Plenty o[ Timber to Supply Emergency Needs of Western European Countries

Washington, DecembeT l).-"ft1serica's supplies of lumber-both hardwood and softwood-are ample to provide for the emergency needs of western European countries cut off from normal supplies by disruption of Baltic shipping routes," said Wilson Compton, secretary and manag'er of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, today. Mr. Compton added that the American lumber industry needs and can use this business.

Pointing out that winter has now also closed the White Sea lumber harbors, Mr. Compton said: "While American lumber manufacturers with other Americans deplore the circumstances which have prevented normal shipments of lumber from the Baltic countries, we also see the importance of maintaining the market for lumber in Western Europe, even in emergency times. The timber exporting countries have carried on development rvork for wood construction in Europe as we too have done both at home and abroad. If we are now able to supply emergencv needs in the markets of Europe, we shall be helping them as r,vell as ourselves."

Due to the various tariff and shipping circumstances during the past decade. American lumber exports in 1938-39 have been only one-third of the export volume of ten years ago. Our permanent forest supply on the contrary is somewhat greater than it was generally believed to be even lvhen the United States n'as exporting three times as much as it is exporting now. Forest growth has increased and is continuing to increase. We have and we will have no national timber shortage. But we do have a shortage of markets and hence of employment. Our sall'mill capacity is no less. Adequate supplies of lumber can be provided for home demands, and more export than ever in our peak years when the United States was not as now fifth in rank among lumber exporting nations, but first.

American supplies are available for any need in England or Western Europe for which wood is suitable. That is a wide range, from house, camp, and other light building to bridges and other heavy "structural" work, as rvell as many industrial purposes.

And not only boards, dimension and timbers, but our many fabricators of C.C.C. and Army camps can supply large quantities of prefabricated housing in lumber.

The industry has abundant supplies of Pacific Coast and Southern softwoods and hardwoods ftom both North and South available to supply such needs in Europe as may develop. The present acquisition by Great Britain of large additional facilities for the trans-Atlantic shipment of' American lumber and cotton will enable the lumber industry to be much more serviceable in supplying emergency needs abroad and will no doubt furnish much of needed emolovment at home.

We just shake hands at parting, With many that corne nigh; We nod the head in greeting, To many that go by; But welcome through the gateway, Our few friends old and true; Here's open house to you, my friends, Ifere's open house to you.-Massey.

Happy New Year, rri"rrl" ; ;" lumber and building industry ! A happy and prosperous New Year ! Want a New Year's prayer? Try THIS verse from Oscar Rush's "Cowpuncher's Prayer":

"Let me be easy or, .1" lr"l .n..'" down, And make me square and generous with all; I'm careless sometimes, Lord, when I'm in town, But never let them say f'm mean, or small."

Or, perhaps this one, O, *r*1" Wuerfel, pleases your New Year's taste even better:

"Grant me, O God, the power to see, fn every rose, eternity. fn every bud, the coming day, In every snow, the promised May; In every storm the legacy Of rainbows looking down at me."

And. then there was .n";";"* rran who started life as a preacher. Aftbr several years as a minister he discovered that mankind is more interested in its body than in its soul, so he became a doctor. He practiced medicine for several years when he discovered that people are more interested in their money than tJley are in their bodies, so he became a banker. And the longer he lived the more certain he became that people are more interested in their money than in anything else, so he stayed in that business all his life.

"What a pleasure ,a ,. a" ai U.rrirr"". with Secretary Harold Ickes," remarked a speaker to a business convention the other day. "I{e is undoubtedly the most even tempered man in history-mad as Hell all the time."

"What's the difference between a Nazi and a Communist?" is one of the most told gags around Washington lately. The answer is: "A Nazi can't get a job in Washington." flowever, that one came out before Stalin attacked Finland. Even the well coddled Communists find the atmosphere not so friendly now. ***

King Herod killed a few hundred babes, and his name has come down through the centuries as a monster of infamy. Stalin caused the deaths of millions of women and children in his own country, and we still recognize him as the head of a civilized Government.

And then there was ,n" ,r. Jere great crowds gathered every day to witness the amazing sight of a lamb lying peaceful and unmolested in the cage with a great lion. One day a visitor asked the negro attendant if those two were always left in the same cage? "Yassuh, all de time," he said. "Cose" he added, t'now an' den we has to sorta replace de lamb. But h'its de same lion."

There was good "u-, ;r-" "a * Americans in newspaper reports from Washington the last few days. The Congressional Committee that started investigation o,f the Wagner Act and its administration by NLRB, announced that it would recommend to Congress the revision of the law. That's the biggest Christmas present the employers and the unemployed of this country could possibly have heard.

The Committee had ""r, O*" L "".rion a few days when this announcement came. But what they had already heard was most convincing. They haven't taken the lid off yet; only lifted one corner, as a matter of fact. But something closely related to a Chinese stink-pot was already manifest. And when they renew their hearings in January the fur is really going to fy.

I won't attempt ,o ,"tla" *rl"a n"* already been told the Committee. But here is one juicy little sample for em. ployers to mull over. They asked an NLRB official if the Board would compel an employer to hire a linown Communist, and he said YES; that the fact that a man was a

Communist did not deprive him of the protection of the Wagner Act. Get it? The Board would compel YOU, an EMPLOYER, to put back in your factory a man whose political faith was based upon the sabotage of the machinery, the destruction of the plant, and the undermining of the Government itself !

**t<

Is it any wonder that an attorney representing an employer at a National Labor Relations Board hearing the other day, cried out: "There should be some semblance of decency EVEN in these hearings ! After all, this ISN'T Russia !"

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Anyway, Congress is now certain to get the case with strong recommendations from its own Committee that the law be revised and its administration reformed. And if that is done in such fashion as to restore to the employing class in this country the confidence that THEY ALSO have rights under the constitution and before the law, you will see tens of thousands of men and tens of millions of dollars -now unemployed-going happily back to work.

Can a nation ever emerge from depression, think you, when the employing class, those who invest the money and supply. the jobs if there are to be any, feel as embittered and is outraged as they have in this nation of late, about the administration of the Wagner Act?

Besides this, there are other hopeful signs on the budiness horizon. As you may have heard, there is going to be a presidential election this year. And, while there is supposed to be a business hoodoo in such a year because of concentration on politics, THIS year it may be different. There have been for years at least half a dozen major conditions that contihually depress and discourage business. Who knows but that in the tense race for votes-and friends, there is going to be a battle royal before this good year draws to a close-some of the pressure may be taken off of business, that will cause it to improve its tempo. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if we heard some friendly whisperings from headquarters about lightened taxes, regulations, and other major deterrents of business optimism. The good old profit system may become suddenly a thing highly praised. In other words, we might have a better year in 1940 than in 1939 because o,f the political campaign.

Have you any idea ,J ;"; people are getting what they call "Washington money"? That is, federal funds of some sort, for some reason? Harlan Miller, popular Washington columnist, and very friendly to the New Deal, published an article on that subject the other day. He listed the bureaus, the agencies, the full time employes, the reliefers, the old age pensioners, the farmers, unemployment

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