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Annual of Chicago Association 



The forty-foui'th annual meeting of the 

 Lumbermen's Association of Chicago took 

 place at the Hamilton Club on the evening 

 of January 21. The usual dinner was pro- 

 vided preceding the regular meeting. There 

 were about two hundred members present. 

 President Brown opened the business of 

 the meeting with a report covering the year 

 just closing. He summarized the work of 

 the standing and special committees for 

 1912. The president's report stated that 

 the meeting was the second annual of the 

 recently formed lumbermen 's association 

 composed of seven divisions, although it was 

 the forty-fourth annual of the old Chicago 

 Lumbermen 's Association. A seventh di- 

 vision was added last April, at which time 

 the Millmen's Association was taken into 

 membership. This division is known as Di- 

 vision G. Early in the present month the 

 Stair-Builders of Chicago were also admitted 

 to membership, their division being desig- 

 nated as H. 



The report showed three deaths during 

 the year, — C. W. Hinkley of the Soper Lum- 

 ber Company; George Green of the George 



Green Lumber Company, both from Division A; and Edward 

 Krupka of the Bursik & Krupka Company, Division G. 



The president commended the directors and the members of the 

 various committees for their faithful and patient service during 

 the year and for their unselfish devotion to the welfare of the 

 lumber industry of Chicago. A very apparent increased confidence 

 among members and local customers as well as between Chicago 

 lumbermen and distant shippers and consumers of lumber 

 products has resulted from the association work. President Brown 

 put himself very forcibly on record as believing that the local 

 association would never reach its highest plane of usefulness until 

 it could either compel the unscrupulous trader to go out of business 

 or to correct his business methods. According to report, the net 

 gain in membership for the year 1912 has been twenty-two per 

 cent, but there are still many lumbermen and millmen in Chicago 

 who could benefit from membership in the association. 



The work of Murdoch McLeod, chairman of the finance commit- 

 tee, was particularly commended in the report. It was through 

 the able efforts of this committee that the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association in its convention in Chicago last June was 

 entertained with such complete satisfaction to all. The work of 

 Oliver O. Agler, chairman of the entertainment committee, and 

 the committee members was also commended. 



President Brown also told of the inauguration of the idea of 

 publishing the Lumbermen 's News, the first issue of which was 

 brought out last June at the time of the national convention. 

 The paper has been published monthly by the publicity committee, 

 which has had entire charge of the work. The publicity com- 

 mittee has been asked to consider installing some plan for the 

 exchange of surplus stock, but a satisfactory plan has not been 

 worked out during the past year. There is, however, an increasing 

 demand for it and the report said that there is every probability 

 that it will have early attention. 



The trade relations committee, presided over by C. A. Flan- 

 nigin, was one of the most important committees during the year 

 1912. One of its most important accomplishments was the exten- 

 sion of the fire limits of the city of Chicago. This question was 

 worked out by the committee in conjunction with committees from 

 the Association of Commerce and from the City Council. The 

 result of its efforts was a considerable extension of the fire limits, 

 which is fair and satisfying to all. This committee also consid- 



—30— 



ItEDERICK L. BROWN, CHICAGO, PRESI 

 DENT OF THE LUMBERJIENS ASSO- 

 CIATION OK CHICAGO. 



ered the proposed lumber exposition and 

 urged favorable consideration by the board 

 of directors of the association. The board, 

 however, decided that it could go no further 

 at this time than to extend its moral 

 support. 



The incorporation of the Lumbermen's 

 Mutual Casualty Company, designed to pro- 

 vide adequate, satisfactory and reasonable- 

 liability insurance for lumbermen and wood- 

 workers, was reviewed in the report. The 

 incorporation of this body was the result 

 of the recent employers' liability act that 

 went into effect in Illinois last year. It 

 was found that rates covering liability in- 

 surance were increased from two hundred 

 and fifty to five hundred per cent. The 

 new mutual company is the direct result 

 of the efforts of the directors and officers 

 of the Lumbermen 's Association of Chicago. 

 It has met with increasing popularity from- 

 the outset, as it has been demonstrated that 

 the protection which it guarantees, the 

 economy involved and the character of 

 service extended by the company places it. 

 in the foremost rank of liability insurance. 

 The arbitration committee, headed by Frank J. Heitmann, has. 

 had an important work to do during the year. With a committee 

 of this sort, composed of the type of men which form it, there: 

 seems to be small excuse for going into excessive expense in 

 employing legal aid to settle controversies which arise naturally 

 in the lumber business. Further recommendation of the employ- 

 ment of the committee's services is the fact that, being lumber- 

 men, they can arrive at much more equitable decisions than could 

 an ordinary court of justice. In the case of a serious disagree- 

 ment beyond the jurisdiction of the arbitration committee, the 

 committee on appeals has been provided. During the past year 

 this has been headed by M. F. Eittenhouse. No appeals were 

 made to the committee on appeals during the past year. 



Mr. Brown's report also referred to the report of the inspection 

 committee, with George J. Pope as chairman, which appears else- 

 where in this article. 



The trafSc committee, witli Herman H. Hettler as chairman, had 

 considerable work to do regarding traffic matters bearing directly 

 upon Chicago trade. A summary of the report of this committee 

 is also found elsewhere in this article. The two most important 

 subjects which have come up have been the policy of the associa- 

 tion regarding increase of hardwood rates from the Southwest 

 and regarding reconsignment in transit of Pacific coast products. 

 After referring to the possibilities of great future usefulness on 

 the part of the credit committee, the report spoke of the present 

 association headquarters, the completeness of which it strongly 

 commended. The gradual crystallization of the sentiment in favor 

 of some kind of a club feature resulting in the present Lumber- 

 men 's Club for the Chicago trade was outlined. President Brown 

 deplored the occasionally expressed idea that the Lumbermen 's 

 Association of Chicago and the Lumbermen's Club of Chicago 

 are propositions working on competitive lines. These two organ- 

 izations are entirely and absolutely separated, both as to incorpo- 

 ration, membership and purpose. The lumbermen's association is 

 made up entirely of firms and is purely for business purposes, 

 while the lumbermen's club has entirely an individual membership 

 and is of a purely social character. 



The president expressed his regret at not being able to submit 

 a complete report on a plan which has commanded considerable 

 of his attention which will eventually involve the erection of the 

 Lumbermen 's building in Chicago in which both the assoeiatioij 



