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HARDWOOD RECORD 



Why Prices Are High 



President Taft in reply to a recent query as to why prices are high, 

 is reported to have said that he didn 't know. 



Previous to the enactment of the last tariff law, Hardwood Record 

 warned the lumber trade against its falling into line with the trust 

 politicians and assisting in the enactment of the one-sided, iniquitous 

 legislation that prevailed. Such lumbermen as interested themselves 

 in the matter at all went to "Washington with a strong lobby, and 

 while they did not get all the alleged "protection" they asked for, 

 they succeeded in obtaining three-fourths of the old rate on lumber. 

 Their cooperation in this enterprise permitted other "interests" to 

 secure a much higher proportional protective rate. This paper stated 

 at that time that the alleged protection which they asked for had 

 but little effect on soft woods, and none of any consequence on hard- 

 woods, since the majority of hardwoods grow in this country and do 

 not fall into competition with foreign woods. This publication stated 

 that the lumber trade would be 

 far better off to exert its strength 

 for a general reduction in tariff 

 in all lines, and if it failed to do 

 this that it would find there 

 would be an increased cost on 

 nearly everything that entered 

 into lumber manufacture, includ- 

 ing machinery, dry goods, food 

 supplies, live stock and labor. 



This prophecy has proved true, 

 but all increased cost should be 

 chargeable only indirectly to 

 tariff legislation. The tariff has 

 been made the excuse for in- 

 creased prices on a good many 

 articles of necessity and luxury 

 that are not directly affected by 

 this legislation. The manipula- 

 tion by trusts of capital and 

 labor, by cold storage and other 

 forms of special privilege have 

 had a good deal of influence on 

 advances in prices. Note the fact 

 that meat from Chicago is 

 cheaper in London than it is in 

 New York. Retailers of foods 

 and family supplies have im- 

 proved every chance to gradually 

 increase prices. Retail distribu- 

 tion ias become an economical 

 extravagance in this country. 



There are other reasons why prices are high. There is an increased 

 flood of gold. The world 's gold production for 1909 was four times 

 the average yearly production from 1860 to 1890; more than twice 

 as much as the average from 1891 to 1900, and nearly one-third in- 

 crease over the yearly average from 1901 to 1907. Last year gold to 

 the amount of $450,000,000 was dug out of the ground and added to 

 the previous supply. Since values are based upon gold, a surplus of 

 gold means higher prices. 



Again during the last few years the hours of labor have been mueli 

 reduced with no corresponding reduction in wages. On the contrary, 

 as much or more money is now paid in most industries for the eight- 

 hour day as was formerly paid for the ten-hour day. The result is an 

 increase of twenty-five per cent, in labor cost. The actual increase 

 is greater than this, because of the overhead charges that must be 

 assessed against every manufacturing plant. Labor-saving machinery 

 has made no phenomenal advance during the last ten years, hence 

 shorter liours of labor at the same or higher wages have not been 

 offset by evolution in labor-saving machinery. 



It must again be borne in mind that this nation is devoted to two 

 great and non-productive extravagances. One is an attempt to equip 



USEFUL MEN 



SOME of the most useful men, as well as the 

 most unselfish and devoted, with whom I 

 come in contact are successful business 

 men of large affairs. They are modest and un- 

 assuming: simple and direct in their methods: 

 wide as the world in their sympathies: lofty as 

 the stars in their aspirations for human progress: 

 sagacious beyond other classes of men, and 

 respected to the point of veneration by those 

 who know them well, because they are men of 

 deeds rather than of words, who make good 

 their professions from day to day. Business has 

 not so narrowed them, nor has devotion to phil- 

 anthropic ends or public reforms so distorted 

 their mental visions, that they are not able to 

 enjoy what is good in life, whether books, music, 

 pictures, the companionship of friends, or the 

 restful contact with Nature in field or forest. 



—ALBERT SHAW 



a navy that shall outstrip any nation on earth, and the other is the 

 cost incident to the automobile craze. These two great ' ' industries ' ' 

 in certain lines of labor have produced a war-time scarcity in these 

 piping times of peace. 



Once again, the quantity of farm products has hardly kept pace 

 with the increase in population. While the world's -per capita pro- 

 duction of esreals has been about the same as for the last five years, 

 in the United States there has been a relative decrease in many lines 

 of farm production. Tlie demand has been greater than the supply, 

 hence higher prices for farm products. 



The country is on a " spres of prosperity ' ' following the quick 

 recovery from tlie panic of 1907. Matters are now settling down to a 

 more solid basis, and the general industries should be prosperous for 

 some years if there comes about an increased respect for old-fashionel 

 economies. Today human wants, or more accurately speaking, human 

 desires, have multiplied. High living is costly, and people never lived 

 so well or so extravagantly as they do today. 



Undeniably prices at the 

 present time are at a high level 

 and many of them will show a 

 gradual reduction for some time 

 to come. This observation is not 

 true of lumber. The law of sup- 

 ply and demand is paramount 

 everywhere, and with this fast 

 diminishing product it is prob- 

 able that values will show a 

 gradual accretion for all time 

 to come. 



Even the highest priced lum- 

 ber is showing less increase in 

 cost than any of the standard 

 products emanating from the 

 natural resources of the land. 



The Administration of 

 the Public Domain 



It is timely that the Record 

 should present in this issue a 

 sketch of that foremost advocate 

 of conservation, Gifford Piuchot, 

 dismissed head of the United 

 States Forest Service. Gifford 

 Pinchot 's only offense was his 

 insistence that the public domain 

 is public property and should be 

 so administered as to benefit the 

 whole people. He, in common 

 w-ith other honest men, has no 

 objection to individuals getting rich by developing the natural re- 

 sources of the country so long as the people at large receive a share 

 of the benefits. He does object to a system which gives multi- 

 millionaires through development of public property opportunity to 

 use their w^ealth and power to make the cost of living higher. 



Such is the new theory that is becoming generally accepted 

 throughout this country. It is very new yet, so new that the 

 forces in control of Congress up to the last few days have believed 

 it to be a joke, and the trusts can not repress a smile when the 

 subject is mentioned. The clipping of Joe Cannon's wings is the 

 first demonstration that the nation has had that Congress as a 

 whole believes that the public domain is public property. 



The movement for the preservation of the national wealth in the 

 interest of all the people will now probably press steadily forward. 

 The middle West and the West are keenly alive to the significance 

 of this new conception, and all sections are developing a persistent 

 demand that it be made a new departure in national policy. 



It may be well to recall that Gifford Pinchot and Mr. Roosevelt 

 are on the other side of the water in consultation about things 

 that have been done and are doing. Wait! 



