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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1945)
Page Four Section A THE LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER, LA GRANDE, OREGON Monday, October 1,' 1915, Lumber Industry Plans New Developments Remanufacturing to Loom Big in Future 4 V i jdjiiu.li ,t-'nT v-rV t'ri'ii i'ji1 " ' ' r $bx , ,W IMS. . ffffc' - THE HEAD RIG: Sawing. Firl oporation performed on the log after it actually gets inside the lumber mill is that of turning the log into rough boards of various sizes. Persons in the picture are. left to right, Lois Stein, rider (this is an unusual job for a woman to handle. There are vory few womon rldors); Hugh Darlin. seller, who controls the log on lho carriage; and Horton Andrews, the sawyor. TWt - ma 1 r,'''V"' '''''' jm" mni- ":'V:'" THE EDGER: Slill more sawing. Hero Bon Kramor, lho odtjcr, IhIior rough boards and has to docido quickly also ns lo lho cuts lo bo mudo. h o rough edges off lho MM fc;,- .w. tt4 75, THE GREEN CHAIN: In this picture Frank Andorson. Ihe grader, and Bealrice Carman, straight oner, perform one more procosj in Ihe progress o f the log. As ho grades the boards he decides which boards shall take which route in Ihe road to ultimiie fimah.d lumber; She straighten them on the conveyer m they will arrtve rwidy k) handle. U. 1 Payrull in Two CuntieM Probably Hits Record High Although 1 h e Union Pacific rnilnad has biu-n n part nf the Grandf flondc Valley's iniluslrial pHllrrn fur many years, employ ment on the r;iiioail probably jpaeheil an all lime lnli duuni! Ihe lust year, wilh aproxiniale ly 1,700 employes in the two counties and an opproxinuitc monthly payroll of $3(11,000. The number of employes is not expected to decicaso for a con siderable time since the postwar movement of freight is likely to include considerable tlcmobili.i- ft. m house, machine, boiler und black smith shops, repair track store, til. (HKi barrel fuel storage tank, icnti.jli.'od traffic contiol build int; and 'ill niiscc!!aiicous build- f botli men ami 'fv.uipmcnl i mcs and hauling of 'Amsideialile beavv Roods in the proces of reconver sion. The railroads facilities here in clude freight houses, engine Amount f fieibl handled lo cally is shown by the figures for a receitt month when 124 cars were" received at I.a Grande and HO were forwarded. Postwar period, which came upon the country perhaps much sooner than was expected, has not caught the lumber industry napping. Quite the contrary. Anticipating that the war period could not continue much longer, the lumber companies' of the Grande Ronde valley months ago began to prepare for post war production, realizing that timber is one of the essentials of all essentials in all reconstruction. Makeshifts which have had to do during the war will not be tolerated now that peace has returned and the thousands of uses to which timber is ordinarily put and many new ones which will be developed and are being developed will put a demand upon the industry which will be met. New Process Remanufacturing of lumber is being contemplnled by some com panies of the valley even where they are not already engaged in it. To those residents of the valley who have grown up with lumber all about thorn, and are familiar with its phases, the lumbering business may be taken more or less for granted. To many newcomers in the valley, however, the timber industry from the work in the logging camps to the finished product is wonderfully romantic and interesting. It is something which they have read about in books and have seen in the news reels or in magazines but which is far more intriguing in ihe reality. Quite aside from the fact the getting out and preparing of timber is a fascinating piece of work, is the fact that upwards of 1,500 persons are employed in the county in the mills alone and that payrolls run into millions of dollars. A moment's consideration reveals what that means to the economy of the valley. Let us follow the log from the time it leaves the gondola car and is floated into the pond at the entrance to the mill. (The pictures on this page give the reader a general idea of what happens to that pine log until it is made into a "finished" product that is, until it is ready to be used in building something or in producing some wood product.) Moasured Taken up by a conveyer into the top story of a typical sawmill, it is then washed to remove the dirt and other foreign matter which is pretty hard on the saw teeth. The huge steel band saws look pretty durable and they are but several men are kept busy all the time keeping the saws sharp. The log is measured for thickness by a man who shunts it into the proper channel for cutting, according to the size and condition of the log. From him It goes to the "head rig" which makes the first cuts of the log. It turns ihe log into rough boards of varying sise according io ihe judgment of the sawyer who must be a man of quick judgment and accurate sight he has io decide instantly on ihe depth of each cut, ihe side from which io make his uis, in order io get the most board feet out of each log. By conveyer