40 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



September 10, 1919 



Furniture Company Increases Capital Stock 



The stockholders of the Berkey & Gay Furniture Company of Grand 

 Rapids, Mich., at a special meeting recently voted an increase in capital 

 stock from $SOO,0nO common to $1,000,000 common, and from $200,000 to 

 $650, 000 preferred. The new capitalization will .le made effective as soon 

 as money will he needed for improvements and the enlargement of th<' 

 plant. 



Buys Timber in Wisconsin 



(.". r. Croshy of Rhiuelantler, Wis., well known in northern liardwood 

 circles, recently purchased a lliOO-acre tract of hardwood timber in Oneida 

 county. The purchase was made from the Gagen Lumber & Cedar Com- 

 pany. The .stand consists primarily of bassw'ood, birch and hemlock. 



The extensive logging outfit includes a number of camps, the deal involv- 

 ing about $45,000. 



.Mr. Crosby will log over this timber during the coming winter, operating 

 two camps. The logs will be hauled to Rhinelander to be manufactured 

 into lumiier. 



Pine People in Big Hardwood Deal 



With the purchase of the mills, timber and other equipment of the 

 Sabine Tram Company, Beaumont, Tex., the Peavy interests of Louisiana 

 have entered the hardwood game and may become one of the largest pro- 

 ducers in the Te.xas-Louisiana belt. With the Sabine Tram mill property, 

 they acquire timber on 107,000 acres of land in Jasper and Sabine coun- 

 ties, Texas, and Calcasieu parish, Louisiana. There is a good sprinkle of 

 hardwootls over all of this land, the Sabine Tram Company having under 

 course of construction at the time of making the sale a 40,000 foot hard- 

 wood mill. The timber is estimated to run between 400,000,000 and 500,- 

 000,000 feet. All varieties of hardwood common to this section are con- 

 tained in the acreage. 



The acquisition of this property is predicted to start the I'eavy interests 

 into hardwood manufacture in earnest. The same group of lumbermen 

 have three large pine mills in Louisiana operated by the I'eavy-Moore and 

 I'eavy-Wilsou companies. There is considerable hardwood scattered 

 throughout all their timber holdings and It is the general impression that 

 the acquisition of the Sabine Tram hardwood mill will build up a de- 

 partment which will eventually secure attention from the Louisiana 

 companies. For the purpose of handling the Sabine Tram property, the 

 Peavy-JIoore Lumber Company was organized with a capital stock of 

 $800,000 with A. J. Peavy, president; R. J. Wilson, vice-president; R. J. 

 Moore, vice-president, and S. G. Sample, secretary. The deal included a 

 150,000-foot yellow pine mill, planer, approximately thirty-seven miles of 

 tramway with locomotives, cars and other equipment, commissary, bouses, 

 etc. ; the Sabine Tram Company retaining title to the land. When the 

 Sabine Tram Company went out of the manufacturing business, It had 

 grown from a $40,000 company organized in 1889 by the late Geo. W. 

 Smythe to a company with a capital of $800,000 and surplus of .$2,225,000. 

 The Sabine Tram Lumber Company, which handled the output of the mill, 

 will continue as a wholesale concern, handling both yellow pine and hard- 

 wood. 



Log Loading Decreases 

 The Valley Log Loading Company of .Memphis. Tenn 



1,700 cars of logs on the Yazoo & Mississippi 



Valley line of the Illinois Central System dur- 

 ing August compared with 1,446 in .July, 1919, 



and 1,214 in August, 1918. The figures (or the 



Missouri Pacific were 88 cars against 181 and 



189, respectively, last month and last year, 



thus giving a total of 1,788 against 1,627 an. I 



1,403. This is the heaviest loading reported 



by this company for any month this year but 



it will be noted that, while there was material 



increase on the Y. & M. V., there was notalile 



decrease on the M. P. 



It may be noted in this connection, however, 



that, while this company showed a fair increase 



for .Au.Kust over July this year and over August 



last year, its complete figures for the first eigbi 



nnjuths of 1919 are something like 3,000 cars 



behind the same time last year. It is also 



pointed out by Memphis lumbermen that, whib 



this company is loading at a somewhat heavier 



rate now than at this time last season, it i^ 



loading for about 50 per cent more customers, 



with the result that the quantity reaching each 



firm, company or individual is measurably be 



low what it was a year ago. 



