HARDWOOD RECORD 



Secretary's Remarks. 



Presuicnt Audorson was followed by Secre- 

 tary r>.-r.iijus;li. wl.,. siiid: 



The 1 « ^ii:;L'i'^Miins I have to make came to 

 me frmii xarl'U^ -In -M-iions through correspond- 

 ence, ll.v uw 11 n .jrk has not been of a Tery 

 active nature during the last few months, but 

 I want to call attention to a few things. I 

 have always thought that the matter of trade 

 ethics has not been general enough. Some 

 branches of the lumber trade have almost per- 

 fect ethics and they live up to them. This is as 

 it ought to be, and therefore when I received 

 letters from the lumber secretaries who have 

 advocated a trade ethics organization I wrote 

 them that we would certainly he a party to it. 

 and the work will be taken up at the meeting 

 in Minneapolis on the ISth of this month, 

 when the following matters will be considered, 

 which are of much interest to every man in the 

 lumber trade. The idea is for the secretaries 

 of all the associations to get together and work 

 out a system of trade ethics covering these 

 points which I will read as presented by them : 

 TR.\DE ETHICS. 

 Orders. 



1. .\U orders should be in writing, and for any 

 amount more than $3.5 should be signed by both 

 the buyer and the seller. 



Specificatiox.s. 



2. All orders should be complete, explicit, and 

 should specify the grades, terms and conditions 

 of sale. 



Legal Contracts. 



3. Xo order or contract is to be considered 

 binding until the same has been duly signed 

 by both seller and buyer, or legally authorized 

 agents of either party. All nLTnlnr ^ili;;..! 



salesmen have authority to malo ni -.i- i-.i 



sale of regular list stock, nu - 



only. Any irregular stock, or i :^ , 



are subject to the approval of tli' j ii - 'I;. 



of the seller. 



Com .MISSION. 



4. Xo i-ommission man has authority to biud 

 any seller on orders taken by him, and all such 

 orders are not binding upon the seller until the 

 same have Ireen acknowledged by them as duly 

 accepted orders. 



Grade Terms. 



Where the latest terms are not n- : 

 abbreviations are used, or anv i - -. 

 a misunderstanding, resulting iu h-- r i^ i .| 

 that the part.v first writing up the (irrier slml! 

 be responsible, and shall sustain any loss ii. 

 curred by reason of such errors or omissions. 

 Terms of Sale. 

 6. In cases where the term.s or eoiulitions of 

 the sale are not specilir.i ,.ii ih, i;i,,_. of the 

 order, the following 



complete when the car has reached the "yard" 

 limits of the city or town destination mentioned 

 in the order or contract. 



F. O. B. Mill Delivery. 



10. On all sales made f. o. b. cars shipping 

 point the responsibility of the shipper ceases 

 when the car is^ sealed and the bill of lading is 

 delivered to the buyer, such delivery to be con- 

 sidered complete when the bill of lading is placed 

 in the mails. 



TrsiE Shipments. 



11. The seller is not responsible for damage 

 or loss sustained due to delayed shipment, from 

 any cause whatsoever, unless some definite agree- 

 ment as to what such loss will be on account of 

 the material not being shipped within the speci- 

 fied time is shown en the order or contract. 



12. M"Iii. <l:i ■ -I shipment is a part of the 

 contra > I in order to collect damages 

 trom til' I -peclfy on the order at the 

 time it i li.nalty for such nonfulflll- 



I'AM-ELL.VTIONS. 



]."!. Where definite date of shipment is not 

 specified on the order, the buyer is not entitled 

 to cancel such orders inside of thirty days from 

 the date of the order, without the consent of 

 the seller, nor is any buyer justified in can- 

 celling an order at any time thereafter without 

 giving the seller at least five days' notice, by 

 letter, where the distance from the buyer to the 

 general oflice of the seller is not more than five 

 hundred miles, with an additional day's time 

 for each five hundred miles beyond the first five 

 hundred miles. Time to be reckoned from the 

 mailing date of the letter. 



Three days' time will be sufficient to allow for 

 wire cancellations. 



The seller is to be protected in all cases where 

 stock has been manufactured, or worked to apply 

 on the order, provided the buyer is notified 

 promptly what such charge or loss will be on the 



be moved 



The terms of sale should be considerei 

 a part of the contract as the price 

 the stock is purchased. 



rial un- 



derstandings sii. i'i I I . I :. 



