HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



ject is taken up iu tbe club meetings. Of 

 course, there can be no definite agreement and 

 there is no definite agreement as to the price 

 that any manufacturer or all manufacturers, 

 who are members of the club, shall demand for 

 their product. But committees are appointed 

 and these committees give much time and 

 thought and attention to the preparation of 

 price lists which are recommended, and these 

 recommended price lists are recognized as the 

 time and labor and thought that they have 

 received, make them deserve to be recognized. 

 Each club has also established a system for the 

 collection and dissemination of statistical infor- 

 mation. Every member of each club prepares a 

 report once each mouth which shows his opera- 

 tions during the month, which .shows the number 

 of feet of the different woods and different thick- 

 nesses that he has manufactured and shipped 

 and the prices that he has received for it. It 

 shows the number of feet of logs that he has 

 cut and indicates whether or not he has pro- 

 duced more than he has shipped and what or- 

 ders he has received and has on hand. These 

 monthly reports are sent to the secretary, in 

 confidence, and are compiled by him and only 

 totals and averages are published to the mem- 

 bers. But from this compilation, composed of 

 totals and averages, a manufacturer of rotary 

 cut veneer, for instance, may see at a glance 

 the total number of feet of any particular wood 

 ^?. of any particular thickness that has been 

 shipped during the month just passed. It will 

 show the average price that has been received 

 for veneer of that particular wood and that 

 particular thickness. It will indicate to him 

 what goods are selling most rapidly. It will 

 point out to him where the demand lies. And 

 Irom It he can also learn whether or not he is 

 receiving a good average price for his own 

 product. Any amount of Information of value 

 paay be gleaned and that, too, without disclos- 

 ing to any other manufacturer vour own per- 

 sonal business or the personal business of any 

 individual General conditions are reflected. 



Ihe clubs, too, have inaugurated a plan bv 

 which information relative to the habits of 

 buyers may be obtained. Upon the request of 

 any member the secretary will send out inquiries 

 to all club members for their experience with 

 any buyer, and the information which cornel to 

 nim from the various members will be placed 

 immediately in the hands of the inquiring mem 

 aer, and also distributed among ,all the mem- 

 bers This feature of the club work simply 

 supplements the Experience Bureau of the Na- 

 xTt^l Association, and as the bureau of the 

 national Association becomes more complete 

 the necessity for these special reports will 

 become less frequent. ^ 



I believe that the .National Association is of 

 great benefit to manufacturers of veneer and 

 panels, and I believe that each of the clubs is 

 of great benefit to its members. I think that 



M„'LT„°".l'"^*;;-'^': °' ,''™^"" *""J Pao*^'-^ should 

 helong to the ^atlonal Association and to one 

 x„tl^^»'? ?* f'.^.'^'ul's., Some members of^bl 

 ^ni .„1 ^ssoomtion belong to none of the clubs 

 f°°,some of the club members do not belong 

 to the National Association. On the other hand 

 there are members of the National Association 

 who belong to more than one of the clubs and 

 theie IS one concern which is a member of all 

 three clubs, because they manufacture quartered 

 «ak veneer, rotary cut veneer and thev glue up 

 their own stock. I think there is room for the 

 and ?kno^''?S"\"?? to. become more effective! 

 ^S,l I '^°ow that there is room in each of the 

 clubs to do more work. But it must be conceded 

 that cooperative work may be made of immenle 

 If^-, «,^!?„yi«t »_5°'.^. depends upon t'^eTdl' 



t occurred to 

 ed me to sav 

 -in" upon the 

 • club should 



vidual members and their willingness to null 



together, whether or not the general benefit sha 



be received or something les? than the greatest 



Mr. Sawyer Talks. 



Mr. Haymond was f..ll,„vr,i i,,- Mr. E. F Saw- 



yer of Cadillac. Mi,„, ,.,K. informally ami 



m his usual hap|i\ ■ 11, - ,,.1 ■ 



I have no paiM 1 1 1 

 me when our wnn 1, 

 something at tlji^ ., 



reasons whv ev.i \ i ., 



belong to the .1^ ,„ -.^urred to 



wa^nTp^r"^..;!':;:; ^ ^ -,nhV?here 

 papers nresonto^ 1 ' "■ "■" because the 



to a mioi „ -^5^° ^^^ J"^' about to Sit down 

 sav f ^o?f ^""k" '" "■ However she must nM 



looked up with much concern and said, 

 "Mamma, I found an oyster after all. Shouldn't 

 It have gone to Mrs. Smith, too?" 



