To safeguard business as much as possible and still dispose of the surplus materials, the War Department adopted certain general principles or policies. The first of these was that the general Government, through its several departments and in the public work which the departments were doing, should utilize all the surplus war materials they could absorb. The second and more important was to sell all general commodities to the public through the medium of the industries which had produced these commodities and thus to avoid disastrous breaks in market prices--even, sometimes, to sustain prices. There was widespread disapproval of this latter policy. The public for months had been stung and irritated by prices which many regarded as the exactions of profiteers; and now at last, with huge stocks of supplies on hand which had to be sold or lost, the people anticipated a dumping which would smash down prices and bring about the discomfiture of those who had seemingly victimized them. But this was not to be. The Government adopted the view that it was better to have the high (but normally declining) prices and to keep the wheels of industry turning than to risk a collapse of prices that might bring with it general unemployment and business stagnation. Later on, when it had become evident that business was making a safe passage through the reconstruction period, large stocks of clothing and food supplies were sold directly to consumers at prices considerably below the market averages. Particularly in raw materials the policy of sale through, or in coöperation with, the industry affected by the sale worked as the Government had expected it to work. The War Department found itself after the armistice with a surplus of 125,000,000 board feet of soft lumber over and above what it would need in completing the various unterminated construction projects. This was lumber enough to build 5,000 houses. To have dumped this on the market would have paralyzed a large part of the lumbering industry until the market had absorbed the army lumber. Accordingly the War Department entered into a contract with the authorized representatives of the lumber industry whereby it was agreed that the lumber should be marketed gradually and at prices fixed by agreement between the Government and the industry. Under this arrangement the surplus was all sold without disturbance to the industry and at prices which brought a good return to the Government.