June 25, 1919 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



GOODMAN, MARINETTE, WIS,, I'RESI 

 DENT 



HORACE F. TAYLOR, BUFFALO. N. Y., FIRST 

 VICE-PRESIDENT 



JOHN W. McCLURE. MEMPHIC, TENN., 

 SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT 



National Hardwood Association Annual 



The twenty-second annual meeting of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association was called to order in the Gold Room of the 

 Congress hotel, Chicago, June 19, 1919, by Charles A. Goodman, 

 president of the association. It was ordered, as a result of an 

 affirmative vote, that all sessions be executive. At the conclusion 

 of the opening preliminaries. Chairman Goodman delivered the 

 customary opening address, in substance as follows: 



President's Address 



The National Hardwood Lumber Association meets this year under very 

 different conditions from those that confronted us at our last annual con- 

 vention. At that time the world war had reached its most alarming stage 

 and all the energies of our association and its members were engaged In 

 war service, imperative in its demands and uncertain in its duration. 

 M'hcn the war was over there followed a period of hesitation in tbe lum- 

 ber world which only marked the beginning of what is proving to be the 

 greatest demand our industry has ever known. The business of the coun- 

 try is going forward without waiting for tbe solution of any theoretical 

 problems. 



In these days of many lumber associations, and consequent heavy de- 

 mands upon tbe time of its membership, there must be a reason why the 

 twenty-second annual convention of this association is tbe largest in its 

 history. The stress of the past four years has marked the suspension or 

 failure of many nonessential enterprises, onl.v the useful and necessary 

 surviving in full strength. That our association has not onlj' maintained 

 its position but has gained in numbers and influence and, what is still 

 more to be desired, has grown in character, is the best evidence of its 

 necessary place in the lumber industry. Today we have over one tliousand 

 members comprising the most representative hardwood lumbermen in the 

 United States. 



No industry can become great whose product is not standardized and its 

 standards fully maintained. Standardization of our product has been the 

 aim and life work of our association. Its business is to establish, maintain 

 and apply a uniform system for the inspection and measurement of hard- 

 wood lumber, and its success depends upon its fidelity to the purposes for 

 which it exists and upon the efficiency with which the work is accomplished. 

 P.iST Y'Eiii Reviewed 



In September of last year, at tbe request of the War Industries Board, 

 a joint conference was held in our office in Chicago, our association being 

 represented by a committee of five, and a committee of like number repre- 

 senting the organization known as the Hardwood Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion of the United .States. 



The director of lumber asked that an earnest effort be made by the 

 officers of the two associations to agree upon one set of rules of inspection 

 for hardwood lumber for all shipments to the United States and its allies 

 during the period of the war. These efforts of the Joint conference re- 

 sulted in no agreement being reached. 



Later the president and secretary of this association called upon the 



director of lumber in Washington and explained to him the situation as 

 we saw it, namely, that our government and the French and English com- 

 missions were buying hardwood lumber on National association rules of 

 inspection, that the rules of grading were entirely satisfactory and the 

 inspection service prompt and efficient in every respect. 



We had early in the war offered to the United States and its allies the 

 services of our inspectors to be sent to any part of the country to take 

 up their purchases of lumber whether or not such purchases were made 

 from members of our association. As a matter of fact, the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association was the only organization which was in a posi- 

 tion to offer to the governments carrying on the war a thoroughly or- 

 ganized, competent and disinterested inspection service for lumber. Hard- 

 wood purchases of the government wherever governed b.v National inspec- 

 tion, were the most satisfactorily handled of all the purchases of lumber 

 during the war. 



Inexperienced Inspectors 



On the other hand, in its purchases of other kinds of lumber not com- 

 ing within the National association rules, the various departments were 

 frequently obliged to send to distant shipping points new and untried men 

 as inspectors. The natural outcome of this system was a very large ex- 

 pense for inspection, together with delay and loss to the different depart- 

 ments to which the lumber was shipped. 



The executive committee and officers of this association felt, therefore, 

 that no material benefit could accrue to the government or its allies, or to 

 the lumber industry at large, by agreeing with any other association to 

 make changes in our rules of inspection, which rules apparently were 

 satisfactory to the government and to the buyers and consumers of lumber 

 generally. 



The director of lumber had been prompted to make the request for joint 

 conference because of statements made to him that the government and its 

 allies were hampered in their. purchases of hardwood lumber by the fact 

 that there were two sets of inspection rules. A careful investigation made 

 by the officers of this association failed to disclose that confusion existed 

 in any of tbe purchasing departments of the various governments result- 

 ing from two sets of Inspection rul&s being in force, because only the 

 National rules were being used ; and we came to the conclusion that the 

 best service we could render in this respect was to continue to maintain 

 our inspection service at the highest point of efficiency. 



I should like to say at this time that one of the requirements, put 

 squarely up to our conference committee as a condition upon which any 

 agreement must depend, and which the committee positively declined to 

 consider, was that we abandon the issuing of National certittcates of in- 

 spection made at point of origin except for shipments to our government 

 and Its allies. The successor of the association which joined with us in 

 this conference has now published a tentative set of inspection rules, 

 which rules cannot be officially applied for any buyer except the govern- 

 ment or for shipment to the Pacific coast, unless the bu.ver complains on 

 shipment at destination and inspection is asked for in order to settle the 

 complaint. An opportunity is thus afforded for a comparison of results 



