94 



cent of the lumber required in the state is home-grown and a part of 

 that is shipped to Indiana and Missouri. 



Of the 2,353,662,000 board feet of lumber consumed in the state, 

 2,310,453,000 is imported, and 43,209,000 is home-grown and consumed 

 within the state. The sources of this imported lumber are given in 

 Table on page 97. 



The cost of lumber to the consumer in Illinois has risen rapidly in 

 recent years and this rise has exceeded that of other commodities.* 

 Since the cost of raw materials is the automatic regulatory factor which 

 reflects growing scarcity as contrasted with demand, the behavior of 

 lumber prices and the causes of these fluctuations are worth examining. 

 If other materials will serve as satisfactorj' substitutes for lumber lor 

 all purposes, the prices of the latter can not rise much higher than those 

 of the substitutes without driving lumber from the market. It is be- 

 cause lumber is still in demand and substitutes are not yet accepted in 

 so many lines, that these lumber prices can and will continue to rise until 

 the economic advantage of cheap lumber is completely lost to the con- 

 sumer. 



Lumber prices have risen because of several factors. First is the 

 general rise in the price of all commodities as the result of the lessened 

 purchasing power of money. In this, lumber has obviously shared. 

 Second is the increased distance of haul from mill to consumer, which 

 takes the form of freight charges. Third is the increase in freight rates 

 of late years. Fourth is the increased cost of logging and transportation 

 to the mill, due to rising prices of wages, but, in addition to these, a 

 fifth factor is the increasing inaccessibility of the remaining timber. 

 Lastly comes actual exhaustion or serious diminution of the supply, 

 until it fails to meet demand. This is followed by breakdown and 

 exodus of the manufactures which depend upon wood for raw materials. 



The first of these six factors needs no demonstration and would 

 work no great hardship were prices and wages adjusted rapidly and 

 equitably to the new standards. It is the fact that wood prices rise 

 faster than those of average commodities, which indicates the existence 

 of more serious conditions. 



The increased distance of haul is the most influential factor affect- 

 ing prices. When the Chicago market was supplied largely from the 

 Lake states by water transportation, prices were abnormally low. \\'ith 



•Since 1865 the average price of lumber in the United States has risen 300 per 

 cent, while the average prices of other commodities have risen during this period but 

 40 per cent. 



