FIFTH NATIONAL CONSBRVATION CONGRESS 261 



This is leading up to a point I have in mind, and I would like to have some- 

 thing done on this question today. There is not any one lumberman who can 

 study all the possibilities of utilizing waste material. There has been a movement 

 on foot fpm some sources to cripple the best sources of information we have, 

 and that is the forest product laboratory. Gentlemen, there is something that 

 the lumbermen need, something that the country needs. I would like to see this 

 meeting go on record as favoring and , fostering the United States Forest Product 

 Laboratory. They can study and work out our problems better than we can do 

 it, they are doing good work, and there are honest, capable men in that work. If 

 they only find one thing in the world, it is worth all the expense of running it. 

 They are finding more than one thing, however, a year, and they are doing things 

 that the lumbermen cannot do. We have not the technical education nor the time, 

 and lots of us have not the money. One mill out of those 25,000 cannot figure 

 out problems for the whole lumber industry. The forest products laboratory is 

 doing that. 



There is one item of utilizing what is waste with some mills that may be 

 broadened, and it is one of those few things that the more there is of it, the better 

 it is and the better the price will be, and that is the utilization of small stuff, 

 especially among the hardwood mills, stuff that is used in chairs and tables and 

 largely by the furniture factories. I know that a great many mills have under- 

 taken that, they have gone along a year or two and dropped it, because they could 

 not make it up. There are two reasons why they cannot make it up. One is that 

 they are not particular enough in manufacturing and caring for the stock and 

 curing the stock. Another reason is that they are deficient in their selling organi- 

 zation. As much depends on the selling end as on the manufacturing end. 

 They might manufacture well and still be unable to sell. 



I speak from experience, because the mill with which I am connected has 

 increased their cut of lumber from the same timber five per cent. We are cutting 

 20,000,000 feet a year and putting out more of it, and doing it at a profit. There 

 is a chance for nearly every mill in the country to do that, and the more you 

 widen that, the more you get the people to using it, and if they manufacture 

 properly the better they will think of you. If you start out with the manufac- 

 turer and ask him to use this — he will want it for nothing, he may be getting the 

 same material from lumber which costs him $50 a thousand, and yet if you ask 

 him $25 a thousand for it he will think you are robbing him. When he gets to. 

 using it and finds that it is as good as the lumber that is costing him $50 a 

 thousand, you will have some argument that will reach him. Do not make any 

 mistake, however, of cutting any of it until you have it sold. 



I do not think there is anything more I want to say, except I would like to 

 see this meeting go on record as favoring and fostering the forest products 

 laboratory. (Applause.) 



Mr. J. E. Rhodes, of Illinois: Mr. Clark has given what I think to be the 

 views of the lumbermen on this important question. That is a subject which is 

 before the lumbermen of the country constantly and necessarily an important 

 part of the business, the merchandising stock which they produce. They are 

 subject at all times to market conditions and are able to sell only that stock for 

 which there is a demand. That is axiomatic, of course, that they will utilize every 

 portion of the raw material from which any profit whatever can be obtained. I 

 want to amplify what Mr. Odell has said in regard to short lengths, and to call 

 the attention of this committee to the cooperation which the public may give in 

 the further closer utilization of lumber or of forest products. It is customary for 

 the soft wood mills, whose product represents the greater portion of the lumber 

 produced in the country, to sell even lengths and widths only, simply because the 

 public has been educated to ask for eight, ten, twelve, fourteen or sixteen foot 

 lengths or longer, disregarding the odd lengths and the odd widths, the lengths 



