November 10, 1915. 



The Export Situation 



The unsatisfactory state of the export trade is strikingly sliown 

 in a statement sent out in the last week to the members of the 

 National Lumber Exporters' Association by Secretary J. McD. Price, 

 ■of Baltimore. This statement is made up of quotations from some 

 of the British trade journals and reports from Frank Tiffany, for- 

 eign representative of the organization, with headquarters at Liver- 

 pool. It sets forth impressively the difficulties with which the ex- 

 porters as well as the buyers on the other side have to contend. The 

 buyers have had thrust upon them grave hardships because of con- 

 ditions for which they are not in the least responsible and which 

 they have no power to remedy. Because the British government 

 has taken possession of most of the motor trucks and other vehicular 

 facilities of the United Kingdom, it is almost impossible at times 

 to have goods removed from vessels to yards or other places of 

 storage. The arrivals are consequently piled up on the docks. But 

 this entails heavy penalties from the Mersey Docks and Harbor 

 Board at Liverpool, and makes it wellnigh impossible to do business. 

 The existing state of affairs is severely criticised by the Britisli trade 

 journals, but so far without result. 



Importers and merchants in Liverpool are suffering seriously from the 

 shortage o( traction from the docks. 



The Mersey Docks and Harbor Board inflicted fines amounting to eighty 

 thousand pound.s during one week recently on firms who had failed to clear 

 goods from the quay within seventy-two hours of the last package being 

 landed, as is required by the regulations. 



One wharf alone is blocked by 40,000 bales of wool, which have been lying 

 there seven weeks, and incurring fines all the time. 



How heavily this sort of thing weighs on individual firms may be gathered 

 from the fact that two houses alone have had to pay fines of one thousand 

 pounds each recently. 



The scarcity of carts and motor-lorries, which have been commandeered by 

 the government in large numbers, is largely responsible for this congestion, 

 hut the virtual closing of the east coast ports and the restricted use of 

 Plymouth and Southampton are also factors in the situation. 



Nor is the position eased by the fact that naval and military authorities 

 are to all intents and purposes administering the ports, and ordering ships 

 due to discharge at Liverpool to discharge at Birkenhead. This, as may be 

 imagined, leads occasionally to a chaotic condition of affairs. 



In addition to this Mr. Tiffany writes: 



At various times I have placed before you what I believed to be the salient 

 issues, but this morning I am in receipt of a letter from some importers, 

 who are located at an outport, and for their supplies are dependent upon 

 the coastwise service. The letter referred to gives a most striking sidelight 

 as to the situation in Liverpool. It reads : 



We are now shipping to Glasgow rather than to Liverpool : Liverpool 

 is hopeless : Penalty rent starts immediately the goods are landed. 

 Cartage agents are full, railroads full up, coastwise boats have more 

 than they can take ; every place cons^ested. 



The Mersey Docks and Harbor Board are blood-suckers ; we had to 

 store in Liverpool three carloads (although we wanted them coastwise 

 very badly) because they were put on penalty rent as soon as dis- 

 charged. In addition I hear there is a similar block with the Belfast boats. 



The position in Liverpool, Mr. Price says, is very acute and al- 

 though the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board put goods on penalty, 

 it is not always possible for the owners to be able to cart the lum- 

 ber away as labor is so scarce, but apart from this the cost of 

 storing involves at least an initial outlay of three-pence per cubic 

 foot on the c. i. f. value, so that in itself is a serious toll on con- 

 signment parcels, and for which the consignors alone are responsible; 

 they must either pay or it must come off the value; in either case 

 they stand the loss. 



Mr. Tiffany quotes a letter to the Journal of Commerce as follows: 



Surely it is time that a strong protest be proclaimed against the very high- 

 handed policy of the dock board in demanding the extraordinary and cruelly 

 oppressive charges under cover of "penalty rent" on the large blocks of 

 merchandise arriving in the port during many months back. 



