Fetruory 25. 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



Occurrences at Washington Interesting to Lumbermen 



Personal Mention and the Activities of Various Boards and Committees 



Hardwood purchases for the army airplanes are reported to have 

 been put iu charge of H. K. S. Williams of H. Williams & Sons 

 of New York. One of Mr. Williams' first official acts was to issue 

 a call upon hardwood men for cherry lumber for airplane pro- 

 pellors. He wants it 8" wide and 8' long. 



Lieut. E. L. Ryerson, who has held a supervisory position here in 

 connection with hardwood matters under the Signal Corps, has 

 moved with various officials to Cleveland, where army airplane 

 contracts will be handled. 



Airplane propeller contracts have been received by the Bailey 

 and Maddox table companies, Jamestown, N. T. ; Hallet & Davis 

 and Hardman & Peck piano companies, Boston and New York, re- 

 spectively, and the Pacific Sash & Door Company, Los Angeles, Cal. 



According to B. P. Salmon of the National Service Bureau of the 

 Wholesale Sash and Door Association, that industry is prepared to 

 take on airplane contracts. It is very much up in the air just now 

 on account of rumors that the production of glass is to be cut in 

 half and the price doubled. 



Furniture factories are making a lot of bodies for army wagons 

 and trucks and doing other government war contract work to cost 

 $10,000,000 or more. 



The Signal Corps has modified its specifications for airplane pro- 

 peller birch lumber. They now provide for National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association inspection, if desired by the producer, and 

 certification of voucher by National inspectors to obtain payment. 

 They also provide that preference shall be given quarter-sawed 

 Inmber of selected first and second grade material. Each board 

 must yield one or more laminations, and the waste in each board 

 of the lower grade shall not exceed one-third of the surface meas- 

 ure of the piece. 



Under revised paragraph 6 a provision reads "shall not exceed 

 one in 20". In paragraph 8 the provision that more than one 

 lamination may be cut from a board is stricken out. Under para- 

 graph 13 the word "lumber" is struck out in both cases and 

 "lamination" substituted. 



A change of great practical importance, it is understood, occurs 

 in paragraph 19, where the following words are stricken out: 

 "less than carload shipments shall be boxed in paper lined crates 

 well protected from the weather." 



Yellow poplar in thicknesses from IVa" to 4" is wanted by the 

 British government for airplane construction, according to an in- 

 timation received by the Southern Hardwood Emergency Bureau, 

 while the National Hardwood War Service Bureau has been in- 

 formed that the French aviation officers are experimenting with 

 cypress lumber as airplane material. Bumor in lumber circles here 

 is that all suitable mahogany in the United States may be com- 

 mandeered by the war department for airplanes. 



It is understood that the basswood lumbermen want detailed in- 

 formation as to the quantity of 2W stock required for army saddle- 

 trees, so as to cut accordingly this season. 



Belatively small orders for .sash and doors have recently been 

 received by the National Service Bureau of the Wholesale Sash 

 and Door Association from the cantonment division of the War 

 Department. A number of southern sash and door manufacturers 

 and millwork firms have organized the Southern Millwork Manu- 

 facturers' Emergency Bureau of which Lee Herrell of this city, 

 with offices in the Evans building, is manager. William M. Otis, 

 Columbia, S. C. ; P. F. Conway, Danville, Va. ; M. E. Dyess, Augusta, 

 Ga.; C. B. Harman, Augusta, Ga., and J. E. Parker, Snow Lumber 

 Co., High Point, N. C, compose the managing committee. This 



bureau reports business good with the government and with private 

 contractors. 



It is reported that during the past week the Southern Pine As- 

 sociation put over some 15,000,000 feet of government lumber or- 

 ders, including half of the 2,250,000 feet for a new aviation camp 

 at West Point, Miss., and that it expects to land 17,000,000 feet 

 for the government powder factory at Nashville, Tcnn.; that the 

 Georgia-Florida Emergency Bureau is closing up about 10,000,000 

 feet of government orders, for army construction work in Porto 

 Rico, army cantonments, etc., including 2,250,000 feet for the 

 Americus, Ga., aviation camp; and that the Alabama-Mississippi 

 Bureau got half of the West Point aviation order, besides smaller 

 orders, and expects to share in the Nashville powder plant orders. 



Cantonment construction work now under order includes nurses' 

 quarters, hay sheds, and liberty theatres at those camps not yet so 

 equipped. Twelve of these theatres will be built, each 120 by 60 

 feet. 



The postoffice department has entered the field of competition 

 for airplanes. It wants five constructed to carry mail from Wash- 

 ington to New York. 



J. H. Bloedel of Seattle has been appointed fir administrator to 

 supervise the production of all fir lumber needed by the shipping 

 board and the Signal Corps. Col. B. P. Disque is practically spruce 

 administrator in the Northwest. 



The Navy Department is calling for 48,000 feet of white ash; 

 500 tamarack knees; 160,000 feet Douglas fir; 25,000 feet sugar 

 pine; 2,000 feet laurel; 9,500 feet white oak; 24,000 feet bending 

 white oak; a number of lots of yellow pine and cypress; 10,000 

 feet hard maple flooring; 2,000 feet ash boards; 7,000 feet yellow 

 poplar. 



E. D. Fletcher and Kenneth Clark have been designated by the 

 Forest Service to gather information at the Madison laboratory as 

 to strength and other qualities of eastern spruce, and to investigate 

 spruce stands in the East and South, virith a view to turning up new 

 sources of supply of airplane material for the United States and 

 the allies. 



Orders placed with the Southern Pine Bureau in a recent week 

 are reported to have aggregated 19,000,000 feet. The bureau has 

 received an order for 12,00(5,000 feet longleaf yellow pine timber, 

 etc., from the British government, which material will be released 

 by the shipping board at the rate of 1,000,000 feet per week. 



Twenty million feet of lumber is being ordered for the Charles- 

 ton, W. Va., government powder factory. 



Big government construction operations are proposed in the gen- 

 eral deficiency appropriation bill, including five government office 

 buildings in the parks here for the war forces of the nation. These 

 will cost .$8,000,000. Five million is proposed for housing govern- 

 ment employees here, and Representative Sherley of Kentucky has 

 recommended the building of several concrete hotels containing 

 1,500 rooms each for the female government clerks. 



The house has passed in changed form the senate bill providing 

 $50,000,000 for housing under the shipping board and it will soon 

 act favorably upon another $50,000,000 bill to start a compre- 

 hensive housing program by the government at shipbuilding and 

 munition towns. 



Government building operations are extending even beyond the 

 country. In Porto Rico a cantonment for troops is being built and 

 in San Salvador, Central America, .$60,000 is to be spent for build- 

 ing a concrete legation quarters. 



Gen. I. W. Littell, chief of the cantonment division, war de- 

 partment, told the senate investigating committee the cantonment 

 contractors averaged 2 or 3 per cent profit. 



