The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XVI. 



CHICAGO, JUNE 10. 1903. 



No. 4 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBDSHED BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



ON THE 10 H AND 25rH OF EACH wONTH. 



134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



U. S., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



Foreign Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING HATES ON APPLICATION. 



The cost of advertising In the Wanted and For Sale 

 columns will be found at the head of that department. 



ADVEnTlSI^G INDIX CM PAGE 26 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and others arc re- 

 quested to notify us of changes in per- 

 sonnel or organizations of hardwood 

 lumber firms. We desire especially to 

 receive particulars of installation of 

 new plants, transfers of property and 

 timber holdings and experiments in 

 new methods of manufacturing or the 

 utilization of by-products. New publi- 

 cations of interest to the trade, including 

 catalogues, stock lists and circulars will 

 receive attention if sent to this office. 

 Our columns are also available for 

 criticism and comment on any article 

 published or for news of any - sort con- 

 cerning the hardwood trade. 



Our readers will confer a favor when 

 writing to advertisers if they will state 

 that they saw the advertisement in the 

 Hardwood Record. This is little 

 trouble and costs nothing, but it helps 

 us and is information wanted by the 

 advertiser. 



THE BUSINESS SITUATION. 



We cannot And anything the matter with 

 flic business situation. We feel it our 

 <]nt.v to find something the matter if we 

 can. \\ e feel it our duty to look for bad 

 places in the road and set up danger sig- 

 nals when we tind one: but after a careful 

 survey we fail to detect anything out of 

 order. The road seems clear, for the bal- 

 ance of the year at least. 



There has been a lot of talk about labor 

 troubles, but the fact is that in spite of all 

 the talk there is not a serious labor com- 

 plication anywliere in the Tnited States 

 to-day. nor even one in ijrospect. There 

 are differences cropping up all the time 

 between capital and labor, but those dif- 

 ferences are settled rapidly. The fact is 

 that we have agencies for settling labor 

 ditticulties now that we did not have in 

 Ijygune years — agencies that force through 

 to a settlement by arbitration or otherwise. 

 We believe that the labor troubles in exist- 

 ence or prospect are not serious or threat- 

 ening, and for the purposes of this article 

 we will wipe tliat item off the slate. 



And we fail to see any threatening 

 clouds in the financial skies. The farmers 

 have mone.v. the business men have 

 money, the banks have money — not only 

 the big l)anks, but tlie little banks — all 

 kinds of banks and all kinds of people 

 have nuiney. more money than they ever 

 had. It's pretty hard to start a panic un- 

 der such conditions. 



And the business of the country, so far 

 as we are able to judge, has been and is 

 licing conducted con.servatively. The im- 

 mense prosperity of the past tew years has 

 made the business people a tritle dizzy anil 

 I hey have rather been expecting to hear 

 something drop. Most of them have been 

 proceeding carefully, keeping their bank 

 balances good and their credit obligations 

 small. It s pretty hard to start a panic 

 under such circumstances. 



'I'here are a lot of "undigestiMl securities" 

 in W.iU Street, but they won't hurt yon 

 iiidess ymi tr.v to dige.st some of them. 

 l)(in'l lei the "undigested securities" 

 lidther yon. If Wall Street can't digest 

 fheni. let Wall Street throw them up. If 

 Wall Street has bitten off more than Wall 

 Street can chew, let Wall Street spit it out. 

 We don't care. They can't start a panic 

 with their "undigested securities." 



Our present prosperity is not confined to 

 .my one class or section. It is a question 

 uhether the North, or the South, or the 

 lOast. or the West is ahead in having its 



pockets well filled and a pleasant smile on 

 its face. The ranchman, the farmer and 

 the planter; the retailer, wholesaler and 

 producer: the capitalist, the banks and the 

 ijondholders: the artisans, the clerks and 

 tlie day laborers; they have all got money, 

 and are making money and doing very 

 well, thank you. It's pretty hard to start 

 a panic imder such circumstances. 



We look for a fairly good summer's 

 tr.ide and a rattling good fall's business. 



THE CAUSE OF DISCONTENT. 



The editor of a magazine has gone to 

 the pains and expense, in a recent issue, 

 of hiring a high-priced writer on econo- 

 mics to address the public on "The Cause 

 nf the People's Discontent." As tlie arti- 

 cle covers several pages and is full of big 

 words and has at least a dozen dry and 

 drear.v looking sub-lieads scattered through 

 the text, we did not read it. If a man 

 will cover several pages telling the "Cause 

 of Discontent" in tlie human family he 

 doesn't know what he is writing about, or 

 is sadly deficient in the art of expressing 

 himself. In either ease life is too short 

 to spend time following him. 



The cause of man's discontent can be 

 told in a sentence. It is born in him. Man 

 has been discontented always and he al- 

 ways will be. If he were not discontented 

 he would not be a man. He would still 

 be the brute he was at the beginning. 



Wherever there is no discontent there 

 is no progress. The cow is content, and 

 so is the horse, the dog and the ass; and 

 the cow, the horse, the dog and the ass 

 are the same yesterday, to-day and forever. 



Man is the only discontented animal and 

 is, tlierefore, the only progressive animal. 

 Discontent and Progress go hand in hand. 

 The ••Divine spark" which raises man 

 above the beasts is merely discontent with 

 his environment, which compels him to 

 strive for something better. 



You never saw a contented man unless 

 he was an imbecile. And it seems that 

 the higher his development and the better 

 his surroundings the greater his discon- 

 tent. 



It would seeni that the people of this 

 country, and especially the laboring peo- 

 ple, would, in comparing their condition 

 with the condition of peoples of other 

 countries and other times, be con- 

 tent, but they are not. They are the most 

 discontented people in the world; and the 

 most progressive people. 



The writer referretl to above evidently 



