40 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



May 10, 1919 



been Incorporated for the purpose of constructing buildings and dwelling 

 houses, for which there is said to be a growing demand. The incorporators 

 of the company are Charles Li. Jeffrey, Edward L. Morgan, Charles O. Wilt- 

 fong, Edgar C. Selby and Edgar O. Selby. 



To construct dwellings and build silos the Elkhart Fireproof Construc- 

 tion Company, with a capital stock of $50,000, has filed articles of incor- 

 poration with the secretary of state at Indianapolis. Its home office will 

 be at Elkhart. The incorporators are Roy R. Sykes, R. W. Uicaby and 

 W. W. Haynes. 



The Elkhart Lumber & Supply Company, also of Elkhart, has been incor- 

 porated with a capital stock of $100,000. The company will handle builders' 

 supplies, the incorporator.s being Charles L. Monger, Carl D. Greeuleaf and 

 Eugene Atkins. 



Office furniture and equipment will be manufactured in Evansville in tiie 

 old plant of the Schnute-Holtmau Lumber Company, the concern having 

 been reincorporated under the name of the Universal Manufacturing Com- 

 pany. Articles of incorporation were filed a few days ago. Louis A. Holt- 

 man, connected with the Schnute-Holtman company for a number of years, 

 is office manager of the new company. 



Articles of incorporation for the National Building Materials Company 

 were filed in Evansville recently with a capital stock of $10,000. The 

 Incorporators are Samuel L. May, William L. Swornistedt and Orville 

 McGinnis. The company was organized for the purpose of buying building 

 materials for the Xatiftnai Contract Company, that i.s building a number 

 of government locks and dams along the Ohio river. 



There has been considerable improvement in the labor situation in the 

 tri-state territory during the past few weeks. The various wood consum- 

 ing plants here seem to be getting all the labor they w-ant. Pre-war wages 

 prevail in practically all the plants here, and because of this it is not 

 expected there will be any material reduction on prices of manufactured 

 products during the coming year. Reports from the various parts of the 

 state Indicate there has been a revival in building operations and by tlie 

 first of June there will be considerable building under way in this city, it 

 is expected. Carpenters here recently signed a scale calling for seventy 

 cents on hour, the scale last year having been sixty cents an hour. In the 

 state of Indiana it is estimated there will be spent at least $5,000,000 in 

 building and roadmaking during the coming summer and this will mean 

 the employment of many men. 



Veneer manufacturers of Evansville and other cities in the tri-state ter- 

 ritory report that trade has been steadily improving for some time. Most 

 of the veneer plants are being operated on full time and the outlook for 

 trade is most flattering. 



Maley & Wertz, hardwood lumber manufacturers, have purchased the 

 timber on the IGO-acre tract of land in Gallatin county, Illinois, which was 

 bought a few weeks ago for the Inter-State Lumber Company of .St. Louis. 

 The timber will be cut at once and the logs will be shipped to the two 

 mills of Maley & Wertz in Evansville. Claude Wertz, who will superintend 

 the work of cutting the timber on the Gallatin county tract, says that some 

 of the poplar trees on the tract are the largest he has ever seen. The tract 

 is one of the finest in southern Illinois. 



The furniture workers in the furniture, chair and desk factories at Evans- 

 ville, Ind., have organized a union that Ls now about 1,800 strong. It is 

 said. The union will make a demand upon the furniture manufacturers 

 of Evansville, asking for increase in wages, better working conditions, a 

 forty-eight-hour a week schedule and the recognition of the union. George 

 Orris, organizer for the carpenters and Joiners' union, with which the 

 new union at Evansville i.s affiliated, says that the demands made upon the 

 manufacturers will not include higher wages than are paid in the fac- 

 tories in Grand Rapids, Mich., and other furniture manufacturing centers. 

 He says it is the purpose of his organization to ask for a gradual increase 

 in wages in the furniture factories everywhere. The Evansville manufac- 

 turers say that for the past six months or more they have been gradually 

 Increasing the wages of their workmen. They express the belief that 

 they and their workmen will be able to "get together," and that there will 

 be no strike in the plants in that city. 



MEMPHIS 



W. H. Russe of Russe & Burgess, Inc., who recently returned from 

 Chicago, where he attended the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Water- 

 ways' Association and the National Foreign Trade Council, said that 

 sentiment among business interests represented at these two gatherings 

 was quite optimistic regarding the industrial outlook, although fully recog- 

 nizing the fact that there are a number of problems. Including establish- 

 ment of adequate ocean transportation facilities and completion of finan- 

 cial arrangements, to be solved before. there can be any big business with 

 European countries in lumber, steel, iron or other raw materials. The 

 highness of ocean freight rates and the scarcity of bottoms, according to 

 Mr. Russe, are the two big obstacles, obstacles which are more serious 

 than the question of credits, which are in a fair way of being worked out. 



Russe & Burgess, Inc., are loading or have recently loaded 500,000 feet 

 of hardwood lumber on the big schooner Wyoming, now about due to sail 

 from Gulfport to a Holland port. Mr. Russe says there is a very large 

 demand for hardwood lumber from England, France, Belgium and Holland, 

 and that it would be possible to do an exceptionally large busine-ss if 

 transportation facilities were fuller. He does not believe that there is 

 much disposition to hold back on the question of price, and gave the corre- 



spondent of Hakdwood Record the impression that it is possible, even with 

 the high freight rates, to do a profitable business overseas if one has the 

 lumber and can get freight room. 



