HARDWOOD RECORD 



under some of the most prominent old-time 

 makers, and are still in the "push," we be- 

 lieve we can very readily account for the big 

 difference in dividends paid. 



Until the year 1880 we venture the asser- 

 tion that seventy-five per cent of the handles 

 manufactured came to the mill on wagons, 

 and such a thing as shipping in by rail sawed 

 and turned handles, as well as timber, was 

 but little known, and as a consequence the 

 first cost of material to the old maker of 

 handles was twenty-five per cent less than 

 now. Then again the prices paid per cord 

 was considerably less, and owing to the plen- 

 titude of hickory only such stock as would 

 make good, clean handles had to be worked, 

 while today, with scattering timber and scar- 

 city thereof, more timber must be worked in 

 order to secure the same number of handles. 

 Twenty years ago it was a common thing 

 to find trees that would make from two to 

 three hundred good handles, while the handle 

 maker of today considers himself fortunate 

 if he can do half as well. 



Then again the old-time maker did not at- 

 tempt the high-class workmanship to be found 

 in the handle of today, neither was he com- 

 pelled to have invested in "stocks" thou- 

 sands of dollars to carry him through seasons 

 of the year not suitable for timber work- 

 ing, and also keep himself in position to fiil 

 car orders with as great dispatch as his prede- 

 cessor did hundred dozen lots. The first 

 handle salesman I ever saw came into head- 

 quarters one Saturday evening, after being 

 out for one week, and he had booked sixty- 

 two orders during that week, ranging from 

 two dozen to eighty dozen each, and as he 

 seemed especially proud of the eighty-dozen 

 order, I have always thought since it must 

 have been a big one for the times. 



In those good old days the shape and finish 

 of handles were much easier than now, and if 

 trade got dull with a manufacturer he shut 

 down his plant and let his men scatter, but 

 in this day and time the expert workman must 

 be cared for, or else when trade revives the 

 manufacturer cannot compete with his com- 

 petitor — who keeps experienced help — in work- 

 manship and finish of goods. 



But the real expansion of handle making 

 dates back only a few years, and as it largely 

 concerns Colonel Gates, we take it for granted 

 your readers will be interested in a brief 

 sketch of the leader of the largest handle 

 producing establishment in the United States. 



Colonel Gates is quite a young man yet, 

 and twelve years ago, when he assumed the po- 

 sition of manager of the Turner, Day & 

 Woolworth Manufacturing Company, he was 

 considered — by the knowing ones — too young 

 a man for that important position, but his 

 movements since have caused these knowing 

 ones to go away back and sit down. In 1897 

 Colonel Gates was offered his choice of posi- 

 tion as postmaster at Louisville or collector of 

 internal revenue for that district through his 

 friend, Congressman Walter Evans (now 

 judge of the federal court), but Colonel Gates, 

 knowing his Uncle Albert Day's health was 



bad, refused to leave him and the men who 

 had come up under him while acting as assist- 

 ant to his uncle, as he realized fully that a 

 new manager would not likely have the con- 

 sideration for the men who had grown up in 

 the business that he would. In less than six 

 months Colonel Gates had to assume the man- 

 agement or let it pa'ss into a stranger 's hands, 

 and buckling on his armor, he took hold of 

 the business, and from that day to this has 

 served as manager and president. When he 

 took bold of the Turner, Day & Woolworth 

 company it had about thirty lathes, while 

 today it has several divisions with that num- 

 ber in them, and its sales are six times greater 

 than they were in 1897. 



Colonel Gates is intensely loyal to his men, 

 and demands the same in return. How well 

 he is appreciated by them can best be illus- 

 trated by an action taken by the workmen in 

 the Louisville factory a few months after the 



lie of last October. The "order file" at 



CH.\RLES D. GATES OF LOUISVILLE, KY. 



