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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1963)
EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Sunday, April 21, 1963 Page JA More Lumber Cutbacks Expected But Industry News Not All Bad What's Behind G-P Sawmill Closure? By DON' ROBINSON Of Ibe Register Guard There are three ways none entirely satisfactory of trying to explain why a corporation like Georgia-Pacific decides to shut down an operation like its Springfield sawmill. One is to pretend knowl edge held in fact only by a board of directors that gov erns, at last count, something more than 60 manufacturing plants in this country. ' Another is to construct an explanation from the fluffy stuff that is Everyman's im pression of a company's "personality." The third, qualified on the basis of being least unsatis factory, is to pick the brains of the people in or close to the lumber business call them up and ask what trends or factors within their indus try seem to apply in this in stance. These calls were made last week, after Georgia-Pacific announced Wednesday after noon in a short letter to the 214 men employed there that it will permanently close its Springfield sawmill next Fri day. The conversations produced these kinds of results: That few people in the industry were surprised by the announcement, although none, of course, pretended to know exactly when it was go ing to come. That these people ex pect in the months and years to come that other sawmills will close, as other have closed in the recent past. But that this does not, ' necessarily, forebode ill for the total wood products in dustry of Lane County. Those consulted all men tioned that the C P mill ap pears to fit a category of huge-capacity plants (it has a production capacity of 200, 000 board feet per eight-hour shift), built some time ago (the basic plant began oper ating in 1914), and "designed to operate in a market that existed 10 or 20 years ago but is not particularly effi cient under market factors of today." ca Over Independence Violence Expected In S. Rhodesia By STANLEY MEISLER or tha Associated Press WASHINGTON U.S. offi cials believe violence will erupt soon in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, but they don't expect another Algeria. All signs, officials say, point to trouble for the colony now controlled by 220,000 white set tlers living among 3.6 million Africans. The white settlers, self-governing since 1923, have demand ed independence from Britain. Africans oppose independence unless control of the govern ment is put in their hands. "If Britain gives Southern Rhodesia independence or if the white settlers declare them selves independent," African nationalist leader Ndabaningi Sithole said in a Washington speech last week, "then we have no alternative than to declare ourselves independent. This would mean a full-scale war. Officials here expect African nationalists, particularly the younger nationalists, to use a limited number of guns, Molo tov cocktails, and plastic bombs in their fight for control of Southern Rhodesia. The State Department also has received unconfirmed reports of nation alists studying techniques of puprrilla warfare in Tanijan. yika. Ghana, and Czcchoslo- vakia. But, for three reasons, offi cials say, they don't expect the full-scale war that Sithole pre dicted: 1. The African nationalists, more moderate than national ists elsewhere on the continent, have no stomach for an Alger ian-type civil war. 2. Power lies with the white cottlorc whn rnnlrl use 35.000 police and reserves, and a 14,- OOO man army to quell an up rising. 3. African nationalists could not count on a flow of arms t pressure, nominal i:oniri over across Southern Rhodesia's bor- i defense to mako sure that ders: The colonv is bounded by Southern Rhodesia docs not South Africa, Portuguese Mo- Rain independence without iron- i clad guarantees that there will be eventual African control of DeMolay at OSU j ""addionrofficial, say, the CORVALLIS (.iThe annual United States is encouraging state DeMolay meeting will be both Britain and the Southern held on the Oregon State Uni-j Rhodesian white settlers to use versity campus April 25 27. 1 the good offices of U.N. Sccre More than 650 young, men arc ' tary-General U Thant in iron expected to attend. 1 ing out the problem. PH . Mast mm m si mm - trtrm mm mw In recent years of slim lum ber markets, the mills most vulnerable to closure seem to have been the very small and the very large. The G-P band sawmill in Toledo, closed in January, 1962, was another example of those in the big category. "I just feel some of the larger mills are going to have to go by the board because of obsolescence and the cost of bringing them into line," said one man. "You have got to make a lot of lumber just to make it economic (to operate a big sawmill) and our market to day docs not support the making of a quantity of lum ber like that," said Bill Dean, editor of Random Lengths, Eugene publication focusing on the timber industry. "These larger sawmills many times are older, they don't have modern machinery (but) they have a great deal of machinery that takes a lot zambique, British Bechauana- land all sure to oppose any African nationalist uprising and Northern Rhodesia. Kenneth Kaunda, an advocate of non-violent resistance, is the probable first prime minister of independence bound Northern Rhodesia. Even if he changed his views about violence, he probably would not risk antag onizing Britain during negotia tions for independence. Nevertheless, officials call the situation a dangerous one. G. Mcnnon Williams, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, reportedly now spends more time on this problem than any other one. The problem reached a head recently when Britain, in effect. approved the breakup of the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This federation com prises Southern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasa land. and African nationalists long have opposed it, seeing it as no more than a device to put all three British territories un der the control of Southern Rhodesia's white settlers. Africans now control the politics of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia and have I won the promise of lndepend- i ". 