"Curtailment is no Solution" of Lumber Problem

By Jack Dionne

We noticed that our good friend Chas. S. Keith, of Kansas City, has recently furnished the press with facts and figures to prove his statement that "Curtailment is not the solution of the lumber problem."

Surely not ! Since the day we began writing and publishing opinions on the lumber market, we have beerl telling thern that same thing.

Away back, years ago, when the Southern Piners used to meet every few months to look over and consider the lumber situation, we used to grab the old typewriter and tell them in black face type the same thing that Mr. Keith has just declared.

BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS SOLD THEIR PROD. UCT. The market seemed rotten, and the average critic informed them beyond the question of a doubt that over-production was the curse of the lumber industry, but in spite of that fact when the end of the year c:rme they found that all the lumber they had been able to make had been sold" shipped, and consumed. The world HAD bought it and used it. It had bought it cheaper than the lumbermen had any business to sell it, but that did not alter the fact that the lumber HAD been sold and used.

And so long as the lumber is actually sold and consumed, curtailment is not the solution. The same human, tendencies that will sell one amount below cost, will sell a lesser amount in the same fashion.

Again Mr. Keith agrees with our oft stated thoughl Poor marketing, he says, is the trouble. Why, certainly. No intelligent critic ever guessed anything else as the trouble, to say qothing of an unusually smart man like Mr. Keith.

He makes another statement that is very interesting. He says that when they curtail at his mills, it hugely increases the cost of making what they do make. He says a 2O/o curtailment increases the cost of producing lumber about $3.50 per thousand. Based on facts, and undoubtedly correct.

And curtailment won't increase the price enough to make up that difference.

And so we get right back again to the original starting place. Lumber has got to be better sold, more intelligently marketed, more thoughtfully made, dressed, handled, and delivered to consumer.

Every mill can take a little of the "RUSH" out of its manufacturing operations, without what we call "curtailmen1." Get more out of every log, get quality instead of just quantity, and let every operation from the back of the woods to the front of the loading dock be intelligently directed at making the contents of that log serve the world better than when it is simply cut for speed, regardless.

Cut it, grade it, re-manufacture it, dry it, dress it, ship it, and deliver it more thoughtfully and ir\telligently and calmly than in the past.

The most undeveloped department of the lumber industry IS THE KNOB BETWEEN THE EARS.

When we get that worked up to better advantage, curtailment won't seem so important.

Softwood Consumption Increases And Hardwood Decreases In Automobiles

An interesting fact connected with the automobile and lumber industries as great related activities, concerns the drift of hardwood and softwood consumption in the auto industry, as evidenced by the facts and figures of. 1925 automobile construction.

In 1925 the automobile industry of the United States consumed 82O,241,W feet of hardwood lumber, as compared with 1,089,498,000 in L924, and with 1,163,232,W in 1923, showing a decided decrease in hardwood consumption in two years, about 25 per cent in the last year alone.

In 1925 the auto industry consumed softwoods to the total of 364,792,W feet, which was an increase of. 127 per cent over 1924, and. of.21.5 per cent over 1923.