HARDWOOD RECORD 



Jolt 25, 1918 



New Member of the Family 



ANEW COMEE HAS FOUND A PLACE in the family of wood- 

 using industries, and though a young member, it is healthy 

 and strong, and let no one doubt that it has come to stay. It is the 

 airplane industry. The demand is sufficiently great to call for 

 specially designed machinery for manufacturing this article. The 

 machinery is for sale and is featured in trade advertisements. One 

 manufacturer offers an "airplane propeller shaping machine" for 

 one thousand dollars. This is cited to show that this newest wood- 

 working business is getting on a commercial basis, and it is taking 

 its place along with the older industries like vehicle making and 

 furniture. 



Millions of feet of wood are going into airplanes this year, but 

 they are mostly for war. Demands for machines of that type will 

 largely disappear when the war ends; but the industry has now 

 been established and it will not stop. The airplane has a place in 

 peace as well as in war, and it will continue to be used. Just how 

 much manufacturing will be done on a peace basis cannot yet be 

 stated, but it will be considerable. The demand will be large for 

 exhibition purposes. Elying will be a fad in which persons with 

 means and with a liking for romance will indulge themselves. 

 Doubtless some business will be transacted in the air, such as carry- 

 ing mail and messages, and probably some traveling will be done 

 in that manner. Let no one doubt that the commercial demand for 

 airplanes has arrived and that the demand will be met. 



Special machinery will be needed and will be provided. Air- 

 plane lumber will be on the market and in proper grades, dimen- 

 sions and kinds. Repair shops will come into existence, and 

 graduate flyers and skilled mechanics will be ready for the call. 



A new industry of such size and with such promise of develop- 

 ment never before came into existence in so brief a time. The war 

 hastened it, but it would have come anyhow, for it was already on 

 the way before the powder magazines of the nations were touched 

 off by the German invasion of Belgium. It is an interesting thing 

 to be privileged to witness and to study the coming in of a new 

 phase of life, business and invention as important as this one is. 



Manufacturing Limit Reached 



lO MORE FACTORIES SHALL BE BUILT in the immediate 

 future in the busiest and most congested manufacturing region 

 of the United States. This is a military decision and a war order, 

 and has been promulgated by government authority. The barred 

 district includes New England, southeastern New York, eastern 

 Pennsylvania, eastern Maryland, and all of New Jersey and Dela- 

 ware. 



The transportation systems and the labor supply in that zone are 

 working to the limit. No additional coal can be delivered in that 

 district, over and above what is now being delivered. Facilities 

 are so crowded that nothing more can be undertaken. To add to the 

 burden would lead only to congestion and confusion. It was in viev, 

 of this situation that the decision has been reached that no new 

 factories shall be built within those boundaries. 



The ruling will not be construed as being so iron bound that 

 necessary additions to existing plants may not be provided, or even 

 a new plant be built, if the situation demands a local departure 

 from the ruling. The worst embargoes during the past year or two 

 have been in this zone, and the purpose is to improve the situation 

 by diverting to other localities the new business as it comes up. 



It is believed that'the expansion will be southward, particularlv 

 the transportation increase; and that the Atlantic ports on the lower 

 Chesapeake bay and southward will receive additional trade. That 

 ought to hold true particularly of the military transportation to 

 Europe during the remainder of the war. It would be poor busi- 

 ness to continue shipping through the northern ports, which are 

 crowded to the limit, if harbor and shipping facilities as advan- 

 tageous can be found in the southern Atlantic cities. It is not 

 improbable that we are about to witness a change in the routing 

 of much of our war commerce across the sea. 



N 



Better Freight Transportation 



BIGGER CARLOADS are accomplishing better freight transpor- 

 tation over the railroads. The same number of cars carry 

 more stuff than formerly. The government has issued a report to 

 that effect, comparing April of this year with the same month in 

 1917. This year the average carload was 29.4 tons; last year it was 

 25.7. This year the average trainload was 696 tons; last year it 

 was only 651 tons. The story of improvement in transportation is 

 thus told by official figures. 



The campaign for heavier loading has brought results. It was 

 realized that empty or partly filled cars are unprofitable. The policy 

 has been to move no car that was not loaded to its capacity. The 

 movement has been supported by cooii?ration among shippers, who 

 benefit themselves while they are adding to the revenue of the 

 railroads. 



The single management under which all railroads are bein^ 

 operated is credited with the success thus far attained, but part of 

 the success is due to the shippers who have promptly seconded the 

 government's efforts to load cars to capacity. The amount of 

 freight moved has increased, without a corresponding increase in 

 cars and locomotives. This is a good showing during the early 

 period of government control of the railroads. 



However, it would have been more encouraging if the improve- 

 ment in carrying capacity had sufficed to so increase the income as 

 to make unnecessary the steep advance iu freight rates which have 

 been put iu effect. 



A Look Ahead 



THE LEADING BRAINS OF THE NATIONS are already ap- 

 plied to the problem of analyzing the future. The task is 

 hard for the basis for judgment is vague. But plans must be made 

 and are even now in the making. 



It would seem that the first thing to consider is that the world 

 will come from the conflict vastly in debt. The world then must 

 produce for it must have things to sell. It is a cause for hops 

 that lumber has an important part in most of our primary in- 

 dustries or in articles in which wood is wholly or largely used. 



The world will have been made more democratic by the war. 

 The social planes will not be so clearly defined and those on the 

 lower strata will demand a higher character of surroundings than 

 formerly and this demand will be met more sympathetically. 



While the end of military rivalry is one of the objectives of 

 the war, there must always be instruments of force to keep order. 

 The best regulated city is the one with the most efficient police. 

 In the past the United States has been militarily negligible. It 

 wdll not be so in the future and many of the lines of wood con- 

 sumption opened up by war demands will remain as regular trade 

 in years to come. 



While it is true that the war devastated area is small in com- 

 parison to the whole, the destruction is complete. Further, Amer- 

 ican standards will have an influence on future living conditions 

 abroad through the millions of troops who will go there and the 

 closer contact between the two continents. 



Reconstruction takes material and as it must be done with speed 

 the most accessible and most easily handled material — wood — 

 will be demanded. The world is becoming accustomed to doing 

 big things quickly, and will go about its post-war problems in the 

 same way. It seems foolish to say that the world will be too poor 

 to rehabilitate itself for the war expense has been so g)-eat that 

 the cost of reconstruction will be as nothing, especially as a vital 

 necessity will exist. 



Normal industries will approach normal volume only gi'adually 

 but in comparison to production iu war times, normal lines of 

 manufacture will show an increase. Lumber will be the key to 

 rapid reconstruction and will continue indispensible to the in- 

 dustries demanding it in peace times. Lumber has a strong future 

 and should not be sacrificed now. 



