THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



13 



AT THE OLD STAND. 



Apropos of tbe agitation of the question 

 of uniform hardwood lumber inspection in- 

 cident upon the near approach of the an- 

 nual meeting of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association, the Record will say 

 that it has every confidence that the hard- 

 wood lumbermen will at that meeting do 

 that which is right and just and to the 

 best interests of the trade in that matter. 

 But we have a few thoughts to present 

 upon the subject to the fair-minded men in 

 the trade. 



The meeting to be held at Indianapolis 

 on May 21 and 22 is the sixth annual meet- 

 ing of the association, which means that 

 the association has been in existence for 

 five years and for that length of time it 

 has labored unceasingly and unselfishly to 

 promote the interests of the hardwood 

 trade by securing uniform inspection. And 

 even those most interested are apt to over- 

 look or forget the vast amount of progress 

 that has been made. 



When the National association was or- 

 ganized" there were at least a dozen sets 

 of hardwood inspection rules in the coun- 

 try. All of those rules have been elimin- 

 ated and the National rules put in their 

 stead, until to-day probably 90 per cent of 

 the hardwood lumber of the United States 

 is bought and sold with the National rules 

 for a basis' of grades. 



That is one of the achievements of the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association, 

 but not by any means all. 



If the National association had at its 

 first meeting adopted such a set of rules 

 as it now has, those rules would have been 

 rejected and scoffed at by the entire buy- 

 ing trade of the counti'y. They would 

 have been rejected by the w^holesale buy- 

 ers all over the country. Everybody knows 

 that who knows anything about the situa- 

 tion at that time. 



Before the National association was or- 

 ganized the Wisconsin HarSwood Lumber- 

 men's Association called a conference of 

 Chicago and Minneapolis lumbermen to at- 

 tempt to reach an agreement upon, the 

 rules of inspection for northern hardwoods. 

 At that meeting the Wisconsin delegation 

 presented a set of inspection rules which 

 were looked upon by the dealers of Chi- 

 cago and Minneapolis as little short of 

 ridiculous, and any agreement was entirely 

 out of the question. 



To-day the rules of the National asso- 

 ciation upon northern hardwoods are al- 

 most word for word the rules presented by 

 the Wisconsin association at that first 

 meeting. 



Not only has the National association 

 brought its rules to conform to the Wis- 

 consin rules, but it has brought the buyers 

 to consent to the change. 



And that consent was not won in a day 

 or a year. It took four years of patient 

 v.ork, progi'essing a little at each revision 

 of the rules, until at the St. Louis meeting, 

 a year ago, the Michigan and Wisconsin 



people were given a free hand in making 

 the inspection rules on northern hard- 

 woods, and these rules are to-day accepted 

 throughout the entire trade without ques- 

 tion or opposition. And the Michigan and 

 AA'iscousin people will assure you that the 

 result is sufficient to repay them for all 

 their efforts. 



The Indiana Hardwood Lumber Asso- 

 ciation came to Chicago two years ago to 

 propose some radical changes in the rules 

 on oak. They didn't get them. Not at that 

 time. Their suggestions were debated 

 earnestly, one might almost say fiercely, a 

 point or two was gained by the Indiana 

 people and then the trade took a year to 

 think the matter over and consider the 

 changes asked l)y the Indiana delegation. 

 When the year was up the right of the In- 

 diana delegation to make the rules on oak 

 was conceded, and the modified rules on 

 oak are accepted to-day without opposition 

 or question. 



The rules of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association on yellow pine are to- 

 day those of the Southern Manufactui'ers' 

 Association, but those who attended the 

 arst annual meeting of the National asso- 

 ciation at St. Louis will remember that an 

 all day's session was held with a commit- 

 tee from the Southern Manufacturers' As- 

 sociation, a session devoted to a thorougli 

 discussion of the yellow pine rules from 

 the hardwood man's standpoint, with the 

 result that the yellow pine rules were not 

 adopted, or rather they were adopted with 

 the exception of those covering the points 

 contended for by the hardwood man. 



