Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-10-14
SUBSTITUTION OF
 OTHEo MATERIAL
 FOR WOOD GROWS
Lumber Business Hit Hard by Replacement oE Wood
 in Building.
Twenty-Five years ago lumber was

III Building.
 Twenty-Five years ago lumber was regarded as almost as much of ne cessity as wheat, while today it is steadily being replaced by various substitutes, says report by the for est service on "The Substitution of Other Materials for Wood," just off the press. Disregarding the tempor- ary effect of the war, with it's sudden demand for lumber and it's great en- hancement of prices of many substi- ute materials, the report points out the tendency in the long run. Each E year more steel, concrete, brick, or tile is being used in places where lumber was formerly employed. This is par ticularly true in cities where enact ment of building codes and the devel- opment of new forms of construction have created demand for more dur able building material. Shingles have given way largely to composition and tile roofings, wooden sidewalks have been almost wholly replaced by ce- ment, while the modern skyscraper with it's steel framework, and stone, brick, or tile walls occupies the site of some former frame structure. Rail- road crossties and mine props are about the only forms of wood which are not affected.
 How hard this substitution has hit the lumber business is shown by the government estimate that the total re- placement of lumber in all forms of l use is 8,O90,0O0,00O board feet, or 21 OCT cent of the lumber consumption of the United States in 1915. The rate of substitution seems to be in- creasing and is now in excess of 500.- o0O,OO0 board feet g year. Approxi mately 70 per cent of the lumber cut goes into forms of use whose de- mands appear to be decreasing. Twen- tv per cent more goes into strongly competitive fields. In the remaining 10 per cent of wood uses, there seems to be a much better opportunity for large consumption.
 Increasing substitution has not, how ] ever, lowered lumber prices to the con sumer, the report points out. On the l contrary they have steadily advanced, while the cost of many substitutes has decreased. Exhaustion of the stands l of local timber and discovery of new ] sources for the manufacture of other 1 building materials are given as some of the reasons for these changes More than 75 per cent of the replace ment of wood, however, is made in
 spite of higher initial cost of the sub-
 stitute.
 The effect of the growing use of oth-
 CT materials has been to accentuate
 competition and decrease profits in
 the lumber business. As a result of
 this and other reasons, alternate pe-
 riods of curtailment and over-produc
 tion have made the lumber market
 unstable. This in turn has resulted
 to the disadvantage not only of the
 persons whose money is invested in
 timber and sawmills, but to the many
 hundred thousands who are dependent
 upon the lumber industry for their l living.
 Lumbermen have felt, it is said the
 effect of the replacement of their pro-
 duct by other materials, but have not
 realized the extent to which it had
 taken place. They have failed to 1 adopt aggressive selling methods and
 have been unable to supply the con-
 sumer with reliable information re- l garding lumber, because they did not l have it. A complicated system of l grades is in use which is not intelli-
 gible to the average consumer and is
 even the subject of considerable dis
 pute among lumbermen.
 Manufacturers of other building ma
 terial have spent large sums of money
 to obtain reliable information about
 their products. They have had to ad-
 vertise extensively to make "place
 in the sun" for themselves. Substitutes
 for lumber are guaranteed to meet
 specifications which are easily under
 stood by the consumer. These facts,
 the report states, have combined to
 make the substitutes increasingly i popular.
 Even with the increasing substitu-
 tion for wood, the report points out.
 there will be need for all the wood
 in the United States, and more. The
 total consumption of the country for
 many years has been far in excess of
 the growth. Already in many regions
 timber shortage and high prices have
 followed the exhaustion of the local
 supply. From the public standpoint
 there is a real need for growing for
 ests vastly larger than are now plann-
 ed for.
 SuNrv