Groups Combine To Find Answer To Shipping Drop

fewer than 15 ships are in the service, and one of the lines is a lumber company shipping its own production.

Various groups have attempted with little success to combat this decline, individually, in various ways, by seeking higher tariffs, by opposing the Jones Act that requires inter-coastal shipping on American vessels. etc.

Finally, however, these groups are beginning to discuss the problem with one another-to seek a unified approach to a common problem that is costing them all production and payrolls. It is the first time that the lumber manufacturers, the ports, and labor have met to seek a solution to their common ills, They are meeting at the invitation of Richard Ford. executive secretary of the Washington Public Ports Assn.

They agree on several points. That the cargo lumber business is the heart of Northwest domestic shipping that unless an early solution is found, this cargo lumber business may be irretrievably lost, and with it further payrolls in lumbering and in port communities. Although no grouP action can be reported as yet, the discussions continue in earnest. There is considerable feeling that the best immediate opportunity for labor, management and the ports to obtain relief is to support current legislation before Congress. This legislation is proposed by Senator Bartlett of Alaska (S. 1773) and Representative Tollefson of Tacoma (HR 7384) and calls for a straight shipbuilding subsidy for domestic trade, elong the lines of the eurrent federal subsidy for vessels in foreign trade.

There appears to be growing support for (Continued on Page 69)

IOS-CAL, WHERE QUATITY COUNTS

Complete Inventory: Sugor Pine, Ponderosq Pine, White Fir, Cqlifornio

Douglos Fir ond Cedor . Direct Mill

Shipments: Truck Locd, Truck & Troiler And Cor Lood . Milling Fqcilities & Yord