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HARDWOOD RECORD 



He has youth, a clear head, good judgment, frankness and a very 

 catholic understanding of both northern and southern hardwoods. 

 Beyond this he has had long experience in association work. He 

 accepted the nomination of chief executive of the organization 

 absolutely under protest, but his unanimous and popular election 

 must needs be a source of gratification even to a man as modest 

 as he, and it enables him to enter upon the discharge of his 

 duties entirely unhampered; he has no friends who will expect 

 reward and no enemies to punish. 



Thus Mr. Agler occupies the most enviable position of any man 

 who was ever elected to the presidency of a leading lumber 

 organization, and it is the belief of his friends — who constitute 

 practically every member of the association — that he will give it 

 the cleanest, most forceful and ablest administration it has 

 ever had. 



Forestry vs. Forest Economy, 



There has been a great deal of 

 good public sentiment ci'eated 

 during the past few years on 

 the necessity of forestry and re- 

 forestry. It has been impressed 

 upon the minds of the public 

 very forcefully that at the rate 

 hardwood forests are being de- 

 nuded the country is at the be- 

 ginning of the end of it^ hard- 

 wood supplies. 



There is no question about the 

 importance of scientific practical 

 forestry and reforestry methods, 

 and their being not only desir- 

 able but essential for both the 

 state and the individual; but 

 paramount to this lies the fact 

 that the practice of sensible and 

 reasonable woods and sawmill 

 economies will tend to perpet- 

 uate the hardwood forests of the 

 nation in a much more substan- 

 tial and logical manner than 

 will the comparatively slow pro- 

 cess of reforestry. This is a 

 proposition that could be started 

 today, and the only reason it is 

 not practiced with more dili- 

 gence by everyone interested in 

 the industry is because of the 

 higher cost of production that 

 these practices entail. This, to- 

 gether with tlie naturally deter- 

 iorating grades of forest pro- 

 ducts, makes the manufacture of 

 low-grade lumber from woods 



The Song of the Cross=Cut Saw 



{Sec SuitpicmciU Drawing bij 'J 



Deep into the heart of the white oak tree 



The pendulum saw eats its hungry way. 



Its bright teeth glitter and gleam all the day 

 A lid it sings a song of the life to be. 

 "New birth you are promised" it seems to say, 



"From the pleached forest your journey's begun. 



Long you have basked in the light of the sun 

 And tossed your green head in midsummer play. 

 The work of life is beginning for you; 



Who can tell what joy the new day will bring— 

 You may line an abode for lovers true, 



Or be carved a throne that will hold a king. 

 You're in transit now, in the wooded glen. 

 From the homes of birds to the homes of men." 



L.IVRA li.MTZ LAW 



lumber. While the undertaking might have been a failure ten 

 years ago, owing to labor cost and low prices on dimension and 

 other small material — the price of dimension stock has so far 

 advanced today that every manufacturer operating on a conserva- 

 tive and business-like basis can show some little profit out of his 

 woods and sawmill refuse. 



It is a subject worth the consideration of every manufacturer 

 of hardwoods in the land. 



Small Opportunity for Money Making. 



All past eras of financial depression have heretofore proven 

 splendid periods for the jobbing and large consuming lumber 

 trades to take advantage of a low range of values, buy heavily 

 aud eventually reap a substantial reward. 



During the recent dull trade period this opportunity for money 

 making has proven very meagre to the average large buyer, and 

 comparatively few jobbers and large consumers have been able to 

 place their money advantageously 

 ■in lumber purchases. There have 

 been numerous odd lots of inferior 

 stock bought and sold at a ridicu- 

 lously lo%¥ range of prices, but the 

 large operators have been so finan- 

 cially entrenched that they have 

 not been obUged to realize on their 

 holdings, and hence very few large 

 blocks of lumber have changed 

 hands at low prices. There have 

 been scores of wealthy jobbers 

 who have carried hundreds of thou- 

 sands of dollars iij the bank since 

 last October, waiting an opportu- 

 nity to buy round lots of lumber 

 at ' ' their ' ' prices, but in most in- 

 stances they have signally failed 

 to find the opportunity. 



Generally speaking it is doubtful 

 if the jobbing trade owns seventy- 

 five per cent as much lumber as it 

 did a year ago, and it is also 

 doubtful if the average wholesale 

 consumer has thirty-five per cent 

 as much stock in his possession as 

 he liad during the period named. 

 Another singular feature of the 

 recent depression is the fact that 

 apparently manufacturers were 

 mighty well entrenched financially, 

 as there have been practically no 

 failures in the hardwood manu- 

 facturing industry for the past 

 sis months. Such failures as have 

 occurred have been among the job- 

 bers, and it is remarkable that so 



; J. X 



and log refuse comparatively non-profitable. 



Therefore it is with a good deal of gratification that the Eecord 

 supports the suggestion that the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 be given increased authority, particularly in the matter of estab- 

 lishing freight rates on low grade products. 



With the plentitude of cheap timber during the years of the 

 past, many operators knowing the patent waste in their woods 

 and sawmill operations have made tentative efforts toward the 

 utilization of small and coarse timber, tops, slabs, edgings, etc., 

 but the majority of them have given up the enterprise owing to 

 its meager financial returns. They have declared it a picayune 

 business, especially when they found that their labor cost ex- 

 ceeded the total value of their output. 



However, the time is at hand when logical methods should bo 

 introduced into every woods and sawmill operation, to get out 

 of the present waste product every available foot of merchantable 



few of this clement have been obliged to go into liquidation. 



Undeniably a good many wholesale consumers have been very 

 hard up, but the remanufacturers of hardwood lumber as a class 

 have stood up splendidly under the severe financial strain, and 

 failures in the furniture, interior finish, car and kindred trades, 

 have been very few. 



Why This Silence? 



The managing director of the New York lumber "organ" has 

 been so busy of late in writing in the amendments and publishing 

 the copyrighted rules of the N. II. L. A. that he has not even had 

 time to consult with the lego-lumber luminary over on Twenty-fifth 

 street and Eleventh avenue and ascertain if the new rules are en- 

 tirely satisfactory. This is unfortunate, for the hardwood lumber 

 public is anxiously waiting to know whether or not Crary is happy. 

 If he is the National Hardwood Lumber Association has not lived 

 in vain. 



