Things Look Better in the Northwest

By Jack Dionne

Portland, Ore., July 2S.-Things aren't nearly as bad in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest as many folks have painted them, most of these folks being Northwestern lumber visitors.

That is my conclusion at the end of my first weelCs visit in the "Fir Northwest."

As a matter of fact my firm conviction is that the lumber industry is in better condition today than it has ever been in this territory, (with the exception, of course, of those wild days that succeeded the termination of the great world war), and that it is going to keep on being better with every year that passes from this time on. Every indication points that way.

There has been lots of grurnbling, and plenty of pessimistic reports have been printed up in this country, and I think tfiese pessimistic waves are a deliberate mistake.

The condition up here very well refects the softwood condition of the country generally, and of the Souttr particularly. So far this year the mills of the Northwest have sold and shipped more lumber than they have manufactured, there is no accumulation of stocks, no adverse physical condition, and the genertl market is a very excellent one.

The big kick, hcre as elsewhere, is prices. They say they are not making any money on the stock they cut. And if they are not, it is the same old lumber trouble all over again. When a man can sell all and more stock than he makes, and still sells it for less than it is worth, there is something very much wrong with his selling.

The long and short of it is that only l0 per cent of the lumber of the Northwest is SOLD. The other 90 per cent is BOUGHT. And lumber that is BOUGHT is always bought cheap, and when so great a proportion of the whole is BOUTGHT and not SOLD, it makes it difficult fo,r the sellers to get much of a price. As the selling increases, and the buying decreases, the lumber industry ol the Northwest will p,rosper. Not before.

During the last week the production of lumber has jumped back to normal up here, after considerable Fourth of July curtailment (the Fourth is the big curtailment pe_ riod of the year in the Northwest, like Christmas is in the f do not find the lumber men up here feeling nearly as badly, nor kicking nearly as much, as I had expected from the reports I have heard, and I am inclined to.believe that there are better things in store for them. However, they MUST get more for their lumber.

Old South) and orders have taken a fine brace, being considerably in excess of production.

All .the lumber folks up here who sliip to the domestic market are talking about the development of business in the Southwest, and they have all found one thing out for themselves already, which is, that it pays to ship the best of lumber, and no other kind, to the Southwest. I have asked every man who has talked to me on the subject to remember that qrhen they invade Texas and Oklahoma they are invading a lumber territory that has been accustomed to buying and using a better class and grade of lumber for ordinary building purposes than any other part of the entire world; when they ship nbw kinds of lumber to such dealers, they should see to it that it is the right Hnd of stock. They say that lots of harm has already been done by shipping inferior lumber into the Southwest, and tfiese folks tell me, in r€turn for my above-stated advice, to tell the dealers in the Southwest to use good judgment in buying new kinds of lumber, and to do their purchasing from dependable and reliable people who have a reputation to sustain, and in that way they will spare themselves the great grief that often comes with buying ,,just lumber."

I have not reached the shingle flks yet, and haven't heard their tales of woe, but my understanding is tbat while the market is a little better than it has bcen, it is still weak, and they are still making more shingle than the market seems to want.

To Make White Cedar Lath

Marshfield, Ore., July 18.-The first white cedar lath ever to be put on the market will be manufactured soon at the East Side mill of the Coos Bay Lumber Co. A portland Iron Works lath mill is now-being installed. It wiJl turn out about 25.000 lath per day. The white cedar lath will be marketed in California.