But I have one subject in my mind that has 

 not been gone over. I have been asked — the 

 same as others, I think — to say why all mem- 

 bers of the clubs should be members of the 

 association, and I have nothing new to offer 

 save the same oysters that have already been 

 passed around and eaten up. I believe the 

 good-fellowship feeling is a very strong ele- 

 ment. The good fellowship which has de- 

 veloped in the National Association, where a 

 large number of us get together, is very con- 

 siderable. To all new members I imagine our 

 meetings seem very frivolous— that they feel 

 that there is not enough earnestness among us 

 to warrant their joining us. I have talked with 

 a great many new members and at first they 

 nearly all say we waste too much time and 

 don't do enough. They say we stand around 

 and talk about everything but business, and 

 they go away after the first meeting rather 

 justed, I am afraid; but as they get better 



great 



acquainted and learn to know the 

 turers better they find that there 

 deal of business going on while we 

 session. They find we are becoming acquainted 

 with each other as well. You know vou can 

 do business with a man a great deal better 

 when you know his personality. Some men 

 are quick— they think quickly and act quickly. 

 Another man is slow and phlegmatic— don't 

 talk very quickly— and it takes him almost as 

 long to switch his thoughts from one subject 

 to another as It does to change his clothes. So 

 we get acquainted with men, their peculiari- 

 ties a^d characteristics. In this way when 

 one writes to a man he understands whom he 

 is dealing with. You all know in this day and 

 age of the telephone how nice It is to know 

 right where the man you are talking to Is 

 standing— in this or that comer, or sitting at 

 his desk, perhaps. It is pleasant for me to 

 know or to picture just how a man looks when 

 we are transacting business fifty miles apart. 

 Thus in this association we can do better when 

 we know just how a man feels, and it obviates 

 a great deal of friction that comes from not 

 knowing each other thoroughlv. 



The reports sent out have been verv valua- 

 ble, but that subject also has been covered. 

 It does not take anybody long to see that a 

 great deal of good must come out of these 

 reports. I think from the inspection and grad- 

 ing rules will come more good eventually than 

 from anything else. I think the strongest 

 reason why every member of any club should 

 belong to the National Association is because 

 the grading rules must eventually come 

 through It. 



A licensed Inspector has been spoken of, and I 

 think that will come in time also. Many of the 

 men here within the sound of my voice are 

 very familiar with lumber and the methods of 

 lumbermen, and know that a national Inspector 

 who is licensed and bonded Is a man of 

 authority wherever he goes; that when he 

 speaks both the buyer and the seller are very 

 apt to keep silent, because his word Is law in 

 the courts and everywhere else. When he has 

 spoken the last word has been said, and there- 

 fore he is a man of authority. With the veneer 

 business there is no authority, no final arbitra- 

 tion—absolutely nothing but the old-fashioned 

 way of war, and in case the matter is appealed 

 to the courts there will probably be found no 

 rule there. One man will say certain panels 

 are up to grade and another will say they were 

 not, and 1 know of no standard by which a 

 ruling can be made save by a jury of twelve 

 men to guess at it. I think this grading mat- 

 ter will be a bond of iron that will bind every 

 member to the association. It seems as though 

 now we have nothing but whithes of straw and 

 sometimes they are easily broken, but with 

 inspection and grading rules and a licensed 

 inspector there will be every reason under 

 the sun why every manufacturer of veneers or 

 panels or anything in our line will have to 

 belong to the association. 



I am still of the opinion, as expressed bv 

 some of the others, that too much emphasis 

 has been placed on the selling prices and not 



the 



In 



It the association and club 

 meetings nearly all the stress was placed upon 

 the selling price, but it is by slow degree seep- 

 ing into the minds of the members that it is 

 the cost price which is important and not the 

 -selling price. Very few men will sell at less 

 than cost if they know it, and yet verv many 

 do sell their goods or some part of them at 

 less because they don't know it. It is verv 

 easy for a manufacturer who makes severa"l 

 lines of goods to sell some of them way down 

 and still make money in his business because 

 of the profit he makes on other lines, to the 

 great annoyance of some competitor who, per- 

 haps, deals only in the line In which the other 

 IS not making the money. If we have a cost 

 system this will all be obviated. There are a 

 great many people new in the business who 

 don t understand how to figure cost, and there- 

 fore the bulletins sent out to be answered are 

 very important. They will show the manner in 

 which other people figure. Nearly all the mem- 



expounded by some manufacturers in which 

 they have ascertained to a hair's breadth the 

 cost m their factory. So that while this is not 

 necessary for all of us, it would be very in- 

 structive if we all knew exactly the Individual 

 ways in which this accurate cost is obtained 

 r„£t?. '"®?i?''f^ which show output month by 

 month will have a double value, and I think 

 perhaps as time goes on the most important 

 value will be in the price obtained for the 

 various articles as showing to the trade the 

 Kind of goods most in demand. Certainly if 

 our business were not so much of a made-to- 

 order business as it is it would be very much 

 more valuable. 



