May 25, 191".. 



Revising Freight on Lumber 



On May 12, in room 2040, Transportation Building, Chicago, a 

 number of lumbermen aj^sembled under the erroneous impression that 

 they had been invited to meet with a freight committee of the rail- 

 roads to discuss or to present evidence in a hearing regarding freight 

 on lumber. It was a mistake, so far as the call to meet was con- 

 cerned ; but the railroad committee was on hand to take the question 

 up iu executive session. The matter was cxjilained to the Uiinbermen, 

 and they were told that the committee was not authorized to hear 

 what they might have to say; but that those witli something to say 

 on the subject would be heard at some future time and at some other 

 place. The lumbermen thereupon took their departure. 



The matter which is thus starting through the railroad freight mill 

 is more important tlian may appear at first glance. The purpose 

 appears to be to establisli a higher rate on dressed tlian on rougli 

 lumber. If that is done, it will hit pretty wide. No one supposes 

 that the railroads contemplate lowering the present freiglit on rough 

 lumber; so wliatever change is made must consist in an advance in 

 the freight on dressed lumber. 



In the hardwood region, that will hit the flooring, coiling and siding 

 people chiefly, but it will catch others also. If the proposed effect 

 is correctly understood, it will cost considerably more if the plan 

 is carried out, to ship a car of flooring ready to lay than an equal 

 weight of flooring in the rough. 



It is not easy to tell how far-reaching that result will be; but it 

 would without doubt lead to considerable change in tlie centers of 

 manufacture. Eough stock for flooring, siding, and ceiling would be 

 shipped, in many cases, into the consuming centers, there to be con- 

 verted into finished products. 



Yellow Pine Haed Hit 



The hardwood interests would not be the only ones to suffer if 

 the plan, as outlined, should be put into execution. The yellow pine 

 of the South would catch it severely. It is a custom with most large 

 yellow pine mills to run their lumber, or a considerable part of it, 

 through planers for the sole purpose of decreasing its weiglit by 

 removing the shavings that are cut away in dressing. This is called 

 "surfacing." The lumber is not made ready for any particular use, 

 but goes iato the general market. Tlie weight thus pilaned away 

 amounts to from 300 to 600 pounds per 1,000 feet. That much refuse 

 and waste is left behind, and freight need not be paid on it. In the 

 aggregate, it amounts to a large sum saved to the mills which ship 

 the lumber. 



Sawmills in the southern states plane approximately 6,000,000,000 

 feet of lumber a year, chiefly for the purpose of decreasing its weight 

 from shipping purposes. According to figures compiled by the gov- 

 ernment the following table gives the amount of lumber planed yearly 

 in the states named. These figures do not include stock known as 

 ' ' general mill work. ' ' 



Annual planini; 

 State mill product, feot 



Louisiana l,22.'i.2o."i.sS4 



Arkansas l.or,ii.T:i'.l,i)(i() 



Tf>xas .-.87.S7l',.50<5 



Alaliama .5s4.i;n4,(I0O 



Mississippi .'i;in.(ili'.,4:'.7 



Florida 407,7 lli.OOT 



Georsia :!n(!,no:!,71 4 



South Carolina aiiS,.S01,00n 



Virciinia i-J:!.S:!7,7l« 



Missouri 73,765,677 



Total 5,4.'>4,.537,981 



Some of the southern states, for lack of data, are not included in 

 the foregoing table, and the total quantity of planed lumber put 

 out annually by southern mills will not fall short of six billion feet ; 

 and the larger part of this is run through the planers simply to reiluee 

 its weight for shipping purposes. 



Who Will Be Gainer? 

 Now, if the railroads raise the freight on dressed lumber, tlie saw- 

 mill men will not make anything by dressing it, and the}' naturally 

 will quit doing so. It will be nothing in their pockets to lessen the 

 shipping weight of a thousand feet of lumber if the railroads, by 

 raising the rate, simply put the difference in their own pockets. 



Estimating that on an average 450 pounds of shavings are removed 

 from each thousand feet of lumber passing through planers, it appears 

 that 13,000,000 tons are cut yearly from the freight bills of the south- 

 ern mills alone, by surfacing lumber before sending it to market. 



The railroads have evidently been figuring that out; hence the 

 movement to raise the charge on dressed lumber, thereby making up 

 what is lost to the roads in freight charges when that thirteen million 

 tons of shavings are left behind. 



If the railroads should be successful iu advancing the rate on 

 dressed lumber until there is a considerable differential between 

 rough and dressed, some interesting problems will be brought up. 

 Exactly similar results need not be expected in all parts of the 

 country; but there is no doubt that many large mills which now 

 surface lumber to decrease its weight, will quit doing so. In each 

 region the problem to be worked out will require an answer to the 

 question: Is it cheaper to ship the rough lumber at its greater 

 weight but lower rate, or the dre."sed lumber at smaller weight but 

 higher rate? 



The present problem is not quite the same, as the supposed future 

 problem will be, because rough and dressed lumber now go at the 

 same tate, and it is simply a question of difference in weights in 

 determining whether or not to dress the lumber. It is understood, 

 of course, that the cost of surfacing the lumber will not be changed 

 by any differential tliat^may bo brought about in freight rates. In* 

 the past the sawmill man has figured out whether the saving of freight 

 on dressed stock would more than pay liim for dressing it. If so, he 

 dresses, it; if not, it goes rough. 



If the proposed change goes into effect, the probable result wiU 

 be that a great deal of lumber which is now being shipped surfaced, 

 will go rough. The railroads will by that means succeed in hauling 

 and getting freight on thirteen million tons of worthless shavings 

 which are not being hauled at present. 



Wooden Motor Truck Tires 



According to a Router telegram, German motor trucks are being 

 equipped with wooden tires, owing to the scarcity of rubber in that 

 country. No information as to the kind of wood used is given. 

 Many persons wilf be surprised at the amount of wear that wooden 

 tires and wooden wheels will stand. Before the days of railroads 

 in western Canada a vehicle known as the Red river cart did 

 most of the summer hauling between Winnipeg and the Rocky 

 Mountains. The wheels, including the tires, were of wood. Paper 

 birch was generally employed as tires. A single pair of such tires 

 was good for a journey of a thousand miles over the plains of 

 Assinaboia and Saskatchewan; but most of the journey was over 

 sodded ground, which had small tendency to wear the tires. Yet, 

 often there were miles of gravel at a stretch in the valleys of the 

 water courses. In pioneer days it was customary to make oxcart 

 wheels of cuts sawed from the ends of sycamore, tupelo, or black 

 gum logs. Such wheels, without a scrap of ii'on about them, lasted 

 a year or more, trundling about the farms and along the country 

 roads. It is not impossible that the Germans will find wood a 

 fairly satisfactory substitute for rubber tires for freight trucks; 

 but probably it will prove less satisfactory on passenger autos which 

 go at high speed. The jolting, due to the limited ability of the 

 wood to absorb shocks, might speedily shake the auto to pieces, and 

 it certainly would be unpleasant for the riders passing over rutty 

 roads. 



If they would ever let that peace dove settle down properly iu 

 Mexico it would not only help the lumber trade down there, but it 

 would give the sawmill machinery men a chance to develop some 

 business. 



More dry kilns and planing mills along with the hardwood saw- 

 mills would help some in promoting the use of hardwood iu build- 

 ing operations, and it would save some on the freight item, too. 



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