54 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



them as the tides of the river would permit. 

 They were greedy for timber last- year; now, 

 they declare that the very "irony of fate" has 

 pursued and marked them. They state that 

 the river has been up practically all the time 

 during the logging season and every rise has 

 caused a "chill" when the lumbermen remem- 

 bered the logs it would bring down the river — 

 logs they did not want, but had to talie, as 

 they had been contracted for. The river is now 

 getting a trifle low for logging, but it is still 

 high enough to handle cross-ties, and quite a 

 lot are being brought down. 



The Nashville Tie and Cedar Company has been 

 shipping a lot of ties down the river of late and 

 has a good many contracts ahead for early de- 

 livery. A shipment of 100 carloads is reported 

 recently. This amount of ties and even more, 

 however, can be handled in what is called one 

 tow. About twenty carloads of ties can be 

 put aboard one barge and a tow boat can get 

 down the river with six barges, or 120 carloads — 

 about six trainloads. Most of these ties are 

 being unloaded at Cairo and Joppa, 111. 



Two of Nashville's most prominent and most 

 popular lumbermen had unique experiences a 

 day or two ago on the occasion of "tag day" 

 in Nashville. This day is one the United Chari- 

 ties evolved as a means of malsing money for 

 their fresh air camp near this city, to which 

 they send poor children during the hot summer 

 months. Ten automobiles full of flowers were 

 stationed at prominent places in the city, each 

 accompanied by pretty girls and women. Every- 

 body was "held up" by these beauties for "sweet 

 charity's sake" and made to buy a flower. When 

 they paid the toll a pretty girl pinned a flower 

 on their coat and they were thus tagged. John 

 B. Ransom owns a very fine automobile. He 

 was asked for the use of his machine on this 

 day. He is always generous to a fault, but he 

 was loth to let a bunch of women have his car, 

 so he told them to get some other machine and 

 he would duplicate in a donation whatever they 

 made In that car. The ladies let him off after 

 such an offer on his part. They got another 

 car and the machine with its load of flowers 

 and pretty girls made at its station between 

 $85 and $100. Instead of having to pay some 

 $8 or $10, as he had anticipated, the good- 

 natured John B. had to "cough up" close to 

 $100. John W. Love also owns an automobile, 

 but his experience was a little different from 

 that of Mr. Ransom. Mr. Love was spinning 

 home to dinner when a fair one planted herself 

 right between the car tracks and bade him stop 

 and be tagged. He stopped all right, but expos- 

 tulated with the fair one and averred that he 

 had no money on his person. The fair one 

 thought he ought to have some change about 

 him even if he didn't, and she argued with him. 

 Finally he thought of a scheme. He would 

 leave his watch with her as a pledge for the 

 faithful performance of a promise to bring some 

 change on his way back. She took the watch. 

 It cost John W. $1.50 to get it back and get 

 one lone daisy pinned to his coat, but at that 

 he got off light as compared to his next door 

 neighbor and fellow lumberman, John B. Ran- 

 som. 



Richard Wilson of the Wilson Land and Lum- 

 ber Company is ill and the doctor has advised 

 him to take a long rest and recuperate. He has 

 stomach trouble and will probably sail for Europe 

 ere long. 



James B. Read of Scottsville, Ky., has sold 

 out his interest in the firm of Love, Boyd & Co. 

 to the other members. He was the junior part- 

 ner in the concern. Mr. Read during the past 

 week lost his three-year-old baby. 



Lewis Doster, the genial and popular secre- 

 tary of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, is getting to be quite a golf fiend. He has 

 joined the Nashville Golf and Couhtry Club, one 

 of the select social organizations of the city 

 and one which has excellent golf links. The 

 smiling secretary can be seen most any day in 

 the late afternoon taking a little recreation after 



a hard day at the office. He wears a little red 

 cap and his fellow players can tell him In this 

 cap no matter if he's half a mile away. 



Sam Benedict, who is spending his time now 

 in rolk county. Tennessee, developing the prop- 

 erty of the Conasauga Lumber Company, was in 

 the city this past week. He and the eider Bene- 

 dict, John B. Ransom, John W. Love, M. F. 

 Green and the Burns brothers are the principal 

 owners in this enterprise. They own a tract 

 of 50,000 acres, on which it is estimated there 

 are over 200,000,000 feet of timber. A double 

 band sawmill has been erected and it cuts about 

 30,000 a day. Other mills will be erected as 

 they work up different portions of the tract. It 

 is estimated that it will require fifteen or twenty 

 years to cut out this tract. Hamilton Love, 

 who has suffered with rheumatism for many 

 months, is improving slowly. If he continues to 

 improve his brother, John W. Love, will leave 

 early in July for Markland, Nova Scotia, where 

 he owns a hotel. Mr. Love will take his family 

 with him. 



MEMPHIS 



The last meeting of the Lumuermcn's Club 

 for the season was held at the Hotel Gayoso 

 May 30 and, while the attendance was not par- 

 ticularly large, owing to the absence of a num- 

 ber of lumbermen from Memphis, it was one 

 of the most important gatherings held this 

 year. The meeting was under the auspices of the 

 Hiver and Rail Committee, and rate matters 

 were tnoroughly discussed. The most promin- 

 ent feature was the address on "Legal Phases 

 of the Rate Question," by W. A. Percy, who Is 

 perhaps more familiar with this subject than 

 any attorney in the South. Mr. Percy Is the 

 attorney of record in the three suits brought 

 before the Interstate Commerce Commission by 

 prominent hardwood interests of Memphis, as 

 follows : J. W. Thompson et al. vs. Illinois Cen- 

 tral and lazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads : 

 Geo. D. Burgess et al. vs. Trans-Continental 

 Freight Bureau, and Jas. E. Stark et al. vs. 

