78 



SELLING LUMBER 



A Forest 

 Service 

 Expert Talks 

 on Mill 

 Waste 



The Loss 

 in Lumber 

 Manufacture 



located at Madison, Wisconsin, will address you on this subject 

 (Applause). 



(Mr.-Weiss's paper in full will be found on page 232). 



Mr. Weiss : Mr. Chairman : This is a salesman's convention, 

 and I brought my satchel with me (placing a suit case on a chair 

 beside him). I am going to tell you about its contents a little 

 later on. You have been soaking up,, for the last two days and 

 nights, information concerning lumber, how to sell pine lumber. It 

 has been committed to me to talk to you on how to make money 

 on material that is not good enough to put into lumber. That re- 

 minds me of a story I heard some time ago ; doubtless you have 

 heard it a Southern story. A man asked a colored gentleman if 

 he could change a two-dollar bill. He said, "No, sir, I can't, but 

 I is much obliged for the compliment." I heard a discussion here 

 yesterday on short dimensions, and, believe me, I am going to 

 "duck" how to make money out of red heart and knots and ma- 

 terial of that kind. But I am much obliged to your committee for 

 asking me to come here and give you what ideas I have upon this 

 subject. 



I think it is not far from the truth to say that about two- 

 thirds of the volume of the standing forests is wasted. We have 

 made some figures of that kind, including the pine belt you are in- 

 terested in ; but in the Douglas fir region and the hard wood of 

 the North, I would say that two-thirds of the volume of the stand- 

 ing forests is wasted, is pretty close to the truth. Now, the fact, 

 of course, is this : That small quantity of lumber has to pay all the 

 cost of stumpage, of taxation, of carrying charges, of operating 

 charges, salary and expense account for you gentlemen. And that 

 is an awful load to ask of one product to carry. Therefore if we 

 can work out from this two-thirds, these tremendous costs, some 

 way that it can be distributed over a larger per cent than thirty- 

 three per cent of the total volume of the output, it is going to make 

 it much easier for you to sell your lumber in the future ; because, 

 while I firmly believe, gentlemen, that the price of lumber is go- 

 ing higher and has got to go higher, nevertheless there is a certain 

 level beyond which it cannot go, as these substitute materials will 

 come in and take the market away from you. Lumber still re- 

 mains a comparatively cheap building material. 



Now, when we analyze operating costs, what is the poor owner 

 of timber going to do? In my judgment the most feasible outlet 



