18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



August 25, 1918 



eases, and in other similar measures which are strictly enforced in 

 the army. Much progress has been made by manufacturers along 

 these lines, but many jn-actieable preventive measures are not being 

 taken to protect the health of employes, and a death rate from 

 disease three times greater than that in the army is the result. 



Practical Patriotism 



HUMAN IXCOXSISTEXCIES are advertised in many ways, but 

 in none more effectively than in the elaborate convention pro- 

 gram which still holds sway. 



Gatherings of men allied in ranks of industry are highly desir- 

 able, and in fact, strictly essential to the national causes, but it 

 is not essential that these men gather together in a convention 

 which has an elaborate and expensive entertainment attached and 

 spend most of their time talking about the necessity for economy. 



Fully realizing the inconsistency of this situation, the ofiSeials 

 of Hoo-Hoo have indefinitely postponed the pending September 

 annual meeting, which was to have been held in Chicago under 

 rather elaborate surroundings. The postponement is frankly the 

 result of an honest desire to economize and to divert useless expen- 

 ditures into directly useful channels. 



The decision is a common-sense one and represents the kind of 

 patriotism which means something. The order is now so solidly 

 rebuilt that the annual gathering is not essential to its continued 

 progress. There being no industrial or similar problems vital to 

 the war prosecution that would be apt to come up for settlement 

 before this convention, the gathering was not considered of strict 

 enough necessity to warrant the large outlay that would result. 



Railroad Rates and Land Seekers 



CAI'SE AXD EFFECT WILL SHOW their relationship before 

 long in the matter of railroad passenger rates and settlers for 

 eutover lands. Much of the country 's prosperity in the future de- 

 pends upon the kind and number of people who settle on those 

 lands. They constitute the principal bodies of good, cheap agricul- 

 tural ground still open for settlement. They lie north, south and 

 west and to some extent east. The timber has been removed and 

 the ground lies vacant and invites the farmer to clear the tracts 

 and put in the plow. 



In many regions the railroads were accustomed to run cheap 

 excursions to the eutover lands, carrying people who wanted to 

 see for themselves. The expense of a personal investigation was 

 moderate because the rates were low. A considerable number of 

 those who went to see, returned to buy. In that^ way the settle- 

 ment of the lands went on at a fairly rapid rate, and the settlers 

 were industrious people who possessed some means. 



The government took over the railroads, and passenger rates 

 have been advanced to approximately three cents a mile. On the 

 assumption that the cheap rates accorded land lookers will be dis- 

 continued, it becomes a question as to what effect this change may 

 have on the settlement of eutover land. 



The rate of three cents a mile is not so high but that a man will 

 travel where business calls him; but the ordinary person, who 

 has heard of land five hundred miles away and is sufficiently in- 

 terested to want to see it for himself, is usually not suffieiently in- 

 terested to pay three cents a mile each way for a round trip ticket. 

 He is not thinking seriously of bu3'ing the land, but he feels that 

 he would like to see it anyway. If he goes and has a look at it, he 

 becomes a prospective purchaser. He will begin to figure whether 

 he can, buy and whether he ought to. But if he does not go to see 

 the land, it is almost certain that he will not buy any. Doubtless 

 ninety percent of those who have bought eutover land and settled 

 on it, first went to see it without any very definite purpose of buy- 

 ing. 



In view of this, it is a question whether the high railroad fares 

 will not produce an immediate falling off in the purchase and 

 settlement of eutover lands at the very time when the develop- 

 ment of those waste tracts ought to be encouraged. Every new 

 acre brought under cultivation increases the country's permanent 

 wealth. Increased wealth will be needed to help bear the burden 

 of debt incurred in the war. 



Saving of Assets and Operating to Meet Present 

 Conditions 



WHILE MANY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS ABE BUY- 

 ING quite freely of hardwood lumber, policies inaugurated at 

 Washington, particularl}- with reference to non-essentials, have had 

 a disquieting effect upon the lumber trade. The most recent jolt 

 was in the form of an order giving notice that the manufacture of 

 pleasure automobiles will be practically eliminated, the manufac- 

 turers being limited to a 25 per cent production. This is merely 

 for the purpose of cleaning up raw materials. In effect the order 

 means the suspension of an industry that has been annually con- 

 suming about 100,000,000 feet of hardwood lumber. 



While it is true that government agencies are rapidly ironing out 

 their specifications so that the flow of specialized stocks into war 

 work will continue consistently, it is useless to argue that such 

 regulations as this whereby whole industries may be put out of 

 existence by one sweep of the pen will not affect the lumber busi- 

 ness. Therefore it seems there is a possible chance of over- 

 production in some of the normal lines if manufacturers do not 

 carefully analyze the frequent and radical changes in demaml. 

 Overproduction would naturally be followed by indiscriminate quo- 

 tations mostly out of line with the modern cost of production 

 Radical accumulations would cause peddling of over-stocks at 

 almost any price. 



With the exception of plain oak in the upper grades, values have 

 held higher than in many years. This has made it possible to add 

 sufficiently to the profits and has assisted hardwood men to get 

 something like fair benefits from the sale of the products they 

 manufacture. But if selling is not carried on scientifically values 

 have a tendency to drop away, and lack of demand for a few weeks 

 might soon dissipate unusual profits and bring returns down to a 

 relative basis that would seriously affect the hardwood business. 



The only solution of rapidly accumulating problems is for a man 

 to look beyond his own backyard conditions for indications of the 

 proper course. This can best be accomplished through the manu- 

 facturers' associations extending every possible help to members 

 to the end that production may be checked up closely with supply 

 and demand and operations maintained accordingly. If such assist- 

 ance were ever needed, it is needed today, and if there were ever a 

 time when producers needed to utilize the service of their associa- 

 tions, the time is now. 



The war period is a poor time for careless salesmanship or for 

 allowing a sawmill to run itself. The whole hardwood lumber 

 industry would profit by broader exchange of views and by closer 

 analysis of market values and of the relative comparison between 

 supply and demand in the various grades. It is necessary today to 

 cut the cloth to fit the man — to regulate the hardwood cut so that 

 it keeps pace with changing requirements for various specifications. 



The sash, door and trim people are doing practically nothing and 

 there is very little life in the furniture business. Still, most pro- 

 ducers have had a fair demand right through the vacation time. 

 Of course, here and there can be found a manufacturer who begins 

 to get nervous and loses his head as soon as his order file appears 

 thin. This is poor business and it would be better to shut down 

 the mill than to go after orders at any old price. The producer 

 should bear in mind that each hardwood tree he fells leaves just 

 that much less and cannot be replaced, and it would be far better 

 to leave a lot of those trees in the woods, even if it is necessary to 

 stop operations, than to be a factor in demoralizing the market at 

 a time when production costs are higher than they have ever been 

 before. 



It is a better policy to closely study the market and the trend 

 of consumption than to go along blindly and indiscriminately pile 

 up lumber on the yar^s regardless of profitable sales. 



The distance to which wind will carry tree seeds is not definitely 

 known, but doubtless several miles in some instances. The mud 

 on the feet of a wild goose has been known to carry rice 1,500 

 miles, and it might carry tree seeds an equal distance and success- 

 fully plant a seed that far from the parent tree. 