0nce independent, they have pledced. they will secede from the federation. The whites in Southern Rhodesia have countered by demanding independence them selves if Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland leave the federation. The whites picture themselves as no different from the Ameri can colonists who declared their independence from Britain in llilb. Officials here say the United States is tome to convince Britain to use all its resources moral influence, financial of maintenance. They have lower output per man hour resulting in high cost of pro duction," said Eugene Mayor Edwin Cone, operator of a Goshen mill. These and other men men tioned that very large mills do have a variety of problems , including obsolescence of ' equipment (this was a factor mentioned by the Giustina Bros, company when it closed its own, smaller sawmill earli er this month), the need to produce great volumes to make a profit, the cost of maintenance, the fact that logs formerly channeled through these mills are now more profitably diverted to plywrod plants, and the fact that versatility of product rather than sheer volume is now a requirement for sur vival. There are only a handful of lumber mills left in Lane County as large as the G-P plant in terms of production New Footage May Freeze Tower's Lean PISA, Italy Wl The lean ing tower of Pisa will get a $3.2 million foot lifting during the next four years to keep the lean right where it is. Engineers and geologists fear that otherwise the leaning tow er, increasing its tilt by a quar ter-inch every 10 years, may become the toppling tower by the year 2100. Prof. Letterio Donato of the University of Pisa civil engi neering faculty outlined an ela borate stabilization project at the end of a recent national hydraulic and geodetic conven tion here. The plan is aimed at keeping the eight-story white marble Tuscan tower permanently tipped 16 feet off center as it is now. j Donato made a series of sub-: tcrranean soundings with elec tronic equipment a few years ago. On the basis of those find ings and further study by ex perts, the new program calls for: 1. Sinking two huge steel screens into the unstable soil from opposite sides of the fa mous bell tower at a distance of 150 feet. The idea is to keep the ground perfectly still during successive stages. 2. Planting eight pneumatic caissons in an outer ring 185 feet from the tower at a dc :h of 36 feet below sea level. Each caisson will be 53 feet square. 3. Removing the old support ing soil under the tower as far out as the steel screens, taking out an accumulation of con crete and rubble shoved under neath during the centuries in an effort to stop the steadily in creasing lean. 4. Replacing the earth and i building a new foundation un der the tower according to mod ! em techniques of substructural ! engineering. Before World War II 900 tons of concrete were pumped into holes dug under the low side of the tower in an effort to stop the increasing lean. The rate of lean slowed con siderably until artillery shelling ; in 1944 caused shock waves that j started the process all over again. The bells in the tower are never rung, for fear of what their vibration might do. But more than 150.000 tourists an nually climb about the tower. Now the engineers hope that two billion lire worth of fancy font work will stop the sag of centuries. capacity. None are identical, each represents a different level of modernization and versatility. Asked about improvements to the G-P mill, a spokesman checked and found that the last major alteration there was installation of a ring barker, for better log utiliza tion, some six or seven years ago before Georgia-Pacific bought the Booth-Kelly Co. holdings. A couple of persons won dered whether the company's timber supply has any bear ing on the decision to close the sawmill. While conclusions and judg ments arc lacking here, it is known that the mature tim ber G-P purchased from Booth-Kelly has been harvest ed at a fairly rapid rate and that much of this has been sold to other manufacturers. Records in the Lane Coun ty assessor's office show that in 1959 the G-P inventory of Evolutionist Now Human Race May CAMBRIDGE, Mass., W A disquieting hint comes from a famous evolutionist that the human race may already have reached its peak in development of brain size and intelligence and that the trend, now, may be in a downward direction. He is Ernst Mayr, professor, author, and director of the Mu seum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. But he holds some hope for the human race if "the biologi cal aspects of man's evolution arc duly taken into considera tion by those entrusted with the task of planning for the future of mankind." He suggests that we start re warding and stop punishing the superior. And that we take steps Install fai H Its Own SetPfS fT9k " """fr-r i II L JllTf- J I Built-on Fo.m Yt- 7 03"' (AUUOMU RubUf Padding " S&TJ? D'L PI 4-5264 gp Two Facto rs timber was 25 billion board feet. About a third of that was sold or harvested in the first year, the accepted ex planation being that it was part of an effort to liquidate the corportion's debt. Records show that by Janu ary of this year tho G-P ma ture timber inventory stood at 1.5 billion board feet, a total depletion of about a bil lion feet in the four years of G-P ownership. Last year's depletion was 218.297,000 board feet. What docs the Georgia Pacific sawmill closure por tend for the rest of the saw mills in Lane County? - "I would guess that within the next year or so another couple of pretty well-known Sees Downward Direction to avert a "standing room only" population on the earth. Prof. Mayr has been a key contributor to modern evolu tionary theory during the last 30 years a period during which biologists have learned