20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



April 10, 1918 



not only in urban districts, but in agricultural sections where accel- 

 erated production must be accompanied by increased facilities for 

 planting, tending and harvesting and storing crops. 



No matter in what direction one looks in analyzing the present 

 lumber situation, war work either in its immediate or its indirect 

 form stands out most prominently and really dictates the situation. 



Plenty of Timber 



No ONE HAS ANY EXCUSE for entertaining doubts or mis- 

 givings on the subject of the timber supply and our war needs. 

 Every necessary need along that line can be met, provided proper 

 steps are taken to procure, prepare and use what our forests con- 

 tain. The alarm was sounded that there was not enough southern 

 yellow pine for ships, but it has been shown that there is no lack 

 and can be none, no matter how long the war may last. Three 

 hundred billion feet of this pine would not equal what is available 

 in the South leaving a lot of small stuff out of the count entirely. 



The next alarm was on the subject of spruce for airplanes. Some- 

 body was afraid there was not enough to go round, and pessimistic 

 reports spread everywhere. That also proved to be a false cry. 

 It did not take long to prove that spruce was available in abun- 

 dance, and that no possible prolongation of the war could use it 

 all up. 



By the time the apparition of a spruce famine had been laid, 

 another scare had been hatched. This time it was on the subject 

 of oak for vehicles. Somebody was afraid there might not be 

 enough for the wagons and gun carriages needed by the govern- 

 ment; and the fear found plenty of people ready to take it up and 

 pass it along. 



The oak alarm has no more basis than had that concerning spruce, 

 or the other regarding southern pine. If the war should be pro- 

 tracted to the length of the siege of Troy, there would be plenty 

 of good American oak to make every wheeled vehicle needed, and 

 abundance to spare. Elsewhere in this issue of Hardwood Record, 

 figures are quoted from government reports, showing that at least 

 two hundred billion feet of commercial oak is standing in American 

 forests today. That is more than can be cut and used in forty 

 years, war or no war. An alarm on the oak question is inexcusable, 

 for the facts may easily be ascertained by any one who will take 

 the trouble to consult the 1913 report on the timber stand, com- 

 piled by the Bureau of Corporations at Washington. Hardwood 

 Eecord published an exhaustive review of that report at the time, 

 and other lumber journals did the same; and this paper has since 

 then, more than once, referred to the figures. But it seems that 

 people soon forget. 



There is one phase of the matter that ought to be borne in mind: 

 timber in the woods cannot be used for ships, airplanes or vehicles 

 unless it is manufactured, and in order to secure its manufacture, 

 the necessary costs and a reasonable profit must be forthcoming. 

 Although lumbermen are at least as patriotic as any other class 

 of citizens, they cannot be expected to produce lumber on a large 

 scale at a loss to themselves. Possibly the government has over- 

 looked that fact in some of its efforts to procure timber. An arbi- 

 trary price may be fixed below cost; and when the material does 

 not move, the circumstance may be used as proof that there is no 

 timber of that particular kind. 



No one knows the cost of logging, sawing and transportation 

 better than the lumbermen themselves, and they are the best judges 

 ot reasonable prices of their own product. If some one else guesses 

 at the cost, and guesses too low, it is no matter for surprise that 

 the material is not forthcoming; neither is it any proof that there 

 is a scarcity of that particular commodity. 



Few costs are harder to reduce to an average than the cost of 

 lumbering, because scarcely any two regions have similar condi- 

 tions. What would hold true in one locality would be no criterion 

 elsewhere. For that reason, a cost sheet prepared for one set of 

 conditions would have to be revised if applied elsewhere. Julius 

 Caesar on one occasion wrote: "I need men or money: give me 

 money and I will get the men." This applies fairly well today 

 with the government's timber requirements. The government has 



been furnished the necessary money, and if it will use it, it can get 

 all the timber it needs, and get it without paying one dollar more 

 than a fair price. 



Showdown on Wagon Oak 



ELSEWHEKE IN THIS ISSUE is a complete expose of attempted 

 profiteering by government wagon contractors. The plan 

 under which the vehicle interests hoped to squeeze some 30 per 

 cent of additional profit from raw material purchases is a new form 

 of war graft. Possibly the consciences of the profiteersmen is eased 

 by the feeling that they were not planning to take the dollars out 

 of the pockets of Uncle Sam, as did wartime grafters before them. 

 Bather in their fervor of camouflaged patriotism they were merely 

 striking a shrewd bargain, in behalf of our government of course, 

 such as might come up in the ordinary course of raw material pur' 

 chases. 



The man who through his knowledge of human nature, his keen- 

 ness and his insight into affairs is able to buy below market quota- 

 tions shows he is a good business man. But in this case as the 

 report very clearly proves the results, in cheaper prices sought, were 

 not to be obtained by legitimate business strategy. Rather, they 

 were sought through deliberately dishonest representation to the 

 government which, had the plans worked out as contemplated, 

 would have forced government action compelling the lumber- 

 men, in effect, to pay the wagon contractors an added profit on 

 each wagon manufactured, equivalent to twenty-five or thirty per 

 cent of the real worth of raw material involved. It is a safe 

 assertion that the additional rakeoff would apply to farm wagons 

 also, as surely no one would think the wagon people so foolish as 

 to pay more money for the same kind of lumber just because it was 

 going into commercial work? Certainly not, especially when the 

 lumbermen were so anxious to help speed up production that they 

 never even knew where the lumber was going! 



Let it be emphasized here that the lumber committee which suc- 

 ceeded in unearthing the unsavory facts positively declined to make 

 any comments on the situation. The thing, however, was too big 

 to remain under cover. Let it be also emphasized that the vehicle 

 Woodstock committee through its cleverly arranged plans attempted 

 to pull the wool over the eyes of everybody concerned, including 

 Uncle Sam 's agents in charge of wagon production. It attempted 

 to get away with its dishonest plan by posing before the govern- 

 ment officials as guardian of the public treasury — as a sort of a 

 vigilante committee which would see to it that avaricious lumber- 

 men did not realize the exorbitant profits they coveted. Their 

 plan was so cleverly laid that they actually succeeded in having 

 placed upon their arbitrary dictatorship the stamp of officialdom. 

 Uncle Sam was unwittingly made to place his authority on their 

 attempts to force an added profit on raw material in addition to 

 the profit they were to get on their contracts. 



The whole procedure is a disgusting example of corporation greed. 

 The most disheartening side is that were the lumbermen through 

 their straightforward efforts not able to force the other man's 

 cards on the table with their own, the vehicle people would have 

 caused unending delay in the wagon construction program by declin- 

 ing lumber purchases except on the basis of the confiscatory prices 

 which they named themselves. They would have done this in the 

 face of the confidence reposed in the committee by the government. 



As the matter now stands, contracts for wagon oak will no longer 

 be subject to the dictation of the autocratic vehicle committee, and 

 prices will be as named by the vehicle makers as their cost of raw 

 material in their quotations on government bids. It still remains 

 to be shown though, just how the committee succeeded in having 

 two sets of prices written in the government records. 



A large percentage of planing mill men seem to think any man 

 can file a bench saw, and if a saw wUl saw, it is enough. Nothing ia 

 more erroneous and foolish. A bench saw, to do good work, must, in 

 the first place, be round. Please remember that. If spring set is used, 

 see to it that every tooth comes out to the gage; and, furthermore, 

 be careful to keep the outer points clean and sharp. 



