:iO 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



February 25, 1918 



Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo is aaking for $4,000,000 for a 

 buiUliug on the site of the old Arlington hotel to accommodate 

 si'vcral bureaus of liis department. 



(Juartcrinaster General Goethals recommended and there was put 

 into the doiiciency bill authorization for a chain of great army 

 storehouses and warehouses at coast and interior points. Quarter- 

 master buildings of this kind will cost, it is estimated, $25,000,000 

 at Bush Terminals, Brooklyn, N. Y.; $23,000,000 at Norfolk, Va.; 

 $13,200,000 at Charleston, S. C; $9,820,000 at Baltimore; $12,000,- 

 000 at Philadelphia; $10,700,000 at Boston; $r)0,000,000 at interior 

 points; $2,000,000 at Governor's Island, N. Y.; $4,600,000 at New- 

 ark, N. J.: besides provision for 1,000,000 of storage space for the 

 army medical corps at New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, 

 San Francisco, Louisville, Washington, Watertown, San Antonio, 

 and Atlanta; also ordnance storage depots and warehouses at New- 

 port News, Charleston, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, 

 Springfield, 111., and Massachusetts; Watertown, Boston, Sau Fran- 

 cisco, Rock Island, Paterson; also signal corps storage at Dayton, 

 Cincinnati, Buffalo and Mineola. 



S. M. Vauclain has been appointed by McAdoo as chairman of 

 a committee to recommend standard types of freight cars, some 

 of whiih will lie approved by J. S. Williams, head of the railroad 



administration department of finance and purchases, and contracted 

 for in large numbers, probably at lower prices than special orders 

 require. Other members of the committee are'W. H. Wooden, J. 

 M. Hansen, N. S. Eeader and Olive Runnels. 



All imports and exports of wood and wood manufactures have 

 been put under license subject to control by the war trade board 

 by a recent proclamation by President Wilson. Heretofore only 

 exports of walnut, birch and several other hardwood and spruce 

 and certain sizes of yellow pine lumber have required license for 

 export, and there was no license requirement for import of lumber. 



Lumber in large quantities will be required for constructing the 

 concrete shipping program upon which the shipping board is em- 

 barking. Contracts for four or five concrete ships have been let 

 and the board has experts working on standardized plans for a 

 3,.500-ton concrete ship. Many concrete ships will be built when a 

 satisfactory type is found. 



F. L. Sanford of Zona, La., was here recently and invited James 

 Heyworth, chief of the wooden and concrete ship division of the 

 fleet corporation, to attend the launching of a 5,000 ton wooden 

 ship at Orange, Tex., built of smaller timbers than required by 

 the government wooden ship of the Ferris type. 



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The movement of logs to Memphis is still quite slow despite the 

 fact that the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley road has within the past 

 ten days made two separate and distinct agreements with the lum- 

 bermen regarding furnishing cars, as follows: 



First: That it would furnish switching service twenty -four hours 

 every day if the lumbermen would agree to unload log cars day or 

 night, including Sundays. This was a purely local proposition. 



Second: That it would furnish 100 cars per day for log handling 

 if lumbermen at Memphis and at other points on the road would 

 unload log cars both day and night, including Sunday. 



Lumber interests have carried out their part of the agreement 

 faithfully but the railroad has apparently been unable to do its 

 part, with the result that there is a notable scarcity of cars for 

 Memphis and for other points. 



The Valley Log Loading Company reports that it loaded 292 cars 

 of logs during the week ending February 16, the best showing it 

 has made in a similar period since last fall. It reports, however, 

 that it loaded only two cars the first day the next week and that 

 on the second day it was necessary to cut out one of its loading 

 machines because there were not enough flat cars to engage all 

 three of them. Thus the situation appears to be worse rather than 

 better although the most brilliant promise has been made within 

 the past few days. 



Some manufacturers here are running their plants about half 

 time. A few are running theirs a little more fully but there are 

 others not getting in more than two days out of a week. Thus the 

 average output is rather below than above 50 per cent. 



Lumber manufacturers are emphasizing several points with all 

 the ability of which they are capable. They are calling attention 

 to the fact that logs are beginning to deteriorate because of the 

 long time they have lain on the rights of way of the railroads. 

 They are stressing the fact that flood conditions are practically 

 certain, with resultant damage to and possible loss of great quanti- 

 ties of logs. They are emphasizing that the time is rapidly ap- 

 proaching when insect damage must be reckoned with. But they 

 are, above and beyond all, calling attention repeatedly to the fact 

 that the government needs, directly or indirectly, hundreds of mil- 

 lions of feet of hardwood lumber and timbers in the successful 

 prosecution of the war. But the handling of logs to the mills by 

 the public carriers continues slow and this phase of the transporta- 

 tion problem seems, like Tennyson's "Brook" to run on forever. 



It transpired several days ago that 41 firms in Memphis ana 

 the valley territory have 20,000,000 feet of timber on the right 

 of way of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley road and it is conserva- 

 tively estimated that there are some 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 owned 

 by all firms in the delta. 



Weather conditions are quite unfavorable for timber cutting and 

 hauling. High temperatures have followed the recent opposite 

 extreme. Snow and ice have disappeared, but terrifically heavy 

 rains have fallen throughout this section recently. But lumber 

 manufacturers continue to manifest far more concern about getting 

 the timber moved which they have already prepared for shipment 

 than about preparing more timber for delivery to the right of way 

 of the railroads. 



River mills are faring much better now. The stage of the Mis- 

 sissippi and its tributaries has made it possible for them to put 

 their boats, barges and other craft in operation. As a result a 

 number of mills here and in the valley, which were unable to 

 operate for quite a while because of lack of log supplies incident 

 to the tying up of their transportation facilities, first by low 

 water and then by ice floes, have been able to start up their ma- 

 chinery within the past ten days. 



The firms which control their own roads and equipment for 

 handling log supplies occupy a position in marked contrast wdth 

 their competitors dependent on the public carriers. The former 

 are getting all the logs they want and are, as a rule, operating 

 their plants at capacity. Unfortunately, however, they are in a 

 minority. 



The outbound movement of lumber is increasing appreciably. 

 F. B. Larson, assistant secretary of the Southern Hardwood Trafllc 

 Association, reports that the Illinois Central has canceled its "hold- 

 back" orders and that it is accepting lumber shipments to all 

 northern points on its lines, including Chicago and Chicago junc- 

 tion points. He further states that the Michigan Central is accept- 

 ing lumber shipments for all points on its lines in the United 

 States and Canada and that the Erie is accepting lumber cargoes 

 for all points on its lines west of Port Jervis, N. Y. This means 

 that lumber is now being shipped into a considerable portion of 

 eastern trunk line territory, which has been largely closed for a 

 number of weeks. "It looks as if the congestion of freight were 

 beginning to be cleared up," is the way Mr. Larson views the 

 situation at this time. 



