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HARDWOOD RECORD 



instead of $1,000 for a specific machine, botli of which have the 

 same general dimensions as regards the size of the lumber they 

 will handle. But when one analyzes the daily output of each, and 

 notes that the $1,000 machine will not stand up day in and day 

 out to the rate of feed that is possible with the better machine, 

 nor will it turn out the same grade of work — he will soon learn 

 that it pays to buy the best machine that is made for a specific 

 purpose. In a word, the difference in quality and quantity of 

 output will show a net earning power that is indubitable evidence 

 that the high-class machine is the cheaper. 



Figuring interest at five per cent and depreciation, taxes and 

 insurance even at the high figure of twenty per cent, the annual excess 

 charges for the higher priced machine would only be $250. This 

 amounts to only about 80 cents for each working day. In the light 

 of these figures, can any woodworking manufacturer be so short- 

 sighted as not to see the wisdom of buying the higher priced machine, 

 especially when he knows the good machine is bound to be the most 

 durable and therefore prove the least costly in the matter of repairs! 



The Science of Letter°Writing. 



There is scarcely any business iu the country that has met with 

 so much evolution in the matter of its purchase and sale features of 

 late as has the hardwood lumber industry. It was but a few years 

 ago that nearly all purchases were made through visits of buyers to 

 the small hardwood sawmills throughout producing sections, where 

 they contracted for the mill cut, or for certain varieties of lumber, 

 or for specific grades of certain varieties. Ten or fifteen years ago 

 it was quite rare to see a sawmill man circulating around among 

 jobbers and consumers of hardwoods to dispose of his output. Per- 

 haps a small portion of it was moved direct to jobbers' customers, 

 l)ut the greater portion of the stock was shipped directly to mer- 

 rliants' yards. 



Then a gradual evolution started in. Many manufacturers, notably 

 the larger ones, conceived that the jobber was making too large a 

 percentage of profit off their stock, and they concluded to establish 

 sales departments of their own and sell their output to jobbers or 

 wholesale consumers wherever they could. The plan resulted in start- 

 ing thousands of hardwood salesmen out over the country, and this 

 system of disposing of stock still prevails to a considerable extent. 

 " Thus for some years the average jobber has been between the devil 

 and the deep sea. He has been obliged to solicit trade that was 

 also being solicited direct from the larger manufacturing concerns, 

 and naturally his profits have materially narrowed as time has 

 progressed. 



During the last year or two there has been an immense develop- 

 ment in transacting lumber business by mail. Manufacturers and 

 jobbers alike have kept the mails flooded with stock-lists and price- 

 lists, with the result that every remanufacturer of hardwoods who 

 bought lumber in carload lots has found a perfect flood of stock- 

 lists in every mail that he opened. Men whose Une of production 

 called only for oak and poplar have been solicited to buy elm, ash, 

 gum and shellbark hickory. This system of exploitation, while having 

 great possibilities, has been handled with very little discrimination 

 and has reached a point where many buyers of hardwood lumber in 

 carload lots regard these circulars as a nuisance. A few leaders in 

 the trade have learned the value of talking to buyers by post simply 

 concerning the lumber they know is employed in the Une of pro- 

 duction the buyer represents. Such people are getting mighty good 

 returns from their letter-writing and miscellaneous mail exploitation. 



These observations lead up to the subject of this editorial— the 

 science of letter-writing. There are numerous men in this country 

 who can go out and intelligently discuss the merits of lumber, but 

 when it comes to describing the same lumber in a letter they are 

 absolute failures. While they are able to sell it personally, they aie 

 not able to do so by mail. The Record has on file today at least a 

 dozen requests for competent letter-writers— calls for men who can 

 write a forceful, intelligent, convincing, business-getting letter on the 

 subject of lumber. Such men are hard to find. Lots of them know 

 all about stocks, but very few are able to express themselves iu 

 such a way as to command business in competition with the suave 

 personal solicitor. 



The science of letter-writing is a much neglected one. A letter 

 from its very start must be honest, must be intelligent, must be con- 

 vincing, must be as brief as it is possible to make it and do justice 

 to the subject. But the chief value of any letter that will secure 

 business lies in its concluding paragraph. A letter must be so 

 prepared that its termination shall strike the reader in such a force- 

 ful way as to insure at least a repl}'. Many people start a letter with 

 a whirlwind argument, but peter out of ideas before they get through, 

 leaving the finish so weak and emasculated as to fail to inspire the 

 prospective buyer with the necessity of forwarding an order, or even 

 continuing the correspondence. 



One of the best lumber salesmen, by mail, in the country takes 

 infinite pains in his letter-writing. He does not hurriedly dictate 

 a letter to his stenographer and perhaps not even read it over before 

 signing, but prepares it with the utmost care, often rewriting it two 

 or three times before he is satisfied to mail it. This man advises the 

 Eecord that he can sit in his oflice and sell more lumber by mail 

 than any five salesmen he has on the road. 



The science of letter-writing is worth thinking about, is worth 

 studj-ing, and is worth developing. There is money in it. 



Editorial Notes. 



Senator Isaac Stephenson of ^A'isconsi^, one of the best known 

 men in the lumber trade as well as in the political world, declares 

 in favor of an immediate revision of the tariff, says the daily press. 

 He desires to see lumber, wood and wood pulp put on the free list. 

 He believes the country needs more factories clear of the syndicates 

 that control raw products, or, in other words, more establishments 

 cutsidc the pale of the trusts. 



As many himbcr manufacturers are aware, the Forest Service has 

 long been experimenting with red hickory, particularly with a view 

 to determining its relative value when compared with white hickory. 

 After prolonged and exhaustive tests extending over considerable 

 time it has announced that in every particular, with the sole exception 

 of appearance, the red stock is quite the equal of white, and buyers 

 should not hesitate to accept it for the multitude of uses for which 

 the latter is now specified. In view of the foregoing there comes 

 to hand an amusing incongruity, in that buyers of supplies for the 

 United States government work in the Philippines and on the 

 Panama Canal, in recent specifications and calls for bids, lay par- 

 ticular stress on the fact that the hickory handles ordered in this 

 etion must be heavy, all white stock! 



Architects, builders and other users of lumber are eomplaimng 

 more and more of the total lack of uniformity in popular desig- 

 nations of trees growing in cUfferent parts of the country. They 

 state that the increased trouble is arising from the fact that many 

 of the kinds of lumber formerly in good supply are now growing 

 extremely scarce, and substitutes are taking their places. Scarcely 

 a half dozen of the almost 500 species of forest trees found in the 

 United States are popularly known by their botanical names; among 

 those which are may be mentioned the sassafras and catalpa. 

 Most species have names sometimes as widely varying as those of the 

 states iu which they grow. For instance, if an order should care- 

 lessly call for "gum" lumber, the person executing it might well 

 be at sea as to whether Liquidmiiar styraciflua or the popular red 

 gum, Nyssa sylvatiea or aquatica, the black gum and tupelo, or 

 Eucalyptus globulus, were intended. Thus it will be seen that in 

 specifying certain varieties of lumber it is very difficult for a cou- 

 tractor to know what variety of wood to order. Inasmuch as it 

 would be an impossible proposition to educate the general public into 

 adopting botanical terms, the Forest Service has established a bureau 

 for the identification of woods sent to its laboratory, giving users of 

 timber the services of a trained dendrologist without charge. This 

 plan should prove a great convejiience and trouble-saver in many 

 instances. 



