Our Job in \(/ar

Address bv Col. \fl. B. Greeley, Secretary-Manaser

At Annual Meeting of \/est Coast Lumbermen's Association, Portland, Oregon, January 30,1949

It may be debatable whether West Coast lumbermen need an agency for joint action in the piping times of peace. But when war clouds gather and break, there is no question that both industry and government need an organization like the Association. As the past two years turned from peace to war, there had to be a pooling of information and resources and a means for quick action-to make the industry effective in the war.

To a large extent the Association was trained for this work; whether ready or not, it has become our principal job.

We have been able to maintain strong representation at Washington, relaying and interpreting to the industry the policies and needs of the Defense agencies-and ways and means whereby the mills could support them. Many questions concerning wartime uses of West Coast lumber have thus been settled-at the national capital. Through our contacts there, we have been ablemore accurately as time wore on-to keep the fir mills informed of what is coming, to gear their operations into war needs.

The Association stepped right into the job of transmitting station between the government and industry, broadcasting schedules of coming requirements, arranging auction purchases, placing tough schedules. We organized seven lumber auctions on the Pacific Coast in 1941 ; and helped at five additional auctions in the Middle West. Our policy has been one of all-out service to the government's buyers, withholding nothing we could do to help them; and giving the representatives of Uncle Sam the best advice of which we were capable. We have gained the confidence of the purchasing effisss-sast and west; and have been able, from month to month, to work with them more closely and effectively.

On many occasions, when emergency did not admit usual methods of purchase, the Association has asked individual companies to wire or phone their bids; or has called a group of millmen together, to divide a Defense bill among them; or has literally hung on the telephone until an emergency order for Alaska or some interior munitions plant or unnamed destination overseas has been filled. We have tried our best to give every supplier an equal break. But when corners had to be cut-they have been cut; and Ralph Brown and Paul Stevens are ready to face the firing squad with resignation-because the lumber was delivered on time.

The Corps of Engineers found it hard to obtain ponton lumber under their exacting specifications. The main difficulty was in kiln drying thick items to a 19 per cent moisture content. Our Chief Inspector went from mill to mill, demonstrating the use of urea in drying just such tough specifications; and an adequate supply of ponton stock is now assured. Three years of Association research and experience had made this possible. It is typical of the sort of "Minute Man" service which our engineers and inspectors have taken on. Our fieldmen have been auxiliary engineers of the Defense organization. All over the map, they have helped and advised; drafted specifications; found substitutes for short items; speeded up the delivery of needed items.

The scarcity of steel has imposed an additional duty upon Douglas fir. Many airplane hangars, warehouses, munitions plants and other forms of heavy construction have been redesigned from steel to lumber.

Through their years of work with lumber grades and inspection, the Association inspectors knew how to fit Douglas fir into the whole range of structural requirements needed in replacing steel.

The West Coast has been able to assist the industry and government in reaching a fair adjustment of ceiling prices. This has been a none-too-pleasant change-over from the ways of peace to the controls of war. We just had to take it and like it. The role of the Association has been to supply facts, give the representatives of government an accurate understanding of economics of West Coast production; hold their confidence; and-thus help arrive at ceiling prices which work because they are fair. In this we have been measurably successful.

Our toughest war job, and it will get steadily tougher, is how to keep our mills and camps supplied with operating materials and equipment. In the West Coast office at Seattle and the office of the National.Association at Washington, other things are pushed aside to speed up priority ratings on the stuff we need to stay in production. This

Orford Cedar

problem has constantly grown; and taken on new phaseslike rationing and priority in the use of tires. Before we are through, it will probably involve gasoline and fuel oils.

We have wearied the operators with requests for records and well-nigh impossible estimates of future requirements. We still don't begin to know all the answers.

This is the hardest problem that the war has brought to the lumber industry. The National Defense Committee, from all lumber regions, will meet in Chicago next Monday, to determine what joint action the entire industry can take-to maintain its operating facilities under the tightening restrictions and controls. As far as man power and personal effort count, this will be the first duty of the Association.

The War Job Ahead

All that the industry has done for National Defense so far is not a patch on what will be asked of us from now on. The latest word from Washington is that Defense construction will be greater in 1942 by 75 per cent. The Navy personnel will be nearly doubled; the land Army increased from two to three fold; the Air Force eventually quadrupled. Every type of construction project for Army, Navy and Air Corps will be required in increasing numberstroop housing, flying fields, naval bases, fortifications, shipyards, ammunition and supply depots, recreation centers. The migration of workers to Defense areas will increase and Defense housing will have to be stepped up beyond previous estimates. The immediate program is 40,000 more family dwellings by July 1; 16,000 of them on the Pacific Coast.

Priorities are likely to cover more lumber this year. They have been applied to ship decking, shipways and some orders for overseas. They are threatened on other items, like ponton stock, and also on the logs required to produce them.

No priorities can take the place of practical cooperation and willingness to meet a situation. That is why you getand will continue to get-appeals from the Association, to take care of some of these tough babies.

The plywood mills have given us a fine example of industry cooperation. To speed up deliveries of airplane Douglas fir for England, they have cooperated with the government in sele'cting from their stocks of peelers, the logs best adapted to produce airplane lumber. \&'e must be ready for more such practical coordination within the industry. ft is one of our contributions to the War.

Restrictions upon metals will greatly decrease the use of lumber in private building. Our old retail yard trade will dry up still more in 1942. Our market will turn largely to the specialized needs of war, including lumber fitted to take the place of steel, rather than the accustomed items of everyday building. There-in a nutshell-is the job cut out for the West Coast lumber industry and its Association in 1942.

For example, war needs are expected to take, this year, five billion feet of box and crating lumber. One of our fieldmen is working on ways and means whereby West Coast mills can "plug into" the cir'cuit of this enormous flowwhether as standard box grades or as cut stock or shook or finished boxes. When West Coast mills are again glutted with low grades this outlet for box and crating may be a means of balancing orders and maintaining full production. Certainly, we should develop it to the utmost.

The USA Specifications for Packing Boxes and Crating (5U62-4A) put West Coast hemlock and Douglas fir among Group II woods because of their' nailing characteristics. But any supplier may quote on Group II woods, whether called for in the particular specifications or not. It is desirable for West Coast mills to offer and keep offering our Group If species, as well as the spruce and White fir which are in Group I, in order constantly to emphasize their availability. It will not be long before all the box-making woods in the United States will be in demand.

Unbroken Cooperation with Retail Lumber Dealers

We should hold our lines of cooperation within the ranks of lumber. The Association will work as hard as ever, in 1942, with the retail distributors. Not only do we need a unified industry, ready to drive again for home building and other normal lumber markets when the war ends. The retail yards have an important place, right now, in Defense housing and other wartime construction. The government wants to turn Defense housing-as far as possible-into private channels of building and finance, working with the Federal Housing Administration.

Furthermore, while the trend in the use of critical materials is restricting private building, we know that the government wants to keep the maximum volume of smallhome and farm building going. Its policy is not likely to be frozen; it will be flexible and responsive to the actual supplies and relative needs for critical materials from month to month.

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