Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-21
FIGURES FORETELL
LUMBER FAMINE
Consumption Of Timber Shown to
Exceed Four Times Its
Annual Growth
SMALL MILLS ARE WASTEFUL
Trust Said to Be Unable to Con-
troll arket-PoSSibiIitieS
of Conservation
SMALL MILLS ARE WAsTEFUL
rsnecIal to The Herald1

PARSONS made between totals of lum-
Der production and of lumber producers
| in the preliminary report of the de-
| partment of commerce and labor on
lumber, lath and shingles show in
| creases of both in amounts that bode
| i'll for conservation and for profits to
the mills. The production has leaped
| from over $4,000, 100000 feet to over
| 44,500, 900 feet in ten years. The
mills have increased from 81 1893 in 1899
! to 1892 in 1909. These figures show
| that the small mill must have greatly
| increased in numbers. AS the small
mill is wasteful and not a conserver Of
the forests the sshowing is regarded
with alarm.
The comparisons of the totals in the
| recent report with those of midcensus
reports were held misleading because
the decennial census gets practically all
| the mills, whereas midcenus reports
made by the census bureau and the
| forest service are conducted by corre-
spondence and fail to get thousands of
mills.
| The decennial census of 1899 showed
| total production Of 81, ,084, 166 ,000 The
increase therefore has been q per cent
| in ten years. During the same period
| the population increased only 10 per
cent.
These figures serve to explain the
Improbable prices which lumber man
ufacturers have complained of. With
| standing timber prices increasing, be-
cause of growing scarcity, and with
labor and supplies at higher costs
many of the mills in all parts of the
| country report that they are losing
money.
| LUMBER PRICES ARE LOW
Others, probably the majority. are
reported to be doing business without
! profit or loss and comparatively few
are reported to be making a reason
able profit. These prices refer to those
secured by the lumber manufacturer
and not those made by dealers to con-
| sumers.
The report Of the United States forest
service for July, August and Septem-
ber showed average prices at the mill
| for Douglas fir in Oregon of $11.96 a
thousand feet; western henlock in
Washington of 5000, western pine in
Idaho of $1S.25, western yellow pine in
Washington of $3.50, North Carolina
pine in North Carolina of $12.99, yellow
pine in the lower Mississippi yalley~of
about $3.50, hemlock about $3.50, plain
| oak OF $$22.50 and so on through the
| list.
The estimate made by the forest SER
vice that the rate of consumption of
| timber is about four times the annual
| BTOWln WIleH lu6S6
| of production are considered, that the
lumber has been destro. red at an ac-
celerated rate. Too much lumber has
| been made for the business welfare of
its producers and prices are too low
| for the proper utilization of the forest
and for its conservation, although con-
sumers will be pleased for the time
being.
The most striking fact of the pre-
liminary report was regarded to be the
wide distribution Of the lumber indus
try. No grand section of the country
has any monopoly Of numbering, for
among the leading states are those SO
widely scattered as Washington,
Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia,
Wisconsin,, Pennsylvania and Maine.
Forty-fiye of the states and territories
We're represented in the report, the last
and smallest producer on the list be-
ing Kansas, with an output of only
100000 feet.
TRUST CAN'T CONTROL LUMBER
The product of each of thirty-six
states exceeded 100000,000 feet, that of
twenty-seven states exceeded 500,0OO,s
900 feet, that of nineteen states eX-
ceeded 100000 feet and that of eight
states exceeded 100000 feet. The re-
port went to confirm the contention
that the lumber industry cannot be-
controlled by a trust because of the
wide distribution of the product and
the competition between the various
woods and the various states which
has made it impossible to unite any
sufficient number of mills to affect
prices.
The states which produce over 1,000,-
900 feet of lumber in the order of mag
nitude were the following: Washing
ton, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Car
olna, Arkansas, Virginia, Texas, Wis
consin, Oregon, Michigan, Alabama,
Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Vir-
ginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Cal
ifornia and Maine.
1t has been thought by economists
that the consumption of lumber per
capita in the United States was de-
creasing owing to the increasing use
of substitutes, of which the most inn
portant is cement, but this preliminary
census report controverts the idea al
though it is held possible that during
the last few years of the census de-
cade a change may have taken place.
The persistence of forest growth
when it has the opportunity is shown
by the maintenance of the product in
some ON the oldest numbering states.
| FORESTS REPLENIsH THEMSELVES
Maine has been a lumber producer
for 300 years, for it was regularly
visited by vessels in search of masts
! for his majestys navy before the Pill
grims landed on Plymouth Rock, yet
in 1909 it was the nineteenth in volume
of production, furnishing 1,l12,O0O,0OO
feet of the lumber of supply of the
country. But instead of producing al
most exclusively white pine as was
once the case now it produces almost
entirely spruce.
But the new blood of the lumber
business is found In Washington,
which produced about 81 per cent of
the entire product of the country,
though closely followed by Louisiana.
The control of standing timber is
question which is only indirectly met
by the census figures, but all of the
48, 900 sawmills have to cut from the
present supply. Most large mills have
their own supplies, because they must
have raw material enough to last for
years if the large investment in mills,
railroads and other equipment are to
be justified. The small mills, which
buy from hand to mouth, have been in
creasing in numbers rapidly because
there still is a vast amount of timber
outside of the holdings of what are
called the large operators in the tim
ber industry. The small mill is not q
conserver of the forests, but is waste
full In it's methods because Of the small
capital that is usually back of it and
the crude methods which it is obliged
to adopt.