The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-11-26
Need For
More Lumber
Is Great
Urges Men in Logging
Camps and Sawmills
To Increase Production.
NOT GETTING ENOUGH
FOR ARMY, NAVY NEEDS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE
United States Army will use more
lumber than steel in the coming
year, Undersecretary of War, Rob-
ert P. Patterson, said today in
statement which told the men in
Americas logging camps and saw
mills that they "can render no
greater service to the cause of VIC
tory than to give us the wood we
must have-and give it to us
quickly"
Lumber is seeing action with
Americas Army of four and half
million at every corner of the
globe" Mr.. Patterson said.
Lumber comes close to the heart
of our whole war program. There
are 1900 different items of military
and naval equipment that can use
lumber. Every one of these items
has its part in fighting and win
ming this war Each day we find
new and important ways to use
wood in our weapons.
One hundred and twenty-five
million tons of wood will be used
by the war program in the next u
months, Mr.. Patterson said. This is
rs per cent greater than the tom
mage of steel to be used.
He said the Army regards the
men in the woods and mills as
front line fighters in this war
fHow much they produce will
have a great deal to do with deter
mining how quickly we will win or
whether we will win at ALL he
added.
I'VE are not getting enough lum-
Der to fill all the needs Of the
armed forces" he said.
Our requirements are going up,
our production is going down.
His statement follows:
Lumber is seeing action with
Americas Army of four and a half
million at every corner of the globe.
Lumber goes into hundreds OF
weapons Of war. Our soldiers ira
vel on lumber and they are housed
in lumber barracks.
''They move to their stations on
wood-bodied trucks, over tracks
laid on wooden ties, in ships built
and launched in cradle Of wood,
or by wooden transport planes.
"At their bases they sleep in
wooden cots, they learn how to
build wooden pontoon bridges, they
house their planes in wooden hang
airs, and they drink water from
wooden storage tanks, brought to
them through wooden pipes.
In action wood goes to war with
our soldiers as rifle stocks, as
smokeless powder made from pulp
wood as camouflage equipment
ghders, and as trailers that haul
shells to gun crews.
Lumber comes close to the heart
of our whole war program. There
are 1900 different items Of military
and naval equipment that use lum.
Der. Every one Of these items has
its part in fighting and winning the
war. Every day we find new anc
important ways to use wood IN oul
weapons. Our chemists are con
verting it into a substitute for silk
in parachutes, as base for invalu-
able plastics and for industrial al
cohol from which in time we may
get great stores of synthetic sugar
and rubber.
IF anyone still has the feeling
that lumber has little place il
mechanical warfare, it should bt
noted that we are going to use more
lumber than steel in our military
and naval program this year. On
hundred and twenty million tons O
wood are going TO be consumed b,
the engines of war. That is more
than rs per cent above the VOLUME
of steel that will 60 into the wa
program.
81 want the men in the logging
camps and sawmills to know tina
they can render no greater servic
to the cause of victory than to Civ
us the wood we must have-ant
give it to us quickly.
1T is not just matter of wool
for weapons. 1t is wood for rail
road freight cars and cargo plane