The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XVI. 



CHICAGO, JULY 25. 1903. 



No. 7 



The Bardwood 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: 



U. 8., 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. 



HOVCRTISING INDEX ON 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. 



Two weeks ago we sent our readers to 

 the woods to take their vacation; or came 

 as near to sending tliem as we could, in 

 wliat we meant to be a serene frame of 

 u'ind and with the comfortable assurance 

 tJiat we should have a good, fair fall trade. 

 .\nf\ we practically guaranteed that there 

 x^iiuld be no untoward happening in the 

 l.iisiness world during the time of their 

 ;i!)sence. We trust the.v took our advice 

 promptly and are now- back at the helm. 

 Ill-cause we now want to divide the re- 

 sponsibility. We want to withdraw our 

 guarantee. 



We had watched prices of almost all 

 kinds of commodities and of practical^- all 

 kinds of securities settle gently down to- 

 \>ard a more reasonable basis for the past 

 \car without disturbing business or caus- 

 ing much uneasiness, and w-e saw no par- 

 ticular reason why the speed of the down- 

 ward movement should be particularly 

 accelerated just at this time. A very 

 strong clique has been supporting the mar- 

 ket, and we had faith in tlieir power to 

 efise things down gradually, but in some 

 way our calculations were wrong, for the 

 stock market has gone all to pieces in the 

 p:ist fortnight and there is every evidence 

 that the situation has gotten away from 

 those supposed to be in control. 



Of course the day of reckoning for the 

 nnancial follies of which the country has 

 been guilty in recent years had to come 

 some day, and w'e had rather expected it 

 would come sooner than it did; but when 

 ti;e tide turned so gradually and the process 

 of squeezing the inflated value out of 

 things proceeded so safely, we liad come to 

 hope that we might get down to a proper 

 basis without much of a jar. We are free 

 to confess tliat at the pri'sent stage of 

 affairs we do not like the outlook. Some 

 giant hand seems to have given things a 

 shove. 



Of course there has been nothing hap- 

 pening in the two weeks to alter the situa- 

 tion from a legitimate business standpoint. 

 The crop prospects are rath(>r brighter tliaii 

 two weeks ago, and wo are that much 

 iLi'arer a bountiful harvest, tlie product of 

 which bids fair to be marketed at fair 

 Iirices. The farmers who liad money two 

 weeks ago still have it and the laborer 

 who was well emplo.ved at that time, at 

 good wages, has not lieeu discharged nor 

 had his wages reduced. Hut there is a 

 different atmosphere in the financial and 



commercial world from that of a fortnight 

 ago. Still we may piclc up and go ahead 

 again without much trouble. So far as 

 the hardwood Inmberiuan is concerned the 

 general business situation is all he needs 

 to consider. If general business remains 

 good there is no question but that his busi- 

 ness will flourish. 



It seems to us that the feature of the 

 piesent severe and ^ almost unexampled 

 slump in the market for securities, which 

 is most sinister in its aspect, is that there 

 is no apparent cause for it. 



It was the agitation of the silver ques- 

 tion and tariff question which is conceded 

 to have brought on the slump of IS!);!, and 

 when the sharp but short slump of 1901 

 came it was due to an adverse decision of 

 the Supreme Court, which seemed to 

 threaten the existence of all the trusts. 



The ijresent slump comes at a time when 

 there seems to be absolutely no clouds in 

 the financial, commercial or industrial 

 skies. The structures that Morgan and his 

 men have erected rtre not being blown 

 over by storius of adversity, but are tiuu- 

 bling for the reason that because of their 

 rottenness the.v cannot support their own 

 weight. 



Coming, as it does, in so quiet and serene 

 a time the present slump cannot be at- 

 trllmted to excitement and nervotisness. 

 Xor can it be attributed to manipulation 

 of Hnanclers, for all the strong financial 

 Interests have much at stake in keeping 

 the market up. 



The present slump seems to have come 

 as the result of the calm, deliberate judg- 

 ment of the .\merican people. And com- 

 ing in such maimer it has come to stay. 

 The efforts of the financiers may boost 

 prices for a day or a week, but in the end 

 they will have to give up the struggle and 

 uiUoad their '•uudl.gested securities" at 

 \\hat thev are worth. 



CAKBYING STOCKS. 



Then' has never been a time within our 

 recollection when the stocks of hardwood 

 lumber were so low in the central market* 

 as they are at i)resent. This does imf ap- 

 ply to any one, two or half dozen point=. 

 but is general. 



Consumers are buying "from hand to 

 mouth," as the saying is, and have been 

 for several years, or ever since the slump 

 in prices came in 1900 and cauglit a num- 

 ber of them heavily loaded up with high- 

 priced stocks. .\nd they will continue to 



