103 



The total freight bill may now be compared by regions with the 

 shipments of lumber from the same regions. 



These figures reveal the influence of freight charges in increasing 

 the price of lumber to Illinois consumers. A shift of the center of pro- 

 duction to the South added $7.03 per thousand board feet in freight 

 alone, to the cost of all lumber from that section. The further shift to 

 the far west increased the freight bill by $12.87 over the Lake states and 

 by $5.84 over the .southern shipments. These discrepancies become greater 

 when weight and not volume is compared, for the average western ship- 

 ments are 339 lbs. lighter per thousand feet board measure than those 

 from the South, 482 lbs. lighter than Lake states shipments, which 

 include hardwoods, and 990 lbs. lighter than shijmients from the central 

 hardwood region, in which hardwoods predominate. Comparing the 

 average rates per 100 lbs., it is seen that the shipments from the Lake 

 states can be brought to Chicago for 40 per cent of the average cost of 

 freight by all-rail shipments, a fact which in itself indicates that the 

 great and now largely devastated pineries of these states form the 

 natural economic unit for supplying Illinois with softwood lumber in 