It is difficult to secure definite information 



regarding what private companies are doing 



with their loading on spur tracks. It is said 



that they are loading every log they can and 



that they are losing no time unless forced to 



do so. The fact remains, however, that with 



The Valley I..og Loading Company has the promise of enough ears on the 

 Y. & M. V. to justify it in putting a fourth loader on that line before very 

 long. It will witlidraw this loailer from the Missimri Pacific where, be- 

 cause of shortage of motive power and equipment, this firm was able to 

 work only five days between July 28 and August 31. 



It is estimated that there are 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 feet of logs await- 

 ing loading on the main line of the Y'. & M. V. now compared with ap- 

 proximately 25,O00.,0OO at this time last year. Even with this large dis- 

 crepancy, this is the best relative showing that has been made in respect 

 to log supply this season as compared with the previous year. 



Expect Relief on Freight Bill Tax Rule 



The exporters of lumber experience more trouble with regard to get- 

 ting the necessary documents to have their cargoes forwarded. First it 

 was the failure to grant through ocean bills of lading that brought out 

 a vigorous protest against what looked like discrimination, and when 

 this point had been adjusted in favor of the exporters by the decision to 

 issue through bills of lading, difficulties arose in regard to the alloca- 

 tion of ships, the exporters never knowing Just when they would be able 

 to have their shipments taken aboard some vessel and meanwhile being 

 exposed to onerous charges for storage or in the way of demurrage on 

 railroad cars. The vessel problem also was in the way of being straight- 

 ened out, when a new dilBeulty arose out of the change from the old and 

 simple way of determining whether a shipment was exempt from the tax 

 on freight bills, under Article 15. Under this article the sliipper pre- 

 sented his through or a domestic bill of lading stamped "for export," 

 and, having previously secured his G. O. C. permit, there was no further 

 complication. But Article 15 was amended, and with this amendment 

 the troubles of the exporter in the way of securing exemption apijear 

 to be almost endless. The situation arising from the change impelled 

 Harvey M. Dickson, secretary of the National Lumber Exporters' Associa- 

 tion, to go to Washington last week for the purpose of protesting against 

 the great amount of red tape now imposed upon exporters in order that 

 they may secure exemption of their freight charges from the tax. lie 

 failed to see Internal Revenue Commissioner Roper, who was away, but 

 he succeeded in having a conference with Assistant Commissioner Baker, 

 before whom he laid his complaint, pointing out in detail the objections 

 to the requirements called for by the amended article. In this Mr. Dick- 

 son reinforced the arguments presented by representatives of many other 

 trade bodies, with special applicability to lumber, and he made a strong 

 impression. He rendered plain the vexatious character of the changes, 

 and showed how the lumber exporters would he put to almost endless 

 trouble through them. 



Mr. Baker saw the force of the reasoning advanced by Mr. Dickson 

 and promised that the legal officers of the department would be con- 

 sulted with a view to getting from them an opinion designed to restore 

 the simplicity of the procedure of ol>taining exemption of exptirt freight 

 charges from the tax. Mr. Dickson was told an answer covering the 

 various points and the decision of the commissioner, based upon legal 

 reports loading advice would be forthcoming some time this week. 



the present car shortage, receipts of logs at 

 mills on all lines entering Memphis, with the 

 single I'xception of the Yazoo & Mississippi Val- 

 ley rond. are well below wh.-it they were at 

 this time last season. 



The photograph above pictures the team of the G. H. Evau.s Lumber Company, which was entered 

 in the city league of Chattanooga. Tenn., during the season just closed. This phtitograph has 

 appeared in a number of H.\rdwood Record's contemporaries, whose dates of issue happen to have 

 corresponded more closely to the receipt of the photographs. Noting the presence of the illustrations 

 in the various other papers, Haudw'OOD Record has been struck by the absence of enlightening text 

 matter accompanying and had hopes of making a scoop on the real story of the wonderful record 

 which it was assumed was the reason for issvnng the photograph. Communication with the Kvans 

 company, however, reveals the fact that the ti'am has no record, but is merely representative of the 

 interest the Evans company takes in civic matters in its hiuue town and of its thorough modernness 

 in all things. It is rumored, however that the Evans company is going to get the jump c)n its com- 

 petitors in the league next season and will show a record-nuiking aggregation. 



