Production Control

Yesterday I lvent to tl.re ruarket. Eggs and cofiee were on rrly list. I asked the price of eggs. "Sixty cents," the woman statecl. Last month eggs were 42 cents. ,,What's the idea?" I questioned. "Oh, eggs are scarce just now; hens are not laying." -

_.There was supply curtailment hitting me in the pocket. The price of eggs, follolving a well-kn-orvn economic larv, had gone up. The supply wis smaller than the demand. I paid 60 cents for the same kind of eggs I had bought two months ago for 42 cents. As the ultimate consumEr there was.noth_ing-I could do abolrt it, if I rvanted those eggs.

Then I called on the cofiee man. Did I ask hiir" how much ? No. I knew the price of the coffee we used. I knew that it had been set several months ago, for me, by the government of Brazil. By regulating ixports of 'thl bean, Brazil, rvhich produces the- major* pofiion of the world's coffee, sets the price of my morni.tg-drink. This is a case rvhere an economic larv is not allowed to function. Brazil by regulation, cnrtailment, supervision, or whatever one may,want to call it, makes coftee growing profitable to her people. Brazil tells me rvhat I stritt payl 'I pay it, or go without.

There are ttvo simple.instances out of American daily life. fn one the time of the year sets the price of eggs. I; the other governmental control sets the price oi"cofiee. Tb"y "T- entirely different, yet they amount to the same thing. They both make the produci profitable to the pro_ ducer.

Tl're northr,vest lumber inclustry is again at the cross_ roads. It is and has been for months. pioducing too much lumber. It has been selling an extrairdirr"ry-"^o.,rri of Iumber for too little money.

Nerv business has been slackening ofi for more than 30 days, but production has lteen carried right along. production, for the mills reporting to the Wesl Coast Lumbermen's-Association, for the last available week, was l6 per cent above new business. For every 100 feet of lumber produced in these mills there is a 16-foot over-production. And it is the over-production, or the under-prbduction, which sets the price, unless like Brazil, rvith hei coffee, we substitute some sort of control. Too many eggs nreatl cheap eggs to the consumer. Too many eggs for too long a perioa ida the egg farmers go broke. Too mnch lumbei miarrs cheap lumber to the consumer. Too much cheap lumber for tol long a period means that lumber producerj will go broke. . Lumber producers, in our terriiory are going Eroke. We have told of several recently. Trvo more &ash*ea last week. Ygt production, and much of it at less than the selling price of lumber at the mill, goes .right straight along. Cer-tainlv, so.me sort of. a governor should contiol. M*y of us be_ lieve that this should be self control, practiced by the in_ dustry itself.

This publication is chiefly interested in.two things: l. Continuous employment, under good conditions, with fair wages for employes.

2. A fair return to investors.

We have other interests but these trvo are fundamental. Without -satisfactory.a.rrangements in our industry where_ by these basic necessities can be satisfied, nothing else that is worth while is possible of accomplishment. With th... trvo in mind, and with a.fairly accirrate knowledge of the present situation, rve seriously adr-ise emplovers and em_

Mrlst proiluce desitoble cuthitrgs

No.2 ShoP

" No. 2 Shop must produce cuttings inthe sizes mentioned fbr the qrade of No' 1 Shop in excess of one of-the following

Percentages:

4O%No.2 cuttings z57o No. 1 cuttings

33lt% of mixed No. 1 and 2 cuttings

"In addition to the sizes mentioned,top rails. which are five or six inches wide by two feet four inches to three feet long may be counted in this grade. These top rails must be of No. l qualiryIbut are counte? only as No. 2 cutting3 beiause of their small sizes.

"Atsome millwork plants,theqrade of No.2 Shoo supplies all the door cuttilngs required. Hoi'evdr] in order to obtain a suficienf number ofstiies it will ordinarily be found necessary to buyNo- 3 Clear,or No. l Shop in con,unCUOn wlth rtJ.

No.3 ShoP

"No.3 Shop consists of all lumber in the general shop -type that is below the grade of [{o. z Shop. Gerierallv this specificatidn alone souerns the qradins ofNo. i Shop, but for the iurpose of c-heckin-g the quality irf this grade the rules Dtovrde that each Dlece snalr contaln not less ihrn 4o4o of mixed door and sash

"Hefe afe 'No.z and 3 Shop"'

cuttings,or in theabsence ofany door cuttings, 50% of sash cuttings. Sash cuttings are described as 2 72 inches wideor wider,by 28 inches long or loirger.

