The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XVI. 



CHICAGO, JULY 10, 1903. 



No. 6 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBLISHED BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



ON THE 10H AND 25TH OF EACH MONTH. 

 134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



(J. S., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



Foreign Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION. 



The cost of advertising in the Wanted and For Sale 

 columns will be found at the head of that department. 



ADVERTISING INDEX ON PAGE 26 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and others are 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. 



The dull business luonths of July and 

 August bid fair to pass comfortably to the 

 business world this year. There bids fair 

 to be enough of Ijusiness doing to carry 

 the business houses through the hot sea- 

 son without necessitating any serious re- 

 duction of the working force, without 

 there being enough doing to cause any 

 undue rush or bother. The business man 

 \\\\\ have time to talie bis customary vaca- 

 tion and can let his employes off in sec- 

 tions to take theirs. And they may all 

 rest well, with the assurance that there 

 will be a good, fair fall's business. 



We consider that the business of the 

 lountry in a most satisfactory condition. 

 That feverish rush which characterized 

 liusiness in several recent seasons is not 

 ill evidence. Things are moving calmly, 

 steadily and yet vigorously along. Orders 

 are not coming in at a tremendous rate 

 .ind without solicitation, but they can be 

 secured at a reasonable expenditure of 

 etTort and can be filled within a reason- 

 iil>le space of time and without distressing 

 effort. And with the fever of undue pros- 

 perity has gone the fear and danger of 

 a sudden collapse. Business is on a com- 

 fortably profitable basis, where we wish it 

 might always stay. 



As a natural result of the changed con- 

 dition prices of almost all kinds have been 

 <Ieeliniug steadily for some time past, the 

 Irngth of time during which the decline 

 has been in progress varying in different 

 products from a few weeks to a full year. 

 Hut this decline is not an unmixed evil, 

 mid that it has come gradually and stead- 

 il.\ instead of suddenly is a matter for 

 congratulation. The feverish rush of the 

 few preceding years had carried the prices 

 on everything too high, and there had been 

 uneasiness lest they collapse suddenly and 

 ruinously. Any untoward financial event 

 would have precipitated such a collapse, 

 :ind the best that the business world could 

 liope for was that there would be no unto- 

 ward event and that a proper level might 

 be reached through a steady and healthful 

 decline, and that is what has happened,' 

 or is happening, in almost all lines. 



The business world is now in the posi- 

 tion of an equilibrist who had erected a 

 dangerous pyramid of bottles, and after 

 bii lancing himself on top for a while has 

 iKgun his descent, bringing his structure 

 clown with him safely and without jar 

 or l)reaking, and has reached a point 

 where all danger of a sniashup is past and 



the solid earth within easy reaching dis- 

 tance. 



There is an occasional exception to the 

 general rule of lower values, it is true, but 

 if you will compare the prices on almost 

 all staple articles with those of a year ago 

 you will be surprised at the reduction that 

 has been made, and all so gradually and 

 steadily that the decline has scarcely been 

 noticed. 



And we really believe that business is 

 being done on as profitable a basis as dur- 

 ing the times of higher prices and more 

 unnatural conditions. There is always an 

 element of waste where business must be 

 pushed beyond its natural limit, and after 

 some of our feverish seasons of abnormally 

 high prices a good many business men 

 were surprised to find how. small their 

 profits had really been. I'riees in most 

 lines are below the highest mark, but to 

 our belief business is in better and more 

 satisfactory condition at present than at 

 a similar period in recent years. 



The weather of the past three weeks 

 has been most favorable to growing crops 

 and the prospect of a bountiful harvest 

 is much improved, and that we will have 

 such a harvest is now reasonably assured. 

 The prices on cattle, hogs and grains are 

 considerably lower than at this season for 

 several years, but are still abundantly high 

 to assure the farmer of a good margin 

 of profit. 



There seems no threatening clouds in 

 the financial skies. Wall street still has 

 its load of "undigested securities," but for 

 the past year they have been steadily 

 going down, down, down in price, and bid 

 fair in a short time to get to a basis where 

 the public will be willing to digest them. 

 These "undigested securities" were for a 

 long time, and to some extent still are, a 

 grave menace to business i)rosperity. If 

 for any reason the market had collapsed 

 suddenly a panic of greater or lesser seri- 

 ousness would have resulted. The gradual 

 decline, however, has enabled all interests 

 to protect themselves, and the danger from 

 that source is not nearly so acute as it 

 v.as. 



Neither is there at this time anything in 

 the political situation which seriously 

 tlu'oatens business. It is now almost as- 

 sured that the presidential campaign next 

 year will be fought on issues of such char- 

 acter as not to interfere with business. 

 At the present time it really seems that 

 it will be difficult to scare up an issue of 

 consequence. The silver question seems 



