cent. AVithin ten years the United States will lose 

 its commanding position in the world's market for 

 these products and may in time be unable to supply 

 its domestic requirements. 



The termination of the war found the lumber in- 

 dustry with depleted stocks. Production during the 

 war had been much less than normal on account of 

 shortages of labor and equipment and embargoes on 

 transportation. A large part of the lumber produced 

 had been taken by the Government for war purposes. 

 During the same time, the normal construction^ of 

 dwellings and industrial structures and the use of 

 lumber in many manufacturing industries had been 

 greatly curtailed. Following the war, these pent-up 

 demands were released. They caught the lumber in- 

 dustry not only with its stock short and broken from 

 war conditions but unable, on account of labor diffi- 

 culties, lack of freight cars, and bad weather in im- 

 portant producing regions, to respond rapidly with 

 increased production. Aside from the general causes 

 affecting prices of most commodities, the expansion of 

 credit accompanied by currency inflation and the 

 wave of speculation and extravagance, an "auction" 

 lumber market would no doubt have resulted from 

 the frenzied competition of buyers to obtain the 

 limited stocks available, wholly inadequate to satisfy 

 current demands. 



Under the combined influence of the general con- 

 ditions making for high prices and this situation in 

 the lumber industry itself, prices rose to unprecedent- 

 ed limits. In March, 1920, average mill prices in the 

 South and West had increased 300 per cent and more 



11 



