260 REPORT Olf THU FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



and thirty-five per cent, of course, went out to the burner with spots. In logging 

 at the present time on the Coast we are taking material twelve inches and over 

 at the small end, and we take out about fifty per cent of the stem. The rest is 

 left in the slash or standing trees that we would not cut at all, or portions of 

 trees that one or two logs were taken. We are, ourselves, logging to some extent, 

 and we would like to log as foresters like to log, but we have to do it as the 

 market will permit us. Of course, the fundamental difficulty is that stumpage is 

 worth anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar a thousand, and you can buy it 

 cheaper if you know how. Under those conditions the finest timber in the world, 

 of course, is to be found on the Western Coast and Western Slope of the Cascades 

 in Washington and Oregon. As long as stumpage values are normal, it is abso- 

 lutely impossible to bring about utilization. The present situation is enough to 

 make almost any forester sick, but what can be done? I do not see any solution 

 for it until the price of lumber gets to a basis that will justify closer utilization. 

 No doubt, in certain isolated cases closer utilization could be made where there 

 is now bad management, but under the best of management there is a tremendous 

 waste in every plant. 



The Chairman: We would like to hear from others. 



Mr. Bruce OdeU, of Michigan: Mr. Chairman, I had not expected to talk 

 on this subject here today, but it seems to me that it is broader than a good many 

 of us think. We have a diflferent condition confronting nearly every manufac- 

 turer. To my mind, one of the troubles with lumbermen today is the lack of 

 cooperation. With approximately 25,000 sawmills of suitable size, they have 

 nearly 25,000 different problems. The promoter will come along and tell you 

 that with the hardwood men the solving of your problem of the whole thing is a 

 certain distillation of wood, put in a chemical plant, they are making millions at 

 it, and all this, that and the other. 



I will tell you that the chemical business is full today ; there is no room for 

 any more chemical plants. If the chemical business is increased today you will 

 be in the condition the Southern pine manufacturers are at this time. You have 

 been shown here today what an increase of five per cent in over-production means, 

 a decrease of twenty per cent in the price of your products. There are few other 

 products that would stand a decrease of twenty per cent. I have been in the 

 chemical business for fifteen years, and the firms I represent produce approxi- 

 mately ten per cent of the chemical products of the United States today — that is, 

 wood alcohol and acetate of lime. We started out with wood alcohol at ninety 

 cents a gallon, and today we are netting around thirty-three cents. Acetate of 

 lime has gone along nearly in the same way and charcoal is going the same road. 

 The promoters will tell you to put in an iron furnace in connection with your 

 chemical plant to use your charcoal. There is not a manufacturer of charcoal 

 pig iron today who can get his money back on charcoal at four cents a barrel, and 

 there is not a man of you who wants to manufacture charcoal at four cents a 

 barrel. When I tell you I know of iron plants that have twice their original 

 capital tied up in pig iron today, with pig iron selling at $13 a ton at the factory, 

 you will understand how this problem is situated. 



Other promoters will come along and talk of the turpentine that is going to 

 waste in the south. Look at the people who would like to utilize those things? 

 There is one concern in the south with a capital of four and one-half million 

 dollars with the two largest plants in the world, in the hands of a receiver. A 

 year ago last February the stock was selling at a premium and today it is 

 offered at four and one-half cents, without a taker. The receiver said it had not 

 been run economically but they could go on and run it and make money for the 

 stockholders. They shut down one plant and ran the other, the one that gave 

 most promise of success, they ran it for four months at a $73,000 loss or at the 

 rate of $223,000 a year. 



