he is a member. He reported that he found orders for 

 hardwood ship schedules being taken care of satisfactorily by the 

 individual mills, wholesalers and other organizations with which 

 they were placed because the shipping board purchasing officials 

 and the Southern Harilwood Emergency Bureau could not agree 

 about the price of hardwood ship stock. Mr. Ritter intimated that 

 it is difficult for the hardwood bureau to get government business 

 because much of the government 's demands for hardwood arc for 

 very special products. Some of them are manufactured and re- 

 manufactured. 



Suggest New Wooden Ship Design 

 However, it is thouglit there may be opportunity for the sale of 

 more hardwood ship stock in the scheme hatched by W. H. Sulli- 

 van of the (ireat Southern Lumber Company, and the Gilder.sleeve 

 Shipbuilding Company of (Jilderslceve, Conn. Plans are being pre- 

 pared in accordance with this scheme for the construction of a 

 standardized wooden ship of 2000 tons which will be submitted to 

 the shipping board with the statement that the materials, yellow 

 pine and hardwood, for such ships can be furnished by the lumber 

 industry at the rate of 500 ships per year. 



According to information obtained at the shipping board, the 

 wooden ship building program is only '20 ships behind schedule 

 time, compared with 85 ships behind schedule time when Hurley 

 and Admiral Ca]>ps succeeded William Denman and Gen. (ioethals. 

 American shipbuilding has increased twelvefold during the year, 

 it is declared, and Mr. Hnrlej' announces that 1,000,000 tons of 

 shipping will be constructed before March 1. 



Ship inspectors have been rejecting certain ship stock which did 

 not come up to specifications of the shipping board, although the 

 stock passed the trade association insj)ectors. Aside from this the 

 only definite thing heanl of late out of way in connection with 

 government war lumber business is that a certain quantity of 

 railroad ties were purchased for preliminary construction work 

 at Hog Island, Pa., where the government is to have a big fabri- 

 cated steel shipbuilding plant con.structed by the American Inter- 

 national Company. Certain ties, it is understood, were purchased 

 on the open market in order to hasten delivery and some were 

 not of very good quality, .said to be mi.xed oak ties, but shipping 

 board purchasing officers say that none of the ties purchased fell 

 below specifications, although specifications may have been some- 

 what low. 



Lumbermen Make Great Record 

 The lumber committee placed orders for a lot of switch ties in 

 pine and for some sap pine ties, it is said, which were for temporary 



u.se at Hog Island. The Georgia-Florida Yellow Pine Emergency 

 Bureau received orders for 30,000 ties for the same .job. It also got 

 (■rders for thousands of piles for Hog Island, at H cents apiece, the 

 contr.'ict for idling having been withdr.iwii from local jobbers at 

 riiilailelpliia. 



The lumber committee realizes that it is human and not free 

 from error occasionally, but with pride the fact is jiointed out 

 that -18,000 carloads of lumber have been shipped for government 

 purposes on orders placed through the committee. It is paradoxic:! 1 

 but true, say members of the committee, that the lumbermen ha\. 

 gotten more out of the government orders and the government h.i- 

 still gotten its lumber cheaper, than if the committee had not bi . i. 

 in existence. This has been due to the elimination of middlenn n 

 and the prevention of cut throat comjietitiou and |irice cutting, i: 

 is said, and at the same time lias proiluced |iriim|>t ileliveries and 

 generally satisfactory results. 



Will Base Price on Accurate Cost Figures 



A numljcr of tlie lumbermen had a hearing afterwards with the 

 federal trade commission about the investigation of the cost of 

 [iroducfion of lumber. The lumbermen had withdrawn their wai 

 crs of hearing and there was a discussion of the factors enteriu. 

 into the cost of production, in the commission's investigatioi 

 Some points of difference developed. It w;is learned that the coni 

 mission has made a preliminary rcjiort to the shipping board on 

 lumber production cost so far as ship stock is concerned. 



Furflier government control of prices was voted for in a referen 

 dum of members of the national chamber of commerce which n- 

 suited in adoption of the rejiort of a special committee on tin' 

 question on which the lumber industry was represented by C. S. 

 Keith, president of the Southern Pine A.ssociation. Additional 

 railroad legislation along the line of regulating the issuance ot 

 securities and federal incorjioration of railroads has also been voted 

 for by the chamber's members in a referendum based on the report 

 of a committee on which R. H, Dowiiuiun represented the lunibi'i- 

 industry. 



May Curtail Furniture Industry 



Following the declaration that business enterprises shoiild In- 

 .judged by whether they tend to promote victory in the war, the 

 Council of National Defense has taken up a stud.v of the industries 

 of the countrv with a view to deciding which are nonessential and 

 should therefore be curtailed to some extent or transformed inti' 

 more essential production. One of the industries to be curtailed 

 or diverted into other lines of production, it is reported, is the 

 furniture industr.v, which will be expected to furnish airplane 

 woodwork and other war equiimient.' The cnnsumpticin of furnituri- 

 is said to have been curtailed. 



Lumbermen are hopeful tliat they will get a whack at tin' 

 possible new field of government business or semi-goverumeut 

 business opened uj) b.v the report of the committee on housing oC 

 the Council of National Defense. The committee's rei)ort, which 

 has been approved b.v the president, recommends the creation of a 

 special housing commission to cooperate with communities where 

 housing facilities are needed for workmen on government ship- 

 building and war contracts. Under the plan ap])roved the govern 

 ment would [irovide funds for the construction of such houses. 



New Wood Uses Revealed 

 Other new fields of government business are opening u|>. Hun 

 dreds of millions of feet of lumber will be required for coUapsibh' 

 or portable houses for American militar.v uses iu Europe. ^Thc 

 armv wants 15,000,000 feet immediately for this purpose. Seventy 

 five million feet will be needed for hospitals alone. The navy 

 wants 250 collapsible buildings to cost $240,000, also for export. 

 Lumbermen sa.v tliat the stuff |)roduced "on the side" in cutting 

 ship schedules can be used in making portable houses. It is under- 

 .stood that sections or panels for the houses are to be made right 

 at the sawmills as is being done now at the Eastman-Gardiner 

 plant and the Long-Bell plant. The Burton Company has a con- 

 tract for a number of portable houses for the government, requir- 

 ing, it is estimated, .■?0, 000,000 feet. The buildings now being 