Louisville was practically bare, and the work- 

 men knew it, and a shutdown seemed inevita- 

 ble, but Colonel Gates instructed his mill 

 superintendent to keep the men at work 

 and he would go out himself and get orders. 

 The men didn't do a thing but make up a 

 purse among themselves and buy him an ele- 

 gant gold watch, chain and charm, and while 

 they are not studded with diamonds and he 

 has much finer, yet some of his relatives tell 

 it on him that he takes those his men gave him 

 and puts them under his pillow at night be- 

 fore retiring. The best part about the matter 

 is that Colonel Gates got the orders and kept 

 them at work, but to do this he slept half 

 of the nights between December and March 

 on Pullman cars, traveling from Canada to 

 the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pa- 

 cific, and to crown the result he was able to 

 pay his stockholders on July 1, 1908, the usual 

 semi-annual dividend and place a respectable 

 sum in the surplus account. 



In his directory he has four men that com- 

 menced at the bottom of the handle ladder, 



4nd in his executive committee of five mem- 

 bers he has two men, one that commenced by 

 punching the keys of a typewriter and the 

 other as a boy marking handles. 



Should our handle brethren take hold and 

 ''tell us things" we may at some later date 

 •ake our pen and jot down other items. 



"Old Hickory." 



Identifying Woods by Common Names. 



This question savors of the very difficulty 

 referred to in an editorial in the last 

 issue, regarding the impossibility of knowing 

 exactly what woods are referred to when only 

 a local name is given. For instance, take the 

 first question: Rock elm proper — if such a 

 phrase is permissible — is the hard variety 

 known as Vlmus racemosa. of Michigan and 

 Wisconsin notably, although the same term is 

 also applied in different localities to TJlmus 

 crassifolia, Vlmus pubescens and Ulmus amer- 

 icana — all the well-known varieties of the fam- 

 ily, with one exception. As to gray elm, the 

 tree referred to is probably the Vlmus amer- 

 icana of the North. Water elm is a term 

 sometimes applied to the same tree and also 

 to another variety, Vlmus alala; according to 

 its locality. The true water elm is Plancra 

 aquatica, belonging to another genus of the 

 same family and having a wider range of 

 growth; the tree has a nut like fruit instead 

 of a winged seed, and soft elm is probably ap- 

 plied to this tree more than' to any other elm. 



As to the gum varieties — bay poplar and 

 tupelo gum are terms applied to the same tree, 

 the Nyssa sylvatica, as it is known botanically. 

 Bed gum and white or sap gum refer to the 

 red gum lumber of commerce — -' ' sap ' ' being 

 a grade of that lumber, and meaning the sap- 

 wood or light, colored wood. Yellow poplar is 

 the Liriodendron tulipifera. Thus it will be 

 seen that none of the three belong to ths same 

 family, and have but a few characteristics in 

 common. — Editor. 



Wood Production in Germany. 



Germany reoelvps the credit of bclnc the most 

 thoroughly scientific of all nations of the world. 

 She does with her limited resources what 

 younger nations will soon be compelled to do In 

 self-protection ; she conserves them. 



When our wood supplies, stored up from 100 

 to 500 years, are within sight of their end, 

 and sawmills that have been moved from the 

 white pine belt of the North to the yellow pine 

 belt of the South, thence to the Paclflc coast 

 for their last stand. Germany's sclentlflc fores- 

 try policy will rei-elve better recognition. 



We do not thlnt of moving a grist mill about 

 from one whc.<<t field to another, as the fields 

 In turn become exhausted. After one crop Is 

 harvested another Is coming on. So It must be 

 with the sawmill and the crop of trees. If It 

 takes fifty years to raise a tree of a given 

 species, then one-fiftieth of the forest may be 

 cut each year, provided It reseeds or la replanted 

 ^and the sawmill stays at the same place and 

 the workmen live In their permanent snug homes 

 nearby. The "lumber shanty" will be a thing 

 of the past ; raising trees a business like raising 

 wheat. 



