West Coast Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association was held at the Portland Hotel, Portland, Oregon, January 30.

In opening the business session, President Corydon 'Wagner, Tacoma, Wash., said in part:

"The theme of this meeting, as you will note from the appearance of the program as well as its contents, relates to our industry's part in the War Effort. Since Pearl Harbor we have had one common cause in this nation-the successful prosecution of the war. This industryyour Association-just as you are doing in your personal and business affairs, has been readjusting itself-activities, plans, and thinking to harmonize with the one great objective.

Corydon Wcgmer Betiring Presideat

"A few minutes after the declaration of a state of war with Japan, the President of the United States received this wire from Wilson Compton on behalf of the lumber industry:

"'The Lumber and Timber Products Industries will promptly and willingly undertake any assignment necessary to our National Defense. 'We no doubt can help also in the maintenance of vital civilian economy.

'We can and will produce all the timber products which our Government and her Allies want. This is our defense, and our war, and our job, just as it is yours. We await orders of the Commander in Chief.'

"Of all the statements ever made on behalf of this great industry, probably none has had more whole-hearted, enthusiastic and unanimous support than this one.

"There is no idle boastfulness in this statement. We have been in active service for two years. The record of performance in the fulfillment of defense contracts is the substantiation, and it is a record of which we can be proud. Tremendous quantities of material have been required suddenly, and yet, no matter how erratic the demands, orders have been handled, in almost every instance, ahead of, or right on scheduled time. Severe handicaps and difficulties arising from the commandeering of our off-shore tonnage, shortages of supplies and materials, labor disputes, the conflict in buying methods of multitudinous agencies, and the uncertainties of Government policies with respect to price and other regulations, have been overcome. To an industry which has long specialized in over-production, there is probably nothing remarkable about our being able to draw on surplus capacity at this time. With the exception of holiday and strike periods, our West Coast industry responded with a production which throughout the year l94I consistently exceeded the figure of total industry rated capacity; the excess in certain weeks being as h.igh as 20 per cent. Final figures will undoubtedly show the greatest production in twelve years, since 1929, lvhen the West Coast industry had one of its record 10 biilion ft. years, and a substantially higher capacity rating than today. Our industry's willingness and ability to gear itself up suddenly to high production, has thus been demonstrated. Last week the Department of Commerce issuerl its estimate of where our 1941 lumber production was collsumed. That is a revelation of service of which our Industry can well be proud. Total consumption of lumber in l94l is reported as 32,600,000,000 feet. The direct and indirect application of lumber to defense jobs-Army, Navy, shipyards, aircraft, boxes and crates, Defense Housing and plants, and Defense construction in railroad equipment and on farms, amounted to nearly 24,000,000,000 feet-approximately 73 per cent of the total lumber consumption. The Lumber Industry delivered the goods.

"This all out program has, of course, great significance to our industry. The armed forces and essential war industries will draw heavily on our man power. Wood in all its forms will be rreeded among the first materials in this great expansion of our Army, Navy, and war industry. With shortages in many metals and materials, forest products will be called on for replacement, thus putting into commercial application techniques and development of r.e_ search laboratories which have been waiting on opportu_ nity. We will have a fighting chance to retain some of these new markets permanently, which is the great need of our industry to better utilize forest material and reduce wastage.

"Our industry today is committed to a program of re_ forestation. A steadily growing number of iumbermen, north, south, east, and west, are demonstrating their confi_ dence in the future of forest products by investing on a permanent basis in growing timber. That confidence is not born from conditions of the past, when even the prod_ ucts of our best virgin stands could not be liquidated at cost. It comes, rather, from the conviction that new per_ manent markets are developing, and that private forestry will pay. Today, after 60 years of logging on the West Coast, we have approximatety half of our forested. area still uncut. ft is estimated that 7O per cent of the area pre_ viously cut over and classified as forest land is restocking. The over-all picture is reassuring. We need expanded markets-public confidence in our products and publi" operation in our efforts to stamp out the menace of fire; and we need the earnest determination of lumbermen all over the country to stay in this business, so that we will continue not only to cut trees for Defense, but grow them as well."