more about how animal species evolve than in any other period since Darwin's time. His views are embodied in a monumental report on new developments in evolutionary theory, "Animal Species and Evolution," which is acclaimed by such biologists as Sir Julian Huxley, George Gaylord Simp son and Prof. Thedosius Dob zhansky of Columbia University. Dobzhansky calls Mayr's report "A landmark in the biology of our age." Your Own Carpet & Supply of timber for lumber purposes and market conditions that cause finished lumber to pile up unsold are apparently only two of the factors behind the closure of G-P's Springfield sawmill. Some 200 jobs will end next Friday when the huge plant, with a capacity of 200,000 board feet per eight-hour shift, closes its doors permanently. v ,, mills will close," said editor Dean. Others answered the ques tion in the same way. They all anticipate other sawmill closures for reasons relating to the types of plants in ex istence, the nature of the lum ber market, and the supply of timber. The latter factor was point ed up by L. L. Stewart, own er of the Bohemia Lumber Co. in Culp Creek. "1 do ex pect other sawmills to be clos ing," ho remarked. "There is not enough available timber resource to support present production capacity." . At the same time, these people are not predicting an over-all loss in the total Lane County industry that manu Have Reached Its Peak The Harvard scientist says the increase in human brain size a characteristic that sets man apart from all other an imals stopped nearly 100,000 years ago. Declaring "one cannot avoid feeling that man could still go a long way on the road toward improvement," he adds, "never theless, there is no evidence of any biological improvement In at least the last 30,000 years." He voices agreement with Sir Julian Huxley that most likely "man's genetic nature has degenerated and is still doing so." What put the brakes on brain growth? Prof. Mayr suggests that when men joined together in bigger groups, the average UlLJi. ii factures products from trees. They expect, for one thing, that the core of medium sized sawmills that are versa tile, that have been kept up to date with automated, modern equipment and that have the ability to keep themselves in timber will continue to pro duce lumber at a profit. For another, they expect that production of plywood and other kinds of wood products will increase. These expectations seem to fit tho trend o recent years revealed by employment sta tistics provided by the Eugene office ot the State Employ ment Service. Taking 1059, the year G-P bought Booth Kelly, compared with last year, 1962, figures of annual average employment are: and below-average individuals became moro protected. But now, Mayr says, "those who are intellectually best en dowed contribute less to the gene (inheritance) pool of the next generation than do the ave rago and, indeed, most of the less-than-avcrage," although the high l.Q. group may be above average in physical health. What is the answer? Mayr suggests that we encourage the superior. "In our present society," he writes in his book just pub lished by the Harvard Univer sity Press, "the superior person is punished by the government in numerous ways, by taxes and otherwise, which makes it more difficult for him to raise a iuu7o i i Lun Add beauty to your home with this quality 11X1 Nylon Pile Droadloom . , . now far be low Its usual price! It's easy for you to install and comes complete with built-on foam rubber padding. Bring your room measurements with you and save! , NO MONEY DOWN DELIVERS "Oucr 25 Venn of Customer Confidence" LANE COUNTY 1U9 Sawmllli Ijao LoiSlnl MM Plywood and other wood producU 5, MO Total lndu.try 11.910 1MI Chans 4.8.TO down BSD 1,U0 up 480 UP 1,4M 14,320 up 1,410 Questions remain about the fate of the men and equip ment no longer needed in tha Springfield operation. Georgia-Pacific says it will em ploy as many as possible of the 214 sawmill workers in other parts of its operations, including the two plywood plants and a specialty board plant in Springfield and a stud mill on Mosby Creek east of Cottage Grove. Frank Worlcy, business agent of the International Woodworkers of America Lo cal 3-246, whose members these men are, said he has no idea how many G-P might find jobs for. Nor did the company itself have mora In formation on this by the end of the week, although a spokesman expressed hope that when the adjustments are made the story "will have a' happy ending." "I am just guessing," Wor ley commented, "but I can visualize that a majority have worked there for 10 years or longer." Jim Sagan, manager of the Eugene office of the State Employment Service, said his office had already given G-P a list of some local jobs that are open. He said his office will make every effort to help find new jobs for the men. "I would suppose that a good share of the semi-skilled and skilled men will find jobs," he said. And on the other end, some of tha young er workers should be able to find jobs and adapt to new situations. "One of tho problems will be the unskilled person who has worked thcro for along time. I don't know exactly, what the community can do Mor them," Bagan stated. His rough estimate was that these characteristics might lit 60 ot the 200-plus men in the mill. The company could furnish no further information on the value of the equipment being shut down or its disposition. large family. Why, for instance, should tax exemption for chil dren be a fixed sum rather than a perccntago of earned income? "Why should tuition in school be based, in large part, on the ability of the father to pay rath er than Inversely on tha achievement of the student? ...Innumerable administrative rulcsand laws . . . discrimi nate inadvertently against tha most gifted members of the community. "I firmly believe that such positive measures would do far more toward the increase of de sirable genes in the human gene (inheritance) pool than all tha negative measures proposed by eugenicists ot former genera tions." Save ! riaLc SQ. YD.
