Arizona republican., 1921-01-17
Making Wood Do More
 Work
By FREDERIC ]. HAsKTN

1 two trees grow where one grew before is in general the aim of the United states forest service. but thai branch or 1t known as the forest products lab Oratory at Madison, Wis. has demon srated the possibility of doubling the wood supply in effect in another way by making one tree do the work or furnish the amount of material, that two trees did before.
 The forst products laboratory was started as branch Of the forest serv- lce working operatively with the University of Wisconsin in 1910, with . about 90 employees. The number of | employees was subsequently increased r to about 500, but due Co the small ap- proprauons given the laboratory and . the rise in salaries and all other costs ! it now has little more than half that number of employees. Industrial con- cerns have learned tho value of it's work and are applying to it in consid- ! erable numbers for aid, but most of these requests must be refused. No less than 1SS such specific requests for assistance from business concerns have been received in the last eight months. Most of them necessarily have been re- fused. Nearly all of the business con cerns were willing Co pay for the serv- ices they requested, but even so it was impossible to render them because there were not facilities enough available.
 Research Stopped
 And this inability to meet the spe- cific requests of business is a small part of the difficulty. Research work which could ultimately save the coun- try millions of dollars has been stopped for lack of funds. Tn this situation the forest products labora- tory appeals to congress and to the country for better support, and offers facts and figures to prove that it is worth 1t.
 It's case is worth considering be- cause 1t is typical Many other con- structive governmental activities, which pay a large dividend in actual increas- cd production of industry. are being starved out just as the forest products laboratory is, while enormous amounts are asked for army and navy support, for the enforcement of prohibition and for other constructive activities.
 It is not meant to imply that these are not needed. But appropriations of this sort, and those by which the con gressman hopes to bring money into his own section such as river and harbor appropriations seem 10 pass with little criticism, while the much smaller needs of the government for constructive scientific work are at- tackled as rank extravaganza.
 Thus the forest products laboratory, during the entire ten-year period of it's existence. has cost the nation but S2,- OO0, 900. It claims to have repaid this many times over by creating new tax able values. For example. the claims actually paid by the railroads for loss and damage to goods in transit now amounts to St00, 000O O00 annually. The forest products laboratory found that a large part of this loss was due simply to wrong method of mailing covers on boxes An improved method of nail ing has been worked out by the labor atory and adopted by the National As sociation of Box Manufacturers and through them by many companies and shippers. IL is pointed out that if this method results in saving of but 1 per cent 1t will be worth a million year to tho nation.
 Millions Saved
 Again, it Is a matter of record that sistent glues and in the use of plywood during tho war experiments conoucted aft the laboratory i'm making water-re- saved the war department $6.000,0 ,000 Investigations made at the laboratory during the past year In the use of cot ton hull fiber and second-c cut cotton linters for pulp have made available 100000 tons of material for this pur- pose. Plants for making paper pulp out of this new material have been established, with a total capacity oi 800 tons a day and the annual sales value of their product is s15,O0O,000 The laboratory has made a study oi the methods of taking turpentne from pine trees. with the result that meth ods have come into use which yield more turpentne and destroy less tim hcr. The average annual saving re sulting from this work is S4,0o0,000 pe year. Tn these and other ways thu laboratory claims to have increased production and decreased waste to tn
 amount or at least SS0,000,O00 year.
 What the laboratory asks is that small percentage of the wealth whicl it has created be given back 10 it fo
 doing new constructive work. Tn
 tasks that await it are far larger an
 moro important than those it has al
 ready done.
 The field in which it works in CT
 first place is an enormous one. Tn lumber and wood-tssing industries ] this country represent an investmer of S12, 1000, 900 900: they employ about million people; they are first anon the nations industries in the numbe of employees and second in the tnveste capital and in the annual value of the products. Our civilization is built ( wood as much as of steel, and ther is lno substitute for wood in most ( the ways it is used. We face a con stant dwindlng of the source of suI ply. The economical use of wood second in importance among industri I problems only Co the establishment 70 sound forest policy.
 Waste of Wood
 And we waste wood from the tin the tree is cut until tho finished prt duct is put on the market Loggir operation fin the woods are enormous wasteful. Losses in the seasoning. wood in this country are estimated s5OOOO 900 annually. Tho use of pr servative processes on ties, poles. pos bling. mine timbers, shingles lumh and other wood exposed to the weath would save tho country about St' 900 a year. The annual loss fro