i8b 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 10, 1917 



enemy eouiitiics, when the sliipments are covered by railroad or 

 ocean bill of lading marked "for export" and dated up to Decem- 

 ber 1. The articles include calipers, wood alcohol, quebracho and 

 chestnut extracts, etc. 



A hundred million dollar appropriation for government freight 

 ears to relieve the freight congestion in this country is the proposal 

 submitted by Senator Reed of Missouri to Congress. Tlie senator 

 fears that the transportation system of the country will break down 

 unless some such extraordinary step is taken by the government. 

 Naturally the lumbermen are in favor of the government freight 

 car program, which they believe will cause a big demand for 

 timber and lumber. Plans for a standard wooden freight car have 

 already been submitted to the government on behalf of certain 

 lumber interests. 



The Box Men Active 



More hardwood possibilities are seen in plans that are under way 

 for mobilizing the box industry of the country. F. C. Gififord, secre- 

 tary of the Xational Association of Box Manufacturers, D. L. 

 Goodwillie of Chicago and other box manufacturers have been here 

 Talking with the lumber committee, government officials, and others 

 regarding the organization of a committee or emergency bureau 

 representing the box industry, to help the government. It is stated 

 in behalf of the box people that government box specifications are 

 impossible and should be modified, simplified and standardized, so 

 that every possible wood could be used and every possible box fac- 

 tory employed in making boxes for carrying shells, cartridges, rifles, 

 and other arms, equipment, food, materials and supplies of all 

 kinds. It is predicted by some box men that 25 or 50 per cent of 

 the wooden box production of the country will be required to fill 

 government war needs. Billions of feet of lumber will be needed 

 for these boxes. The new specifications for ordnance packing 

 boxes do not please liox manufacturers, who say that their details 

 are impractieable. 



The War Department is reported to have decided that all pur- 

 chases of lumber for cantonment and other military construction 

 work must be ordered through the Cantonment Division here, which 

 would stop considerable purchases that have been made in the 

 field by depot quartermasters and other army purchasing officers 

 with the result that it is claimed that market conditions have Ueen 

 upset and prices run up to high levels. 



The department has opened bids for collapsible and portable 

 houses, hospitals and other buildings for the American armies 

 abroad. Officers of various lumber trade emergency bureaus are in 

 conference with representatives of the Engineer Supply Depot 

 here, which is handling this business. The National Wholesale 

 Sash and Door Association hopes to supply the sash and doors for 

 the portable buildings. 



This association, by the way, recently sent G. L. Curtis of Clinton, 

 Iowa: J. E. Morgan of Oshkosh, Wis., and A. J. Siegel of St. Louis 

 to Washington as a committee to see about a rumored government 

 policy directed against individual building operations as unessen- 

 tial. The committee reported that there had been no decision to 

 that effect, but there is a general feeling among people here who 

 are in touch with the government war plans and preparations that a 

 great many industrial operations and activities that are essential 

 and normal in peace time are not unlikely to be directed into other 

 lines by co-operation between the industries and the war authori- 

 ties of the government. 



A rei)ort on employers' housing in the United States recently 

 issued by the bureau of labor statistics shows that wood is the 

 favorite building material for this purpose. In the case of the 

 companies and industries whose housing operations were covered 

 by the investigations reported upon, 89.8 per cent of the employes' 

 "coniimlsory " houses were of frame, 6.1 per cent of brick and 4.1 

 per cent of other construction. 



The present government program of building and requisitioning 

 .ships in the building yards calling for 1,409 vessels of 8,363,000 

 tons deadweight capacity to be completed by December 31, 1918, 

 calls for 375 wooden ships of 1,330,000 tons deadweight capacity 

 and .'58 composite ships of 207,000 tons deadweight capacity. The 



latter vessels are steel framed and wooden planking sides, bottom 

 and decks. 



In order to prevent delay in transcontinental shipment of 30,000,- 

 000 feet of fir timber for wooden .ships building on the Atlantic 

 coast for the government, it is reported that the officials have 

 decided to pay the full commercial freight rate of $25 per 1,000 

 feet approximately, rather than take chances on confusion and 

 difficulty incident to routing by certain lines at the special land 

 grant rate of .$17 per 1,000 feet to which I'ncle Sam is entitled. 

 The decision means an addition of $240,000 to the freight bill on this 

 material. 



The Question of Prices 

 'Prices paid by the government for lumber for cantonment ahd 

 for other construction purposes are to remain unchanged from De- 

 cember 10 to January 10, if the recommendation of R. H. Downman 

 is adopted by government authorities, as it is believed it will be. 

 The understanding of lumbermen is that the Federal Trade Com- 

 mission will determine whether any increase in cost of production 

 during the month indicated above occurs, as compared with the 

 production cost average for September, October and November and 

 the prices will be readjusted accordingh'. The same procedure will 

 be followed as to government prices to be paid during the month, 

 February 10 to March 10. The prices to be paid after March 10 

 will be the result of a new deal to be made later on. By that time 

 there may be new legislation on the statute books authorizing the 

 fixing of prices of a great many commodities during the war by 

 executive order. There is said to be no authority now for fixing 

 prices to Jhe public, except of coal and food, although prices of 

 some metals to the consumer have been fixed by agreement between 

 the producers and the president. The latter is to press for legisla- 

 tion greatly broadening the authority of the executive branch of 

 the government over prices. 



Prices of lumber sold to the United States government and its 

 allies are to be fixed by government action, according to the present 

 understanding, but prices to the public may not be so fixed at pres- 

 ent. There has been some discussion of the policy of fixing prices 

 for the public, and some have thought that the president favored 

 such a plan, but officials of the War Industries Board, which is the 

 price fixing medium of the government, doubt whether it would be 

 practicable to fix prices to the public, buying as it does through 

 150,000 retail lumber yards. There is said to be a lack of necessary 

 data that would enable the government to act intelligently on the 

 question. 



However, the matter has been attracting considerable attention 

 in view of meetings here among a number of lumbermen, hearings 

 they have had before the Federal Trade Commission and conferences 

 with officials of the War Industries Board, all of which are prac- 

 tically coincident with President Wilson's annual address to Con- 

 gress, in which he declared that the law of supply and demand 

 has given way to the law of "unrestrained selfishness" and advo- 

 cated extension of the policy of government price fixing that has 

 been practiced as regards steel, copper, coal, etc., and particularly 

 suggested the commodities which the farmers of the country must 

 purchase as needing regulation as to prices. One of the most im- 

 portant of the commodities used by the farmers is lumber. 



The lumbermen here for these hearings, conferences and meetings 

 have been chiefly pine and fir manufacturers, but the principles or 

 propositions they have discussed with reference to the cost of pro- 

 duction have application to all branches of the lumber industry. 



Cost of Production 



At the hearing before the trade commission recently Gen. L. C. 

 Boyle, representing various lumbermen, spoke, as did C. S. Keith, 

 president of the Southern Pine Association, and representatives 

 of other groups, including W. H. Wood, of Birmingham, Ala., who 

 said that offices will be opened here by the Alabama-Mississippi 

 Emergency Bureau, with a view to sharing in the government busi- 

 ness. 



Lumbermen said after the hearing that it was satisfactory, al- 

 though it is not understood that there was complete harmony be- 

 tween the lumbermen and the commission or its experts on certain 



