l8o TIMBER VALUATION 



flooded the market with lumber brought and logged so cheaply 

 that it could compete successfully with that from the northeast 

 and Lake States in spite of higher freight rates. Then the price 

 went down again. Another low level was reached in 1896. The 

 Spanish War in 1898 upset the usual course of prices somewhat 

 but history bade fair to repeat itself as the northwest began to 

 supplant the southeast as the principal lumber producing center. 

 There was in fact a decided drop in lumber prices after 1907. 

 This followed the tremendous expansion in the northwest and 

 was largely the direct result of the attempt to market lumber too 

 rapidly in order to meet carrying charges on mill equipment and 

 stumpage. By 191 2 a slow recovery had been made followed by 

 a depression which reached its lowest point in 1914 when lumber 

 prices were back at the 1905 level. 



The effect of the Great War was almost immediate. Prices 

 commenced to advance even before the United States declared 

 war against Germany in spite of the impossibility of shipping 

 lumber abroad with the submarine campaign in full swing. The 

 demand from American manufacturers busy with war orders was, 

 however, suflScient to absorb aU the lumber that was not needed 

 for ordinary busiriess. 



With the addition of the United States to the belligerents a 

 new set of factors influenced lumber prices. It was immediately 

 evident that the Government would need large supplies of lumber 

 in the raw form for ships, warehouses, and cantonments and also 

 indirectly for such manufactured articles as wagons, airplanes, 

 gunstocks and boxes; hence, the necessity for centralized control 

 of prices. This was effected by cooperation between the Govern- 

 ment and the lumber industry and took the following forms: 



1. Standardizing and centraUzing. 



Government purchases. 



2. Price fixing. 



3. Restriction in use for non-essential purposes. 



4. Restrictions on imports and exports. 



Obviously the first thing to do where the Government was in the 

 market for large amounts of lumber was to standardize the re- 



