The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-11
THr rrMRER suPPLY.

AZ HI kuUW WHO nave udu ocCooioh to use lumber of any kind. there has
 been decided and constant increase in prices of late years. On some
 grades of lumber the price has nearly
 doubled in decade. and on all kinds
 the advance has been so great as to offer serious problem to all who
 have occasion to use wood in any shape Builders and contractors feel it as
 well as those who want houses built
 and the certainty that prices will con
 tinue to advance is not encourag- ing.
 Of course one of the main causes of this increase In prices is due to the
 rapidly diminishing source of supply or
 raw material. It Is a case where all Is
 going out and little coming in. In otn-
 CT words, the forests all over the coun- try are being cut down with alarm
 ing rapidity and little provision is be-
 Ing made for a future supply. It Is very much as if the farmers should go on and use Up all they made last year and not plant any seed this year.
 When the present supply is consumed there will be no food to be had un- Jess a new crop is raised.
 It is the same with our timber. A casual observer travelling through the timbered sections of Alabama. for ex- ample. would probably say that there is timber enough to supply the world, hut If he will visit and stob while at one of our largest saw-miIls and note how the machinery Is actually devour- ing the raw material he will begin to change his opinion. Then when he gets down to serious thinking and reflects that hese timber cormorants are eating up the trees in every part of every State in the Union he will be apt se change his opinion as to the supply lasting indefinitely. In every section where there are forests the saws are running and their voracity is insa- tiable.
 It is no wonder that prices have ad- vanced, or that they should continue to do so The law of supply and de- mand applies in this case as in all oth- CTS. People will have lumber as long as they can ger 1t, and as the supply q d'mirishes the value will increase. as is the case with everything else. Those wlio can pay the high prices for lum- her will do so and those who cannot afford the cost must go without.
 But the rapid destruction of the for ests is not the sole cause of the high prices Another cause of 1t is found in the tariff and the trusts. The tarif duties on Canadian lumber has much to do with it. In all that vast reg ion North of the United States the amount of standing timber is incalcul- able, and If the lumber made from that timber could be sent over the linc free of duty it would go long way towards relieving what promises to be a timber famine, and would tend to keep prices down. Yellow pine does not grow in the Northern States of our Union. and as the native timber supply up there is getting short. and as they
  out paying tariff charges, the result Is that they make enormous demands on the Southern pine forests and thus cop- tribute largely to our own difficulty of keeping up with the demands of our people at home.
 But it is charged that there is anotb~ CT reason for present conditions. and that is the same reason that enhances values of almost everything else. In short, it is hinted that the trusts have to do with it. According to a contemporary it is estimated thai one hundred individuals and corpora tions now control seventy-five percent of the timber lands of the country. If this is true, or approximately true, it Is possible for them to fix prices pret- ty much as they choose, and we have no reason to suppose that lumber trust will be more charitable or con siderate than any other trust will be.
 All these causes combine to make lumber scarce and to increase its cost to consumers The only real relief we can see lies in discontinuing as far as possible the use of wood in building, and that will not be difficult. The rapid advance made in the use of con crete gives hope of cheaper building material for the future. It is true that concrete buildings are somewhat expensive at present, but it should be remembered that this industry is yet in its infancy. It is manufactured in but few places, but as the supply of raw material is widely distributed and practically inexhaustihle we may reasonably conclude that it will be made at much less cost in the near fu- ture and that its use will increase cor respondingly. In that direction lies the hope of overcoming the timber de- ficiency and of assuring buildings at