THE AMERICAN LUMBER MARKET 



579 



products and forest and mill waste, and 

 determine districts in which to concen- 

 trate selling effort according to the 

 needs and purchasing ability of those 

 communities. 



INITIATIVE 



The initiative of the manufacturer 

 should lead him into graded schools to 

 foster manual training; into colleges to 

 foster wood engineering to accompany 

 courses in steel and concrete engineering 

 and construction; into public affairs to 

 foster proper public use of wood for 

 bridges, roads, pipe-lines and other 

 utilities, to encourage immigration, irri- 

 gation, back to the farm movements, 

 intensive farming and low rates of 

 interest to agriculturalists; into city 

 administrative matters to correct and 

 prevent unjustly discriminatory build- 

 ing codes; and into the organization of 

 paving companies, home loan associa- 

 tions and the platting of suburban 

 additions. 



BETTER PRODUCING ORGANIZATION 



Better producing organization is nec- 

 essary in order to keep pace with such 

 thorough selling effort. Demands will 

 be made upon it for quick service, more 

 perfect millng and more thorough and 

 exact grading of products, further and 

 more specialized manufacture to fit 

 particular uses, and methods and means 

 for conserving every possible item of 

 lumber, waste and by-product. 



COOPERATION 



The sum and substance of all these 

 requirements is that lumber manu- 

 facturers must effect one combination in 

 restraint of waste and another in promotion 

 of legitimate trade. To accomplish them 

 is not a task for one manufacturer nor 

 for the 46,000 separately owned and 

 operated saw mills in the United States 

 today. No successful business can point 

 to a history of achievement through the 

 wasteful competition of so many grossly 

 inefficient producing units. 



Consider the number of such units in 

 the lumber business today. Thirty- 

 three thousand mills make less than 20 

 cars of lumber each per year ; the annual 

 production of each is an equivalent of 



less than fifty Douglas fir trees. Twelve 

 thousand other mills make less than 

 200 cars each per annum; 500 Douglas 

 fir trees would supply any of them a 

 year. When we realize that one-half 

 of the National supply of lumber comes 

 from mills of these capacities with 

 necessarily poor and limited equipment, 

 we can better understand why unsatis- 

 factory lumber reaches our markets, 

 and why lumber is furnished to dis- 

 satisfied buyers. 



These small units cannot accomplish 

 the results demanded of the industry. 

 If the greater part of our Nation's needs 

 were supplied by large, efficient units, 

 consisting of eight to twelve plants, 

 under highly skilled management, the 

 problem of distribution and close utiliza- 

 tion would be worked out in a manner 

 helpful to all. This would not mean 

 control of the industry by monopoly. 

 It would simply make possible the 

 efficiency required in handling the 

 product at the lowest cost to consumers. 



The trend is already toward larger 

 individual mills, because it has been 

 found that they can produce more 

 economically; but a single mill cannot 

 market its output scientifically. Large- 

 scale production and twentieth-century 

 distribution must be accomplished. 



The advantages of large units to 

 producers and consumers will be ap- 

 parent but there are vital requirements 

 that even these units cannot meet. 

 Some are questions for the industry as 

 a whole to solve through associated 

 effort, and some must be dealt with by 

 Government. Associations will deal with 

 matters of general publicity, traffic, 

 insurance, workmen's welfare, building 

 code revision, conservation, irrigation, 

 and some of those matters of research 

 and education which are of general 

 interest to the industry and the public. 



The Government is constantly in- 

 creasing the scope of its Forest Service 

 and chemical research work. It is 

 now undertaking a constructive inves- 

 tigation of the lumber industry, and 

 from it will result a better understanding 

 of the situation than has yet been pub- 

 lished. Its presentation of the present 

 condition of the industry will prove 

 illuminating to the public, valuable to 

 lumbermen and of service to legislators ; 



