June 25, 1915. 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



The problem before the lumber interests is simple in its general 

 outline: find out the places which ■wood can fill more satisfactorily 

 than substitutes, and then convince the user of it. It is foolish to 

 fight against the inevitable, and there is no occasion to do so. Wood 

 is the best material for so many uses that it is a waste of energy to 

 push it along lines where it is bound to lose. Every tree now grow- 

 ing in the United States and every tree that ever will grow here is in 

 demand now, or will be in demand somet'me; but that does not 

 mean that if all should be cut at once, the market would take them 

 all. Over production is no sign that markets are contracting or that 

 the uses for wood are decreasing. The trouble is, so much timber is 

 to be had that it is being cut at a rate too great; and then the cry 

 is raised that substitutes are capturing the markets. 



Substitutes are doing no such thing, or at least, cannot do it per- 

 manently. If they fill a place better than wood can do it, they wiU 

 continue, and ought to continue to do it. At a past period in history 

 iron became a substitute for the wooden plowshare. It proved bet- 

 ter than wood and it continued to hold that place. The iron spindle 

 on which the wagon wheel turns was once a substitute for a wooden 

 spindle, or a wooden spindle with a thin iron covering — called 

 "thimble skein." The iron proved better, and it holds that place. 

 The iron horse rake has wholly displaced the wooden article in use 

 seventy -five years ago, because it is better; the iron harrow has 

 crowded out the wooden one for the same reason. 



Has wood lost anything by giving up these places to substitutes? 

 Not a particle. Where one foot went out of use, ten came in. A dozen 

 losses led to a hundred gains; for new demands for wood came with 

 every invention and every improvement. 



It is a mistake to quote precedent in progressive business. The 

 sickle and the flail, employing a little wood, were the grain harvesters 

 of the world during six thousand years. During the seventy-five years 

 since they went out of use, more wood has been consumed in 

 the manufacture of reapers and thrashers than was used for sickles 

 and flails during the whole history of the human race. That is 

 another example of how wood loses a little in order to gain greatly. 

 The iron locomotive was a substitute for the wooden road wagon ; 

 yet ten road wagons are in existence now where there was one before 

 the invention of the locomotive. 



The lumber interests have nothing on earth to fear from substi- 

 tutes if they will protect themselves to the extent of giving support 

 to available means for broadening the use of wood. Some loses 

 will occur, but they will be made up in other directions. The lum- 

 berman's work does not consist in "bawling out" substitutes, but in 

 pushing wood along lines where it ought to be pushed; studying best 

 woods and their best uses, and educating the buyer in selecting 

 exactly what suits his purpose. The buyers should do some studying 

 also, and when they find out exactly what kind of wood they need, 

 and in what form they need it, they should educate the lumberman in 

 the art of cutting just what is wanted, and in the precise form in 

 which it is wanted. If the lumber interests will do that, and if enough 

 is cut to meet demand, and no more, the scare about substitutes will 

 die a natural death. There Ls a place for every stick of wood in 

 America. The trouble is, it does not always find the place, or finds 

 it at the wrong time. 



The Demand Will Come 



THE EXPORTS OF LUMBER are low now and those who are 

 interested in that business naturally feel somewhat discouraged, 

 but the time is coming when losses will be made up. The war is 

 burning up, torpedoing, and otherwise destroying ships, cities, 

 bridges, and forests in large parts of Europe, and with the close of 

 the war these losses must be restored, and the forests of Europe 

 cannot meet the great demand, no matter how extensive the cutting 

 may be. The demand must be met in large part by the United 

 States, and when that time comes, the export trade in timber will 

 reach dimensions unknown before. 



The only limit to the shipment of lumber abroad at that time will 

 be the ability of the European buyers to pay for what they want. 

 That will doubtless be a serious consideration for a long time; but 

 even when that drawback has been discounted, there will still remain 



an enormous market abroad for American lumber of every kind that 

 has ever gone to Eurojje. 



There will be markets in other countries due to the war in Europe. 

 The forests of Austria, Russia, Norway, and Sweden tormerly sup- 

 plied lumber to buyers in South America, Asia, and the islands in 

 the Pacific ocean. The demand closer home may be expected to absorb 

 all the surplus from the countries named, and they cannot spare much 

 for South America, and elsewhere. The United States must be pre- 

 |iared to meet that shortage. 



Years will be required to rebuild what the war is destroying. 

 America is the logical source of supply for the wood needed. The 

 demand may not come this year, and possibly not next, for present 

 circumstances indicate that the war is not yet near its end. When 

 Kitchener said the real war would begin in May he was not much 

 wrong, and he also said the end would come in 1917, and if he shall 

 prove to be right in that date also, the demand for American lumber 

 to replace war's losses will not come till about 1918. That is looking 

 ahead, and it seems a long time to wait; but there is unquestionably 

 something in the future worth waiting for in the line of lumber 

 exports to foreign countries. 



Inspecting National Forests 



SECRETARY HOUSTOX, of the Department of Agriculture, has 

 returned from an inspection of the principal National Forests 

 of the West and has announced that the great business is being trans- 

 acted in a manner highly satisfactory. The secretary takes the proper 

 view of the government's timber properties when he calls them "busi- 

 ness. ' ' That is what they are. There was a time when government 

 timber lands were supposed to lie outside the scope of all business, 

 so far as the government was concerned, and no attention was paid 

 to them. They were food for fire and booty for thieves, and it 

 seemed to be nobody's concern. But that day has now passed, and 

 those lands, including the timber that grows on them, are managed 

 in a business way and for business purposes, and the items of profit 

 and loss are now as carefully checked and watched as any private 

 owner looks after his own property. ' 



Secretary Houston is the first secretary of the Department of Agri- 

 culture who has ever made so extensive an examination and inspection 

 of the National Forests. His predecessor by no means neglected that 

 resource, but he did not make a report of his examinations for the 

 information of the public, as Secretary Houston has done. The 

 importance of the timber resources on government land is better 

 understood now than ever before. The most serious obstacle in the 

 way of care and development is the neglect and refusal of congress 

 to provide adequate funds for carrying on the work. The demand 

 grows, but appropriations remain the same, and the handicap is 

 serious and threatens to become more so from year to year, unless 

 congress takes a broader view of the needs and provides money to 

 meet new requirements as they rise. 



Ultimately the National Forests will provide funds to meet their 

 own needs, and a profit in addition; but that end will not be reached 

 for some years. 



The Chicago Building Strike 



AS HARDWOOD RECORD GOES TO PRESS this issue the 

 •*»• building strike in Chicago is surrounded by more serious pos- 

 sibilities than have heretofore existed. The operators of plants of 

 all kinds selling building materials for construction of all sorts of 

 buildings have been gradually reci^gnizing the fact that about the 

 only way of bringing any definite settlement out of the disturbance 

 is to shut down their operations entirely, refusing to deliver any 

 goods whatever in the section affected by the strike. In this way 

 it is expected that by ultimately closing up the whole industry the 

 obstinate laboring element will at least be willing to arbitrate the 

 questions involved. 



Naturally it will be a gradual process inasmuch as it is purely an 

 individual movement, as there will be soine who are reluctant to close 

 up their yards and plants, but there is no doubt that the feeling favor- 

 ing action of this sort is spreading and there is every reason to be- 

 Ueve that the closing up of operations will be general in the near 

 future. 