F. R. Gadd, manager of statistics for the American Hardwood Manu- 

 facturers' Association, will attend the open competition plan meeting of 

 this body at Cincinnati May 13, and will go from tliat point to Chicago, 

 where he will, on the 15th, deliver an address on the open price plan 

 before the Wire Bound Box Manufacturers* Association. Mr. Gadd recently 

 returned from a trip through Arkansas, where he went to confer with 

 lumbermen regarding the open price meeting at Little Rock May 27. He 

 found much interest in this event and expressed the belief that there 

 would be a very large attendance and that there would be unanimous 

 decision on the part of the lumbermen of that state to hold such meetings 

 at that point every month. 



W. D. Jemison, formerly sales manager for the G. A. Roy Lumber Com- 

 pany, Lexington, Ky., has returned to Memphis to take charge of the 

 buying office formerly operated by Thos. F. Griffith, who is now a member 

 of the W. L. Briscoe Lumber Company. He will, in his new activity, buy 

 lumber for a number of strong firms, which are now without representa- 

 tion in Memphis, including the following : George F. Kearns Lumber 

 Company, Chicago ; Waldstein Lumber Company, St. Louis ; Sidney S. 

 May Lumber Company, St. Louis ; Chickasaw Lumber Company, Demopolis, 

 Ala. ; S. P. Coppock & Sons Lumber Company, Ft. Wayne, Ind. ; Hutf- 

 Stickler Lumber Company, South Bend, Ind., and G. Ellas & Bro., Inc., 

 Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. Jemison is well known in Memphis. He was con- 

 nected for quite a while with the selling organization of J. H. Bonner & 

 Sons of this city before accepting service with the G. A, Roy Lumber 

 Company, and has a wide acquaintance among firms having lumber to 

 offer. His offices are at 1433 Exchange building. 



J. S. Thompson, assistant to J. II. Townshend, se^'retary-manager of the 

 Southern Hardwood Traffic Association, is in Eltkon, Ky., where he was 

 called several days ago on account of the severe illness of his father. 



LOUISVILLE 



The most Interesting announcement of the month in Louisville was made 

 on Saturday, May 3, by R. R. May, district manager at Louisville for the 

 Southern Hardwood Traffic Association, and former secretary of the Louis- 

 ville Hardwood Club, who has resigned from the traffic association, effective 

 June 1, to become sales manager for J. V. Stimson & Co., Owensboro, Ky., 

 of which D. C. Stimson is proprietor. This concern manufactures hard- 

 woods in a band mill at Owensboro, and handles a large business. Mr. 

 May won a warm place in the hearts of the Louisville hardwood Industry, 

 due to his untiring efforts to secure better traffic arrangements, lower rates 

 and claim adjustments for the members. He came to Louisville from 

 Memphis in April, 1916, after three months with the Southern Hardwood 

 Traffic Association at that point. Previously he had spent several years 

 with the traffic departments of prominent southern railroads, and had some 

 experience in manufacturing and selling pine and hardwoods in Mississippi 

 mills some years ago. 



Arrangements have been made by the Louisville Hardwood Club for a 

 general survey of costs of producing hardwood lumbers from the log until 

 placed on sticks and ready for sale. Each member will submit cost sheets, 

 which will be thoroughly discussed, and efforts made to arrive at the actual 

 costs of producing hardwoods under similar conditions. Roy Olcott of the 

 W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company, who has h.id considerable experi- 

 ence in this section as well as on the coast, will be one of the principals in 

 the educational work that Is being undertaken. It is claimed that very 

 few hardwood operators actually know what their production costs are, 

 and this line of work is well worth taking up during the present recon- 

 struction period. 



John Churchill of the Churchill-Milton Lumber Company, Greenwood, 

 Miss., recently arrived in Louisville for a short vacation, and will be one 

 of a number of hardwood men who will be on hand for the Kentucky Derby 

 on May 10, which is expected to attract the usual attendance from lumber 

 circles. 



Alfred Struck, head of the Alfred Struck Company, reports that while 

 business has been fairly good, he has some excess capacity for dressing, 

 resawing and kiln-drying nf lumber in transit. Mr. Struck, who also does 

 a large contracting and millwork business, is using newspaper advertising 

 extensively in getting spring building operations started. 



J. E. Barton, commissioner of forestry and geology of Kentucky, reports 

 forty-one spring fires this year, burning over approximately 10,200 acres 

 and damaging timber to the extent of $30,033. The fires were all in the 

 eastern Kentucky counties. 



Emil Anderson, president of the Southern Planing Mill Company, who 

 has completed twenty-five years of active .service as a member of the Park- 

 land Lodge of Masons, was tendered a banquet on the night of May 3, to 

 celebrate the occasion. Mr. Anderson is past master of the lodge, and a 

 prominent Knight Templar. Various memiiers discussed Mr. Anderson's 

 activities In short talks. 



Frank K. Yost, Hopkinsville, head of the F. K. Tost Company, large 

 hardwood manufacturer, was elected president of the Kentucky Travelers' 

 Protective Association at its annual convention recently. 



With a capital of $32,000 the Frankfort Lumber & Manufacturing Com- 

 pany. Frankfort, has been incorporated by Frank and Elizabeth McGrath 

 and Lambert Supplnger. 