Othquses

Adoattageous widths anil lengths Ciradesthat really sell

"In addition to sash and door cuttings the erade of No. 3 Shop will vield many other iuttinss valuable foi use in the manufacture of frames,moldings and trirn-r.

"No.2 andNo.3 shop grades of California 'White and Suqar Pine arebroduced in widths of t inches an-d over, but in the grade of No. 3 Shop, 57o may be less than 5 inches wide. Lengths in both grades are 6 feet and up. Ordina-rilv the leneihs of California PineShop will be?oundto 5e vervqood.From somemil[s 7o/o of the lumber shifped is 16 feet long.

"The grades of No. 2 and No. I Shop will be foun{excellent for the retail yard opeiati ng a olanins mill or for the independent woodw'orkingffactory engaged in ihe production of doorJ, sash, framCs, trim or moldings. Thev should also be carried in stock forthe industiial consumers. The smdll pattern makers in vourvicinitvwill soon becomevourcustomeri when they know you carry shop grades."

Hate yoz oar book of grading rila? If not,zttrite " (al " ?ine for a njy, it\ free'.

(Continued ftom Page 22) plol'es in our industrl- to STOP N{,A"KING SO MUCH LUNIBER. And stop it right norv !

In the interests of its rvorking people, the communities it supports and of its stockholders, the fir industry should stop making too much lumber. It seems, from the fir industry's experience last spring that a shortening of the rvork-1veek, if put into effect liy individtral plants, .rvould aid materially in stopping over-production. Why not, in the interests of rvorkers, communities and investors, adopt -where the indir.idual n.ranagements and men can so agree -a 40-l.rour rveek? And if this is done, rvhy not continue to take all dav Saturclay off until production and dernand come r,vithin speaking distance of each other?

_ This is everybody's ltusiness. Lumber prices, all along the line, are too lolv. Stumpage is being sacrificed; rvages are not rvhat the industry should pav; dividends, in most operations, are not being paid. Common labor is certainly not making a fair lir-ing. The hen quits laying and rve pay more for eggs, or go u'ithout. Brazil controls coffee. The lumber industry-especially in the fir region-needs to quit laying and to begin practicing self-control.-4L Bulletin.

Ships Kilns To The Islands

The l\Ioore Dry Kiln Company of North Portland, Oregon, and Jacksonville, Florida, recently shipped from their North Portland plant trvo of their l\Ioist Ali Dry Kilns to the Kolambugan Lumber & Development Company, u,ho operate a sawmill at Kolambugan, Philippine Islands.

Dry- kilns enable mill operators in the Pnitipp;nes to secure shipping rveights on their freshly sawn hardwood lumber in a short time. Lumber that has been kiln dried can be shipped in cargo lots to various parts of the world without suffering degrade in transit. The use of Philippine hardwoods for interior trimming, for furniture ture and for cabinet work is rapidlv increasing in States and European countriei.

Mr. W. G. Scrim, 910 Central Building, Los Angeles, California, is Pacific Coast representative for the K6lambug-al Lumber & Developmenf Company, who produce the l'ell-known "K.L.D." brand of Philippine mahogany.

This makes the second battery of div kilns thatlhe Moore Dry Kiln Company has furniihecl for mills in the philippine_ Islands, having formerly supplied eight dry kilns for the Insular Lumber Company, Fabrica. Philippine Islancls.

Large Cut

. Within two years. one-thirty-sixth of the lumber produc- tion of the entire United States, or approximately one billion,.feet of lumber, will be cut at Longvier,v, Wash., according to comparisons with recent figules of production announced by the United States department of iommerce.

'I'his enormous output of approximately one billion feet of ltrmber a year from ohe city r,vill come from the combined production of The Long-Bell Lumber Company's first ancl second units and the Weyerhaeuser Lumber- Companr.'s nerv mills which will be completed rvithin two years.

Nation Progressing Rapidly In Reforestation

. Washington.-An exhaustive survey of forestry legisla- tion by th_e states during 1925, published by the'Nat'ional Lumber Manufacturers' Association, reveals ihat the nation is earnestly- rvrestling with the problem of forest perpetua- tion and reforestation. Twenty-5i; of the fort1.-tivo states rvhich had legislative sessions-this year adopiecl seventvone- important forestry laws. These laws friquently deal rvith the fundamental problems of taxation and profection against fire.