HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



All sawdust and shavings are effectually re- 

 moved from the machines by an exhaust 

 blower direct connected to a twenty horse- 

 power motor. Exliaust pipes carried directly 

 to the floor afford an easy and effective 

 method of disposing of the sweepings. As 

 stated before all refuse material is carried 

 directly to the boiler room, where it serves 

 as fuel. 



Among the motor-driven machines not men- 

 tioned are a swing cut-off saw, glue jointer, 

 cabinet surfacer, band saw, etc. The follow- 

 ing list gives the types of machine in use 

 driven by General Electric motors and the 

 horsepower of motor required: 



H.P. 



Swing cut-off saw 5 



Self -feed rip saw 10 



Jointer (16-inch) 3 



Glue jointer 10 



Cabinet surfacer (36-ineh) 15 



Jjuider (9-ineh) 20 



Tenoning, rounding and cut-off machine. 15 



Triple drum sander 2o 



Double spiudle shaper 4 



Table leg machine 20 



Back knife lathe (40-inch) 7Vi 



Band saw 3 



Group drive 10 



The operation of the plant has been satis- 

 factory in every respect, and no trouble what- 

 ever has been e.xperienced. The factory super- 

 intendent states that he finds the electric drive 

 to bo more satisfactory in every way than the 

 mechanical drive, giving as his reasons that 

 the machines are located to better advantage 

 than would be possible with long line shaft- 

 ing, and that the flexibility of control is 

 greater. 



The president of the concern aptly ex- 

 pressed his views of the electric drive when he 

 stated, "We are very much pleased with the 

 motor drive and everything is going along suc- 

 cessfully. I do not hesitate to say that I 

 would not change to any other drive I knew 

 of, even at much less cost." 



The Fight Against the Railroads. 



Pursuant to a call issued by the shippers 

 of the Middle West for a mass meeting to 

 protest against the proposed increased 

 freight tariff, representatives of more than 

 fifty commercial and industrial organiza- 

 tions throughout the country, covering a 

 wide variety of trades, met at the Audi- 

 torium Annex on May 15 to commence an 

 organized battle against the railroads. 



Trederick W. Upham, one of Chicago's 

 ■well known lumbermen and president of the 

 Illinois Manufacturers' Association, which 

 inaugurated the movement, occupied the chair, 

 and even in the presence of prominent rep- 

 resentatives of the railroads at fault, did 

 not hesitate to attack them in no uncertain 

 terms. Considerable excitement and bitter 

 feeling was manifest in the addresses made 

 and Mr. Upham himself, in introducing W. 

 C. Brown, senior vice president of the New 

 York Central lines, the chosen agent of the 

 eastern railway interests, said: 



"It did occur to the railroads to hear the 

 . shippers when they were arranging for an 

 increase in freight rates, but we shall be 

 glad to extend a courtesy to the railroads 

 which was denied us by them." 



Mr. Brown delivered a remarkable ad- 

 dress, strong in its appeal for sympathy and 

 lenient treatment, delivering his ultimatum 

 in the following words, in which he places 

 the railroads on a platform of their own, 

 standing midway between capital and labor, 

 and while virtually admitting that they 

 cannot stem the tide of shippers' organized 

 opposition, they can and will give shippers 

 the only alternative of accepting the policy 

 of the roads or bringing down upon them- 

 selves and the country far harder times 

 than are being experienced and the fren- 

 zied opposition of organized labor: 



"The issue is in the hands of the busi- 

 ness men of the country. You are the 

 masters. If the business interests of the 



nation say that railroad rates shall not be 

 advanced, I doubt if it can be done; but 

 it should be understood clearly, definitely 

 and beyond all question of doubt that in 

 saying this the railroads say just as clearly 



railroads "in secret chambers, for reasons 

 real or fake," seek to increase the rates, 

 and once the wrong becomes legalized the 

 only redress will be tedious court proceed- 

 ings, hanging fire perhaps for years. He 

 characterized such a process as gross wrong, 

 a mockery of justice amounting to legal 

 anarchy. He commended the process of 

 injunction as available for shippers when 

 threatened with increased rates, but regard- 

 ed the best remedy as a passage of the 

 pending bill placing it within the power of 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission to ap- 

 prove or prevent proposed advances. 



