December 10, 1015 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



15 



and the rest are too indifferent to have any ideas of their own. 

 They accomplish things and their accomplishments mean the bet- 

 terment of lumbering in Wisconsin, not alone as to increased mar- 

 kets and corresponding strengthening of values due to publicity 

 work but in the matter of manufacture and the many problems 

 which confront the active manufacturer. 



E. B. Goodman, president of the association which embraces that 

 territory, is doing things; but he is achieving results because his 

 heart is in the work and because he has the personality and per- 

 sistence and has really done things before. Wisconsin, while on 

 the wane in its timber and probably in its output of lumber, is 

 working in the other direction in its ideals of manufacture, its 

 •quality of products and its intensity of merchandising methods. 

 Much more is planned for the future and much more can be con- 

 ifidently expected to be accomplished. 



The Danger of Dumping 



ANEW SCAEE HAS APPEAEED ON THE HORIZON. It is a 

 threat which depends upon the future for its realization and for 

 that reason there is some uncertainty connected with it. It has been 

 termed the dumping menace and is an outgrowth of the war in 

 Europe. It is feared that after the conclusion of hostilities the peo- 

 ple of Europe will reopen their factories and run them to their 

 fullest capacity. Their home markets will have low buying ability, 

 and the world will be ransacked in search for places where the sur- 

 plus of manufactures can be sold. The United States will be the 

 mecca toward which all will look, and it is feared that so much foreign 

 merchandise will be sent to America that our markets will be swamped 

 and our home products will be crowded out by the cheap output 

 from abroad. That is what is meant when the dumping danger is 

 spoken of. Low wages abroad will make it possible for the foreign 

 manufacturers to undersell us in our own markets. 



Visionary politicians have been suggesting safeguards against this 

 menace, some even going so far as to recommend that our consuls in 

 foreign countries shall refuse to approve bills of lading for goods 

 manufactured by labor so cheap that we cannot meet the competition. 

 The remedy against such an invasion is, of course, a protective 

 tarifiE, such as this country does not have at present. No other prac- 

 tical way of meeting tlie threatened deluge of foreign merchandise 

 has been suggested as yet. 



Lumbermen are concerned, of course, in whatever affects general 

 business, and to that extent they take due notice of what is likely 

 to happen to our import trade; but there is no reason to fear 

 any considerable unloading of foreign lumber upon the United States. 

 Countries across the seas have only a little and of certain kinds to 

 spare. Japan can send some oak to our Pacific coast, but it is doing 

 that now and no great increase need be anticipated. Sweden may 

 ship some pulp, but no more than in the past. Canada is on our 

 own side of the sea, and while it may sell some shingles, and pine 

 and fir lumber on our side of the line, it will buy more of our lumber 

 than it sells of its own to us; so our general lumber markets are not 

 seriously menaced by Canada's sawmills. Mahogany, teak', padouk, 

 ■ebony, and other foreign hardwoods of the cabinet class, do not come 

 from the countries now at war, and trade in them will be about the 

 same after the war as it was before. On the whole, lumbermen in 

 America have little to fear from foreign lumber sent here. 



That is not the whole question, however. Though our home mar- 

 ket for lumber may be safe, so much cannot be said for our foreign 

 lumber markets. We have worked hard to build them up and to ex- 

 tend them. We are now supplying markets formerly held by Euro- 

 pean lumber. The war has made that possible. 



When the war ends, can our lumber hold those newly-acqaireJ 

 markets? That is the problem which time and circumstances must 

 answer. Eussian, Swedish, Norwegian, Eoumanian, and Austrian 

 lumbermen will make a hard fight to win back the markets which 

 American lumber captured during the war. American exporters must 

 be prepared to meet that issue. 



We hold the cards which may win that game if they are properly 

 played. Our lumber is of a higher grade than the output of European 

 mills. Our timber is larger, older, clearer of knots and more free 



from other defects than most of that growing in European forests. 

 This ought to enable us to hold the markets we have won beyond the 

 sea. The superior qualities of American lumber, and its greater value, 

 should be impressed so thoroughly upon buyers there that they will 

 see it to their interest to continue to buy of us after the war closes. 



Knowledge Versus Haphazard 



WISCONSIN AND MICHIGAN ARE BLAZING NEW TRAILS. 

 Each is providing at public expense a series of lectures and in- 

 struction on the uses of wood, free to all who care to attend, except 

 a very moderate charge for books and stationery. Both states are 

 proceeding along lines which are essentially the same. The course of 

 instruction extends over several weeks and is in charge of experts who 

 thoroughly understand the subjects to be covered. The purpose is to 

 give practical information to users of wood to enable them to work 

 intelligently, and to reach a better understanding of wood as a mate- 

 rial entering into the daily affairs of the people. It is not intended 

 that the course of study offered shall make foresters of those who 

 take part, for the theories and much of the practices of forestry are 

 left out, and wood already grown and ready for use is taken as the 

 basis of the teaching, while instruction is given which is calculated 

 to lead to a better understanding of wood's character and qualities, 

 and the best ways of using this common and valuable material. 



Regular forestry schools teach all that and a great deal more, but 

 the work now being undertaken is among the first efforts made to give 

 practical instruction to users of wood on topics which directly relate 

 to their business. This is a noted departure from the old method, 

 or more properly from the oldtime lack of method, which left the 

 workman to learn by experience. All they ever learned about season- 

 ing, painting, cutting, matching, and handling wood they found out 

 for themselves by experimenting, inquiry, and observation. It was 

 so slow a process that many woodworkers spent much of their lives 

 in learning, and many persons never learned much. At best, observa- 

 tion did not extend much beyond the man's immediate surroundings. 

 A few fine mechanics developed under such conditions, but that result 

 was reached in spite of disadvantages and because now and then a 

 man of superior intelligence and great industry was able to advance 

 in spite of drawbacks. Some work in wood was done two thousand 

 years ago as good as the best of today, but there was not much of 

 that kind. 



All other trades, occupations, and professions are receiving tech- 

 nical training, and why should not the woodworker have it? Why 

 should he continue to plod along after a haphazard fashion when 

 knowledge and system are seen everywhere else? The farmer no 

 longer plows and sows, reaps and threshes in the old way followed by 

 his ancestors. The fruit grower no longer lets sour pears and ' ' conny- 

 cajig" apples occupy prominent places in his orchard, for he knows 

 better. The stock raiser has no place now for the razor-back hog 

 that was built for speed like a race horse, but he stocks his pens with 

 better breeds. He has been educated out of the old way. The same 

 holds true of nearly every occupation. There is no reason why the 

 user of wood should not have some of the benefits of knowledge, 

 without spending half of his life finding things out by experience. 



The movement to that end is under way. The mention of Minne- 

 sota and Wisconsin in connection with the educational work in the 

 uses of wood does not imply that other states are doing nothing. 

 Several states have tackled the problem. It is a field in which a 

 great deal of work can be done with profit. Lumbermen and timber 

 owners are anxious to extend and improve the utilization of wood, and 

 the opportunity is now before them to do it by lending encouragement 

 to the educational wood-using campaigns. 



Some of the vehicle Woodstock manufacturers who thought it 

 wise to shut down for a while have lately been loaded up with 

 orders from abroad and are now very busy. 



Those in the trade who have inclined toward a winter trip to 

 Egypt may well change their route to advantage and make a win- 

 ter visit to the Latin- American countries, and make it a good busi- 

 ness trip as well as one of sight-seeing. 



