28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Forest Conservation and Merchandising of Lumber 



Hon. J. B. White, of Kansas City, Mo., 

 addressed the St. Louis Lumbermen's Club 

 at its last monthly meeting on the subject 

 "Forest Conservation and the Merchandising 

 of Lumber." This was such a valuable and 

 interesting dissertation on this subject that 

 it is heren-ith reproduced for Eecord readers: 



The subject assigned to me, "Forest Conserva- 

 tion and the Merchandising of Lumber," is so 

 important and means so much to lumbermen 

 that I feel it worthy of much better treatment 

 than it is to receive at my hands tonight. 



Production, distribution and exchange of com- 

 modities constitutes both manufacturing and mer- 

 chandising, and conservation comes in as an 

 economic necessity and applies to lumber and 

 trees the same as to all other natural resources. 



Abnormaly prosperous times spoil us. We be- . 

 come careless in our methods ; extravagance is 

 manifest in every department. Our vigilance is 

 relaxed, and to those of short experience to 

 whom generous good times is a new thing are 

 apt to come sad experiences. The little rivulet 

 has begun to How into their coffers, and they 

 madly rush to increase the stream and become 

 intoxicated in their race for wealth and do not 

 stop to consider that in due proportion as we 

 increase a surplus of product we decrease the 

 price. 



That we may, with fair profit, conserve one 

 of the nation's choicest and most limited re- 

 sources, we should strive to keep a just balance 

 between supply and demand. The theory of a 

 just balance in trade should be the central doc- 

 trine of a correct mercantile system. 



There is no reason for a trust with extor- 

 tionate prices, but there is a reason for a trust 

 for the purpose of conserving natural resources 

 and preventing waste and ruinously low prices. 

 In either case the scales are out of balance and 

 a great wrong is done. Whenever one is forced 

 to sell any commodity at less than it can possi- 

 bly be reproduced for, violence has been done 

 to this theory of trade balance and loss, both 

 to the individual and to the body politic, en- 

 sues. When the scales are forced against justice 

 by the compulsory weight of combined control 

 to the extent of a monopoly, and prices are 

 forced upward beyond reason, then there is also 

 a like loss to the individual consumer and also 

 a loss to the nation, with the enrichment of a 

 few at the expense of the many. 



Manufacturers should meet and give to and 

 receive from each other information for the 

 good of all. They should study to know the 

 demands and to control the supply measured 

 only by the demand. In proportion as the scales 

 fail to balance is injustice done to the individuals 

 and to the nation, in one case by the waste of 

 buying at ruinously exorbitant prices and in the 

 other case by the waste occasioned by overpro- 

 duction and a ruinously low price. 



We have never studied the cost of lumber pro- 

 duction and the cost of growing trees, and it is 

 true that no one yet has ever sold a thousand 

 feet of lumber at a price greater than it can 

 be produced for. We have been prodigal with 

 our trees, because we had so many of them, 

 and it was necessary in early times to cut them 

 down and burn them up in order that we might 

 have corn fields and cotton fields. 



Today we are in need of some effective com- 

 bination that will aid us and aid the nation in 

 saving our trees that we may have the neces- 

 sary amount of timber for future use. 



What can our stumpage be produced for? 

 What can it be logged and manufactured for? 

 And what can it be marketed for? These are 

 the only three propositions to be considered. 

 Below the cost of production there cannot be 

 any trust that is injurious to a community or 

 that is morally or economically wrong. If one 



is forced by unfortunate circumstances to sell 

 his corn or cotton for less than it cost to grow 

 it, the community loses. He does not suffer 

 alone. But these farmers get together and agree 

 to limit supply and plant less ; a wise action. 

 Waste has ensued, yet corn and cotton will grow 

 another year, but if we cut our trees and sell 

 them at less than it cost to grow them i\ greater 

 waste has been caused, for another crop cannot 

 be grown in another year, nor in the lifetime 

 of any one generation. 



Supply and Demand 



In the world's commerce and trade in natural 

 products, a fair and well-established demand in 

 one balance and in the other a proper supply 

 with a reasonable profit thereon constitutes 

 honest merchandising and a healthy trade con- 

 dition. In man.v commodities with normal and 

 satisfactory conditions comes disease and disaster 

 when the pulse is led by excitement to beat in 

 feverish haste, when the bulls and the bears 

 fight for market control, circulate wild stories 

 as to the supply and as to the demand, and 

 the masses who do not know and who let others 

 do their thinking lose their heads and their 

 money. It is wrong that our laws will protect 

 this kind of gambling that changes the market 

 directly adverse to the law of equalization as 

 to suppl.v and demand and permits monopolies 

 to be formed to corner the supply and extort 

 from the people. This is not legitimate trade 

 or merchandising, but is speculation, of the char- 

 acter of high finance, coldly and shrewdly man- 

 aged by those who know tbe facts or are better 

 guessers as to the supply that can be brought 

 to the market. We speak freely of this great 

 evil of speculating in the necessities of life, 

 where the public has to pay the loss, yet we, 

 as lumbermen, know just how it is in our own 

 business of manufacturing and merchandising in 

 lumber, where we overproduce and are paying 

 the loss, which is a loss also to the future pub- 

 lic. We know we are making too much lumber, 

 that tbe supply is greater than the demand, and 

 that we have perfect control of the supply and 

 can regulate it according to the demand, and 

 yet we do not do it. We know absolutely that 

 we cannot grow even a fifty-year-old tree con- 

 taining not exceeding five per cent above No. 1 

 common for less than $12 stumpage with all 

 conditions favorable, including low taxation, yet 

 we are selling better trees, 150 years old, for 

 $.j stumpage, which contain twenty-five per cent 

 above common and makes a difference in value 

 of more than $12 per thousand from what we 

 are now getting. 



