Ihe Black llarket fiets Blacker

A year ago we wrote about the Black Market in these columns, and fitfully described its intense darkness.

Little did we realize that within ayeat the Black Market of that date would become practically an albino by comparison.

A year ago the Black Market was decidedly within bounds of one sort or another. There were places where it appeared non-existent. There were others where it seemed comparatively mild.

Today is has jumped all boundaries, and leveled off intensely over all known territories. We had a letter the other day from a lumberman from the South' He wrote from Portland, Oregon. He said: "If you think the Black Market is bad in Yellow Pine territory, you should come up here and find out how black a market can really get'"

We had another letter from another Southern lumberman, this one from Chicago. He said the same thing exactly about the Chicago territory that the first one said about the Pacific Northwest.

The fact is that the Black Market is blackest wherever you happen to be. It is no longer any respecter of places, persons, territories, commodities, or things' Like darkness, it covers everYthing.

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We visit around and listen to Black Market stories thdt stagger our 'belief. We are told that in lumber the Black Marketeers iidd higher and higher every day' They' can pay more fpr timber, for logs, for labor, for machinery, for iro"kt, for equipment, for anything and everything they need, than anyone else. What difference does it make what they pay? No trouble to get it back where there are no ceilings and eager buyers ask no questions about price'

There is, as everyone who knows the situation must admit, no chance to either kill or cut down the Black Market. It is all out of control, and will remain so' There are not enough possible government agents in the world to handle the thing. And besides, only the morons in the Black Market stick their necks out for the law to chop off' We read and hear about stopping trucks on the highways' A trucker must be a fool, indeed, not to have a bill-of-sale at

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legal prices along with him. Why not? What he really gets for the lumber and how he gets it, is another matter. There are a thousand ways a seller of Black Market lumber can get his price without even exposing himself to prosecution. Many of those interesting methods have been mentioned in these columns. In other words it is no trick at all and requires no extra smart man to be able to sell Black Market lumber safely.

Every now and then a new tri'ck shows up in Black Marketing. For instance, it is said that many men now work in Black Market mills and draw Workmen's Unemployment Compensation at' the same time. They draw the compensation in their right names, and then work for Black Market mills under assumed names, so get paid double. No shortage of labor at that sort of mill.

Nothing is scarce in the Black Markets if the buyers are willing to pay. There is nothing that cannot be had all the time and in quantity. That goes for everything from lumber to thick steaks and other scarce commodities. In the Black Market the word scarce is unknown.

There is not the slightest chance, not the vaguest hope of remedying the Black Market situation in lumber so long as there are restrictions and regulations and ceilings. Not the slightest. The highest price the White Markets wpuld ever be allowed would still be a pittance to the Black Marketeers. Don't expect any relief. There is none in sight.