Lumber Authorized for Distribution in First Quarter of 1945

Washington, D. C., November 3O-Lumber authorized for distribution in the first quarter of 1945 to claimant agencies and to War Production Board industry divisions for re-allotment to industrial consumers totals 8,231,000,000 board feet, WPB announced today. Requirements for the quarter were estimated at 9,167,000,000 board feet and had to be reduced in view of the estimated allocable supply, WPB said.

Estimated supply for the quarter (made up of production, imports and stock withdrawals) is 7,490,ffi0,000 board feet after deducting allowance for sawed railroad cross ties and sawed mine ties and without taking into account probable production loss due to shortage of truck tires, according to WPB. Total allotment was made nearly 10 per cent higher than the supply, because experience in the third quarter of 7944 indicates that, chiefly for administrative reasons, approximately this percentage of the allotment 'lvill not materialize in orders on suppliers and will be returned to WPB reserves.

Western pine (Idaho white pine, ponderosa pine, and sugar pine) is in critically short supply, WPB officials said. Estimated requirements fo,r the first quarter of 1945 were 1,673,000,m0 board feet, while estimated supply is only 8l)6,000,000 board feet. Western pine is authorized for only a few specified claimants-Army, Navy, Aircraft Resources Control Office (ARCO) direct purchase, Foreign Economic Administration, and Canadian Division; and for WPB Chemicals Bureau (for matches), Containers Division; and Lumber and Lumber Products Division (for millwork and ARCO contractors.)

No specific allocation of Western pine is made to other claimants or WPB industry divisions except as may later be made as the result of appeals or requests for reconsideration. The maximum amount of Western pine authorized for the quarter is 985,000,000 board feet or approximately 12 per cent of the total lumber authorized. Requirements for Western pine have risen sharply, chiefly because of the demand for military containers. This species is light, easy to work and the most economical wood for these uses, WPB officials said.

The amount ol tumbel allocated for the first quarter of 1945 is 7.7 per cent less than that allocated for the fourth quarter, 1944, when 8,919,000,000 board feet were authorized. However, estimated allocable supply for the first quarter of 1945 is nearly 11 per ceni less than the supply for the earlier quarter, WPB said.

Quantities of lumber authorized for the first quarter, 1945, follow:

Master applicants (Army, Navy, ARCO, FEA and Canadian Division) 1,623,000,000 board feet, of which a maximum of 88,000,000 board feet may be Western pine.

Class I industrial consumers---4,699,000,000 board feet, of which a maximum of 704,000,00O board feet may be 'Western pine. Class I consumers receive authorizations from WPB industry divisions on Form WPB 364O to purchase lumber under Order L-335.

National Housing Agency-262,000,000 board feet for war housing projects (253,000,000 board feet) and emergency repair of dwellings (9,000,00O board feet.)

Army-Navy Merger in Joint Lumber Tells Story of Increasing Variety BuyingProject Of Forest Harvest

"The proposed postwar merger of the Army and Navy, at least in the purchasing of supplies, has a proved, workable pattern in the economy and efficiency of this operation," declared Wilson Compton, executive officer of the Lumber & Timber Products War Committee, in commending the accomplishment of the biggest lumber buying job in history by the Central Procuring Agency. CPA purchases lumber for all the services, or approximately 50 per cent of all war requirements.

This has been achieved at a cost to the taxpayers oi 0.13 per cent, as compared to the 5.0 per cent it usually costs the government to operate a purchasing department and the 2.0 per cent that is considered low by private concerns, according to officials of the Central Procuring Agency. The personnel roster of CPA is not much larger than that previously required to purchase lumber for a single department.

"Some conception of the magnitude of the job can be gained," Dr. Compton said, "when it is recorded that 18 billion board feet of lumber were purchased for the services between September l, 1940, and August 31, L944, 12 billion of that falling in the period since September, 1942. Government purchases of lumber during the whole of World War I totaled 6,349,344,W feet, a figure surpassed in a single year of this war."

Washington, November 22-The growing industrial importance of forest resources coupled with an explanation of forest management methods used by industry to sustain the timber harvest is presented in a new 12x16 lithographed color brochure just released by American Forest Products Industries. The new publication, which also contains charted information on the ownership and condition of U. S. private forests land, is the second in a series of mailing pieces designed for distribution to approximately 25,000 leaders of U. S. professions.

Largely pictorial, the brochure is so arranged that six of its pages, reproduced in combination, result in a sepies of new informational charts which are being added to the Association's roster of material available to educational institutions.

Both brochure and charts illustrate the increasing variety of new industrial substances which science is creating from the forest harvest, how controlled logging can help regenerate forest growth, volume of new growing stock now extant on harvested industrial timber lands, and the story of how refinement of the timber harvest is permit'ting a given amount of wood to do more work.

The brochure and wall charts are available in reasonable quantities to members of the forest industries who are urged to obtain copies for friends, associates, and educational institutions.

Another lear-an.other mile post On the road to our greatgoal, I/ICTORY oaer that mighty host That's taken such a toll.

We, like !ou., rnu.st keep working To kee7 ou.r Freedorn's soil, ' T he soil bought w:ith our fathers' blood, And built up with their toil.

Let's put ou,r worcies and, cares aside, And with lond remembrance Think of the loved, ones far away, W ho shared our ha00y C hristmastide.

That aacant chair-that missing smile, That"Hello Mom and Dad," To win this war and, bring them back Makeseoerything worth uthile.

We send you our eoodwill and greetings As a friend,to a oalued friend, May all eood things corne tojtou To the Neu) Year's verSt end,.

Again, as before, we exhress our regrets For not being able to meet all your requests. We afpreciate and thanhyou f or being so hind, Patient utith our seraice and keeqing us in mind,.