*fc 



problems, without legislation and without governmental in- 

 tervention in the conduct of the lumber business in any 

 shape or form. A few lumbermen have expressed concern 

 lest the co-operation of the secretary of commerce for this 

 purpose might mean some form of governmental regulation 

 or interference. The exact statements of Secretary Herbert 

 Hoover to the lumbermen in conference in Washington, May 

 22 to 26, should be re-assuring on this point, coming from 

 an official who under the law has no authority to regulate 

 or intervene in business affairs and has repeatedly denounc- 

 ed governmental interference with ordinary business af- 

 fairs, in no uncertain terms. 



One of the difficulties of our whole national economic 

 system is the expensiveness of our distribution. And these 

 questions that we are going to discuss here, practically all 

 of them, are distribution questions ; the guaranties of qual- 

 ities, the simplification of dimensions, the grading of lum- 

 ber, all of them, are steps in advance toward reducing the 

 cost and the wastes in distribution. 



Now I take it that we have a pretty definite program 

 to discuss, and there is little occasion for generalization. 

 Whatever is arrived at must be arrived at at your initiative 

 and upon your agreement. 



The first is the question of grading lumber. When we 

 come to questions of grading, the first thing that one runs 

 against is the nomenclature of the actual names that are 

 in use for different commodities, and different quality of 

 standards of that commodity. So that a primary necessity 

 is to have some agreement on the terms that are to be ap- 

 plied. 



Then we come to the questions of guaranties as to how, 

 after lumber has been divided on any such basis as we may 

 determine as to its nomenclature, the public is to have any 

 assurance as to what it gets. And there we have to enter 

 into the problems of inspection, and certification, and mark- 

 ing, or other devices that might be developed to give some 

 assurances to the consumer. 



Now, the third branch of the discussion is that of sim- 

 plification; simplification of dimensions and other items 

 that make for economy in both production and transporta- 



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