F^o. i;, Ih -, , , . ... . I , „v. 



8. Where the -jh- a. mail. .11 di Inured price 



sponsible for the sate delivery of all goods in 

 accordance with the order or invoice. Any dam- 

 ._ ,.__ .„ . . , orjited to buyer 



support of sti 

 is held that 

 account of del; 

 posed of betw 

 tion companie 



it is not fair i 



beinsr furnished 



I to cancel any 

 1 transit, without 

 • ss the seller is 

 image as he may 



IS. the original order re- 

 I is to be considered the 

 ilements are to be made 



same, unless the buyer 



17. Both bu.ver and seller are exempt from 

 any loss or damage caused by strikes, or acts 

 of God over which they have no control. 



Cancellation of orders has been a serious mat- 

 ter, and while leniency is necessary in times like 

 these, the nearer we get to real trade ethics, the 

 better it will be for us. I would like to have 

 you interested in this proposition and authorize 

 a representative to attend this conference and' 

 lend the cooperation of this association to a 

 matter in which I think you are all interested. 



A few weeks ago a "National Prosperity Asso- 

 ciation" was organized in St. Louis, which is 

 also a good thing. You know if everybody cries 

 "Wolf !" and cries it loud enough and long 

 enough, pretty soon we will all imagine that 

 there is a wolf around. It has been my expe- 

 rience that if we all howl about business going 

 to the bow-wows it generally goes there, and 

 this year, when trade is very quiet, it is be- 

 coming manufacturers in any line to try to 

 realize that they have competitors who are also 

 friends, and intend to do the right thing. Now. 

 of course, this prosperity proposition cannot 

 make trade : but we know one of the greatest 

 factors in the business world today — Judge Gary 

 — has prevented helter-skelter prices in the steel 

 trade. I am sure the influence of the clubs has 

 prevented lowering values to the old point where 

 there was no money in the veneer and panel 

 business. There is just so much trade — about 

 4.5 per cent of normal — and if each man is able 

 to get just that 45 per cent from his own cus- 

 tomers, he is doing all he can expect. On the 

 other hand, if he goes out cutting prices, whom 

 docs he benefit? Possibly he has a few more 

 orders this week than last, but he takes the 

 trade of the other fellow, while his competitor 

 may be sitting still, as he ought, trying to be 

 satisfied with conditions and operate just as 

 economically as possible, to meet a condition 

 which 99 per cent of the business men of the 

 country are in today. In any times of depres- 

 sion it is a mistake to try to buy trade, because 

 no man is going to let his trade get away from 

 him, and an epidemic of that kind spreads worse 

 than smallpox. If you are not satisfied with 

 ^oui own business, don't go out and try to get 

 uioie b\ cutting prices on members of this asso- 

 1 lation The object of this General Prosperity 

 Vbsocialion is to bring men into closer touch 

 on these questions, and to just wait for times 

 to ihange and something to turn up. It is 

 bound to come, for this great country of ours 

 I an stand still only about so long. The time 

 IS going to come when furniture men will need 

 panels and veneers and lumber and everything 

 ( Ise T hat being the case, if you can hold on 

 ind sit quietly in the boat you are in for a 

 time we will all be better off. The influence 

 of this Prosperity Association, if it should 

 spread among business men the country over, 

 would pacify the man who thinks because his 

 trade is dull he is going to do something, for 

 himself if be goes out and cuts prices 10 to 20 

 per cent. If we will join in this prosperity talk 

 and preach a little sunshine, we can help the 

 situation materially. The questions of running 

 on short time, attending the association meet- 

 ings, etc., are also important, and your secretary 

 is only too anxious to put information in your 

 hands to show you that everybody in the trade 

 is in the same boat. If you will only take 

 advantage of this you will all realize that no 

 body is getting any advantage over you. There 

 is nothing like a good nid-fashinned "experience 



what 

 of Chi- 



cago 



Changes and Additions. 

 16. .\ny changes or additions must 

 able to both buyer and seller. 



of it ll.:-' : ,it: "live 



-111.- ' . . .1 -.iw. wliicli I lhont;lit was a pretty 



11 lit for Chicago. Now, we ou,ghl 



I ! make this association the same 



iiiii_ It IS all try to be real "live wires"! 



President .\nderson : We might take up the 



appointment of a delegate to the Minneapolis 



meeting which Mr. Defebaugh speaks of. What 