Before adjournment the meeting unani- 

 mously passed resolutions calling upon the 

 railroads to submit their proposition to the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission for final 

 decision, otherwise resolving to appeal to 

 the courts to prevent the railroads from 

 putting the proposed increases into effect. 

 The resolutions are as follows: 

 -The carriers east of the Mississippi river and 

 noitli of the Ohio (which is Isnown as the offl- 

 ciil classification territory^ propose to malce a 



;;^?iTto',J?"nf^. in ^^. j^^'Vi^f ^^ 



Mn i,,rr,.,<* ill''' i ' I 1 1^ ^ in that territory 



;,f ninut' <1M ■■'•'"' !v If the carriers 



j :,',,, irii-i . . irase, it is almost 



certiiiiM li '" other parts of 



ii,., i-,'.i,,„i ^1,..- iv:ii i.ii! « that example. 



s past the carriers, 



and definitely that the wages of the great 

 army of 1,500,000 railroad employes shall 

 be reduced and that they must accept their 

 full measure of responsibility for the results 

 which will follow." 



Mr. Upham insisted that shippers had al- 

 ways cooperated with the railroads when 

 there was any justice or open dealing on the 

 part of the latter. He gave figures to show 

 that they had not suffered the recent finan- 

 cial depression as much as they wished the 

 people to believe. 



Levy Mayer, attorney for the Illinois 

 Manufacturers ' Association, said that the 



i-ly evei-y class of freight 



• ■—% the freig" 



rates, either by advancing the classification 



have been 



jstantly increasing the freight 



bv commodity increase. . , , 



"The shippers of this country have organized 

 and conducted their business upon the basis 

 of the prevailing rates and have continued to 

 pay those rates, notwithstanding the existing 



ss de 



rpose. in the teeth of 

 asiness impairment, to 

 ■den upon the business 

 •V. and this calls for 



enre with or healing the shippers, are attempt- 

 ing- to do what will still further disorganize and 

 iuiure commercial conditions. 



"Whenever the railroad commissions of the 

 various states have undertaljen to lower freight 

 rates the carriers have asserted their constitu- 

 tional right to go into court and attack those 

 reductions, if they deemed them unreasonab e. 

 The time has come when the shippers, tor seir- 

 protcction, are compelled to resort to the same 

 remedy as tile carriers have involved tor many 

 years. 



"Therefore, be it resolved as follows : 

 "1. That the carriers in oflicial classifica- 

 tion territory be notified that the shippers rep- 

 resented by this conference vigorously object 

 to the carriers putting into effect the proposed 

 increase in freight rates and then leaving to the 

 shippers to thereafter complain and litigate, 

 courE 



,ui=<= .vhich will involve years of controversy 

 Id during which time the increased rates will 

 continue operative. 



"2 The shippers represented by this confer- 

 ence now propose to the carriers that the car- 

 riers submit to the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion the propriety and reasonableness of the 

 pioDosed increase, and that such increase be 

 held in abeyance until that tribunal has heard 

 tlie parties 'in interest and has passed upon the 

 question. But the shippers object to the carriers 

 putting into effect the increased rates and then 

 leiving to future determination as to whether 

 such increase is reasonable. 



"o That unless the carriers, before the In- 

 creased rates become effective, consent to the 

 above proposed means of adjusting the issue 

 this conference, through a committee of action 

 to be 1)V it appointed, take prompt and decisive 

 steps in the appropriate judicial tribunals In the 

 territorv to be affected by such increase to stop 

 such action by injunction or otherwise. 



"4. That this conference, throui^'h its chair- 

 man,' appoint a committee of fifteen representa- 

 tive shippers, with full power and authority to 

 carry these resolutions into effect, and with fur- 

 ther' power to add to their number and to recon- 

 vene and report to this conference from^ time to 

 time, as the exigencies of the situation may 

 reQuire." 



The lumber interests were represented on 

 the committee on resolutions by E. W. Mo- 

 Cullough, secretary of the National Wagon 



