Lumber Industry Needs Foreign Markets

Chicago, Nov. 20-Talking about "The Position of American Lumber in Foreign Trade," Wilson Compton, \Ai ashington, D. C., secretary and manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, said today before the Annual Meeting of the National Foreign Trade Convention here, that the position taken by the lumber industry with regard to the trade agreement with Canada in 1935 was the "starting point from u'hich we direct our drive for the restoration of American lurnber and timber products to a rightful place in the sun of a rising international commerce." The position taken by the industry, while it frankly criti,cized the lumber provisions of the Canadian agreement, said that the industry recognized and respected the ag'reement as constituting the deliberate conclusion of the President. Accepting the responsibility placed upon it by reason of the further difficulty then added to an already difficult situation, the industry asked the Government's aici in restoring foreign markets. Dr. Compton explained that lumber manufacturers resented rvhat seemed to them a needless further exposure of their domestic markets to the hazards of Russian lumber competition, which had done such havoc in the more accessible lumber markets of Europe. But, he said, they especially resented the opening ol American markets to Canadian lumber whilst leaving the Canadian lumber industry in "unchallenged possession" of preferential advantages rvhich have gradually obliterated American lumber from great 'lvorld markets, for which it had been for decades the principal source of supply."

The speaker said that although that resentment continues, it is tempered by the belief that if the reciprocal trade agreements program is constrmmated on a world-wide basis and the reasonable cooperation of other nations is attained through the restoration of international commerce, the industry, rvhich so far has had little but the bitter taste of foreign competition in its already saturated domestic rnarkets, may also have the sweeter taste of larger opportunities for equal competition in ',vorld markets. While statistically America's foreign lttmber trade looks less than ten per cent of our total lumber production, it is very important in the export areas of the industry.

Our forests contain many species and our sawmills produce many grades ancl items of lumber for which there is no adequate domesti,c market. The present alternatives to the waste of these othern'ise nonmarketable produ,cts are either foreign markets,or abandonment in the woods. The loss of export markets has added seriously to the waste of timber in recent years, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Although the manufacturers have made diligent efforts to stop this u'aste, the U. S. Forest Service has estirirated the lvastage of rarv material of lumber size in Oregon ancl Washington logging operrations in 1930 as equivaler-rt to one-sixth of the entire annual lumber production.

Because of virtttal exclusion from certain export markets cluring the past six years, rvastage is greater today than it n'as in 1930. Dr. Compton emphasized that the solution of this problem of rvastage u'as largely in the restoration of the exDort ontlets for this material.

In the second place, Dr. Compton pointed out that much of the best United States timber is remote from the principal domestic lumber consuming markets, the result being that scores of mills are unable economi'cally to market their products in competition with others more favorably situated, except by the use of water transportation. Foreign markets are indispensable to those mills which can profitably deliver lumber to distant foreign markets by rvater at transportation costs substantially less than by rail to much nearer domestic markets. Then again it was noted that many domestic lumber markets, principally dependent upon the building industries, are subject to rvide seasonal variation-a situation which is returned to a balance rvhen foreign markets supplement domestic markets.

Another advantage of dependable foreign markets is the substantial encouragement they give to reforestation, commercial tree growing dependent upon the revenues derived from the produ,cts of forestry. An important thing to rernember, the speaker said in this connection, is that timber is the only basic natural resource which is continuously renewable. There is no need, norv or ever, for exhaustion of our national timber resources if the markets for forest produ,cts are maintained. Timber is the only "crop" available for five hundred million acres of land, sub-marginal for ordinary agriculture and permauently useful, if useful at all, only for forest growing. It was remarked that 5@ million acres is more than the area now devoted to annual agriculture.

Dr. Compton stated that the present annual drain upon American forests for lumber is 3.9 billion cubic feet, for other forest products, 3.9 billion cubic feet, for fire and rratural losses 1.8 billions cubic feet; a total drain o{ 9.6 billion cubic feet. As against this drain there is a present annual timber growth estimated at 9 billion cubic feet with a possible annual growth under favorable 'conditions calculated at 19.1 billion cubic feet. If the present fire loss were reduced by one-half, timber growth and timber drain would now be in balance, to say nothing of the reserve of present saw timber, estimated at over 16 hundred million board feet-equivalent, at the present rate of utllization, to 74 years' supply.

Referring to loud lamentatior.rs over "forest destruction" and to gloomy predictions of a treeless land, Dr. Compton said that the present problem rvas-rather one of encouragement of forestry through wider markets for its products than one of literal conservation-rather forest renewal thall forest parsimony. There is and will be no such thing as a timber famine.

"Whatever the merits of the debate over the lumber traffic," the speaker concluded, "and horvever important the continuance of such measure of protection as will at least a.r,oid necessity of reducing wage scales toward the lorver levels of principal foreign competitors, it is true that a rcstored and healthy export trade will benefit the lumber industry as a whole more than the present vacillating protection in the domestic markets."

California Cities Rank High in Building Lumbermen" Hi-Jinks December 11

Los Angeles 'continues to hold second place in building among the cities of the nation a'ccording to statistics compiled by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.

In the twenty leading cities showing the largest buildingpermit valuation for the first ten months of. 1936, Los Angeles ranks se,cond, San Francisco is eighth and Oakland is eighteenth. The figures for 1936 with comparative figures for 1935 follow : Ten Months

The Lumbermen's Annual Hi-Jinks, sponsored by Lumbermen's Post No. 4O3, American Legion, will be held at the Los Angeles Press Club, 1106 South Broadway, Los Angeles, Friday evening, December 11, 1936.

There will be tu'o hours'of entertainrnent. This will be the biggest and best show ever put on by the Post and there will be a bevy of pretty girls on the program.

The committee arranging for the party includes: Milton Taenzer, Ameri,can Hardrvoocl Co.; Russell Gheen, C. D' Johnson Lumber Corporation; Ed Biggs, IJnion Lumber Company; Maurice Alexander, Paramount Studio; and !'red Morehouse, Anglo California Lumber Co., Inc. Dinner will be served at 6:30 P. M. Tickets are $1.75 each and can be obtained from the members o{ the committee.

The Lumbermen's Hi-Jinks is always looked forward to by the lumber fraternity and there will be a big turnout. Make your reservations for tickets as soon as possible, and be on hand early to get a good seat for the entertainment. All lumbermen are invited to attend.

Announces New Appointments

The Riverside Cement Company, Los Angeles, announces the following appointments: Warren H. Leonard, sales manager to the ofifrce of general manager; John C. Allen, assistant sales m,anager to the office of sales manager; Holton C. Dickson to the office of assistant sales manager.