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With the Veteran Panel Man 



"I am not much of a word juggler," remarked the veteran 

 panel manufacturer, smiling over an order which had arrived in 

 the afternoon mail, "but it occurs to me that furniture dealers 

 handling the output of a concern we have. just heard from are 

 going to have the job of explaining about veneered goods simpli- 

 fied a good deal." 



"What's the system?" inquired a visitor who had dropped in 

 to pass the time of day. 



"Selling veneered oak or mahogany, as the case may be," 

 he replied, chuckling, "for solid without making any misstate- 

 ments about it. It saves time and conscience, I suspect." 



"But don't you believe." broke in the other, "that it's best 

 to come right out and tell the ultimate consumer that veneered 

 work is veneered, and why it is better than the other kind? Why 

 run the risks incident to deception of that kind when the benefits 

 are so negligible?" 



"That's all right, too," said the panel expert; "but what I 

 have in mind is perfectly legitimate. As you will see by this order, 

 we are going to supply some tops and panels for this furniture 

 house, and are going to use oak cores, along with our figured 

 quartered oak faces; so that it will be a plain matter of fact to 

 say that the furniture is made of solid oak, since nothing but oak 

 will have been used in producing it." 



"You think, then," suggested the inquirer, "that this is going 

 to be a case where discretion is the better part of valor, and where 

 diplomacy will beat a stuffed club?" 



"That's about it," was the reply, "although I am far from 

 urging a retail dealer to back down and out on the question of 

 the advantages of veneered goods. The trouble is that most of 

 them are too willing to do it anyway, and goods made up under 

 the specifications of this order enable them to make their selling 

 talk truthful and at the same time accord with what mav be the 

 prejudices of the customer. 



"Speaking of the use of cores of the same material as the face 

 veneers, the practice is getting to be rather general. In fine work 

 particularly it is desired, as this makes it unnecessary to veneer 

 the edges of the panel or to band-rim the core with material similar 

 to the face. Of course, the cross-banding is exposed, but its thick- 

 ness is not great enough to cause any trouble. A lot of mahogany 

 panels are now made up with mahogany cores for musical cabinet 

 work. In a good many instances these panels have to be cut out 

 in various ways, exposing edges which would be hard to veneer; 

 and it is thought to be cheaper, as well as more effective, to use 

 mahogany all the way through, instead of trying to save a little 

 on the material and risk an unsatisfactory job. 



"Occasionally lumber prices are in favor of using this plan, too. 

 For instance, chestnut is pretty scarce at present, and I have an 

 idea that I may be able to pick up some wormy oak that can be 

 used on this job at a figure little in advance of what the chestnut 

 would have cost. Oak of all kinds is high at present, though, and 

 this may be difficult. But by studying the conditions of the mar- 

 ket, the panel man can frequently take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunity to do the job a little better than otherwise and at not a 

 great deal of additional cost. 



"It is bad policy, however, to do special work of this kind 

 without making a charge for it. If your customer specifies oak 

 cores, then he ought to pay a price in keeping with the specifica- 

 tion. The panel man should be given leeway in the use of core 

 material, and if the consumer takes it upon himself to determine 

 what it shall be, a higher price should be charged than when this 

 feature is left to the discretion of the manufacturer. In the case 

 cited, the oak may cost a good deal more than chestnut cores, and 

 the cost of the panels to the buyer must be increased accordingly. 

 On the other hand, it would be bad policy to make the same charge 

 one time because lumber prices warranted it, and then attempt to 

 raise it another, as a result of changes in the cost of material. It's 

 better to have a general rule on this subject and stick to it. 



' ' Another reason for using cores of tlie same material as the 

 face veneers is that this material is usually stronger than that 

 ordinarily used for core-stock. In other words, when your panel 

 is going to be subjected to a good deal of strain, it is unwise to 

 put in core material that is not calculated to stand up under it. 

 Table material is frequently made up in this way, because the 

 principal consideration is strength. 



"This is a good deal like some furniture manufacturers I know, 

 who are using mahogany to a large extent. They even enamel 

 over mahogany, largely, they say, to avoid the necessity of having 

 to veneer the backs of their drawer fronts. They figure that the 

 cost of the veneering and the cheaper character of the material 

 would make their article less attractive to the trade, and so they 

 go to what seems on the surface to be an unnecessary expense in 

 order to be able to offer something good. That shows knowledge 

 of human nature. A lot of people will buy a mahogany bedroom 

 suite, even if it is enameled, and pay the higher price asked for 

 it, without question. Like the woman who wears hand-embroi- 

 dered lingerie, nobody sees it, but she knows it 's there and gets 

 a lot of satisfaction out of that fact." 



"That apparent disregard for material costs is not in keeping 

 with the modern cry about the excessive waste in woodworking 

 plants, is it?" suggested the visitor. 



' ' Well, you know enough about the waste problem to realize 

 that a lot of the talk on the subject is beautiful sunshine," 

 replied the panel man. "Incidentally, I have just declined to 

 renew a contract with a manufacturer of refrigerators to whom I 

 was selling a big quantity of %" three-pl.y glued-up plain oak 

 panels. They were of exceedingly small dimensions, and when 

 we first landed the order we thought it was going to be a great 

 thing for the factory, and enable us to get rid of a lot of plain 

 oak that would otherwise be a total loss. The price per foot we 

 quoted looked pretty good, compared with the figures on larger 

 panels, which would require the cutting up of fresh sheets. 



"We happen to have a cost system that is pretty effective, and 

 by the time figures on all the factors entering into the cost of 

 production were available, we discovered that we were presenting 

 our refrigerator friend with about $16 on every thousand feet. 

 The cost of handling the small stock, the greater difficulty in 

 working it and the decreased efficiency of our presses in taking 

 care of that kind of stuff operated against its being a profitable 

 venture, and we have dropped the proposition like the proverbial 

 hot potato. 



"The only way to make money out of business of tliat kind would 

 be to charge just as much for the material as we would if no waste 

 were going to be used; and of course the consumer doesn't want 

 to pay as high prices as that would result in. 



' ' I would like to gamble that many people in our business who 

 are burning up a lot of money in labor expense to get value out of 

 their offal will find, if their cost systems serve tliem properly, 

 that the business isn't going to produce enough of a profit to 

 enable an extra dividend to be declared." 



Car Statistics March 1 



statistical bulletin number 139 issued by the American Railway 

 Association states that the total surplus of freight ears March 1, 

 1913, was 58,529, and the total shortage on the same date was 

 27,148. The total surplus February 15, 1913, was 52,700 cars, while 

 the total shortage on that date was 30,517 cars. The total surplus 

 February 28, 1912, aggregated 44,984 cars, while the total shortage 

 February 28, 1912, aggregated 37,142 cars. 



Compared with the preceding period as last reported in the 

 regular bulletins, there is a decrease in the total surplus of 5,829 

 cars and further compared with the preceding period, there is a 

 decrease in the total shortage of 3,369 cars. Compared with the 

 same date of 1912 there is an increase in the total surplus of 

 13,545 and a decrease in the total shortage of 9,994. 



