Copyright, The ITakdwood Company, 191S 



Publiihed in llie Interest of the American Hardwood Foreslj, ihe Products thereof, and Logging. Saw 



Mill and Vtoodworking Machinery, on the lOth and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh. President 

 Edwin W. Meeker. Managing EJi 

 Hu Maxwell. Technical Editor' 



Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 



537 So. Dearborn Street. CHICAGO 



Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 





Vol. XLV 



CHICAGO. APRIL 25, 1918 



^gpiaias^iB i;>;it'>smi;!mi;tti;imi^wit^imj^^ 



Review and Outlook 



General Market Conditions 



IXCKEA8IXG SKRIOCSXESS OF I'KODrCTlOX conditions has 

 erased any possible doubt of future strenf^th in hardwoods. 

 The advent of the cotton season is drawing a tighter restriction 

 on labor available for other southern industries and with no great 

 relief in sight so far as getting cars for log shipments is concerned. 

 Southern trade is resigning itself to an output curtailed by a very 

 substantial percentage. 



Though no strictly local effects are influencing production in the 

 north, the general labor tightness and shipping troubles, for here 

 all log shipments are by rail, is causing just as serious a situation. 

 Tn short, it is the same old story but w-ith greater emphasis. 



Many lumbermen of late have expressed considerable surprise 

 when checking up on orders and shipments at noting the large total 

 \olume going regularly to the W'oodworking factories for com- 

 mercial output. With the exception of certain restricted lines such 

 as trim and similar mill work, there seems to be greater difficulty 

 encountered through lack of labor and shipping possibilities than 

 from lack of demand. For instance, in the furniture line the report 

 of accumulation of finished products in factories and warehouses 

 seems on investigation to be not accumulation of unsold goods but 

 piling up of stock which embargoes made it impossible to move. 

 In the Grand Hapids district all warehouse and spare factory room 

 is loaded, but in the main this stock is all sold and is merely await- 

 ing shipment. Sufficient pressure has been brought to bear to 

 bring about the beginning at least of relief in this quarter, and 

 as the same situation obtains in other furniture centers, the prospect 

 is that a great deal of this stuff will be moving out leaving room 

 for manufacture on new orders that are coming in constantly. 



The furniture trade is operating along encouraging lines on the 

 furniture end alone, but in addition is getting quite substantially 

 into war business. This same thing holds in others of the wood- 

 working industries and the question is resolving itself more and 

 more into one of raw materials and labor than of markets. 



A very large part of the army wagon program is still to be taken 

 care of and the lumber for this production remains to be cut and 

 sold. Also, the furniture manufacturers are being lined up on an 

 ambitious program of producing spare wagon parts which will in- 

 volve an additional 25 to 50 million feet of oak and similar hard- 

 woods. Here alone is sufficient potential strength to hold up the 

 market for oak almost indefinitely. 



Another encouraging influence is the recently announced prospec- 

 tive government manufacture of about a hundred thousand freight 

 ears made very largely of wood. There are many other conditions 



have significance so far as indicating the trend of events is con- 

 cerned. In fact, there are so many ramifications in the present 

 hardwood situation that they are exceedingly difficult to follow. 

 They shoot out in different directions almost over night. But the 

 fact remains that there are definite basic facts such, for instance, 

 ■iS the number of army wagons to be built, the number of ships to be 

 built, the number of cars to be built, government industrial build- 

 ing extension made necessary by new industries and by lack of 

 ■lousing for workers in new locations, the equipment needs of the 

 farm trade that will require unusual facilities for taking care of 

 enlarged production, and continued activity in buying of most 

 things commonly made of wood, such for instance, as furnitur. . 

 These and similar facts are matters of record and must all 1" 

 reckoned with. But regardless of whether one considers fhes. 

 basic things or not, it is reaUy not necessary in analyzing condi 

 tions to go further than to simply look at the book records of any 

 hardwood lumbermen almost anywhere. There are certain funda- 

 mental things which govern market and price trend. One is the 

 demand represented through orders, another is stock on hand and 

 another is the possibility of speeding up production. Anyone in- 

 terested can investigate at almost any point and will find that 

 orders are more plentiful than are desired, that prices are mounting, 

 that mill and yard stocks are low and that there is not the slightest 

 possibility of realizing a sufficient point of production. 



Hardwood Record has never felt called upon to misrepresent con- 

 ditions to bull or bear the market. It has always endeavored to 

 give as close an analysis as possible of such information as comes 

 through its observation of the trend of hardwood conditions so that 

 the consuming buyer and the producer of hardwood products may 

 be benefited. For the past several months. Hardwood Eecord has 

 constantly predicted and emphasized the certainty of a growing 

 strength in hardwood stocks and in all cases these predictions have 

 come about. It desires to especially emphasize now that the wood- 

 working trade will do well to protect itself on its hardwood needs. 

 This is especially true of that branch of the woodworking trade 

 which has taken on orders for war business which requires un- 

 familiar raw materials and methods. Consider the controversy be- 

 tween the producers of wagon material and the wagon manufac- 

 turers. The question here is one of price to be paid for the millions 

 of feet of hardwoods needed. The controversy will work out in 

 one of two directions, either it will be a finish fight without inter- 

 ference of the government or the government will step in and set 

 a figure for this class of material. In either case, there can be but 

 one outcome, as the great bulk of this material is produced by 



