HARDWOOD RECORD 



47 



prospect. He i-eports inquiries coming in and is 

 anticipating an early revival of business. 



W. H. Fritz & Co. state tliat tliey have no 

 rea.son to complain over the average of trading 

 considering general conditions. 



R. B. Wheeler & Co. report that though there 

 has been little change of late in the hardwood 

 situation there is a much better feeling as to 

 outlook. R. B. Wheeler is spending a few weeks 

 at Atlantic City, N. J. 



The Kirby &, Hawkins Company is receiving 

 its share of what business there is, consequently 

 is not worrying. The company reports business 

 running in spurts, but believes that good times 



the 



fay. 



Charles G. Blake, manager of E. V. Babcock & 

 Co.. reports buying still carried on on a hand-to- 

 mouth basis, hut that things are looking more 

 cheerful for the future. He is confident that 

 though the improvement may be gradual it will 

 be sure. 



Eli B. Hallowell & Co. report that inquiries 

 are coming in more lively and that they are suc- 

 cessful in booking an order here and there. 

 They are optimists always and prophesy that 

 good times are close by. Ralph Sanders of this 

 firm is making his summer home as heretofore 

 at Bay Head, N. J. 



A. Hankey & Co., Inc., extensive makers of 

 machine knives, testify to the improveemnt in 

 trading, as they have recently made some good 

 sales. Joseph R. Rogers, secretary of the com- 

 pany and Vicegerent Snark of the eastern dis- 

 trict of Pennsylvania Hoo-Hoo, will leave for the 

 works at Rochdale, Mass., soon for a short stay. 

 The trip will afford a much needed rest. 



Among the recent visitors to the local trade 

 were : F. T. Sullivan of T. Sullivan & Co., Buf- 

 falo, N. Y. : G. M. Hutton of Hutton & Bour- 

 bounais. Hickory, N. C. ; George F. Willis, Dia- 

 mond Iron Works, Milwaukee, Wis., and P. P. 

 Griffin of Lock Haven, Pa. 



Samuel Williams of Thomas Williams, Jr., & 

 Co. has been seriously ill for some time, but his 

 many friends are hopeful that he may recover 

 finally. 



The sawmill of Edward Hemsworth, known 

 as the Germantown Woodworking Company, was 

 destroyed by fire on June 12 ; loss is estimated 



BALTIMORE 



The only delegate from Baltimore to attend 

 the annual meeting of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association in Milwaukee was John L. 

 Alcock of John L. Alcock & Co.. who went in 

 his individual as well as oflJcial capacity as 

 chairman of the hardwood inspection committee 

 and member of the special committee appointed 

 by the exchange on the hardwood inspection 

 rules. He returned greatly pleased with the 

 action taken at the meeting and the concilia- 

 tory spirit shown by the National association. 

 The latter, he says, granted practically all the 

 eastern associations demanded. He says tl^at 

 the rules were gone over carefully, section by 

 section being taken up and considered, and that 

 the- conclusions reached must be satisfactory to 

 all concerned. He will recommend that the 

 action of the National Hardwood Association be 

 indorsed by the exchange. The latter has never 

 been antagonistic to the National association, its 

 chief concern being that there should be uni- 

 formity in the inspection rules all over the 

 country. It matters little, hardwood men say, 

 whether the standard adopted is high or low, as 

 long as the trade can rely upon its maintenance. 

 For this reason the exchange has sought to co- 

 operate with the national body instead of an- 

 tagonizing it. The view held here was that ex- 

 isting differences could be adjusted, and conse- 

 quently, though the exchange had indorsed the 

 stand taken by the Cincinnati Lumbermen's Club, 

 demanding that the inspection rules of 1905 be 

 restored, this attitude was not insisted upon to 

 the point of revolt. 



The transportation committee of the National 



Lumber Exporters' Association has been notified 

 to meet in Baltimore June 24. when, it is 

 thought, the amended steamship agreement will 

 be ready for submission. The association and 

 the committee have been at work on this agree- 

 ment for the past two years, and recently the 

 negotiations advanced to such a point as to 

 make an early assent by the secretaries of the 

 various steamship lines to all the main points 

 contended for seem a probability. An effort has 

 lately been made by the N. L. E. A., through its 

 secretary, E. M. Terry, to have the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission make a ruling, relieving 

 the exporters of lumber of certain storage 

 charges when it can be shown that neither the 

 shipper nor the steamship company concerned 

 are responsible for the delay resulting in an 

 excess of storage beyond the thirty days' free 

 time allowed. A test case came up in Philadel- 

 phia recently, a shipper being called on to pay 

 storage charges for the excess of time when the 

 steamer expected to take the shipment suffered 

 a breakdown of machinery at sea and did not 

 reach port in time. The exporter was in no 

 sense to blame and felt that he should not be 

 required to pay the storage charges. The com- 

 mission, to which the case was submitted by 

 Secretary Terry, however, ruled that it had no 

 power to authorize the railroads to make a 

 change in the published tariff. The only way to 

 get relief would be to make provision for such 

 exigencies in the published tarlBf, and this would 

 be exceedingly difficult. As similar cases are 

 always coming up at different ports, the ruling 

 is of the greatest importance to the hardwood 

 export trade. 



The J. Rivers Boom & Lumber Company of 

 Pennsylvania and West Virginia has purchased 

 for $2,000,000 the timlier and coal interests in 

 Webster, Nicholas and Greenbrier counties, West 

 Virginia, which the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 

 Company felt obliged to dispose of under the 

 Hepburn law. It is estimated that about 200,- 

 000 acres are involved in the deal. The timber 

 is to be cut at the Camden-on-Gauley and Ridge- 

 way plants of the Rivers company. These mills 

 have a capacity of 356,000 feet per day. 



