OUR FOREST RESOURCES AND THE WAR 



BY E. A. STERLING 



IF our newspapers some morning should proclaim in a 

 double-ribbon head that "Lumber Wins the War," it 

 would but little over-emphasize the indispensable 

 part our forest resources are playing in achieving ulti- 

 mate victory. Such a headline will not be seen, but the 

 papers can safely say any day or every day that the war 

 cannot be won without lumber. 



It is all so big that more than a meager comprehension 

 of what is going on along any line is impossible now. 

 The wonderful accomplishments come from a co-ordina- 

 tion of effort, requiring the combined use of many ma- 

 terials. What is big today may be small tomorrow 

 while headline news developed at one point might lose 

 significance if it was known what was really going on 

 somewhere else. The perspective will have to come later. 

 From the isolated facts now known comes the realization 

 that of all of our wonderful natural resources, industries 

 and facilities of every kind, which are being drawn on 

 to the utmost, forests and their products are in the front 

 rank. 



Our use of materials, enormous as it was in normal 

 times, has been increased beyond precedent to fill military 

 requirements. It is one of the saving factors for America 

 and the whole Allied cause, that this nation was so 

 blessed with its resources of iron, coal, lumber and food- 

 stuffs. It is as true now as when Adams Smith first 

 wrote the obvious fact, that the source of practically all 

 income and materials, is the soil. Today the earth pro- 

 duces the ore for the steel ; the coal for the fuel ; the for- 

 ests for the lumber and the grain for the food, which give 

 America and her Allies the supremacy that will win the 

 war. We all know these things without many fully real- 

 izing their significance. It is only when some essential 

 is no longer available that its indispensable character is 

 revealed. We take it for granted that coal and iron will 

 be mined, and steel made for the guns, and myriad other 

 military appliances. We need wood for shelter, ships, 

 and many other construction purposes, and simply go and 

 cut it from the forests. The steps in the production, 

 transportation and fabrication of these materials are lost 

 sight of, as is also the fact that they are basic natural 

 resources without which no country can prosper, much 

 less win a war. 



Our forest resources are producing material as indis- 

 pensable as steel. Wood is demanded for war purposes 

 because of the well known but rarely thought of charac- 

 teristics which make it the most widely used building ma- 

 terial. It is indispensable both in war and peace because 

 it is available everywhere ; can be readily cut and sha])ed 

 in any size or form ; because it combines great strength 

 with lightness ; is easily worked and adaptable ; is obtain- 

 able in kinds and grades for all ])urposes, and is a non 

 conductor of heat. It is natural, therefore, that it should 



be one of the materials in greatest demand for war pur- 

 poses. 



To say that two or three billion board feet of lumber 

 are being produced in the shortest possible time to meet 

 the most urgent war needs the country has ever known, 

 conveys very little. Even to say that a single billion feet 

 would make a boardwalk ten feet wide from New York 

 to Petrograd, via Vladivostok, really does not convey the 

 full impression. As a matter of fact, no one really knows 

 just how much wood is being used in our war prepara- 

 tions, nor does the number of feet especially matter. It 

 is extremely important, however, to know that our forest 

 resources are fully able to meet the unprecedented de- 

 mands upon them, and to do it without materially re- 

 ducing our reserve timber supply. It is equally import- 

 ant that the producing facilities of the lumber industry 

 are able to shift from normal routine and produce sizes, 

 kinds and quantities of timber as needed by the military 

 authorities. 



In -the war news for many months have been frequent 

 references to wooden ships, the army cantonments, and 

 the new airplane fleet. These are among the large 

 items in which wood is almost the exclusive construction 

 material. In addition, however, are the diocks and 

 wharves, both here and in France, the warehouses, box- 

 ing and crating lumber, hangars and hundreds of smaller 

 uses. The necessary kinds of wood required for all of 

 these things, the unusual specifications and sizes, the 

 large orders for wooden items which usually are pro- 

 duced only in small quantities, and the necessity for haste 

 in production, indicate the diversity of demands which 

 the forests must meet. 



A Washington dispatch in late October reported over 

 45,000 cars of lumber shipped for government war pur- 

 poses or orders distributed alone by the Committee on 

 Lumber of the Council of National Defense. This gives 

 a clew as to the magnitude of the war lumber output, yet 

 is only a beginning. Nor do these 45,000 carloads, which 

 would make a train 500 miles long, represent the total 

 consumption, many orders being placed through sources 

 other than the Lumber Committee. 



The indispensable character of the lumber required 

 is shown by the many purposes for which it is used. The 

 National Guard camps and National Army cantonments 

 comprise hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of wooden 

 buildings. At one camp 50 carloads of materials were 

 unloaded a day for the construction of 746 buildings, in 

 which over 30,000,000 feet of lumber was used. Ware- 

 houses and cold-storage ])lants require millions of feet. 

 About 900 carloads of dock and bridge timbers and other 

 construction materials have been cut for export for 

 American army purposes in France. Nearly 4,000 car- 

 loads of yellow pine alone have been shi])ped for wooden 



