A Deckxxial Record 151 



rather than to depend on regular shipments by rail of freshly ground 

 wood. This storing of large quantities of pulp and particularly in 

 view of the high market value at the time, soon impressed one with the 

 enormous loss due to deterioration both in money and quality of prod- 

 uct. When this problem was taken up with the laboratory it was found 

 that practically all the funds were tied up for other work and that 

 even tliough the funds were available, the necessarj^ pathologists and 

 others necessary to the prosecution of the work must be found. It was 

 impossible to do an\i;hing until funds could be supplied and according 

 to regular practice this would mean waiting until appropriations were 

 made and the money available after July 1st. This meant a delay of 

 nearly a year and consequently I undertook to raise sufficient funds 

 from concerns engaged in pulp and paper manufacturing to defray 

 the expense of this work until regular governmental appropria- 

 tions would be made to cover it. Twenty-three concerns contributed 

 ^10,500.00, about one-fourth of the concerns addressed on the subject 

 replied to the first appeal and the reasons given by others for not con- 

 tributing after the second and third appeals were made, showed that 

 there was either a lack of knoM'ledge on the part of many manufactur- 

 ers both as to tlieir own needs and as to the ability of the Forest Prod- 

 ucts Laboratory to handle such questions, or there is an epidemic of 

 "tightwaditis" in this country when it comes to sensible propositions 

 which are to be of benefit to our business and the country generally. 

 Let some one present a proposition involving the expenditure of mil- 

 lions of dollars for the assistance of some fool thing or other and men 

 seem possessed to be the first on the list to give their personal or com- 

 pany funds, but a sensible program looking to the conservation of one 

 of the greatest assets this country possesses is passed up without giving 

 any financial aid and by offering excuses, usually too thin for any use. 

 INIany said we are studying this problem in our laboratory, but we had 

 all done that for years and were no nearer a solution of the problem 

 than wlien we started. It requires the best men obtainable in the coun- 

 try in several different lines and it must be patent to every one that a 

 coordinated program being carried out in one place under such condi- 

 tions as exist here would yield better results than if men equipped with 

 only general chemical knowledge and working individually should 

 imdertake the study of this problem in private laboratories. 