all movements of the logs and the boards are by machinery the rough boards are brought to the edger, where the rouoh ediics are removed. Here again quick judgement must enter into the picture. After his saws have done their job the boards go on to the "green chain" where further sorting is done. The boards are here "graded" and sent on to the man who makes the end cuts. He too must decide quickly where the cuts must be made, so as to eliminate faulty boards and yet to get the most feet of lumber out of his product. Finally, the planers of the planing mill get in their work. . The boards are made smooth and ready for final use. Dries Quickly Kvon hern the iob is not complete. Green lumber is not satisfac tory for most jobs. The boards are taken to the drying kilns, where intense heat is applied to large stacks of boards at once and in four days the timbers arc ready to be shipped. Lumber companies here which are to be engaged in remanu facturing are ihe Mt. Emily company, with headquarters here in La Grando, and the Pondosa Pine company at Elgin, which has been owned since 1943 by Ralph Smith of Kansas City. The Pondosa Pine company has been engaged in remanufacture. particularly in war work. Now that ihe war is over, it like the Ml. Emily mill which is ready to go into remanufacturing pro duction, is standing by for release of priorities which will per mit it io go into peace time work. Lumber mills in the area beside the two mentioned are the Ore gon Trail at Union, Collins at Pondosa and H. F. Reed at Elgin. Figures furnished on the amount of production by Grande Ronde valley lumber operators shows millions of feet yearly. For instance the Oregon Trail Lumber company, with headquarters at Union, m-nHiices annuallv about 13 million feel of pine, fir and larch lumber, which is all surfaced, manufactured and shipped from Ihe Oregon Trail planing mill. The payroll of the company is about $200,000 annually. Reconvert Collins Pine company of Pondosa cut 25,000,000 feet of timber this year and the average payroll of the company is about $52,000. Pondosa mnraunv at Klein manufactures and ships each month about 1,500,000 feet of finished lumber products. Payroll for the company is about $225,000 or more a year. Among lumber companies, as with all other plants during the war years, most production was for war. But now the war is over tlKV are back in civilian production or ready to go back. Pondosa ori ginally designed its plant for production of drawing boards, ironing boards, table tops, desk lops and other specialty items exclusively. THE RESAW: By the lime ihe boards have arrived here, where they receive the attention of C. H. Byron, lhey have begun to look a great deal like they, will look when they arrive at ihe dryer. However, they still have some sawing io face. He gives them further cuts, both length sad breadth. THE PLANER: Here Carl Herrmann, a grader, further smooths up what started out five or six op erations back as a log, fresh from the millpond, wet and dripping. At right in this picture is Bill Cook, oiler. These typical Scenes were taken at the Ml, Emily mill in La Grande. 1944-45 Panorama OCTOBER 1944 Oct. 3 Lt. James Leonard, USNR receives air medal from president for daring as pilot on carrier based bomber. Oct. 5 Col. Ralph Tudor re viewed activities of U. S. en gineers in speech to Rotary club . . . Rainfall deficiency for month .41 inches . . . Arlocen Krause married to Sgt. Ivan French, mar ine . . . Oct. 6 Registrations at the college exceeded thai of the pre vious opening day . . . Oct. 7 Thirteen Union county 4-11 clubs were ready to take stock exhibits to the Pacific in ternational exposition at Port land . . . Wallowa eleven w as easy prey for the La Grande Wildcat football team, which won, 20 to 0. Oct. 9 County war chest driv, opened, in the campaign to raise $ 1 0.000. Raymond G ray was chairman of the drive . . . Lucian Hayburn, former I.a Grande chief of police, died at Portland . . . Oct. 10 Baptists of Grande Ronde valley met here for their 71st annual conference . . . Con tributions to the war chest were lasging . . . Picking started on the bumper prune crop . . . Oct. II Knights Templar ob served their golden anniversary The Knights, when organised here, had the only conunandory of the Cascades in Orc- ! Tax values in Cities Of Countt Mostly Higher This Year j La Grande rolls showed a hii;!i- er valuation of property for tay ; ation for all purposes inside the city this year than they did a year ago, according to the annual ; tax statement. ! The value this year was ?4. ! 107,308; last year it was S4.1(i.- IMl.Total tax rate was 53 this year and 00.9 last year. I Valuations of other cities in i the county this year and last vear: Union $434,022 and S415.- 053; Elgin $280,324 and $287,355: ; North Powder $108,325 and S107.