The sums demanded are extortionate to the last degree, and there does 

 not seem to be any common sense in punishing so severely the importers, 

 who are quite helpless in the circumstances. It may be that an abatement 

 is given as an act of grace, but meantime importers are out very huge sums, 

 the use of which the dock board has for nothing, and this when money is so 

 very dear. 



I know that it is impossible to find carters and the necessary help to re- 

 move the goods from the quay, and the dock board is quite aware of this, 

 yet the public seems to quietly submit to the high-handed demands for 

 penalty rent, and it is quite time it was put to a stop. 



Warehouse accommodation is taxed to the utmost and railroad facilities 



arc much curtailed, yet in the face of all this the helpless importer is penal- 

 ized while the board knows perfectly well that the delays in removing from 

 the docks are beyond the control of the importer. 



There is much more of the same purport, all showing impressively 

 how ofBcial callousness and ilisregard of circumstances have worked 

 to impose the heaviest handicaps upon business. In addition, as 

 stated from time to time, the American exporters of lumber face 

 the problem of being unable to get tonnage at all or having to pay 

 practically prohibitive ocean freight rates. The formation by some 

 of the Memphis and other shippers of a company to inaugurate an 

 ocean freight service is an attempt to escape from the position of 

 complete dependence upon the steam,ship companies and to provide 

 more adequate shipping facilities. How serious this situation is 

 was illustrated in Baltimore last week by a visit of the representative 

 of some English steamship people, who had an unlimited commission 

 to contract for the construction of steamers with American yards, the 

 British builders being too busy with government work. He found 

 it impossible to place contracts, however, the American yards having 

 all the work they could handle. He also made an effort to purchase 

 some of the German ships interned at different American ports, 

 but was informed that thev were not for sale. 



Exports of Forest Products 



The exports of forest products from the United States for August 

 of this year, and figures by which comparisons may be made 

 with exports for August of last year, are given below: 



-Vug. 1914. Aug. 1915. 



Round logs $ 83,151 $ 119,640 



Square logs 305,982 318,211 



Lumber 2,452,429 3,372,733 



Railroad ties 237,671 232,153 



Shingles 2,716 8,023 



Box shooks 70,792 141,678 



Barrel shooks 104,131 199,241 



Staves 157,480 381,703 



Heading 14,394 21,989 



Sash, doors, blinds 85,798 34,999 



Furniture 250,818 233,674 



Empty barrels 114.127 31,134 



Incubators 5,293 6,579 



Honsefurnishings 27,600 29,421 



Woodenware 17,418 61,732 



Pulp 22,806 61,363 



All other 445,094 833,313 



Total .$4,397,700 $6,067,586 



Cutting Dimension at the Sawmill 



There is a chance for the ambitious machine man who has the 

 right knack as well as the proper training to develop himself into 

 a business man by getting in line with the present disposition to 

 manufacture dimension stock at the mills. It is surprising what 

 headway the making of such stock has gained. One planing mill, 

 for example, has quite a job making certain patented hot -house sash. 

 This stock is made from cypress, and it would be natural to pre- 

 sume that rough cypress lumber is bought in random widths and 

 lengths and thicknesses to correspond to the needs and is then ripped 

 and worked at the mills. This is not the case. The cypress is 

 ripped and cut to specific dimensions at the sawmills where the lum- 

 ber is made. It is a fine idea, too, because it facilitates drying, en- 

 ables the sawmill to work up its material to better advantage, get 

 clear stock in small dimensions, trim out the defects and leave the 

 waste at the mill instead of paying freight on it. It is an idea that 

 is being carried into the regular sash and door work, as well as many 

 furniture factories, and it is bound to be enlarged right along. 

 Eventually there will be connected with almost every saw and planing 

 mill something in the way of dimension stock equipment. An ideal 

 plan for operating them is to make them separate institutions and 

 put them on a profit-sharing basis. It furnishes a good opportunity 

 for the machine man who has an ambition and a knack for handling 

 the detaOs of this kind of business, to get into the game and go 

 into a partnership business with some sawmill man, and thus be- 

 come a man of business as well as a machine operator. 



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