We can righteously insist, without reasonable 

 complaint against us by the public, that we 

 should have at least as much for mature trees 

 ol' superior quality as it will cost to raise im- 

 mature trees of inferior quality. It is a posi- 

 tive sin against posterity for a lumberman to 

 sell his lumber at less than cost of growing the 

 trees or less than some good competitive sub- 

 stitute can be provided for. Any law and any 

 trust that will prevent a man cutting and sell- 

 ing timber below the cost of reproducing it and 

 .a reasonable added profit, is a good law and a 

 good trust for the people. 



If we cannot singly protect ourselves against 

 ourselves we should be permitted to comDine 

 ourselves in such a manner that we cannot 

 break a moral principle at the expense of the 

 comfort and needs of future generations. We 

 are not good manufacturers ; we are not good 

 merchants ; we are not good landlords or good 

 tenants ; we are mighty poor business men and 

 should be restrained in the interest of con- 

 servation and for the benefit of ourselves and 

 of this generation and of those who are to come 

 after us. 



Forest Conservation and the People 

 Can the demands of forest conservation ever 

 be taught the people? I believe it can, and we 



should all enthusiastically help in this cause of 

 good education. Laws are going to be passed, 

 and we must see that they are good and just 

 laws. Private interest must always give way 

 to public interest. The injury of one is the 

 concern of all. The greatest good to the great- 

 est number and equal and exact justice to all 

 are the popular public mixims. 



It should be made, and it will be made, un- 

 lawful for any individual or corporation to com- 

 mit waste of natural resources of state and 

 nation. States will endeavor to pass uniform 

 laws, so that the citizens of each state will 

 liave the same equal privileges as the citizens of 

 other states. And for forest conservation, one 

 ot the most important of our natural resources, 

 something like the following might well be con- 

 sidered : 



An act entitled, "An act to encourage forest 

 growth and conservation ; to prevent timber 

 waste, and for other purposes : 



Section 1. Be it enacted. That whenever it 

 shall appear to the State Forest Commission that 

 waste is being committed on state or private 

 forests, after due examination thereof, notice 

 shall be served upon the owner, party in charge 

 or person or persons committing the waste, and 

 tlie owner or party offending shall make restitu- 

 tion by paying into the state fund for conser- 

 vation and reforestation the value of such 

 waste, to be ascertained in manner following : 



If the timber cut and removed is being sold 

 at less than cost of reproduction it shall be 

 prima facie evidence of intentional violation of 

 this act, and the difference betw'een the price 

 obtained and the cost of reproduction, to be 

 estimated and ascertained according to the best 

 available methods, shall be tbe measure of dam- 

 age to be assessed and collected, as all fines and 

 penalties are adjudged and collected for other 

 misdemeanors. If the whole or any part of 

 such tree is left to waste in the woods, then the 

 market value shall be ascertained in like man- 

 ner and tbe entire value assessed against the 

 owner or offending party in same manner, to- 

 gether with sufficient penalty in either or both 

 cases to cover cost of prosecution. 



Sec. 2. If the Forest Commission find that 

 waste is occasioned by ignorant or wanton 

 methods, not subservient to economic principles 

 of reproduction, and inconsistent with good lum- 

 bering as the same is or should be practiced 

 by efficient and economical operators, and as ap- 

 proved by said commission, then shall notice 

 be given to said offender, or to the owner of 

 such timber, and the violation of, or neglect to 

 observe the requirements of this act and of 

 said notice, shall constitute a misdemeanor and 

 the loss or value of waste occasioned thereby 

 shall be ascertained and collected as in the pre- 

 ceding section. 



Sec. 3. It shall be lawful for foresters, owners 

 of timber, loggers, lumber manufacturers and 

 others to meet together, form associations, dis- 

 cuss and agree together upon policies of public 

 and private interest in the economical cutting, 

 manufacturing and marketing of forest trees, 

 and of the products thereof, with the object in 

 view, and to tlio end desired, that surplus shall 

 liot accumulate beyond the demands and re- 

 ijuirements of the market, and that waste to the 

 forest and its products and consequent loss 

 to the state be not sustained thereby. 



Sec. 4. All acts, or parts of acts heretofore 

 enacted into law, which conflict with or are in- 

 consistent with tlie spirit of this act, and of its 

 proper and thorough application, the same shall 

 bo and are hereby repealed. 



Sec. 5. The provisions of this act shall be- 

 come effective immediately upon its passage, upon 

 receiving tbe signature of the governor. 



Of course, the above proposed legislation pre- 

 supposes that other legislation appropriate to 

 the needs of conservation has been passed and 



