FREIGHT CHARGES 203 



lumber pays much higher returns than unseasoned rough lum- 

 ber because it is Hghter in weight, less bulky for the same quan- 

 tity and has a wider margin for profit. To show how this works 

 out take the case of the sawmills in Oregon and Washington. 

 With a $15 per M freight charge to meet they can only afford to 

 ship east their best grades. There is no margin for profit on 

 common and boxboard liunber. And the same holds true in 

 greater or less degree for all the centers of forest production. 

 Freight rates encourage skimming off the cream only. 



Foreign freight rates per ton mile are higher as a rule than ours 

 for all commodities. For example, our average rate per ton mile 

 in 1914 was approximately 8 to 10 cents while in the United 

 Kingdom the rate was nearly three times this in 1913. Den- 

 mark's rates were even higher. Russia and Japan were the only 

 countries that had average rates at aU approaching ours. Forest 

 product rates furnished no exception to this general rule. As 

 against an average rate of 3 to 10 cents per ton mile for transcon- 

 tinental lumber shipments the lowest rate that Dr. Schenck cites 

 in his discussion of freight rates is 4 to 10 cents per ton mile and 

 this was a special rate from Austria to Germany and France 

 intended to offset the import duties levied by the latter against 

 Austrian lumber. But there is one marked difference between 

 European and American practice. The' former makes a differ- 

 ence between grades of lumber. For example, the rate for dis- 

 tances over 220 miles is double for lumber what it is for pulp- 

 wood, firewood, mine props and railway ties. From the stand- 

 point of forest production this is a very valuable arrangement 

 since it places no premium on the marketing of the higher grades 

 but gives the poorer grades a fair chance to reach the general 

 market. What such a change would mean to the American for- 

 ests can be quickly shown by two examples. In the northern 

 hardwood tj^je the principal silvicultural problem is the removal 

 of the mature hardwoods in order to give the more profitable 

 spruce, fir and pine a better chance. At the present time only 

 the very best parts of the hardwood trees are reaching the saw- 

 mills. By lower rates on the poorer grades of hardwood lumber 

 and especially on cordwood the woods in this type could in many 



