Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-29
BY WILLIS j. BALLINGER.
United States. according to
statement made to me by
Col George Patrick Ahern,
u noted forester will be in the

statement made to me by
Col. George Patrick Ahern.
noted forester, will he in the
midst of a wood famine in
ten years.
/ have interviewed number of no
tables i'm recent months and, looking
back over the list, I am amazed at the
number who have specialized in pre-
dictiOnS of calamity. One authority
told me we will see our oil resources
exhausted in a generation. Another
one informs me we Will be dependent
i'm another ten years on foreign, coun-
tries for our meat.
Department of Commerce official
issued to me warning that this coun-
try is in the grip of nine foreign mo
nOpolieS already. one of them, rubber.
holding a life-and death arm over one
Of our greatest industries. Still an
other man told me that bugs right
inside our own borders were devOur-
ing more of our substance in a year
than foreign debtors could borrow and
forget to return in dozen. And an
other calculated that our efficient
crime trust was relieving us of
s.. 200. 900. 900 a year.
Thus I am become a bit callOuS to
the alarmistS who SEQ us speeding to-
ward national pauperisp. But must
confess that col. Ahern's figures and
his llndeniabIe mastery of his subject
impressed me. hardened as ! am
against the tocsins of the alarm
saunders.
Peak of Production Passed.
1--WE cut last year In the United
States" Col. Ahern began. 80, 600
900 900 board feet of lumber. OF this
amount, 10000 100000 represented
hard wood and the remainder, or
% 900 600. 900, soft wood. 1t is the soft
wood that is chiefly used in construc-
ton. It is the shortage in hard wood
that will hit us first. The crisis in
soft woods will come. but it will come
after the hardwood supply has begun
to fail badly We passed our peak
production of wood in this country
some wears ago. when we attained u
record breaking output of over 10000.
600 900 board feet in ono year. W"
will never he UP i'm the 4oS again.
We are cutting into our wood capital
at an enormous rate of destruction.
The natural rcgroWth of wood in the
United States is about 5000. 900 900
cubic feet of timber a year. We cut
around % 900 900 900 cubic feet every
year. We are therefore eating into
our capital at very consuming pace.
"Rut, Colonel. suppose our wood
supply does peter out. wont science
come to the rescue with wood sub
Stitutes?"
THAT is not likely to happen in the
case of wood, because wood enters
into our commercial life so thoroughly
that science would have to flood the
market almost overnight with suhsti-
tutes to remedy the hardwood famine
that will be on us in 10 years and the
complete wood shortage that Will
strike us hard in 20 years.
Wood Used $500 Ways.
"One expert on the use of wood in
industry reports that wood is used in
$500 WAYS There is hardly a bust
ness that does not use some wood
We speak about this age as one Of
iron and steel. What We forget is
that wood is just as important. And
so fast are new uses being found for
wood that one investigator remarks
that the age of wood may lie just
ahead of us That is the second rea
son why science cannot help a wood
shortage by inventing substitutes. In
the first place. we have too many
uses of wood at present to ever count
on science finding substitutes. In the
second place. new uses for wood are
! increasing so rapidly that our reserve
supply can never catch up with the
! demand. a wood famine is unavOid-
able. Science is helpless to avert il.
within the last few years it was
discovered how to make silk from
wood, and the resulting product was
called 'rayon.' Rayon has become Il
powerful new industry. and its drain
on our wood supply is bringing the
day of reckoning nearer. Science, in
stead of inventing substitutes for
wood, is also busily engaged in finding
new uses for it, Science is thus multi
flying its efforts to avert Il wood short
age. Today we make rope. carpets
and delicate fabrics out of wood that
generation ago would not have been
dreamed of
Drain on Resources Growing.
meanwhile. the drain on our re
sources has been growing heav ier. In
1914 the daily circulation of newspa-
pers in the country was 2S,710 900.
In 1925 it was $4,000 900, and all pa
pers have greatly increased their size.
We have 20 to so page papers where
we had only 10 pages in 1914.
I'm 1899 we produced SO per cent of
the wood that was used in American
paper. BY 1928 we produced only 10
per cent. In some cases where sub
stitutes for wood have been tried they