Scpteuibur 10, 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



Occurances at Washington Interesting to Lumbermen 



Tin- roiiml 111' luiiiljt'r iirico lixiiin liriiriii)^s is about to lii'ni" "H"'"- 

 Till' followiiiK seliodulc of ilatca will koi-p ClitrloH Kdljar, director 

 uf luinbcr, and members ol^ tliu (;ovcrnmeiit |>riec (ixiiit; committee 

 btiiy for some time in coniu-ctioii witli tlic roadjuHtmeiit of lumber 

 prlees: Septembor 11, soutliorn piiio; Soptember L'.'s North Caro- 

 lina pino; October 11, Pacific const fir lo^si and lumber; October 18, 

 Pennsylvania hemlock; October 29, New England spruce. 



Mr. Kd^'ar says that as soon as he can (ind time the problem of 

 fixing hardwood prices through j;overnment agencies will have to 

 be taken up. 



It it understood that the new southern pino industry war service 

 conunltteo is satisfactory to the i>owcrs that be in government cir- 

 cles here, and no fight is expected over southern pino price fixation 

 this month. The bearing of the 11th will be for the Alabama-Missis- 

 sippi and Georgia-Florida emergency bureaus as well as the South- 

 ern Pine Emergency Bureau. 



('apt. E. A. Selfridge is back at work in the office of the director 

 of lumber, where he is advising reganling Pacific Coast lumber and 

 other matters. 



One of the big problems which the lumber industry must face 

 soon, it is understood, is the curtailment of the industry by climinat- 

 in;; certain mills deemed more or less nonessential from the operat- 

 ing plans of the United States, in order to conserve labor and fuel 

 and transportation for war purposes and to answer the point made 

 by the lumbermen that in the production of government material 

 there is incidentally produced necessarily a large quantity of other 

 material that must go to market. 



It is reported that the plan will be to provide for a less wide- 

 spreail distribution of government orders among the mills, so that 

 the services of certain mills can bo dispensed with. It is also 

 reported that short leaf pine mills are apt to be hit by this policy, 

 liut other kinds of mills can not expect to be wholly exempt. 



The War Industries Board authorizes the following: 



Where prices are stated lo lie flxpil for the United States Government, 

 llio Kuverumsots associated with It In this war, anil the public (or primary 

 rivllliin sales) the snld prices arc hereby declared to extend to the govern- 

 ment and civilians of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Bel- 

 «liini iinil Japan. These maxinmm prices sliall not extend to purchases 

 iiiaile by the civilians of the latter mentioned allied nations nor to the 

 v-nveininents or civilians of nations other than those above enumerated. 



Furloughs from Military Service 



The war industries board has appointed William M. Ritter, a well- 

 known hardwood lumberman, as certifying ollieer representing the 

 board in the matter of furloughs from military service. 



.Ml reiiueate for the furlough of men made by tlie various departments 

 of the war Industries board will lie made throuKti Mr. 'Ritter, who will 

 make sucb Investigation in each case as in his judgment the circDmstances 

 warrant to determine whether the requests are Justilied. 



Heads of Industries in war work who lind that the draft is taking from 

 tlieiii sucb of their skilled men as to Impair elliiiency and seriously reduce 

 ]iroiluctiou of war material arc expected to apply to tlie board for the 

 furloiigb of these essential skilled men. Commodity section chiefs In the 

 Imard. handling matters In connection with the Industry alleged to be 

 affected by the draft, will make Investigations as to the needs and con- 

 ditions before acting on the requests for furloughs coming to them, and 

 will then report to Mr. Bitter. 



Men furloughed from military service on the recommendations of Mr. 

 KittiT will be Instructed to report to the Industry applying for their fur- 

 Immb anil that Industry will be required to make regular monthly reports 

 lo the certifying officer showing the lontlnnance of the furloughed men 

 in their employ. Change of place of employment or of character of work 

 will lead to revocation of the fiirlmigb older, and return of such men to 

 or into the military servii-e. 



Criticisms by U. S. Chamber of Commerce 



The United States chamber of coiumeicc takes the Federal Trade 

 I'ommission to task, in a report to the president, on account of the 

 manner in which it has dealt with the lumber industry and other 

 great industries. For one thing, the commission is charged with 

 having spent with the bureau of corporations, which it succeeded, 

 .'f400,000 on investigations of the lumber industry, without ever 

 completing them or making final reports upon them, or making 



try. .\gain, as to the commission's recent report to the Senate on 

 profiteering, the chamber says in its petition to the president: 



The commission couched Its statements in seiisatloniil terms . unwar 

 ranted by the facts set out. For example, It spoke of "Imrefai-ed fraud." 

