THE PRESENT CONDITIONS IN THE LUMBER INDUSTRY 393 



year has been less than half of that amount, and in recent years it has 

 been steadily declining. Naturally, either one-half of the mills remain 

 continually idle, or, if all the mills are actively engaged, they must 

 operate on the average to less than one-half capacity. I shall not 

 attempt here to account for the existence of this great overcapacity, 

 but shall merely point to it as an insistent influence toward relatively 

 unprofitable production of lumber. 



General Conditions 



Inefficiency in the industry in all its branches exists in abundance. 

 I desire to cite but a single illustration, showing concretely the evi- 

 dence of uneconomical operating — among other faults, indeed — in the 

 southern pine industry. I had made recently a tabulation of the total 

 logging costs shown by the records of 119 operations. For the majority 

 the cost fell between $3 and $4.50. The lowest cost figure was $1.63 

 and the highest $10.43. Similarly, with respect to 64 operations, 

 the total cost of production from the stump to the car, ready for ship- 

 ment, was between $12 and $14 a thousand feet, exclusive of stumpage. 

 The lowest figure was less than $10 and the highest was more than $20. 

 Such diverse costs make stable conditions of competition impracticable. 

 The lack of standardization is a serious obstacle to efficient, intelligent 

 industry. Competition on equal terms is impracticable under such con- 

 ditions. As long as competition is so unequal, as long as cutting is 

 forced for any cause whatsoever, and as long as unwise overcapitalized 

 timber investments cry for immediate liquidation, so long will remain 

 the tendency to overproduction, to relatively unprofitable business, and 

 to the waste of a basic resource which has perilous possibilities. 



I have purposely refrained from discussing the numerous inci- 

 dental or contributory causes of the existing uneconomic organization 

 of the lumber industry. Many of them, I believe, can be traced directly 

 to the more fundamental causes I have described. I have not wished, 

 moreover, in even a small measure, to disengage your attention from 

 what appears to be the insistent basic problem — one that offers a pro- 

 found challenge to public interest and to public policy. 



I rejoice that the foresters of the United States are not willing to 

 evade the challenge of this situation, which promises in many ways so 

 vitally to affect the future activity of their profession in this country. 

 It is my firm belief that there is no present economic condition which 

 has a closer relation to the success of American forestry. 



