Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1910-11-18
LUMBER INDUSTRY GROWING
Oregon Will soon Lead All Other
States in Production.

Statistics of the lumber cut for the
past two years make fine showing
for Oregon. There are the elements of
greatest permanency here says Man
ager r. w. Raymond, of the Indus
trial Bureau of the Commercial Club.
This Is the coming mill center of the
entire Northwest the point where the
manufacturers and distributors of mill
machinery and supplies will seek and
the city in which will be located the
greatest number of woodworking
plants for furniture manufacture and
everything else that can be made of
the superb fir wood
THE report received from Wash
ington this week as to the total lum-
things of particular interest to the
resident of Portland and the State of
Oregon" said Mr.. Raymond this morn
ing. Among the significant things
with regard to this report is the rela-
tive amount of lumber cut in Wash
two years there has been an increase of
10 per cent in the number of the Ium-
Der mills in the State of Washington.
During the same time there has been
an increase in the lumber mills in the
State of Oregon of only 8 per cent. On
the other hand, the total number of
feet of lumber cut in the mills of
Washington has increased but two per
cent during the past two years, while
the amount of lumber cut in the state
of Oregon has increased 16 per cent in
the last two years. In other words the
percentage of increase of lumber cut
in the State of Oregon is eight times
as large as the percentage of increase
of lumber cut in the State of Washing
ton.
Looking at this from another phase
of the question, a larger number of
new mills in the State of Washington
and smaller increase in the percent
age of lumber cut would seem to indi-
cate the fact which is generally recog-
nized that the mills in the State of
Washington are not of the same per-
manent character as those that are
being erected in the State of Oregon.
The remarkable percentage of increase
in this state as compared with Wash
ington on the north or California on
the south, which, instead of showing
an increase in the amount of lumber
cut, shows an actual decrease in the
number of feet that have been passed
through the mills, is suggestive. The
significance of this is that Oregon is
just beginning to open up its great
timber holdings, and that for the next
20, 80, or possibly 40 years, if not
longer, Oregon Is to be the center of
the lumber mill industry of the great
Pacific Northwest.
THE report is significant also in
that the states in which there has
been the greatest increase in the pro-
duction of lumber are the states bord-
ering on the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico. In other words they
are the states that have deep sea
transportation into the great markets I
of the Atlantic Coast. The coming OPP
enlng of the Panama Canal means
great things for the lumber industry
of the State of Oregon. The present |
depression is due, as all men know, to .
over production, but there can be no
production when we are able to
land our timber on the Atlantic Coast
at a comparatively moderate cost, as
will be made possible by the opening
of the Panama Canal.