- 391; Cove $105,034 and $103,504; ; Imbler $70.41!) and $78,254; Island Citv $100,423 and $101,710; Sum- meiville $22,920 and $19,075. cast Ron (Continued on Page 6) Evening Observer Art Department Took Photon All photographs in this sec tion were taken by the photo graphic department of the La Grande Evening Observer. HU aerial photographs, including those in advertisements, were taken in cooperation with the Eastern Oregon Airways, La Grande municipal airport fly ing service. U is possible (of lho first time iince the war to present these anusual scenes ol the Grttxle Rends ralley. its cities, indus tries and surrounding country. 'Fantastic' Centralized Control. To Save U.P. Many Hours, Waits Not many years ago the movies, the newspapers and the maga zines garnered many a laugh or set many a brain lo working as they explored the possibilities of someone's running a nation, a business or a home from a room equipped with push buttons. The housewife was seen, al a future date, putting a live chick en into a box, pushing a button and taking a lovely roast out ol the other end of Ihe box. Now Actual Other marvels too numerous to mention were thought up by the nation's wits and today many a new husband is the sadder be cause the chicken-cooking busi ness never quite came about. Some of the "far-fetched" ideas have been made actualities, how ever, and probably one of the most amazing is a development which today makes it possible for a man sitting in an office at La Grande, Ore., to control by pushing miniature levers and buttons the movements of doz ens of Union Pacific railroad trams between La Grande and Ivieth, 70 miles away. This is the marvel of central ized traffic control, employed by the railroad on this important stretch of single track railroad (and also on the 300 miles be tween Daggett, Calif and Cali cnto. Ncv.) This stretch (Calif.-Nev.) is, in cidentally, the longest one in the United States to be conrolled from a single point. Watch All Taking up where the block sig nal system leav cr to sit in hi; at La Grande board in front of him the inenls of all trains in hi of his territory. Before CTC (centralized traf fic control) was installed in this single track territory, movements were slower because they were controlled by the train order and timetable system. Had to Wait This meant, that, before a train entered certain stretches of terri tory it had lo be supplied with a written order advising how far it could go before it must enter a siding and wait for a train with a higher priority and traveling fas ter or coming from the other di rection to pass. Thus if the higher priority train was delayed for any reason it meant that both trains, and possibly several others on sidings farther up and down the track, were being delayed. Further, it meant that even when this system was working at its best it was slower than CTC because the train had to stop be fore entering the siding to per mit the switch to be thrown by hand, and after leaving the sid ing to permit the switch at that end of the siding to be thrown by hand to its closed position. Up To Speed Under CTC operation trains may keep running until a "pass" is actually needed and the dis patcher, watching movements of the trains on his board, then may effect the "pass" by operating the signals and switches and sending the slower train onto a siding. When the train leaves the sid ing, it may accelerate to its run ning speed immediately as the behind It Will ho eln,.H switches arc so arranged that other possible dangerous "meets" cannot occur. In the event of fail ure of any of the signals or switches, which seldom occurs, there are telephones which may he used to contact lho dispatcher for instructions. In speeding up the movomonls of trains, CTC not only cut down the operating expenses directly tied in on a lime basis will) train hours, such as fuel, water and overtime payments, but it afford ed a reduction in the number of cars and locomotives which were required lo provide the same service as was given under the train order and time table sys tem. In other words, CTC made it possible to produce more units of work (ton-miles, for example) in the same or less time; or, looking at it another way, it made it pos sible to produce the same num ber of units of work (ton-miles) ill less time than previously. move-terri es off, centralized traffic control permits a dispatch- i switch otttce. like the one bv the diiirh.. and to wateh on a Of course ,,', ,j along the territory are so wired that train tory It further enables him to I ample, may not be relcWd to control he movements of these the ma(n.,c if another Train ,t trains through the moving of readv h b. - - miniature levers and pushine of and 'is t-i,ni ' .v. ,",,n! preaching the siding. Similarly, the signals, and buttons which operate signals and sw itches on the various parts Mileage of Private Railroads Lower in County This Year There was a decrease in the mileage of private railroads ill Union county this year from the mileage of last year, examination of the tax statement issued by the county assessor's office re veals. Most of such "private" railroad is used in the logging industry exclusively. Value of the 21 miles of private road this year is $17. 550; value of the 22 miles last year was $17,740. CARRY THEIR TOOLS Honey bees carry 11 diffeient kinds of tools on their legs. They include antenna combs, pollen brushes, pollen baskets, w a x spurs, etc. , 4
