The Trend of Forest Industries in the Pacific Northwest

By V. B. Greeley Secretary-M:rnager Vest Coast Lumberments Association

This meeting of the Pacific Northwest Advisory Board is held in the "Lumber Capital of America." A glance at Tacoma's sawmills, woodworking factories, lumber yards and docks from the roof-garden of this building will impress that fact upon you.

The lumber industry has never been guilty of imitating the shrinking violet; but we may perhap6 be pardoned if ai this particular point on the map, with the smell of sawdust and the hum of the buzz-saw in the air, we impose upon your patience to present some of the phases and trends of our industry.

At the outset f want to draw an analogy between the development in transportation service represented by theSe meetings of the Regional Advisory Boards and certain sig- nificant trends in the lumber industrv of the Northwest. There was a time when the railroadi lvete more or less dominated by the theory that the country simply had to have their transportation, and that it was up to the shipper to take the service that the railroads offered. Even so there was a time when the sawmills believed that the countrv simply had to have their lumber, and that the manufaiturer's interest ended when his boards and timbers had been whacked out of the tree by the cheapest and most expedient method.

_ Then came a period of somewhat chaotic operating and financial conditions among the railroads. Competition from highways, trucks, motor buses and ships threatened their supremacy. The public was less ready to invest in railroad securities. There was much dissatisfaction among shippers.

The creation of the regional advisory boards was- one of the means adopted by the carriers to re-establish their position on the basis of service, of good faith in consulting the shipping public on the requirements and needs of efficient service, and of mutual consideration and fair play in dealing with the consumers of their commodity.

This, of course, was simply part of the general effort ol the carriers to deal directly and squarely with the need which had been brought home to them foi operating economies, efficiency and public confidence. I think we will generally agree that an astonisirrng change has been brought about by the functioning of the regional advisory boards and by the constructive attitude of seeking improved service and efficiency wbich lies behind them. Certa-inly to the lumber industri6s tne advisory boards and the coroliary developments in railroad management have brought a suiprising emancipation from car shortages and their resulting economic losses. The increased speed of rail deliveries has directly reduced the working capital required in lumber manufacture; and the reduction in complaints arising from poor equipment, misrouting, delayed deliveries, etc. have placed the lumber industry in a distinctly more favorable position in conducting its business.

The lumber industry, as well as other manufacturing industries, may well take several leaves out of the sar4e book.

Lumbering has been one of the great pioneering industries of the United States. It has constantlv reached out rnto the frontier arilderness of virgin foresti. Its success and its driving power have lain in the energ"y and courage with which it has overcome natural obstacles and exploited raw resources. Its machinery for logging and manufacturing timber, particularly in the Northwest, has fascinated the world. It has swept onward in the vigorous conquest and conversion of natural wealth under the slogan of "Mass Production." '

You are all familiar with the general extent to which this vast industry has grown in the Northwest. Since we are today thinking in terms of transportation, it can be readily expressed in the annual loading of some 277 thousand cars of lumber and other forest products in western Oregon and Washington and in the annual movement of some 350 thousand cars of logs from the forests to the sawmills. Over 55 per cent of all the freight cars moved annually from the Pacific Northwest are laden with lumber or other forest products. Lumber from Washington mills is shipped to every state in the Union by rail.

Great as is this traffic by rail, an even larger volume is moved yearly by water to the far-flung markets of the world, to California and to the Atlantic Coast. About two billion board feet of lumber was moved bv vessel out of Puget Sound annually during each of the list three years, or nearly 80 per cent of the total ship tonnage outbound from Puget Sound and additional lumber shipments, in enormous volumes, move yearly by water from Grays Harbor and the Columbia River.

But, like the railroad industry, the lumber industry also has faced the need for abandoning the theory that its-products would sell themselves because the country could not exist without them. The lumber industry has encountered many new forms of competition. It must study its marlets clos6ly and find out how its products can besl be adafted to the needs of the consumer under the changed conditions r:f construction and wood use rn'hich prevail today. Like the railroads, the lumber industry must get the consumer's viewpoint, and it must do so in the same spirit of consultation, mutual interest and good will.

The lumber industry can no longer offer its products blindly to the world. It has learned the necessity of economic study to determine the types of products adapted tc modern consumption, to avoid flooding particular marketS, and egually to avoid oversight of the smaller and less conspicuous markets. It has learned the necessity of accurate business forecasts as an aid in the intelligent adjustment of supply and demand. It has learned the necessity of close,

(Continued on Page 20)