Evening star., 1942-02-22
j. ), Is Paid Back
Millions Invested
In II Plane Project
All Needed Lumber
Produced by Army
Without Cent Cost
BY Wide World News.

BY Wide World News
PORTLAND, Greg. Feb. 21.-The
Government cracked a bottleneck
in airplane construction during the
first World War by production OF
spruce-.and it's beginning to look
now as though the $24, ,00O, 900 prof.
ect didn't cost the taxpayers a dime
Those old planes were largely a
matter of spruce, cloth and glue. but
mass production presented problems
Just as pressing then as the need
today for precision-made metal
thunderbolts.
The Government poured millions
into the job of getting out enough
spruce for Allied planes and after a
quarter of century has recovered
almost all the money.
All that remains OF the vast
liquidation program scattered over
the Pacific Northwest is completion
of a few sales contracts. G. r.
Sweetser, one of the directors since
the start, says the end is in sight.
When the United States entered
the war in April, 1917, the country's
spruce center in Western Oregon
and washington produced 100000
board feet of airplane spruce. In
September production was up to
$4,000 board feet, but was still
hopelessly below requirements.
Army Took Over.
y.L~~s ord }ropcrprt tion short
ages were the keys to the bootleneck
and in October, 1917, Col. Brice P.
Disoue took a quick look at the
situation and recommended that
the Army take charge.
The Army did. Col. Disque, soon
to become a brigadier general. was
in command. BY December 4 los
officers and 5000 enlisted men were
tackling the job.
The sprucers, as they were called
with some disdain, overflowed Port
land office buildings. More hundreds
poured in. Veteran lumbermen
shifted at the confidence of these
green hands and rallied at Army red
tape.
But Gen. Disque merely called for
50,000,000 board feet of lumber a
month-enough spruce to build
100000 warplanes annually.
In just II months he had good
hand hold on that goal. Had the
war lasted a few more months he
would have reached it. When the
war ended he had 1922 officers,
27,661 enlisted men and more than
125,0O0 civilian workers turning out
spruce.
He had built 13 railroads, bought
18 locomotives. 314 logging trucks,
400 donkey engines and $50 auto
mobiles and trucks.
He had built a 12-head re-saw
mill, or cutup plant, and "a dry
kilnS at Vancouver, Wash.
He had under construction twin
saw mills at Toledo, Greg, and Port
Angeles, Wash, which were to have
been the largest of their type in
the world.
He had acquired 13,440 acres, with
786,10l 900 board feet of timber, in
the Alsea Basin of Oregon.
He had poured more than $24,-
100000 into equipment and in
stallations.
When he started, Oregon and
Washington mills in December, 1917,
had shipped 3,206 900 board feet to
United States and Allied plane
plants.
In the final month of the war,
II months after the sprucers went
to work, 22,145 1928 feet were pro-
duced.
This was more than enough
spruce to build more than enough
planes for the Allies
When Gen. Disque took over he
found in the towering spruce trees
of Oregon and Washington coastal
areas all the raw material he needed,
but there was little way to get it out.
He set up 234 woods camps from
Northern Washington to Southern
Oregon. Soldiers put down their
rifles and picked up double bitted
axes to fell the trees. Others built
railroads and still others built plank
and stringer roads into the woods.
They built mills to saw the timber.
They built slips and ferry boats.
They were carpenters, ditch dig
gers, fallers, buckers and mill hands.
In the midst Of wartime activity,