]IHtr SOUTHLAND

By WAYNE GARDNER executive vice president

IIJE Wall Street Jourttol carried - an article recently suggesting that the distribution system is one of the causes of the current high lumber prices.

We have initiated correspondence rn'ith the Uost of Living Council director, regarding his quoted comments, and the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Assn. is also objecting to his remarks.

It is most unfortunate that the industry's biggest customer does not understand that trees do not automatically grow in such a manner that the bark can be peeled away and all the necessary parts for one living unit then fall out. flThe tree is felled, bucked into logs, hauled to a rnill where it is debarked and then cut into lumber. flThe lumber is shipped to a distribution center and then to the contractor. l|The wholesaler assembles material from many mills and sells to the retailer, flThe retailer takes the shipments from the various mills and assembles the material into built-up loads, ready for the framing contractor to use on the job-a lot of unavoidable steps along the way to bring that 2 x 4 from the tree to the consumer.

At one time it was popular to criticize the number of steps necessary to bake a loaf of bread and put it on the table. That fad has passed. Now, perhaps, it is the lumber industry's turn. And so it should behoove ever!' member of the industry to be prepared to at least partially explain to a layman that lumber comes from treesa renewable natural resource.

But each step is essential and adds value to the product. Close analysis would probably reveal that prices are too low instead of too high, because low profits seem to be inherent in the industry.

Rather than castigate the distribution segment of the industry for high prices, closer surveillance might reveal that the retailer and wholesaler have been instrumental in holding the price structure down throirghout all the years since World War II, while all other building materials have been going up. Labor costs have gone up and land costs have soared-all factors adding to the cost of housing. But the lumber industry price jumps occurred so quickly that the ire of the consumer was unreasonably aroused.

Departments of Agriculture, Interior and Commerce. the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Office of Management and Budget, Forest Service, and Council of Econornic Advisors.

By R0SS KINCAID executive vice president

NINE Pacific Northwest lumber and - ' building materials dealers joined nearly 600 other dealers in "The March on Washington, D.C." that was held in late Marrh.

The WBMA delegation, plus yours truly, included Charles Lamb, LambMorse Co., Tillamook, Ore.; Carl E. Knoll, Knoll Lumber & Hardware, Kenmore, Wash.; Bob Slettedahl, Lumbermen's of Shelton, Shelton, W1sh.; Woody Railey (WBMA vp.), Scharpf's Twin Oaks, Albany, Ore.; Chuck Link (WBMA president), Boise Cascade Corp., Boise, Id., Dick Stouffer, Stouffer Lumber Co.. Aberdeen, Wash.; Pete Sylvester, Pete's

Lumber & Supply, Seaview, Wash.; Jerrie Sylvester, Petets Lumber & Supply, Seaview, Wash., and Maynard Hoffman, Parker Lumber Co., Bremerton, Wash.

The purpose of the march was to dramatize the lumber supply problem to Congress and the administration under the auspices of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Assn.

All day March 22, dealers were bused to and frorn Capitol Hill. They called on their congressmen and senators, urging action to increase the supply of timber available from federal forests and a limit of log exports to Japan.

While the dealers wene on the Hill, NLBMDA offieials met with twelve members of the Administration at the

The extremely critical nature of the supply problem (and resulting escalation of prices) was well understood by Congress through these personal cells. The impact can be measured by 'the bills that have been introduced and the action of the Cost of Living Council 2 days after the march:

(1) At the request of the COIf, the Sec. of Agriculture, as Counsellor to the President on Natural Resources, has established an interagency team to assure a total annual production of 11.8 billion board feet of logs from the National Forests in 19?3 (10 in '72) and. to develop specific action plans for higher output in 19?4 and r975.

(2) Negotiations are underwaywith the Japanese Government to reduce softwood log exports.

We are concerned about the COLC,s consideration of reimposing some form of mandatory price controls.