Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-07-28
TO INVESTIGATE
LUMBER TRADE
Departments Of Commerce
and Agriculture Planning
Timber Inquiry
TO BE ALONG NEW LINES
Lumber Industry is Recog-
nized as Third Largest
Business in the Country

WASHINGTON, July 26. - The
plans now being perfected for the
forest service part of the inquiry to.
be made Jointly by the departments
of commerce and agriculture into
timber and lumber-trade conditions
in the United States provide for cov-
ering entirely new ground.
Lumbermen are. now admittedly
conducting their operations with Il
large percentage of waste, said to be
largely due to market conditions
which make close utilization unprofit-
able. There is no general agreement
as to the actual causes of existing
conditions and the responsibility for
present undoubted evils. With rap
idly diminishing supplies of timber
to draw upon, wasteful numbering
has come to be recognized as mat
ter of serious public concern and an
inquiry to discover the causes and
seek for possible remedies is regard
ed by forest service officials as an
urgent need. 1t is believed that the
lumber industry itself recognizes the
need and will welcome an inquiry
conducted along constructive lines.
Private capital invested in timber
lands, mills, logging railroads, and
other forms of equipment reach an
enormous aggregate and the lumber
industry, which employs $4,000 per-
sons and has an annual output val
ued at / 1-6 billion dollars, is the
third largest in the country. In seek
ing to realize conditions which will
safeguard the public against waste.
full methods of timber exploitation,
possible timber monopoly, and other
Objectionable practices while insur-
ing healthy conditions and fair treat
ment for the lumber trade, .an un-
derstanding Of the basic facts is in
dispensable. These facts, however,
ever, have never been ascertained in
their entirety. 1t is the purpose of
the Forest Service to obtain and in
terpret them impartially, in cooper
alton with the other bureaus assign
ed to the study.
Lumbermen complain that the car
rying charges created by interest on
long-term investments, taxes, and cost
of fire protection where such protec-
ton is given compel them to operate
even where lumber prices will not
repay them the costs involved. The
necessity of operating under these
conditions is advanced as the princi-
pal cause of waste since the market
is most easily glutted with lumber of
the poorer grades, which must then
be left manufactured On the other
hand, the public complains that the
cost of lumber is so high. Over
competition may result in destruction
of timber resources with no commen-
surate advantage to the consumer
but with the certainty of unnecessar-
lily high prices later. Yet restriction
of competition on the part of lumber
men with a view to greater profits
for themselves through higher prices
is both contrary to law and highly OBJ
jectionable from the standpoint of
public policy. Thus highly complex
situation exists. Any attempt to ad-
just the present conflict of interests
on basis fair both to the public and
to the lumber industry demands full
knowledge of all the facts.
Lines of inquiry provided for by
the plans of the forest service include
the present lumber output and de-
mand, the conditions known to the
trade as overproduction, the effects
upon production and market prices of
speculation in timber and of carrying
charges, producing and distributing
costs including freight and the charg-
es levied upon the product by whole
sales and retailers, and the amount
of waste under present methods of ex-
ploitation. Special attention will be
given to means of utilizing low grades
Of lumber and by-products.