Evening star., 1939-03-12

phonic check was made. BY mid
afternoon a representative of Dis
aster Loan was making a survey of
the damage and Washington rep
resentative was en- route to begin
another task of personnel moblliza-
ton and property rehabilitation.
Like Red Cross.
Like Red Cross workers, employees
of Disaster Loan work day and
night when fire. flood or hurricane
strike. Forty-hour weeks wait upon
catastrophe.
Disaster Loans are made for
period of l to 10 years, so that vic
TINS of a catastrophe may at once
feel a lessenlng of the financial
strain. They are secured by per-
sonal endorsements. chattel mort
cages on plant equipment. fixtures.
implements, livestock, mortgages on
real estate, or in any other manner
satisfactory to the corporation.
In each instance the prospective
borrower is consulted and the terms
OF the loan are fixed as nearly as
possible to meet his requirements.
/ Therefore Disaster loans are a god
send to the man operating on the
proverbial shoestring. Loans carry
an interest rate of only 3 per cent.
much less than banks can manage.
No payments of principal are re-
CURED for a period of four months
from the date of the note, and inter-
est Is waived during that period.
With Nature temporarily relent-
ing in its attacks on man, the
biggest financing job being handled
through Disaster Loan at the mo-
ment is the clearing of New Eng
land froeSts of millions of feet of
trees cut down by Septembers hur-
rlcane. The job will take, in some
sections, as long as 10 years and
the cost for 1899 alone is estimated
at s15OOO,0OO.
At the present 81 1895 men are
engaged in this herculanean JOB,
1854 from the Boston regional Of
flee and field offices Of the cor
poration. 5000 men from 40 C. C. C.
camps and 1,641 w. P. A. employees,
working on f1re-hazard reduction
under the United States Forest
Service. which is in charge of the
job. These figures, of course, do
not include any emloyes of nu-
merous private contractors working
on salvaged lumber.
Mills Under Contract.
There are now II mills under
contract for processing, with "a of
them already in operation on the
saving job. 1t is estimated that
far more than 1,0O0O0O,OOO feet of
logs will be taken from the stricken
Northern forest during this year.
v. c. Isola of the Forestry Service
estimates that 342OOO,OOO of this
is salvagable, a normal four-year
supply on the open market. Part
of the job being undertaken is to
stabilize the lumber industry so
that the bottom will not drop out
of the market and part of it is to
clear the forests of fallen timber
as quickly as possible to reduce the
fire hazard to standing timber.
1t is estimated that 22O more
mills will be needed for the work
and that 228 more log landings
must be built in addition to the
424 receiving stations already op-
Grating in the New England States.
A reforestation program is thrown in.
Advances on blown down timber
up to 80 per cent of the scheduled
prices for the various grades are
being made at delivery point through
the Northeastern Timber Salvage
Administration of the Federal Sur
plus Commodities Corp.
The logs are scaled under the
supervision of the Forestry Service
and the advances are made to own
ers when measuring is completed.
Disaster Loan will not touch a
log, of course, that was not leveled
by the hurricane, for the Govern
ment has no desire to enter the
lumber business. Care must be
taken not to compete with lumber
dealers. Since the salvage program
is strictly a non-profit undertaking,
all owners who contract with the
Government for the purchase of
their timber will receive pro-rata
shares of any surplus existing after
sale in excess of the 80 per cent
advances after costs and admin
istration and Disaster Loan are re.
paid.
Operations in each State will be