A panel discussion followed with Jud Greenman, Vernonia, Oregon, acting as interlocutor. The panel was made up of the chairmen of the various Association standing committees, and many questions rvere presented from the floor and by Mr. Greenman.

Roderic Olzendam, Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., Tacoma, addressed the convention, his subject being, "We Are Growing Trees and Are Making the American People Aware of the Fact," after which he presented a panel discussion on, "The Fourth Estate Looks at the Forest Products Industry," with Ernest Haycox, Oregon author, as interlocutor. The panel included: Chapin Collins, editor, Montesano Vidette; Lamar Newkirk, editor, Lincoln County Leader; J. M. McClelland, Jr., editor, Longview News, and W. M. Tugman, editor, Eugene Register-Guard.

Col. W. B. Greeley, secretary-manager of the Association, addressed the meeting. The, subject, "Our Job in \il'ar," appears elsewhere in this issue.

George T. Gerlinger was toastmaster at the banquet and the speakers were: Col. W. B. Greeley, Charles A. Sprague, Governor of Oregon, and Col. W. D. Styer, representing Major General Eugene Reybold, Chief of Army Engineers, U. S. A.

Col. Styer discussed "The Mission of Lumber in National Defense," saying in part:

"We are meeting tonight in the midst of total wartotal in effort and total in extent. It encircles the globe, and affects all nations. You who dwell upon the turbulent rim of the apparently misnamed Pacific Ocean, have long lived under its encroaching shadow. Now that the blackout has come, you do not need to be rerninded of the nearness of this conflict nor of the increased sacrifices demanded of all of us to achieve our objective-total victory.

"In preparing America for the shock of cornbat, the great Pacific Northwest has rendered invaluable services of many kinds to the cause of national defense, but none is more important than in the field of Army construction. At a period when the chief enemy of preparedness was time itself, the lumber resources of this and all other sections of the country came to the rescue. Faced with the absolute necessity of turning the nation into an armed camp overnight, it may literally be said that you whipped time with timber. You were well organized and prepared through efficient Associations, such as yours. There t-as no bottleneck in your industry. You did not need to tool up. To paraphrase a familiar saying, 'You delivered the woods.'

"Thanks to the whole-hearted and efficient cooperation of the American lumber industry in all of its branches, the construction program was well advanced when Japanese treachery at Pearl Harbor made this a shooting war. Illen had been in training for some time, and munitions were already coming from many of the manufacturing lines. This, in a very large measure, was due to the contributiorr of the American lumberman to the cause of national security. The Army fully appreciates your splendid work.

"ft is a source of pride to all of us that lumber is in every sense an all American natural resource. It is the product of our own soil, and we have had to depend upon no foreign source for our supply. Indeed out of our abundance, we have been able to ship it to far places to meet deficiencies elsewhere.

"It is hardly necessary, in closing, to urge upon a group such as this, the absolute necessity for vastly increased effort in the Victory Program outlined by the President of the United States. The services rendered by the members of your association and by the lumber interests of the country elsewhere, offer tangible evidence of your patriotism, your efficiency and your cooperation. You have cornpiled your splendid record in pine and fir, in spruce and hemlock, where all may see it and admire it.

"But that is no longer sufficient-fine and flattering as it may now seem. From now on, nothing short of total effort and the greatest sacrifices in every human activity is going to be enough, if we are to preserve for our children the free ways of life we have ourselves enjoyed. Yotr did not fail us before Pearl Harbor: We are confident that you will not fail us now."

The following officers were elected: O. R. Miller, Portland, Ore., president; George T. Gerlinger, Portland, Ore., vice-president for Oregon; C. H. Kreienbaum, Shelton, 'Wash., vice-president for Washington; Jud Greenman, Vernonia, Ore., treasurer; Col. W. B. Greeley, Seattle, Wash., secretary-manager.