Febniiiry 10, 19:;i 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



News from the National Capital 



Calder Warns Against Paternalism 



Tlif United States will siicui face tla' iifcrssity of subsiiUziu"' 

 housing coustruetion unless steps are taken to afl'ord every facility 

 for private eoustrnction to relieve the present shortage, Senator 

 Calder of New York, chairman of the special Senate committee on 

 reconstructiou, declared in an address in Washington, D. C, before 

 the National Council of the Chamber of Commerce of the ^United 

 States. The country may be apijroacliing a condition, the senator 

 said, which will mean an "adoption of Enrojiean precedents lioni 

 of the paternalism of monarchies.'' 



Bepresentatives of the government, civic Ijodies and every brancli 

 of construction interests, as well as industrial leaders from all sec- 

 tious of the country, attended the conference to as.sist in a solu- 

 tiou of the various phases of the housing problem. 



Those in attendance were warned by Senator Calder tliat tlie con- 

 tinually increasing housing shortage in tliis country may bring 

 about such a state of need that ]iaternalistir subsidy legislation 

 may be resorted to. 



"We may be approaching a condition of affairs such as e.xist in 

 many Kuropeau countries," said Senator Calder. "This will mean 

 the adoption of Enrojiean precedents born of paternalism and 

 monarchies, rather than a continuation of American precedents, 

 which have made it possible for each man, through exceptional 

 thrift aud industry, to become a property owner.'' 



The senator urged the business men of the country to support 

 legislation that will afford every facility for more constructiou aud 

 more ownership of homes, thus relieving the critical .situation 

 brought about by the housing shortage and forestalling subsidies. 



Taking up the question of ta.x exemption to stimulate home con- 

 struction, he said that he was primarily opjiosed to all exemption 

 from the federal income tax law, but the drifting of money away 

 from the mortgage market has beeu so great, and it was continuing 

 at such a rate, that we must either forego the making good of our 

 housing shortage until all tax exemptions are abolished, or else 

 adopt temporary measures of tliis sort, ]ieuding the aliolition of all 

 tax exemptions. 



I propose, as a member of the connnittec on tinuuce of the Senate, to 

 urge the decentralization of our federal taxation system so that a citizen 

 may go to the authorities in his <iwn locality an<l settle liis tax uuitters 

 finall.v and promptly each year. 



Discussing credits for the building of homes, Senator Calder said 

 that "we should put an end to our present polic,v of going farther 

 and faring worse and build up the basic industries of the country 

 to supply the future needs of the people. The question I have been 

 turning over in my mind for months is why have we not used a 

 larger part of our surplus labor and materials for the upbuilding of 

 our national plant; build more houses so that rents may be lowered; 

 improve our railroads so that our goods can be promptly moved 

 to market; improve our terminals, our coastwise shipping and our 

 inland waterways. 



During and since the last years of the war. we Inive heard a great deal 

 about the inadvisability of investing money in fixed capital in this country, 

 and I have wondered whether it would not be wiser to have diverted at 

 least a portion of the $6,000,000,000 credit expansion during the year eml- 

 iiig .Time 30, 1920, to the building of homes and railroads and plants. 



It now ai^jiears to many that the losses whieli miglit have been incurred 

 b,v depreciation in these building vahU's, due to deliation, would lie less 

 than the losses wliieh will have to be taken on commodities on wliieh the 

 .$ti.0OO,OO(j.(lO() liave been used. Had this beeu done we would still have 

 the plant ainl building with their greater earning power, wliicli wt)uld serve 

 us for the export of coal aud other basic necessities at prices which would 

 enable us to compete with the worhl, aud which would form a broailer basis 

 on which taxation might be levied. 



From the experience of England aud France in attemptiug to solve theii' 

 housiug problems, we linow it is impossible to solve ours through federal or 

 state paternalism, because in doing this the government would be attempt- 

 ing to subsidize itself, and it is to be hoped that our reconstruction process 

 will proceed through private initiative and enterprise. 



Shippers Plead for "Water Competitive" Rates 



.\ brief \\;is tiled with the Interstate Coiiiuierce Comunssiiju on 

 February 7 concerning water competitive rates on lumber, in liehalf 

 of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association, New York 

 Lumber Traile Association, North Carolina Pine Association, Trex- 

 ler Lumber Company, William .V. Lloyd Company, Clark & Com- 

 jiany, David Baird Company, E. W. McCalve & Sons, Iiu',, and 

 numerous other protestants. 



In schedules under suspension the carriers propose to increase 

 rates on lumber from stations iu Southern Virginia, North Caro- 

 lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and part of Alabama to sev- 

 eral hundred destinations in New England, New York, New Jersej', 

 rennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, including important mar- 

 kets at Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, Jersey City, 

 New York City, Bridgeport, Providence and Boston, 



The rates which the carriers propose to cancel are the so-called 

 ' ' water competitive ' ' rates, established to meet water competition. 

 The lumber companies do not deny in their brief that some water 

 competition has existed and still exists, but contend that the rates 

 are not competitive and depressed, but that they are reasonable 

 and normal. 



The lumber coucerus state that the increases lunv [U-oposed are 

 iu addition to the 33% per ceut increase authorized by the conimis 

 siou last summer in Ex Parte 74. The lumber companies assert 

 that the.v will average more than -5 cents jier one liundreil pounds, 

 or more than twenty-five dollars per car. 



Declaring that the lumber industry is iu a desjierate condition, 

 as between 80 and 90 per ceut of the mills are closed, the brief 

 asserts that the projiosed increase would practically double those 

 authorized iu Ex Parte 7-1 so far as the Northern Hues are con- 

 cerned. (They would make the rates in cinestioii higher than almost 

 any other rates in tlie country applying under fairly comparable 

 conditious. They would disrupt the existing relationship between 

 the rates from Carolina aud Georgia points and points immediately 

 west. They would make the rates from certain Carolina points, 

 lying immediate, higher than the rates from Tennessee points 

 bevond the same route. They would also ojierate on cypress from 

 Southern Georgia to New York only 1 cent under the rate from 

 New Orleans. They would create an absurd aud wholly indefensible 

 relationship between points of destination and between lumber 

 distributing yards. They would make the rates in New York City 

 liigher than in Albany. They would make the rates higher than 

 those established by the commission in Central Freight Associa- 

 tion territory. They would lay the foundation for the other 

 increases, at a later time, from the whole Southern aud South- 

 western territory that would disru]>t a rate relationship which has 

 existed for twenty years.) 



Rate Reconstruction Presaged 



Kecoustruction of the entire rate structure iu the »South is pre- 

 saged in the Interstate Commerce Commission's report of its find- 

 ings in the complaint of the Meridian Traffic- Bureau against the 

 Southern Eailway Company and other carriers on January 26, that 

 class and commodity rates between Meridian, Miss., and points in 

 .\labama are unreasonable and unduly prejudicial to Meridian and 

 its shi])pers, as compared with class and commodity rates for like 

 distances in Alabama. 



Reasonable maximum rates are prescribed by the commission, 

 effective on or before May 5 on traffic between Meridian and points 

 ill Alabama not more than 200 miles distant by way of the lines 

 of the several carriers. 



