June 25, 1919 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



31 



Veneer Association Meeting 



The Semi-Annual Gathering Is Addressed by Notable Speakers 



iplii 



HE NATIONAL VENEER and Panel Manufac- 

 turers' Association met in semi-annual meeting at 

 the Auditorium hotel, Chicago, June 1 7 and 18. 

 The first day was devoted to the general session, 

 the second being set apart for the group meetings. 



President S. B. Anderson of Memphis, Tenn,, opened 

 Tuesday's meeting with an address, the leading points 

 of w^hich are summarized as follows: 



While we should make a fair and legitimate fight for foreign 

 trade we must not lose sight of our domestic market. It is 

 estimated that 90 per cent of the products of America is consumed 

 at home. The retention of this market is obligatory. During the 

 war we needed no laws for protection of this trade, but we must 

 remember that at the beginning of the war, business was in a 

 very depressed condition. With the return of peace, peace 

 within nations, as well as between nations, the forces that brought 

 about the depressed conditions in our business will again be put 

 in motion. In fighting for foreign markets w^e must not allow our 

 domestic markets to be filched from us. We must see that they 

 are protected. You hear a great deal of talk about cheap "raw 

 material." Now^ 1 understand raw material to be something used 

 in the manufacture of goods to which no labor has been applied. 

 If my understanding and definition are correct, raw^ material is 

 nearly a negligible quantity. Saw timber in the tree, minerals, 

 oil and coal in the mines, constitute all the raw material of which 

 I have any knowledge. You may figure lumber used in your 

 products as raw material, but it is the sawmill's finished product, 

 as the finished product of the logger is the raw material of the 

 sawmill. A moment's thought will show you how extremely in- 

 finitesimal the item of raw material is. Everything is largely 

 labor, and so long as labor is high products will be high, and lower 

 wages should not be expected with high cost of supplies. If each 

 handler of each process that a manufactured articles passes 

 through will confine himself to a legitimate profit for his part of 

 the operation, no one w^ill suffer from paying high prices. Legiti- 

 mate prices, w^hether high or low, must be obtained if the country 

 is to prosper. 



Personally, I believe in high prices, and I believe in good 

 profits. 1 believe in prosperity that comes w^ith the prosperity of 

 all the people, with good wages, good salaries, fair profits in 

 return for good business management good prices for farm prod- 

 ucts. 1 w^as brought up on a farm and I know that $2 w^heat 

 tends to make better American citizens of the farmers than does 

 50c wheat. We all realize, especially when paying our grocery 

 bills, that farm produce is high, but we must realize that the 

 farmer is a very important factor in the welfare of the nation 

 and if we know anything about it we will admit that for many 

 years his lot was a hard one, hard work, hard living, hard condi- 

 tions and nothing else. It is only during the past few^ years that 

 he has received a fair remuneration for his strenuous labor. 



The cry is, "back to the farm." If present conditions hold there 

 will be less inducements for the young man to leave the farm. 

 and the hope of the nation is that conditions will remain so that 

 the attraction will be toward the farm instead of from it. The 

 conditions that have obtained within the past few months empha- 

 size the difference betwen artificial prosperity, prosperity of the 

 few, the building up of great fortunes and the accumulation of 

 great wealth within limited space and in few hands, and the other 

 and real prosperity based on general dissemination of wealth, the 

 money in the hands of the body of the people. Real prosperity 

 comes only through the ability of the general public to buy. A 



million dollars in one man's hand is of little benefit except to the 

 possessor, but a million dollars in the hands of a thousand men 

 help the public because the money will be largely spent. Hence 

 the benefit of good wages and good prices in general. 



Now as to our own industry, veneer and panels. These are raw 

 materials to our customers. The veneer is raw material to the 

 panel men, and the panel is raw material to the furniture manu- 

 facturer. Our raw material is high and may be higher. There 

 is a remarkable scarcity of hardwood lumber in the yards of the 

 country. Manufacturers have been doing a hand to mouth job of 

 buying, hoping for the drop which failed to come. Some lumber- 

 men, being somewhat discouraged at low prices and poor demand, 

 shortened production, and the extremely bad logging conditions 

 prevailing through the past winter did the rest; and when the 

 manufacturers did finally conclude to buy, they found stock at 

 mills very short, and in addition to this, the export demand is 

 again becoming fairly active, not as active as it will be soon, but 

 still sufficiently so to perceptibly affect the market. 



The scarcity and high price of logs affects the veneer man 

 as well as the sawmill man. Good logs are worth too much cut 

 into lumber to be worked up into veneers at a low price. So you 

 can figure your raw material high, logs for the veneer mill and 

 veneer for the panel man. Gum logs outside of Memphis on the 

 cars cost $27.50 a thousand, which means that we must have 

 a good price for our veneers. With conditions here outlined you 

 will readily take the hint that your goods, if wanted at all. must 

 bring a good price or make you a loss. We manufacturers of raw 

 material, raw to the man further along, are handicapped. We 

 can't go out and run a selling campaign thus boosting our busi- 

 ness, but we must wait the motion of the fellow further along 

 or possibly higher up, and if his market falls off we can simply 

 wait. No campaign, no fine salesmanship, will help us. Regard- 

 less of general business prospects for the future, I believe we may 

 safely figure on high cost for our raw material. 



Good hardwood timber is becoming each year less available. 

 I will not prophecy an exhaustion of the supply. Too many 

 prophets have been brought by this to confusion to tempt others, 

 but supply is growing constantly less. The expense of handling 

 is constantly growing. Timber near lines of transportation is 

 being exhausted and the logger is moving further and further 

 back with longer and longer hauls and higher and higher expense. 

 Railroad hauls are lengthening and railroad rates are increasing. 

 When once timber strikes a higher level it never recedes. It may, 

 ow^ing to bad business conditions, hesitate and waver, but no 

 great decline will come. When a change does come it will be 

 an advance. The quality of timber is growing poorer, while prices 

 are advancing. It costs much more to get good products from 

 a low run of logs than it does from a high run. I realize a change 

 in business conditions. Low^ering of w^ages. lowering of food cost 

 and general lowering of operating costs w^ill be reflected in the 

 price of our purchases, but the forces tending upward will more 

 than balance these depressing forces. 



From this review of conditions I am convinced that until there 

 is a break in business conditions, a break in labor and a general 

 low^ering of values, our product will constantly tend to a higher 

 cost. The value is in the goods, and we must insist on prices 

 which will allow us a fair profit. 



Special Committees Appointed. 



The following special committee appointments were 

 made: 



MEMBERSHIP H. E. Kline. Louisville (Ky.) Veneer Mills. 



