The Hattiesburg news., 1915-09-15

i Speaking of conditions in Laurel,
Mr.. Gardiner, according to dispatches
from there, says:
Laurel lumber mills year ago ex-
ported half OF their total product. The
lower grades went to the West In
dies and the higher grades to Europe.
When the war came on, all the Ger
man ships were interned and over a
thousand British and French ships
were requisitioned by those govern
ments for the transportation. of war
supplies and were taken out of the
freight market. That left only small
number of cargo boats available and
such as were in service gave the pref
erencei to cotton and to wheat.
"This left the lumber trade practi-
cally stranded. We had to find mar
ket in this country for the immense
volume of lumber we had been export
ing. Many of the small mills tribu-
tary to the gulf coast shut down. For
tunately the mills of Laurel were able
to keep going, although we had to
face an enormous shrinkage in the
price of the output. The price of
lumber dropped from an average of
SIG per thousand July, 1914, to $12
per thousand thirty days after the out
break of the war-a decrease of %
per cent.
After the rush of grain and cotton
shipments had somewhat subsidized. to-
ward the spring of 1915. few boats
offered to take lumber cargoes to
Italy, France, Spain and Great Brit
ain. But the freight charges had
jumper from 81 per thousand to s25
per thousand. At this high rate quite
a number of vessels were chartered
and cargoes of lumber and timber
were sent to such ports as Genoa,
Liverpool and London, which gave the
gulf mills small relief.
"In January, 1915, the Southern
Pine Association was formed to try
and better the desperate condition of
the lumber industry and it was de-
cided that printers ink and plenty of
1t was the tonic needed to put the
trade on its feet. 1t was decided to
raise fund of 100000 to advertise
yellow pine throughout the United
States and try to increase the use of
it in every legitimate way. A great
campaign was Instituted to educate
the people to the merits of yellow
pine for paving blocks and yellow pine
for silos. Thanks to the assistance
of our newspaper friends the cam
paign has been success and the use
Of yellow pine for these two articles
has increased enormously.
Lately there has been quite lit
tie call for yellow pine for the con-
struction of box cars for the Russian
government. Large amounts Of vel
low pine are being used for packing
cases in shipments of shrapnel and
other munitions of war. The muni-
tions factory at Bridgeport, Conn; Of
fered the Laurel mills last week an
order for one million feet of low grade
yellow pine boards to be used for the
purpose.
"The enormous crops in the North
are stimulating trade and while the
yellow pine mills do not look for any
thing like a boom. it certainly must
be admitted that trade conditions are
much better than few months ago,
and are still showing a gradual, al
though slow, Improvement. The rail-
roads have not yet begun to buy any
considerable quantities of yellow pine
but it is inevitable that when they be-
gin to feel the effects of the move
,ment of the enormous crops in the
North, they will be in more liberal
mood. Undoubtedly by the first Of the
year they will loosen up and begin
buying supplies Of yellow pine which