'Lumber Industry Cheercd Bt Tlmber Conservation ' Board's Report

Washington, August 1.-The recommendations of the U. S. Timber Cons'ervation Board (submitted to the president of the United States on June Z3rd and publicly released on August lst) are reassuring, hopeful and constru,ctive in the opinion of the forest products industries, as expressed by Wilson Compton, manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, and acting head of the American Forest Products Industries, which is now in process of gathering into a single correlated group various divisions of the primary wood industries.

"It is noteworthy", he says, "that the Board has pointed to the uneconomic existing methods of timber taxation as the principal basic cause of overproduction of forest products and the resultant distress in the forest industries. The Board has found and has frankly declared that the 'burden of taxation on mature standing timber is the most important single present factor forcing the sale or cutting of timber without due regard to the current market demand for forest products.' Such a finding on the part of a competent public body, after a year and a half of study of forest economic problems, should prove convincing to authorities in principal timber states that until the timber taxation problem is constructively dealt rvith, the problem of forest conservation and of stabilizing the forest industries will not be solved.

"The widely practiced system of taxing standing timber on the sole theory that it is a land improvement is both unnecessary and uneconomic. All that is necessary is that forest land be taxed as other crop-bearing land is taxed, namely, on the value of the land itself. Any taxation necessarily imposed on the tree growth as distinguished from the land should be levied on the yield of forest products when cut. Every other country which has solved its forest problem has learned that fact and is applying it. Equal revenue could be obtained and the pressure for liquidating on an unwanting market could be relieved through levying the tax on a yield or cutting basis. The pronouncement of the Timber Conservation Board fixes attention on the archaic and unsuited habit of taxation customarily applied against timber and argues the adoption of more modern and more apt methods with the same benefits but happily lacking the weaknesses of the old system.

"The Board has found additional problems afiecting the well being of the forest industries and has embodied these findings in a well rounded program of twenty re.commendations calling for specific action. Among these is included the relation of administration of publicity controlled forests to the general problem. Noting that three separate federal bureaus are at present administering these public properties without a common policy, it has recomminded to the President and Congress an administrative reorganization that will place all such holdings with their auxiliary branches and services under unified control and direction to insure effi,cient,,coordinated administration.

"It includes in its recommendations additional publi,c acquisition of timber lands sufficient to round out tlie system of National Forests and to remove from immediate exploitation for,ced by taxes and other carrying charges, surplus timber for which there is no present demand; selective cutting of timber and sustained yield forest management; research and carefully planned mergers of timber holdings, and various improvements in the marketing of forest products.

"The severe competition between competing lumber manufacturers is a cause of waste of forest resources. I have long advocated wisely planned mergers of forest properties, believing that it would reduce waste, advan,ce standardization, diversification and refinement of production, reduce costs and improve marketing.

"An especially interesting recommendation advocates sustained yield forest management. It is not only suggested that private forests be placed on a sustained yield basis, but it is recommended that where public and private timber are grouped together they should be handled as a production unit. There are large possibilities in this direction. The forest industries will, I believe, generally support the recommendation of the Board that timberland owners give close study to the possibilities of selective logging; that is, the cutting only of those trees and those tracts which by reason of specie, size, quality, and accessibility will sufficiently repay the cost.

"The recommendation regarding further acquisition of timberlands by public agencies is a remarkable commentary on the new situation in the forest industries. The studies of the Board plainly show that great timber holdings, which as recently as twelve years ago were regarded as the open door to certain wealth, have become an intolerable burden on private ownership and to the forest industries.

"The Timber Conservation Board is to be congratulated on its courage in recommending that greater latitude be given forest industries in making agreements relating to the,control of production than is supposed to be permissible under the anti-trust laws. As it is now. the forest industries are often in the anomalous position of being publicly criticized for destructive utilization of the forests, at the same moment that other public agencies criticize them for taking the necessary co-operative measures to put a stop to it.

"Those engaged professionally or commercially in the forest industries will find much to edify them in the Board's suggestions regarding lumber distribution and marketing methods.

"It is not possible to analyze all the recommendations of the Board, but it is evident that it has laid the sound foundation for the integrity, stabilization and permanence of forest industry, for forest conservation and for encouraging the permanent productive use of forest lands. The Timber Conservation Board's report to the President of the United States is the most enlightened ,conservation document in a quartbr of a century.

These doors, unique in their setting and design, are built of small flake White Oak, stained Cathedral Oak. In a home in Piedmont by \Williams 6c '$(/astell, architects.

Gordon B. Kaufmann, architect, specified 211a" Sttgar Pine stiles and rails for these splendid doors in the living room of a Bel Air home. The massive trim design, which is carried out in Port Orford Cedar, is harmonious and effective.