But picture what the war has done, and its inevitable effect upon
the demand for lumber. According to a comprehensive report on the
_Direct and Indirect Costs of the War_ recently issued (November,
1919) by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the
direct cost to the warring nations amounts to 186 billions,
of which the property loss on land was thirty billions and on
sea seven billions. To this must be added forty-five billions
as loss of production. That is, not only were vast amounts of
property destroyed, but the normal supply was greatly lowered.
Take the matter of houses alone, not only were great numbers of
them destroyed in the warring zones, but neither could they be
replaced, nor could the new houses be built which were normally
required by the community. Fortunately for us in America the war
destroyed no property, but for a period of two years it prevented
normal building to the extent of hundreds of thousands of houses.
As a consequence, in Europe all the waste places must be rebuilt
and, in both Europe and America, new houses in great numbers must
be erected to catch up with normal requirements. There is a house
famine the world over.
[Illustration: Attractive Small Face Brick House, Buffalo, N. Y.
Thos. A. Fisher, Designer]