 "monopollKtlc control," "manipulation of the markets by illi'Kul devices, 

 and "preying with shnmefnl avarice upon consumers." It quoted menm 

 raiida from one ollli'lal of a leather rompany to aiinlher wlilrh show 

 llgures of considerable Kl7.e, but which Indlrate nothing as to the reason 

 ableness of prollts. Some of Its statements defy Interpretation, suih as n 

 declaration that flour mills In the year ended June .30, 11(17, made an 

 average of 52 cents on each barrel and nearly 3S per cent on their Invi'st 

 ment, proUts that arc IndcfenBlblc, considering that an average of Hi. 

 profit of one mill fur six months of the year shows as high as »2 a bin 

 rel. It even resorts to hearsay. In reciting that producers of neropliiu- 

 spnioe In the Northwest have taken advantage of allied governments. 



Intrinsic faults of this report arc even more serious. The commission 

 i-ritldsed the principles of fixed prices which every other agency of the 

 government has approved as a means of at once regulating the market 

 and obtaining the Increased producllon the nation requires. It stigma- 

 tized the efficiency of low-cost concerns. It palliated the earnings of one 

 corporation because It "possesses a natural monopoly of a certain high- 

 grade ore." thus necessarily Implying that good fortune Is ethical, whereas 

 low costs attained through struggle for efficiency In operation are Immoral. 

 The commission, to an extent It did not disclose, made Its computations 

 upon new bases. According to Its computation, which raises contro- 

 verted questions such as the proper measure of value for stumpagc and 

 may even deny a distinction between capital and Income recently made by 

 the Supreme Court, It finds the profits of producers of southern pine 

 unusually and unneessarlly large. Yet the price-fixing committee of the 

 government, having before It the commission's own figures of cost, has 

 recently increaswl the price for southern pine to the government by 

 approximately 15 per cent. .\s might be expected In view of these funda- 

 mental defects, the report contains no standards for an Intelligent dis- 

 i-rlmination between the profits which are essential to the Integrity of 

 liHsiness enterprises and yiose which are extortionate. 



Senator Poindcxter has introduced a bill providing for a survey 

 and reclamation of arid, swamp and loggel off lands and their sale 

 to soldiers and other citizens. 



To Extend the Use of Wood 



The wooden ]iroducts section of the War Industries Board is 

 doing its best to bring about the substitution of wood for other 

 materials. It is urging the making of wot^den beds and cots instead 

 of metal, believing that it is necessary to do something to preserve 

 the woodworking industries which otherwise may become an eco- 

 nomic loss during the war, with their 3.j,000 plants. Woodworking 

 industries of other belligerent nations are understood to be in bad 

 financial straits, owing to the relatively small government demand 

 for wooden articles by those governments. Metal bed and hard- 

 ware people have been busy here conferring on the matter of sub- 

 stitution and are understood to be agreeable. Sample wooden beds 

 and other articles have been submitted to the government for 

 approval. Over 200,000 wooden bedside tables are being bought for 

 hospitals. 



The government is buying tens of thousands of pieces of fur- 

 niture for its housing projects, its ships, army cantonments, hos 

 pitals, etc. The war service committee of the furniture industry 

 is doing good work in this connection. 



It is understood that it has been instrumental in getting bids 

 from many concerns, but there is a wide variation in the bids, 

 showing that some manufacturers do not seem to have an idea of 

 what their costs of production are. For instance, the bids on bed 

 side tables vary from 41 cents to $5 apiece; bids on 30,000 ditty 

 boxes for the navy range from 72 cents to $4.54 each, and bids on 

 Browning machine gun ammunition boxes range from $1.08 up each. 



The experimental undercut army wagons sent to France recently 

 have not been successful, it is learned, owing to the wheels sinking 

 to the hubs in soft earth. The wheels are 26 inches in diameter. 

 The undercut principle can't be applied to large wheels, it is said, 

 as it would make the wagons topheavy. 



The furniture manufacturers are to hold a mass meeting at Cin- 

 cinnati September 25 to organize a representative war service com- 

 mittee. That body will act upon a conservation program for the 