By the time another year had passed the 

 Yellow Pine Association had modified its 

 rules to cover .some of the points contended 

 for by the hardwood men; the hardwood 

 men waived the balance and the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association adopted 

 the rules of the Southern Manufacturers' 

 .Vssoeiation. 



Such had been the history of the Na- 

 tional association upon the matter of 

 adopting inspection rules, up to the St. 

 Louis meeting a year ago. It had pro- 

 gressed as rapidl.v toward producing a set 

 of inspection rules which seemed to its 

 members fair and reasonable as it could 

 without alienating the buying interests; 

 and for every member it had lost for not 

 moving rapidly enough it had lost two for 

 moving too rapidly. 



But to the St. Louis meeting came a 

 delegation from a poplar association which 

 was less than a month old, proposin.g 

 changes in the poiilar rules, which were 

 the most radical changes ever proposed 

 to be made on any rules in the history of 

 the trade. Their proposed rules were sub- 

 mitted to the revision committee of the 

 National association and this committee 

 did not take the responsibility either to 

 accept or reject them, but referred the 

 matter to the convention. 



But the poplar delegation would not take 

 its case before the convention as had the 



Wisconsin and Michigan associations, the 

 Indiana association and the Yellow Pine 

 Association. It wanted its rules with all 

 the radical changes they embodied adopted 

 without question and without debate, and 

 because this was not done they launched 

 an organization with the title of the 

 "Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of 

 the United States," and promulgated not 

 only its poplar rules, but a set of rules on 

 all other hardwoods, ju.st sufficiently dif- 

 ferent from the National rules, on which 

 the trade has been working for five years, 

 to give the dishonest and contentious a 

 hook to hang trouble on. 



We believe the foregoing to be a fair 

 statement of the facts. We have tried to 

 make it fair, for we want the trade to have 

 a thorough understanding of the situation. 

 But we are certain the National associa- 

 tion stantls to-day where it has always 

 stood. During the Indianapolis meeting 

 the revision committee of the association 

 will be in session, ready and willing to 

 consider suggestions for improving upon 

 its rules of inspection, and we will guaran- 

 tee to any member of the trade with sug- 

 gestions to make, just and reasonable 

 treatment and a fair hearing, but he will 

 do well to remember that in a meeting of 

 the National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion he is in a meeting of his peers, among 

 300 or 400 men who are not accustomed to 

 taking orders from anyone and who want 

 to have things explnined and discussed be- 

 fore they take action. 



Work is rapidly progressing on the new 

 bridge across the Mississippi Kiver, be-' 

 tween Thebes, 111., and Gray's Point, Mo. 

 Next to the East River bridge between 

 New York and Brooklyn it is the largest 

 bridge under construction in the T'nited 

 States. 



The total length of the bridge proper 

 will be 2,7.">0 feet, but Including the 

 masonry approaches and the earthwork, 

 will be 3,i)07 feet. It will be a double- 

 track structure, with a clearance of 

 28 feet between the trusses. The steel 

 work will extend 103 feet below low water 

 and 65 feft above high water. 



Si-x stone piers will support the steel 

 work. The piers rest on concrete founda- 

 tions laid on benlrock. which has been 

 reached at a comparatively short distance 

 below the river bed. The approach on the 

 Illinois side is 325 feet in length, with five 

 arches, and that on the Missouri side 490 

 feet, with seven arches. The superstruc- 

 ture design is composed of two fixed spans, 

 four cantilever arms, and three suspended 

 spans. Bedford stone is used for the piers 

 and granite for facing and below the high- 

 water mark. 



The cost of the complete structure is 

 estimated by the engineers at .?2,600.000. 

 The controlling interests iu this undertak- 

 ing are the Cotton Belt and Iron Moun- 

 tains roads of the Gould system, the Chi- 

 cago iV Eastern Illinois of the "Frisco sys- 

 tem iind the Illinois Central. 



