April 10, 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



government. There has been somi lumber opposition to government 

 fixed prices on railroad materials on the ground that the railroads 

 are private property or will be after the war, and it is argued that 

 the lumber ought not to have to sell car material at prices below 

 the regular market when railroad stockholders will get the benefit 

 of such loss to the lumbermen. However, the government and the 

 director of lumber are standing pat. 



Under the government price list it is stipulated that during the 

 period the lists are effective loggers and lumber manufacturers will 

 not reduce the scale of wages now being paid. There have been 

 vigorous but ineffectual protests on some prices, especially yellow 

 pine. No changes can be made till June 15. Befusal to cut at these 

 prices will result in commandeering. 



There have been some misapprehensions regarding the situation 

 under the government price lists. Some lumbermen have gotten an 

 idea that they will be liable to $50,000 fine and a year's imprison- 

 ment if they charge more than the government prices, but it is 

 denied in government circles here that there is any order or law for 

 such penalties. It is intimated that if lumbermen attempt to ship 

 their product for government purposes at prices higher than those 

 fixed by the government permit will not be issued for its movement, 

 which seems to place the lumbermen at the mercy of the govern- 

 ment. 



Thirty Per Cent Cut in Cabinet Output 



The War Industries Board has issued priority orders for the move- 

 ment of lumber shipments from saw mills in the western lumbering 

 region. The purpose of the orders, it is understood, is to get onto 

 the market quantities of lumber produced in the manufacture of 

 ship timbers. Cars have been scarce for such shipments, it is stated. 

 Without moving such lumber it would be impracticable for mills 

 cutting ship schedules to finance their operations. 



Similar conditions would exist as to mills cutting aircraft stock, 

 which the priority orders were calculated to remove or prevent. 



Eeduced consumption of hardwood lumber for the manufacture 

 of pianos and musical instruments will follow an agreement between 

 representatives of the War Industries Board and the fuel admin- 

 istration on one hand, and of the musical instrument industry on the 

 other hand. The agreement was voluntary, it is stated. 



Under it the production of the industry will be curtailed 30 per 

 cent during April and May. The facilities of the industry will 

 become available for aircraft manufacture and for other war pur- 

 poses. Representatives of the industry and of the government 

 are working on plans to divert the industry into lines of war pro- 

 duction. It is understood that war work will be transferred to 

 musical instrument factories, which are well equipped to make air- 

 plaine parts, etc. 



The navy wants miscellaneous quantities of hickory hammer 

 handles and 5,700 maple file handles delivered at the Mare Island 

 navy yard, and miscellaneous lots of handles for railroad picks, 

 claw hammers, etc., and of boxwood rules, calipers and squares, at 

 the Great Lakes naval training station. 



.'!,045,-408 deadweight tons of requisition vessels. Of this total steel 

 construction, 2,121,508 deadweight tons, or approximately 28 per 

 cent has been completed. 



Notwithstanding the difficulties of organization, the handicaps 

 of bad weather conditions, transportation embargoes and railroad 

 congestion, nearly as much tonnage has been constructed in Amer- 

 ican waters in the past three months as by all the other maritime 

 nations of the world combined. 



The Germans thought that by crippling their own vessels in 

 -Vmerican waters they would be able to prevent us from using them. 

 American ingenuity and resourcefulness gave the answer by restor- 

 ing these vessels to efficiency. With the expenditure of a little less 

 than $8,000,000 we have succeeded in placing in our war service and 

 in the service of the Allies 112 first-class German and Austrian 

 vessels representing a carrying capacity of nearly 800,000 dead- 

 weight tons. 



The steel yards have increased their ways thirty-three in the past 

 eight months. 



Our program for building wooden ships has been beset with many 

 difficulties and handicaps which could not well be foreseen. A year 

 ago, wooden shipbuilding in the United States was almost a lost art. 

 We found twenty-four old wooden shipyards, with seventy-three 

 ship ways. The capacity for wooden shipbuilding has been in- 

 creased until we now have eighty-one wooden shipbuilding yards, 

 with 332 ways completed or nearing completion. 



Assuming that these ways will each produce two standard ships 

 per year we should turn out about 2,300,000 deadweight tons of 

 wooden ships annually. These 332 wooden shipbuilding ways, now 

 nearing completion, added to our 398 steel building ways, will give 

 us a total of 730 berths upon which to bmld steel and wooden ves- 

 sels. When you consider that we had only 162 steel building ways 

 a few months ago and seventy-three wooden shipbuilding ways — 

 a total of 235 — an increase is shown of 495 wooden and steel berths 

 on which we can build ships. 



With our total of 730 wood and steel ways, we will have 521 more 

 berths than Sir Eric Geddes in his recent speech stated England 

 has at the present time. 



During the railroad embargo there was a period of many weeks 

 when there were actually nearly 9,000 cars of steel and wood ship- 

 building material, loaded and waiting on sidings, to be transported 

 to our shipyards. This situation, which has been a serious handicap, 

 is steadily improving. 



Figures indicate that the shipbuilding program at its height will 

 require approximately 3,000 separate shipments of material daily. 

 Many of these, however, will be small lots to concentrating points, 

 which are being established throughout the country for the purpose 

 of combining the fittings for a complete ship into carloads; in this 

 way saving the expense and effort in transportation, as well as 

 reducing the labor of assembling in the yards. 



Our Shipbuilding Program 



Edward N. Hurley, chairman of the shipping board, in an address 

 delivered March 26, in New York, explained the work accomplished 

 in providing ships. The following points have been culled from his 

 address, and they give the situation in brief form: 



There were thirty-seven shipyards in America at the bepnning of 

 the war. Since then eighty-one steel and wood yards have been 

 located, and eighteen yards have been expanded. 



The Skinner & Eddy Company, Seattle, launched an 8,800-ton 

 vessel in sixty-four days after laying the keel. It started upon its 

 voyage on January 14. 



The Moore Shipbuilding Company, Oakland, Cal., launched three 

 9,400-ton vessels in one afternoon. 



The total amount of our steel construction on March 1 was 

 8,205,708 deadweight tons. This is made up of 5,160,300 deadweight 

 tons under contract with the Emergency Fleet Corporation, and 



Restrictions on Wooden Buildings 



The war has not yet imposed any legal restrictions on the erec- 

 tions of buildings in this country. The only restrictions in force are 

 due to business difficulties, chief of which is labor and cost of 

 material. In England it is forbidden by law to commence a building 

 or repairs on a building where wood is required, if the estimated 

 cost exceeds $2,500. License is given for such construction in cases 

 where it is considered necessary or expedient. This has practically 

 put a stop to all private building in England where lumber would 

 bo used. The whole timber supply, both domestic and imported, 

 is needed by the government in the prosecution of the war. The 

 import of wood into Great Britain last year was equivalent to 680,- 

 000,000 feet, board measure. The total of the home grown woods 

 put on the market is not stated. The postponing of practically all 

 building till after the war will create an unprecedented demand 

 then for building materials. What is true of England is equally 

 true of France, Belgium, Holland and Italy. American lumber 

 manufacturers will be in a position to supply foreign demands with 

 good stock and at reasonable prices. 



