September 25. 1915. 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



15 



gap through which thieves might enter. Mature timber should be 

 used before it decays. There should be roads, paths, trails, and 

 bridges to facilitate travel and promote enjoyment. With reason- 

 able regulations there might be hotels, hospitals, and sanitarium.*, 

 and there is no question, that there should be camps and bungalows 

 where people could go to rest, recuperate, study, meditate, and in 

 all proper and possible ways inr-rease their health, hope, and happi- 

 ness. 



Sins as many are being and will be committed in the name of con 

 servation as have been committed in the name of liberty; and a griev- 

 ous e.iiample of it is seen in the action, of the New Vork constitu- 

 tional convention in fencing its forest res^erves. 



All the Traffic Will Bear 



JUST NOW THE RAILROADS are pushing to the limit their 

 pro.^ects of rate revision and reclassification. It may be accepted 

 as a fact that the sole purpose of the carriers in this campaign is to 

 iiicrea^e their revenues at the expense of their patrons. The old ami 

 familiar theory of "all the ti'affic will bear" will be put into pi-actice 

 more systematically than ever before if the railroads secure what 

 they are going after. That will hold true of lumber in particular, 

 and this seems to be the psychological moment to ask what will 

 likely be the result if the policy of collecting all the freight the 

 trattiv- will bear is pushed to the limit. 



The railroads should not be the sole judges of how much the 

 traffic will bear, because of the likelihood of loading the traffic with 

 more than it will bear, and crippling or killing it. How nearly they 

 have come to doing that with some of the commercial woods is well 

 known. Certain kinds of lumber shipped from certain localities now 

 pay rates so high that by the time freight charges are settled, the 

 lumbennon's returns are cut down nearly or quite to the vanishing 

 point, and unquestionably to the danger point. One more turn of the 

 screw will raise such rates to a point where no shipments will be 

 made. That would kill the lumberman and lose business for the rail- 

 roads. 



Carriers do not intend to kill their own business. They want to 

 leave the lumberman just enough to induce him to struggle on and 

 to continue furnishing tonnage to increase the railroads' receipts. In 

 that respect their tactics resemble habits of certain wasps which feed 

 on other insects. They sting the victim, not enough to kill it, but 

 sufficient to prevent its escape, and it thus furnishes food a long time 

 to the wasp's family. Railroads are equally considerate in charging 

 all the traffic will bear. They want the shipper to fui-nish food a 

 long time to the railroad fa'nily, and they therefore sting him just 

 I'uough to keep him crippled but not quite enough to kiU him out- 

 right. 



In proposing reclassification, the carriers think they see a few items 

 on which lumbermen are not paying quite all the traiBc will bear, and 

 from the transportation companies' standpoint, that affords a profit- 

 able field for rate revising. They want to show no partiality. They 

 want to treat all alike by making every dealer in forest products 

 from top to bottom of the list pay all the traffic will bear. They 

 don't wish to deliberately kill any branch or part of the lumber 

 business; for that would be showing less judgment than is shown by 

 the wasp which leaves its victim enough vitality to keep it in condi- 

 tion to supply food for a long time. 



Aside from the injustice of charging all the traffic is able to pay, 

 it is not, for other reasons, a good or safe policy. It can very 

 easily injure or destroy traffic. Too much taxes will surely harm any 

 liusiness, and when public carriers are permitted to fix their charges 

 on the basis of all that can be collected, it becomes a tax on that 

 business, and if too high, the business will be in danger of being 

 taxed to death for the benefit of the carrier. Public welfare demands 

 that it should never be allowed to happen. Freight rates should be 

 based on the cost of the service, with a reasonable allowance for 

 Ijrofit; and the policy of collecting according to the shipper's ability 

 to pay, or on the value of the commodity shipped, is founded on in- 

 justice and should not h.ive a place in the country's transportation 

 machinery. It is already firmly entrenched and it will be hard to 

 root it out; but now is a good time to take a determined stand that 



the policy shall not gain any more ground. The root of the evil 

 exists in the fact that schedules of charges for transportation have 

 been compiled by carriers with an eye single to their own profit 

 and with too little consideration for the prosperity of the various 

 lines of business which furnish tlie freight. The carriers are desir- 

 ous of continuing that policy; but movements now assuming shape 

 make it plain that the people who pay the freight mean to have 

 more to say in that matter than they have said in the past, and 

 they are going to say it in a different way. 



Further Signs of New Thought 



WHILE YELLOW PINE MANUFACTURERS acting collectively 

 and northern white cedar shingle manufacturers acting through 

 their new association are not necessarily original in adopting a 

 guarantee trademark for their products, they are progressing notice- 

 ably in taking this steji. The effort will have an important bearing 

 on more than one dep.artment of the organizations which will secure 

 the benefit of the new standardization. Aside from the natural 

 advantage given these stocks in a sales way through the absolute 

 guarantee as vouched for by the trade-mark brand, such a plan will 

 go far toward establishing greater uniformity in manufacturing, 

 and hence will have a tendency to unify costs and establish competi- 

 tion on a basis which will obviate the rank, price feature. 



Stock in order to be branded by a group of manufacturers, either 

 as an individual group or as an association, must conform strictly 

 to a standard laid down by those agreeing to such a sales arrangement. 

 Necessarily then it will result in a much greater uniformity in the 

 methods of manufacturing in the way of working logs and handling 

 lumber after it comes from the logs. This will mean in the end that 

 the cost of operating one plant will approximate much more closely 

 the cost of operating a competitive plant than under the present 

 regime. 



The logical sequence will be that each manufacturer will know more 

 definitely what it will cost him to make his goods, and hence there 

 will be less inclination to sell at a loss with the result that the market 

 value will be stabilized, and this most disagreeable and unprofitable 

 competition eliminated. 



It is not possible that all lines of forest products in the raw state 

 can be standardized, but in a great many cases, covering a good 

 percentage of the lumber manufactured in this country, a strict 

 standardization and guaranteed specification for lumber is possible 

 and altogether feasible. With this start as a nucleus, it is probable 

 that in the course of time the bulk of lumber for certain standard 

 purposes will be given the same guarantee and absolute uniformity 

 of specifications will be established, to the end that those in position 

 to use one or another type of lumber wUl be enabled to make an intelli- 

 gent choice based on definite and scientific information as to the exact 

 qualifications and adaptability of any particular wood for a specified 

 purpose. 



In hardwoods the establishment of such a custoin is much more 

 difficult than it is with the woods going into building purposes as the 

 qualifications demanded are more varied in themselves, and altogether 

 different in character as compared to the necessary qualities demandeil 

 by those buying building woods. For instance, in yellow pine or hem- 

 lock it is possible for the purchasers to specify that such grades shall 

 be cut to just such dimensions, and from a certain kind of log and 

 from a certain part of the log, so that the architect in specifying 

 his timber will know exactly what qualities he vrill get. This could 

 be ai'plied also to joists and similar standard stuff. On the other 

 hand, in hardwoods going into the manufacture of furniture and such 

 finished articles, it is not possible nor is it necessary to have exact 

 description of the stock manufactured. But the experiences of certain 

 individual companies who have been branding their lumber for the 

 past cople of years indicate that it is feasible to adopt some uniform 

 brand that will at least make the established grade absolutely a 

 guarantee. 



No one can conscientiously maintain that it would not be easier to 

 sell hardwood lumber if the manufacturer's or some other definite and 

 guaranteed brand appeared on each board, clearly designating its 

 exact qualifications. 



