Wesf Coast Lumbermen's Association Asks For Emergency Quota Protection

President Kennedy was asked bv the West Coast Lumbermen's Associition of Portland, Oregon, to invoke an immediate emergency quarterly quota on softwood lumber imports coming from foreign countries.

G. Cleveland Edgett, an executive of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, testifying April 15 in Washington, D.C., before the Senate Commerce Committee chairmanned by Sen. Warren G. Magnuson (Wash.), urged the emergency measure until solutions can be found for the complex competitive problems of the hard-pressed West Coast lumber industry.

The quarterly quota proposal, Edgett said, would permit foreign softrvood imports up to 10 percent of the nation's quarterly consumption. This volume is 2.7 percent less than Canada shipped last year, but is 1.1 percent above the previous te.n-year average.

Edgett told the senators the West Coast lumber industry needed immediate relief from the increasing volurne of softwood lumber from Canada r,r'hich reached a peak volume of almost 4 billion feet in 1961.

Edgett said West Coast lumber rvorkers had lost $40 million in annual wages to Canadian competition, that sawmill production in the Douglas fir region alone had fallen 1.3 billion feet in 1961 below the ten-year average, and more than 7,4N lumber workers had lost jobs.

He said the outlook for the future is even more alarming as British Columbia officials forecast an increase in lumber output to 8 billion f.eet by 1975, 2l billion feet above current levels. The vast bulk of this projected increase u'ill be exported to the United States, Edgett declared.

Edgett pointed out to the senators that what West Coast lumbermen seek is equality with foreign competitors in the market place, not subsidies or cash handouts. He outlined a series of possible corrective measures. which he said would take time and perseverance to enact, thus the emergency request.

Edgett defined for the Senate Committee the various problem areas where the industry is denied equality. He suggested the following seven points be explored further after the quota is imposed:

1) The question of modifying the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 and the Shipping Act of 1916,

2) A review of the regulations of the fnterstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Maritime Commission,

3) The need for a closer look at the .ori diffet.ntials that exist in loading lumber at various U.S. ports,

4) The possibility of using the United States Stabilization Fund to counteract any massive intervention by

Canada in the foreign exchange field,

5) The necessity for a realistic reappraisal of reciprocal tarifis on softwood lumber with Canada,

6) Study of an extension of the Buy America Act principle covering domestic lumber in federallv financed or insured housing, and trdgett said, "We don't think American lumber workers should be unemployed while their counterparts in foreign lands are prospering from lumber sales in our domestic markets. American Sarvmills should not be permittecl to face financial ruin while our domestic markets are being opened up to lumber from foreign countries where ntlmerous cost advantages are enjoyed."

7) A change in federal timber sale policies to provide a continuous supply of raw material at competitive prices.

Our industry r,r'ill be the first, Edgett promised, to suggest removal of quantitative limitations once we are satisfied that all artificial restraints imposed on our industry by government decree have been removed.

The West Coast lumber executive told the senators that the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest was not a dying industry, but on the contrary it had modern'sawmills, ample raw material, skilled r,r'orkmen and a national as well as worldwide acceptance for its lumber.

WCLA Re-Elects Officers

William R. Garnett. Tacoma. for more than 30 years in forest industries, was re-elected president of the West Coast Lumbermen's Assn. at its annual meeting in Portland.

In its years-old tradition, WCLA also re-elected other officers for a second one-year term:

Vice president for Oregon, Nils B. Hult, Junction City; vice president for Washington, Ben H. Gardner, Jr., Seattle; vice president for California, Jack Fairhurst, Fortuna; treasurer, R. W. Middleton. Aberdeen. Wash.: secretary, William Swindells, Portland, and executive vice president, H. V. Simpson, Portland.

Newly elected from among WCLA's 14 districts to serve as area trustees were:

William D. Anderson, Raymond, \Atash.; Theo. A. Deal, Longview, Wash.; Donald C. Thomas, Portland; Paul B. Co,le, Springfie,ld; Jim S.

Whipple, Drain; and J. J. McGrew, Medford.

Newly elected as trustees-at-large were:

R. W. Middleton, Aberdeen, Wash.; Charles L. Morey, Tacoma; and H. G. Kelsey, Longview.

Newly designated trustees ex officio, this group representing WCLA on the National Lumber Manufacturers Assn. board, were:

Ben H. Gardner, Jr., Seattle, and E. N. W. Hunter, Portland.

To represent special industry groups, newly elected was Arthur Lindley, Dexter, for small mills, and re-elected was Val Gardner, Springfield, for timber fabricating oompanies.

Re-elected for one-year terms on these two groups were:

Trustees at large-F. M. Crawford, Ukiah, Calif.; Jack Fairhurst, Fortuna, Calif.; C. L. Fallert, Brookings; John M. Fulton and C. H. Wheeler. Port- land; William Lulay, Scio; R. T. Moore, Jr., Grants Pass; William J. Runckel, Hood River; L.L. Stewart, Cottage Grove. ft's no gamble when you rely onibmc's unmatched ability to deliver the items you want, when you want it. For a sure thing, phone your redwood order to ibmc right now!

Trustees ex officio (re-elected)-J. N. Cheatham and William Swindells, Portland; R. S. Douglas, W. R. Garnett, Corydon Wagner and George H. Weyerhaeuser, Tacoma; George C. Flanagan and T. K. Oliver, Medford; N. B. Giustina and Eliot H. Jenkins and M. R. Leeper, Eugen.e; Nils B. Hult, Junction City; R. M. Ingram, Aberdeen, Wash.; John D. Leland, Longview, Wash.; H. W. McClary, Shelton, Wash.

Continued as district trustees: Ralph L. Willis, Sedro Woolley, Wash. ; O. Harry Schrader, Jr., Seattle; Jon. R. Titcomb, Tacoma; A. J. Frank, Stayton; Ray Miller, Monroe; Do:r Hendricks, Springfield; James H. Whitty, Coos Bay; Leon Holyfield, McCloud, Calif. Sam Witzel, Arcata.

Why gambleb-n less than the best? Get your redwood from ibmc, a known, dependable source, where only the finest redwood from Del Norte and Humboldt counties is used to fill your orders. Why gamble on late deliveries? ibmc's inventory, YOUR INVENTORY, assures you of prompt shipments every time.