 St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern. The 

 first involves the rate on lumber from Memphis 

 to New Orleans for export ; the second, rates on 

 lumber to Pacific coast points, and the third, 

 rates from Arkansas points to Memphis, Cairo, 

 St. Louis and other points. Mr. Percy ap- 

 peared before the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission in the argument of these eases a short 

 time ago and gave an interesting review of the 

 testimony and arguments before that tribunal. 

 He also reviewed the case brought by the Cen- 

 tral Yellow Pine Association and by the asso- 

 ciations of Georgia and Alabama, in which 

 both have won victory over the railroads, the 

 ruling of the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 in the case of the first named having been sus- 

 tained by the Supreme Court of the United 

 States aud the latter having secured an Injunc- 

 tion from the Federal Court restraining the 

 roads from putting the advance in yellow pine 

 rates into effect. Mr. Percy believed that 

 owing to the similarity of principle Involved 

 in the Memphis suits and the yellow pine case, 

 the plaintiffs in these suits would be success- 

 ful. Ho does not know when the commission 

 will hand down its decision, but believes that 

 the arguments made by counsel for Memphis 

 shippers will be strong enough to more than 

 offset the points made by the dependants and 

 is decidedly optimistic regarding the final out- 

 come. 



Mr. Percy stated that the only way the rail- 

 load companies ever equalized rates was through 

 an advance of the lower to equal the higher. 

 He stated that in order to offset the advance 

 on hardwood lumber rates to the Pacific coast 

 the railroads had advanced the eastbound rates 

 on Pacific Coast lumber. He further stated that 

 the I'aclflc coast shippers were fighting the 

 advance before the Intel-state Commerce Com- 

 mission just as the Memphis shippers were 

 doing and (hat they had begun action by se- 



curing a Federal injunction restraining the 

 roads from putting the advance into effect. 



In the Thompson case Mr. Percy stated that 

 the only arguments brought by the defendants 

 to sustain their contention for a higher rate 

 had to do with the theory of lumber knocking 

 out the end of cars and by the detention of cars 

 at New Orleans awaiting loading of ships. He 

 said that C. C. Cameron had made the won- 

 derful discovery that lumber knocked out the 

 end of cars and made it necessary to charge 

 a higher rate. Regarding the detention theory 

 he asserted that, while the railroads claimed 

 that there was delay of about seventeen days, 

 the plaintiffs were able to introduce documents 

 showing that the detention did not amount to 

 more than half of this time at the very outside. 

 Mr. Percy believed that the lumbermen of 

 Memphis ought to contest every advance threat- 

 ened by the railroads in this section, and he 

 urged upon the club that it take this course. 

 His idea was that the railroads would not be 

 so willing to disturb existing rates it they 

 realized they Imd a fight on their hands every 

 time they attempted to do so. He stated that 

 during prosperity and adversity alike the 

 railroads plead for higher rates. He said that 

 during periods of prosperity they justified their 

 action on the ground that the volume of busi- 

 ness was so large that it was impossible to 

 handle it economically and therefore profitably, 

 making a higher rate necessary. During pe- 

 riods of depression he said they argued that 

 there was so little business offering that the 

 volume thereof did not furnish sufficient 

 revenue (o the roads and therefore made It 

 necessary to put higher rates into effect. 



One of the most telling points made by Mr. 

 Percy had to do with the rate per ton per 

 mile. He stated that lumber takes the second 

 lowest classification of any commodity, that it 

 is a year-round traffic, that cars can be loaded 

 to their full tonnage, that loading and unload- 

 ing are generally done by consignor and con- 

 signee and yet. in the. face of these facts, he 

 shows by the tariff sheets of the Illinois Central 

 that It is charging a higher rate per ton per 

 mile on lumber out of Memphis than the aver- 

 age rate charged for all other commodities han- 

 dled by that system. He also showed that 

 while hardwood lumber is much heavier than 

 Pacific coast lumber, the roads out of Mem- 

 phis are charging a higher rate for handling 

 the former over a rolling country than the trans- 

 continental roads are charging for handling the 

 latter over the high grades of the Pacific slope. 



On conclusion of Jlr. Percy's address a rising 

 vote of thanks was extended him for the very 

 excellent and entertaining talk he had made. 



Directly in line with his suggestion, the club 

 decided that it would assume the aggressive in 

 all matters involving an advance in rates by 

 the railroads and the River and Rail Committee 

 was empowered to take such action as it saw 

 fit. In other words it is clothed with authority 

 to act whenever the railroads give notice of in- 

 tention to advance their rates. 



The club also adopted resolutions endorsing 

 the action of the meeting called at the In- 

 stance of the Illinois Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion protesting against the threatened advance 

 in rates by the railroads of the, country. This 

 convention was held in Chicago a short time 

 ago. 



On motion of W. H. Russe, president of the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association, a 

 committee, headed by W. L. Crenshaw, was 

 appointed to ascertain the number who will 

 attend the annual of that organization at Mil- 

 waukee and to make transportation arrange- 

 ments for the trip. 



Jno. W. Dickson, of the J. W. Dickson Com-, 

 pany, was In Chicago May 14 and 15 to at- 

 tend the committee conferences of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association. In fact, he 

 was In that city when he received information 

 that his mill in east Memphis had burned with 



