731 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



The Forest Service did not undertake anything like a complete 

 investigation of lumber prices. The time allotted by the Senate for 

 the report did not permit this ; nor was it essential. The Service was 

 sufficiently in touch with the situation to present its salient features 

 and to give illustrations of price increases that were typical. Most 

 startling and most disturbing was the increase of price of materials 

 used for necessities such as house construction. An increase of 300 

 per cent in the cost of lumber for high-class furniture is not a serious 

 matter contrasted with a similar increase in the case of material 

 needed in building, especially at a time when the public is suffering 

 from an acute housing problem. Illustrations of the serious price 

 situation and its consequences are given in the report in the discussion 

 of several of the important wood-consuming industries, general build- 

 ing and construction, farming, the railroads, the furniture, veneer, 

 handle, vehicle and agricultural implement industries, and the news- 

 papers. 



The high prices of lumber and wood products have been a serious 

 burden and have reacted in a very important degree to handicap the 

 process of readjustment. While in building, high prices of other 

 materials, increased labor cost, and transportation difficulties have 

 played also an important role, the shortage and high price of lumber 

 are often the dominant factor that has acted to retard home building. 

 The problem is serious in the cities and small towns ; it has been 

 equally so in handicapping the farmers. As summarized in the Report, 

 "Livestock raising and dairying seem to be hardest hit, because of the 

 large barn equipment and shelter necessary. It is reported that heavy 

 losses of implements and crops are resulting from lack of proper 

 storage facilities. In some of the newer sections it is even reported 

 that farmers who have not yet reached a stable financial basis are leav- 

 ing the land because of the cost of new construction. It is reported 

 from all parts of the territory covered that present conditions are 

 tending to lower the standards of living and to make it more difficult 

 to hold on the farm the farmer's own children and desirable classes 

 of labor." This is an official expression of a situation easily verified 

 by any one at all familiar with conditions in rural America. 



One could go on almost indefinitely pointing out the effect of high 

 prices of wood products in causing industrial and individual embar- 

 rassment. The Capper Report covers several of the chief industries. 

 It could have recited many other situations of less aggregate im- 



