THE WAR AND TIIK H.Ml'.KK IXDCSTRV 127 



market which prevailed. Up to November i, 1918. the Government 

 had placed orders for southern pine, through the Southern Pine Emer- 

 gency Bureau, totaling 1,625.000.000 feet, of which amount 300,000,000 

 feet was ship timbers, 145,000,000 was car material, and i , 180,000,000 

 was cantonment lumber, export material, etc- The total quantity of 

 lumber of all species furnishetl to the Government during the last 18 

 months totals several billion feet. 



The extraordinary demands for the production of special material 

 early developed certain weaknesses in the lumber industry, because its 

 organization did not prove sufficiently elastic or resourceful to meet 

 sudden emergencies. One case in point is walnut production. The 

 computed lumber cut of this species in 1916 was 90 million feet, which 

 in 1 91 7 had fallen to 62 million feet. Our entrance into the war called 

 for the production of several million rifles, for the stocks of which 

 walnut is the wood par excellence, and for large quantities of material 

 for airplane pro])eller blades, for which purpose the wood was especially 

 well adapted. Walnut was produced largely in small mills located in 

 the central hardwood belt, which secured their logs either on the open 

 market or through agents who scoured the country buying a few trees 

 here and there. It early became evident that the customary methods 

 of securing walnut logs would fall far short of producing the required 

 amount of material, and it became necessary for the Government 

 agencies concerned to undertake a campaign of advertising, asking 

 owners to sell their walnut timber ; to send men into the field to locate 

 timber and stimulate production ; and to instruct lumber manufacturers 

 in the proper method of handling logs to secure the greatest possible 

 output of propeller and gunstock material from them. It also became 

 necessary, on March 28, 191 8, to prohibit the use of walnut suitable for 

 the above purposes in any other class of work. 



The production of spruce and tir airplane stock on the Pacific coast 

 earh' developed weaknesses which called for drastic action. 



The lumber industry in the Northwest gave no promise of a satis- 

 factory solution of the involved labor question in the woods and saw- 

 mills, and it was only when spruce production was placed under the 

 direct charge of a military representative that conditions reached a point 

 which was considered at all satisfactory. The lumberman proved to 

 be an individualist, who appeared unwilling to accept the necessary 

 point of view on the labor question and to merge his own particular 

 interests with the other operators in the region for the general public 

 good. It was only when a Government agency dictated a common 

 policy which all must follow that the proper relations between employer 



