THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



)io\)0 this niiitlcr will bo tiikon «i> cnr- 

 iniitly. iiiul 1 would rffoimiit'iul tlmt ii 

 comiiillli'*' l«i' niiiioliitcil to foriniiliitf pliins 

 for iiuikliiK II K<M«1 fXlilMt h\ Ihls sissoolii- 

 tlon. oiu' worlliy of lis Iniporliiiu-o iiii-.l 

 stiimllnt;- The liimlwooil luinhor Inisliiosn 

 has ni'vor nfolveil Its jiroiior n-fotfultlon. 

 Before tlil« assoeliitloii took told of the 

 trade It was not thouKlit of and coin- 

 mauded but little respect. The position 

 now oecuple<l by It Is such that. If this 

 wore the only (joml accomplished by the 

 assoi^'latlon. it would be a i:rand one. and 

 n dlsplav bv the hardwood men at this 

 worlds fair' will tend to let the outside 

 work know still further the Importance 



of "■ , . ., 



liurins the two years 1 have had the 



honor of belnp president of this associa- 

 tion I have found tliac the duties of the 

 office have entailed upon uie considerably 

 more work than I had anticipated, and 

 that the numerous details have taken 

 more time and study than I had thought 

 would be re<iuired of me. Notwitlislaiid- 

 iug this I feel that 1 have been amply re- 

 paid bv the education I have received 

 while keeping in touch with every phase 

 of the hardwood iumoor business, and by 

 the nianv friends 1 have made in the trade 

 throuKhout the entire country. Since the 

 date of organization I have taken an activa 

 interest in the work of the association, 

 and it has been a work of great pleasure 

 to me. I refrret that personal affairs will 

 herealter reiinire such close attention as 

 to prevent mv continuinK an active worker 

 -with you. The association is so thor- 

 oughly established on a firm basis and has 

 such a strong membership now. 1 feel that 

 there is an abundance of ability to carry 

 on the work and successfully prosecute 

 the plans of the organization. And iii 

 dropping back into a more passive atti- 

 tude in mv connection with the associa- 

 tion. I wish to again thank you for the 

 honor vou conferred upon me in twice 

 electing me vtmr president, and to assure 

 vou of mv continued interest in the wel- 

 fare of tlie organization. I wish also to 

 express publicly my appreciation of the 

 loval support I have received from the 

 he"ads of all departments and to bespeak 

 for my successor the same kindly consid- 

 eration. 



Secretary A. It. Vinnedge of Chicago pre- 

 sented his report as follows: 



REPORT OF SECRETARY. 



To the president and memliers of the 

 National HardwrnKl Lumber Association: 



It is mv pleasure to submit to you my 

 fifth annual report as secretary of this as- 

 sociation, and I am glad to be able to in- 

 form vou that the year which this report 

 covers has been the most satisfactory, from 

 the viewpoint of the secietary's office, of 

 any since the association was organized. 



MEMBEIISUIP AND DUES 

 We have in the past year, without any 

 special effort, added sixty new members to 

 our membership roll. Those new mem- 

 bers have joinetl our association practically 

 without solicitation and for the puin)0sc of 

 securing the benefits of our inspection 

 bureau, our transportation department or 

 some other branch of the association work. 

 I have received from all sources .?.3.4y:}.70 

 during the current year. Of this amount 

 I have paid out .«;.3.334.53 on vouchers at- 

 tached, leaving a net surplus for the year 

 of ?159.17. 



SALE OF RULES. 



When our revised inspection rules were 

 issued last July ten copies were sent to 

 each member of the association, as pro- 



vldetl by the by-liiws. ill addition there 

 has been a Htrong and n-ady dciiiand for 

 oiir rules from IlniiH outside of our mhso- 

 clatlon. I have sold In tin- past year S.-VS" 

 copies of inspection rules, largely In lots 

 of one to three copies. This sale of rulcH 

 e.\ceeils that of any previous year by over 

 .lO per cent, and It Is an Indication of the 

 progn'ss being made in the adoption of our 

 rules of liispeclloii as the standard of the 

 country. 



THE STA.MUM; ((IMMITTEES. 



The work of the various dcparliiieiits un- 

 der direction of our slaiiding coiiiiiilttees 

 has progressed favorably throughout the 

 year. We all realize tiie patience, con- 

 servative and arduous labors during the 

 [last years of our revision and rules coiii- 

 mittee. It would seem that after so many 

 prunings the inspection rules of the asso- 

 ciation ought to be In almost perfect sliaix- 

 and that this committee should have a 

 little rest from Its labors. So far as I am 

 advised the rules are fairly satisfactory to 

 the hardwood trade and there is a growing 

 demand for stability — that the rules be let 

 alone for a while, till we get well enough 

 acquainted with them as they are to And 

 out what further changes are necessary. 



The Inspection Hureau lost the services 

 of Surveyor-General M. M. Wall, he hav- 

 ing resigned on December 1, but in spite 

 of that the progress made has been very 

 satisfactory. 



The work which Mr. Wall did in organiz- 

 ing the lusiieclion liureau has placed the 

 liardwood trade under lasting obligations. 

