November 25, 1915. 



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American Lumber in the Orient 



American lumbermen who expect to sell their products in the Orient 

 must organize and send representatives there to be on the ground and 

 look after their interests; otherwise, lumber from the United States 

 will continue to fall far short of the possibilities in that region. 

 That is the 0]iinion of Franklin H. Smith, government agent who is 

 now in Chicago on his way to Washington after a year spent investi- 

 gating the lumber trade in Japan, China, Indo-China, Siam, Australia 

 and New Zealand. He has made what is probably the most thorough 

 study of the American outlook in the lumber trade in those countries 

 that was ever made, and he is emphatic in his' declaration that our 

 lumber will not sell itself there, but that it can be pushed into that 

 market if the right steps are taken to push it. 



To attain that end a better selling method must bo adopted. Sales 

 through brokers are unsatisfactory. They might be much better if 

 the broker would confine his activities to American lumber, but he 

 does not do that. He is after his commissions and what he may be 

 able to make by speculating on the means of transportation; and if 

 he sees a chance to make more by selling Japanese or Swedish lumber 

 than by selling American, that is what he does. The result is that 

 American lumber receives very shabby attention on the other side of 

 the Pacific. It has no one to stand up for it and push it ahead. If 

 a buyer asks for American lumber and insists on having it, he can 

 procure it; but if he does not insist, he will probably get something 

 else. This is particularly true of the Australian market. 



Mr. Smith doubts if it wUl pay a single firm to maintain a repre- 

 sentative in the Orient to sell its cut of lumber, because the expense 

 would be too great in proportion to the quantity of the particular 

 class of lumber it handles and which a single company could ship. 

 The business ought to be managed by an association, and the repre- 

 sentative over there should sell all kinds of lumber salable in those 

 countries. In many instances manufactured products, like doors, 

 flooring, and interior finish, could be included. The sales of American 

 articles of that class in many of the eastern countries have not been 

 irhat they should be, but well-planned missionary work ought to bring 

 . substantial increase along that line. 



The people in the Orient are favorably disposed toward American 

 lumber, so far as they know about it; but most of them know little 

 about it. Some missionary work has been done in behalf of two or 

 three Pacific coast woods, notably Douglas fir and redwood; but eveik 

 those woods have never been pushed, and as for some of our other 

 valuable woods, they are no more heard of over there than if they 

 grew on Mars. It is because it is nobody's business to exploit, ex- 

 plain, advertise, and boost them in those markets. 



Mr. Smith is firmly convinced that the chance is there for a profit- 

 able trade in American lumber; but that trade will not spring up 

 spontaneously. Somebody must take it in hand and pry the markets 

 open and put American lumber in. The sales will probably always 

 be largely softwoods; but the opportunities for hardwoods are by no 

 means negligible, particularly for partly manufactured products in 

 which American factories surpass the rest of the world. The hard- 

 wood business with America has been hurt in certain parts of the 

 East on account of juggling of grades, which unfortunately has been 

 complained of in some instances. Japan has taken some of the hard- 

 wood business which Americans have lost. That could not have hap- 

 pened if the American exporters had been represented by a live man 

 on the ground who could have seen that buyers received what they 

 ordered. 



Australians buy shingles from Sweden, notwithstanding better 

 shingles are more convenient on the American coast. It is because 

 the Swedes push their shingles and the Americans do not. 



Most of the lumber dealers in the Orient know very little of Amer- 

 ican lumber values and still less of the character and qualities of the 

 common commercial woods. Nobody has presented these matters to 

 them. When quotations are made to some of the dealers in those 

 countries, they do not know whether the prices are representative or 

 not, or whether a competitor may not be purchasing the same thing 

 at a lower price. The need of a better system of selling is apparent, 

 with, reliable information always within reach of prospective buy- 

 ers, and the need of something in the nature of standard prices 

 for lumber is constantly apparent. 



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The inquiry into the lumber business, begun last summer by the 

 Federal Trade Commission, seems to be drawing to a close. December 

 15 has been announced as the date for the ending of the inquiry. At 

 that time council for the lumbermen will file briefs and present oral 

 arguments summing up the testimony given at the lumber hearings 

 in Chicago last July, at which practically all the lumber associations 

 affiliated with the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association were 

 heard. The lawyers will also address themselves to the testimony 

 taken at the supplemental hearings held at Spokane, Tacoma, San 

 Francisco and other Pacific coast lumber centers. 



The lumbermen will be represented by Jos. N. Teal of Portland, 

 Ore., and L. C. Boyle of Kansas City. The formal announcement 

 made by the trade commission is that "No oral statements of fact 

 will be received at this healing, but exhibits and supplemental state- 

 ments in writing bringing information presented at the previous 

 hearings do\vn to date will be received." 



The Forest Service and the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- 

 merce will participate in the hearing. Those governmental agencies 

 have taken a prominent part in investigations of the lumber industry. 

 Heretofore nearly all governmental inquiries concerning the industry 

 have had to do with complaints or insinuations that the anti-trust 

 laws were being violated. The hearings that have been conducted 

 by the trade commission have been friendly rather than hostile. The 

 commissioners have been persuaded to believe that the industry is 

 in a bad way. The Forest Service has become convinced that lum- 



bering methods followed by Americans are destructive and that if 

 there is to be new conservation it will be necessary for the govern- 

 ment to encourage the lumbermen who desire to follow enlightened 

 methods instead of having the government strike indiscriminately at 

 everything labeled "lumber" on the theory that that word is equiva- 

 lent to "lumber trust." 



The testimony taken by the trade commission on the transconti- 

 nental trip is of such a character, it is believed, as to prove that the 

 government must do something if it desires conservation and ordinary, 

 plain success for the men who are engaged in the business of con- 

 verting the forests into products that can be used. The most obvious 

 fact shown at the hearings is that the American lumberman is between 

 the upper and nether millstones with the government and its anti-trust 

 laws bearing down upon him from above, while the combinations 

 encouraged, or at least permitted, by foreign governments are grind- 

 ing him from below. 



No one appeared at the hearings held by the commission to sub- 

 stantiate the charge that there is a combination in the industry or 

 that prices are exorbitant. On the contrary, it was shown that, so 

 far as the man who produces the lumber is concerned, there has been 

 a slump in the last two years. The fall in prices, it was suggested 

 at the hearing, may not always be reflected in the retail prices for 

 small quantities of lumber, but if unreasonable prices are charged 

 by retailers, that is a fact for which the industry as a whole should 

 not be held responsible. 



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