22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



February 10, 1018 



commenced a liiindred years ago when every community began 

 building school houses and the cities founded universities, and now 

 when disastrous political upheavals appear to threaten some of the 

 great nations, we have no more to fear than the vaccinated man 

 has cause to fear in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. Tlie poison 

 of anarchy which is so fatal where tho masses are in dense ignor- 

 ance, loses its malignant power when it comes in contact with in- 

 telligence. Such changes as will come to tho political system of 

 tho United States will be peaceful, orderly, and beneficial; neither 

 too sudden nor too long delayed. What the people of this country 

 want and need they can get without clamor, tumult, or upheavals. 

 The rule of reason, knowledge, and common sense will continue 

 here, because an ample foundation has been laid, and the super- 

 structure can be remodeled from time to time as needed. "The 

 common sense of most will linld a fitful realm in awe." 



Business Has Right of Way 



BOYS' SLEDS AND ICE SKATES have not sold well this win- 

 ter, according to accounts, though the season has been such as 

 to encourage their use; but automobiles and accessories, particularly 

 those belonging in the business class of machines, have sold right 

 along, though the weather has not been such as to encourage their 

 use. The contrast between sales of children's toys and of men's 

 business apparatus does not prove that children do not want play- 

 things, but it does mean that men must carry on business and that 

 business must come before pleasure. 



The point is important because it indicates a tendency. The 

 stress of war has caused a falling off in the purchase of luxuries 

 and nonessentials, and this tendency seems to be quite general, and 

 it will probably continue until the war ends and business has re- 

 turned to its old channels, years hence, perhaps. 



This tendency is full of promise to the lumbcrmau. Lumber 

 and the manufactures of lumber are necessities, and those who 

 need them will buy them. They may postpone for a time, but all 

 the time the needs will accumulate and must finally be supplied. 

 Under the stress of circumstances, the individual may get along 

 without jewelry, silks, fine paintings, costly rugs, de luxe books, 

 and a lot of things of that class; but the farmers must build 

 fences, silos, and barns; the factory must have floors; the rail- 

 road must renew its crossties and trestles; the store must extend 

 its tables and shelving; the manufacturer cannot get along with- 

 out boxes and crates, and so on along the whole line — the man who 

 needs wood needs it for business purposes and he will buy it. 

 This is the encouraging feature of the situation and places the 

 lumberman in a favorable position in the business world. 



The Cut-over Land Problem 



EVEEY TIMBERED REGION where lumber operations are car- 

 ried on has a cut-over land problem, or ought to have. The 

 problems are not the same in all places. Where the soil is suf- 

 ficiently fertile for agriculture and is not too rough, the problem 

 consists in clearing the land and making farms of it as soon as 

 possible after the timber has been removed. That is the problem 

 with much of the timber lands of the southern states and of the 

 northern Pacific coast. Where the land is good, no one thinks of 

 bringing on another stand of timber after the first has been re- 

 moved. 



Where the land is too rough for farming or too poor for profitable 

 agriculture, the problem is, or ought to be, the growth of another 

 forest. That is the status now in New England and in much of 

 the Southern Appalachian region. The deciding factor is the re- 

 turn from a future crop or crops. If farming promises larger profits 

 than can be expected from another crop of timber, the laud should 

 be cleared and devoted to agriculture, otherwise, it should grow 

 timber again. Formerly the lumberman seldom bothered with the 

 land. He took the timber and abandoned the tract. If it was fer- 

 tile, it usually passed into the possession of farmers who cleared it. 

 Many of the early farms were cleared in that way. 



The custom of abandoning cut-over land is about out of date. 

 The owner does not wish to do it. He regards it as an asset that 



should be made tho most of, particularly if it is suitable for agricul- 

 ture. Not quite so much interest is shown in cut-over land that is 

 suitable for timber growing only. That is l)ecause it is not so 

 valuable, or so saleable. It promises no profit during a pretty long 

 period. The movements, societies, and associations that concern 

 themselves with cut-over land are practically all interested in land 

 suitable for farms. If cut-over land that is fit only for forest is 

 looked after at all, it is usually done by large companies that can 

 afford to wait, or by municipalities, states, or the nation that can 

 wait still longer. 



Thus it is that a person so often hears of associations or com- 

 panies that are organized to handle cut-over land good for farms, 

 and seldom hears a voice raised in behalf of that other class of 

 cut-over land which is suitable for growing timber only. It is a 

 onesided affair, yet it should not be so. It is as necessary that 

 the people of the future shall have timber as that they shall have 

 farm crops. Both should be provided for, and no one should imagine 

 that the cut-over land problem has been solved when the fertile 

 areas only have been looked after. The rocky, sandy, swampy, or 

 steep land that will produce trees must be considered as a factor 

 in the jjroblem, and no proper solution can l)e reached unless it is 

 considered. 



The Outcome Is Certain 



No ONE CAN CONVINCINGLY ARGTJE that the hardwood ih- 

 (lustry has not been held back to a deplorable extent by lack 

 of unity in its ranks. Singleness of purpose with resulting bene- 

 fits to everj'body concerned has been rendered impossible not be- 

 cause there existed differing opinions on matters of basic principle 

 but because of factional dickerings which kept association 

 polities in the foreground and industrial advancement in secondary 

 position. Barriers were artificially created and maintained and, 

 interposed between the factional divisions, they served to effec- 

 tually prevent the working out of any plan for unification of effort 

 wiiich would of necessity result in maximum progress. 



The trade as a whole has been for some tinie awake to the neces- 

 sity for a change but has not been able to clearly see the road to 

 achievement. It has made a number of unsuccessful attempts to 

 bring itself out of the bonds of politics but has always made the 

 mistake of being so engrossed with the task of climbing over the 

 wall at the highest point that it hasn't seen the gate swinging wide 

 open at the end. 



Seemingly having come to a rather sudden realization that it 

 wa* impossible to scale the wall by mere brute strength methods, 

 the trade has switched to the policy of the man who rather than 

 have an argument with an express train steps quietly off the track 

 and lets it pass, then resumes his way. The factional barrier is 

 being neither scaled nor reduced by bombardment. The new 

 scheme of things merely does not recognize its existence and the 

 plan worked on is so simple and so sensible and so obviously for 

 the good of the hardwood industry that it cannot fail in its pur- 

 pose. The whole thing is merely a spontaneous and simultaneously 

 expressed desire to see the hardwood industry unified in the time 

 of greatest need. The desire is fathered by necessity and its most 

 visible result so far, the new hardwood association, may in itself 

 be merely a means to an end as may be the officially expressed 

 desire for one association that was uttered at the Cincinnati con- 

 vention. For no association will have further significance than as 

 an instrument to carry on toward the desired goal — co-ordinated 

 action. The industry will inevitably eliminate any influence which 

 tends to hold back the movement toward modernization. 



There are so many advantages attached to the practice of grading 

 lumber at the mill before it is piled on the yard that there is not 

 much excuse for doing it otherwise, eveh though it may be necessary 

 to reinspect when loading out for shipment. 



Some people may still claim that advertising is a waste of money, 

 but even they will have to admit advertising campaigns have proven 

 effective in putting a number of our native woods before the public 

 in a light that means more business and better values. 