Another deal reported from Wheeling is the 

 organization by C. M. Hood and George M. 

 Scheets of the Hood-Hayward Lum.ber Company, 

 which has taken over the Rudd-Hayward Lum- 

 ber Company. The latter owns and operates not 

 less than fifteen small mills and manufactures 

 white oak and car lumber. The company has 

 also secured an option on 5,000,000 feet of white 

 oak and poplar timber in West Virginia, and in 

 addition has nearly 4,000,000 feet of lumber on 

 hand. 



David T. Carter, who retired a short time ago 

 from the hardwood firm of Carter, Hughes & 

 Co., has engaged in the wholesale hardwood 

 business with offices in the Calvert building, 

 this city. Mr. Carter is well known in the trade 

 and was for years located in Baltimore, going 

 to Virginia to superintend the operation of the 

 mills there about one year ago. 



The R. E. Wood Lumber Company has in op- 

 eration at a fair capacity its sawmill at Eagle 

 Creek, Swain county, N. C, where the company 

 owns a large tract of timber land. Much delay 

 was experienced in getting the material on the 

 spot and a railroad connection, the country being 

 virgin soil. 



PITTSBURO 



The Colonial Lumber Company is inclined to 

 look upon things with a rather more cheerful 

 eye, although trade is far from what it should be 

 at this season. President W. B. Pownall of this 

 company lias made two quite successful trips 

 In Ohio lately and bagged some nice orders. 

 He will start out again this week and means to 

 come back with good business. 



Manager Wickersham of the Buckeye Lumber 

 Company reports that trade throughout the East 

 is picking up noticeably and that for good hard- 

 wood the demand is steadily increasing. The 



Buckeye is fortunate in having secured about 

 2,000,000 feet of fine oak timber to be cut under 

 contract, and is selling good oak on a very low 

 freight rate from Pittsburg. 



The H. B. Curll Lumber Company finds that 

 poplar is much the best seller on its list. Its 

 estimated stock of poplar at Glen Kay, W. Va., 

 on the C. & O. R. R.. is 150.000,000 feet. The 

 company expects to cut 20,000,000 feet a year 

 and will start up its plant this week. Both its 

 Pittsburg and Philadelphia offices are busy, and 

 Mr. Curll looks for better prices for poplar in 

 the fall. 



The Mead & Spear Company notes a better 

 feeling all round in the hardwood market. J. J. 

 Mead, president of this company, has made sev- 

 eral trips this summer to Kentucky and West 

 Virginia and reports the operations there going at 

 a good pace. The Parsons-Cross Lumber Com- 

 pany, which started in business in Pittsburg some 

 two years ago, has been succeeded by the Myers- 

 Parsons Lumber Company, which keeps the old 

 office of the former concern on the fifteenth floor 

 of the Farmers' Bank building. The new name 

 in the concern is that of Max Myers, a member of 

 the firm of Nicola-Stone & Myers of Cleveland, O. 

 He was also a member of the Parsons-Cross Lum- 

 ber Company. A. J. Fisher, who was also con- 

 nected with the Cleveland firm, will have the 

 office management in Pittsburg. 



The Interior Lumber Company notes a slightly 

 better feeling in general lumber circles, but finds 

 that trade is still very slow. President J. R. 

 Edgett of this company is spending most of his 

 time in southern Ohio, where he has been doing 

 a fair business this summer. 



Harry T. Lincoln, the popular office manager 

 of Bemis & Fosburgh, surprised all his friends 

 ten days ago by his marriage to May Pearl Mc- 

 cormick of Coraopolis, Pa. The surprise was 

 all the more intense Ijecause Miss McCormick 

 was a stenographer in the office and the court- 

 ship was carried on so quietly that not a mem- 

 ber of the office force had any suspicion of the 

 happy consummation. The couple will live in 

 Bellevue, Pa., one of the nicest suburbs of Pitts- 

 burg. 



William R. Cornelius has been taking some 

 fair orders for hardwood this month, but finds 

 one serious difficulty in selling lumber to the 

 factory trade. That is, that many of the fac- 

 tories are taking stock for their semi-annual in- 

 ventory and are not disposed to buy any lumber 

 until after July 1. 



The Webster-Keasey Lumber Company is book- 

 ing some nice orders for trolley stock this month. 

 One of them was for 400,000 feet of guard rails. 

 Another was for quite a large pile of hemlock. 

 The company is pounding away at its operations 

 in Indiana county and Butler county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and is not at all afraid of the outlook 

 for fall trade. 



Wholesalers in general agree that shipments 

 are larger than one month ago. From West Vir- 

 ginia mills much more lumber has been sold, 

 and in certain stocks there has been quite an 

 improvement since June 1. Wholesalers also 

 agree on another point, namely, that prices on 

 lumber are bound to go up early in the fall if 

 not before Sept. 1. One good reason which they 

 give for this opiuion is that several railroads 

 have announced the determination of riiising 

 freight rates on lumber Jiil,\ ' :' at 



their present level this lea\ . ut 



one alternative — that of rai-;> ^ih 



the general increase in bu?.... .-- .>..,...,. .. is 

 believed that by fall the market will slaud liigUer 

 prices on several lines of good lumber. 



The Fort I'itt Lumber Company held a meet- 

 ing at its office at 1214 Frlck building. June 13. 

 and raised its capital stock from $25,000 to 

 .^50,000. The company has a good hardwood 

 mill on the B. & O. and M. & K. R. R. in We i 

 Virginia, and it getting out about 12,000 f"- 

 day. President II. L. Austin reports that ; 

 has been quite a little improvement in the li 

 wood niTrkPt in the past ten days. 



Mana-'rr W. .\. Clay of the CKiv Sehoiipe I.um- 