In relation to nonunion members— those who 

 seem to know enough without coming to our 

 meetings— I am reminded of the situation 

 which developed in a class In college not tar 

 from here— and it was also suggested by the 

 supper la^t night. The class in philosophy had 

 been making a recitation and as they were 

 about to leave the class-room the professor 

 t^i^ ,h''?'«T°""^ '^<^'*'^ ^"'^ gentlemen, I am 

 told that fish is a most excellent brain food; 

 m fact It IS universally so considered. If that 

 IS the tact— and I am inclined to think it is— 

 I would advise this class to eat whale." So I 

 would like to suggest that in some of his bul- 

 letins the secretary recommend to these non- 

 union members a little diet of whale. 



For myself I have enjoyed this meeting very 



JTrliSfihfi^ ^"^ '^^" T'^'^® "^^i" =5" equally 



profitable— we can make them just what we 



^7':',,'^"" again I am reminded of the story 



of the maid who went to the theater. When 



she came home her mistress said. "Well, Mary 



how did you like the play, and what was it?'' 



Well, ma am, she replied, "they didn't give 



no name but they had a lot of signs stuck 



it reaf weu"'''' ^'^^ "'' ^""^ ^ '"^^'^ 



Mr. Maris' Paper. 



J. D. Maris of Indianapolis, who had prepared 

 a paper upon the benefit to be derived by mem- 

 bers from aflillation with their several clubs, 

 modestly prefaced his interesting address by 

 saying that he was informed the best wine was 

 always saved for the last of the feast, but in 

 this case he believed the rule had been reversed. 

 Gentlemen— It was with pleasure mixed with 

 regret that I received an Invitation to read a 

 paper at this session of the NaUonal Associa- 

 tion meeting on the subject of "The Benefits 

 l^uu rSf"'''?,^ by Members Through Affiliation 

 with Their Several Clubs." The pleasure was 

 the fact of my being honored with the Invita- 

 tion to address this body of men* mv regret 

 came from the fact that I did not 'think I was 

 competent to handle this subject in the way 

 It should be handled. 



. The benefits to be derived from membership 

 in these clubs are many. The first and, as I 

 think the most important, is the fact of our 

 being more closely associated in business and 

 meeting freqOently causes us to become bet- 

 ter acquainted not only In a business way 

 but socially. I know the fact of my being a 

 member of the Quartered Oak Veneer Manu- 

 tacturers Club has been the means of my 

 becoming acquainted with competitors whom 

 I have been led to believe were anything but 

 the gentlemen I have found them to be. 

 • ^u benefits to be derived from membership 

 in the club, as I said before, are many. Take 

 for instance, a short time ago in a letter I 

 received from an eastern representative of 

 our company, told me there was someone 

 offering some very choice wide veneers at 

 least 35 per cent under the prices that were 

 being obtained for stock of this character. 

 Feeling so well acquainted" with the members 

 of the club and using my official position I 

 caused to be directed to each member a letter 

 "i'^F^^^ ,^=^°*® and making inquiries as to 

 what they knew of the case. Of course it was 

 taking a long chance, as the quotation might 

 have been made by some manufacturer other 

 than a member of the club, but I received a 

 letter from a member saying their company 

 had made the quotation at the price indicated 

 by our eastern representative, but thev went 

 ahead and explained that the stock in question 

 was w;^ide, clean, clear stock, but was all small 

 figured and on account of the small figure 

 ?L°" "J^^'*'': '°, so in a lower grade of stock 

 than the standard. This put a new face on 

 the matter and showed me where making a 

 thorough investigation of the rumors that are 

 afloat from time to time would bring out the 

 facts of the case, and those facts would not 

 substantiate the facts indicaterl in tli.^ nimor 

 More recently our coniimin !] i,i -,.,,,,:• cor- 

 respondence with a fuiiiinr 1,:, pir-turer 

 selling them :; 



quartered- 

 for $10 per M. and wer.. 

 of small figured stock ; 

 the reputation for hon. 



^■neer. 

 sliced 



