Much information is available to show the disad- 

 vantages of the lumber consumer in regions whose 

 near-by forests have been exhausted. Retail prices in 

 the Ohio valley, for example, on certain grades 

 exceed retail prices 011 the identical grades in 

 Oregon in some instances by as much as $50 

 per thousand board feet after allowing for all 

 transportation costs. The curtailment of lumber out- 

 put in the eastern regions not only has compelled 

 the average consumer to pay more for freight but has 

 enhanced the effects of congestion in transportation 

 and of climatic and other factors limiting the pro- 

 duction in regions which still support a large lumber 

 industry. It has restricted opportunity for competi- 

 tion and thereby increased the opportunity of the 

 lumber manufacturer or dealer to auction his stocks 

 for higher prices. In other words, the effects of forest 

 depletion can not be measured in terms of the total 

 quantity of timber remaining. Its injury is felt par- 

 ticularly through the steady process of regional ex- 

 haustion. Our remaining timber is so localized that 

 its availability to the average user of wood is greatly 

 reduced. Particularly does such a restricted location 

 of the timber supplies assume a serious national as- 

 pect in the face of transportation congestion and in- 

 adequate transportation facilities such as the United 

 States is now experiencing. Had the forests and for- 

 est industries of the Eastern States still existed, the 

 opportunities for regional competition in supplying 

 the lumber markets and the wider distribution of 

 lumber transport undoubtedly would have afforded 

 a curb upon rising prices which did not exist in 1919. 



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