 Only those closely connected with the work 

 know of the time aii<l .-ittention he be- 

 stowed upon that department of the Na- 

 tional association. Following the adoption 

 of uniform rules, it was necessary to have 

 some method to secure a uniform applica- 

 tion thereof, and the task of establishing 

 the Inspection Bureau was second only !n 

 importance and dilliculty to the evolving of 

 the uniform rules. This arduous task Mr. 

 Wall undertook with the understanding 

 that in carrying the work through he would 

 entail no financial obligation upon the Na- 

 tional association. In otiier words, the In- 

 spection liureau was to be made self-sup- 

 porting from the first. To state the mere 

 fact that under such circumstances he suc- 

 ceeded is sufRcicnt comment upon the 

 aliility with which he handled the work. 

 Of course the Avork could not be carried 

 forwiud absolutely without funds, but 

 where funds were reiiuired Mr. Wall ad- 

 vanced them, and finally, with the Inspec- 

 tion Bureau firmly estalilished on a paying 

 basis. Mr. Wall resigned. His successor, 

 appointed by the Inspection I'.ureau com- 

 mittee. Mr. C. II. Santon of Buffalo, N. Y.. 

 has. in the few months in which he has had 

 charge of affairs of the bureau, demon- 

 strated that the committee's selection was 

 a wise one. 



The transportation comniittoe. having 

 charge of the traffic department of the Na- 

 tional association, was only appointed a 

 year ago, and the traffic department was 

 not fully organized until last Julv, with 

 Mr. W. D. Hnrlbut at its head. This first 

 year's work has been largely preliminary, 

 but it has already been amply demon- 

 strated that it can be of great benefit to 

 the lumber trade. 



CO-OPERATIOX. 



One thing which has impressed me espe- 

 cially during the past year is the growing 

 harmony between the National Hardwood 

 I-uiuber Association and its constituent as- 

 sociations. There was in some local asso- 

 ciations the fear that b.v affiliating with 

 the National association the local associa- 

 tions Avould lose their identity and that the 



necessity for their cxisleiice would pasH. 

 This fear has proven groundless. The Na- 

 tloiin! assocliilioii bus now been In exist- 

 ence long enough to make a place for Itself 

 and establish working relations with the 

 local associations, and 1 believe the mem- 

 bers of the local assoc'liillons alllllate<l with 

 the National association will bear me out 

 III till' sliitiMiienI that 111 every case the 

 atlillalloii with the NMllonal association ban 

 sli-ciigthi-ned the local orgaiilzallons. 



The National assocTalioii has made no 

 attempt to enter tin- field of the local asso- 

 ilalioiis. it has only sought to ri'present 

 those associations in matters <if general in- 

 terest ami to furnish a common ground 

 upon which all might iiii-et for self-protec- 

 tion ill matters of mutual lnt<>rest. 



ICacli section and each miirki-t has Inter- 

 ests of vital ImiMirlimcc to the lumbermen 

 doing liiisiiiess in those sections and mar- 

 kels which are of no moment to other sec- 

 tions and other markets. Such Interests 

 are not for the National association to 

 handle and the hiiiilwuod himbermeu of the 

 entire country should have that matter 

 clearly In their minds. Those are matters 

 which it is not the province of the National 

 iissocialion to enter into. The National as- 

 sociation cannot make |iii<e lists, for in- 

 stance, for the Wisconsin association, the 

 Chicago Exchange or the Indiana associa- 

 tion. It cannot compile lists of stocks oa 

 hand in all the sections of the hardwood 

 trade, statistics of the input of logs. etc. 

 Those things are for the local associations. 



The National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion is not intended to in any wise super- 

 sede the local assixiations, but to supple- 

 ment the work of such associations, and by 

 so doing strengthen the local organizations 

 ratlier than weaken them. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



I have but one recommi'iidation to make 

 regarding the future work of tlie associa- 

 tion. You will hear the reports of the vari- 

 ous committees having in charge the work 

 of the various departments, each contain- 

 ing its own recommendations, but for fa- 

 cilitating the work of the association and 

 to lend efficiency to the general manage- 

 . nicnt I wish to recommend that some 

 action be taken to give the assochition more 

 centraliz"d guidance. From the day of its 

 organization the work of this association 

 has been done by men who not onl.v donate 

 their time, but have paid their own ex- 

 penses. There has been absolutely no ele- 

 ment of personal profit. The work done 

 has been entirely in the direction of the 

 general good and it is easily possible that 

 the best and most devoted of our workers 

 have received no greater personal benefit 

 than has accrued to many members of the 

 trade who have not liecn members of this 

 ass()ciation. 



There are now fifteen members of the 

 board of managers, of which nine consti- 

 tute a quorum. This means that when the 

 board of managers was called to meet, at 

 least nine men had to gather from distant 

 parts of the country to some central point, 

 at considerable sacrifice of time and money. 

 For this reason the officers have been re- 

 luctant to call the board of managers to- 

 gether as often as they would have liked or 

 as often as the good of the association 

 required. 



.\s a remedy for this I recommend that 

 provision be made at this meeting for the 

 appointment of an executive committee by 

 the lioard of managers from its own mem- 

 bership. This cominilt<'(> should hold at 

 least regular quarterly meetings and be 

 subject to the call of the president at any 

 time; and no one should be appointed on 

 the committee who will not pledge himself 

 to give the affairs of the association such 



