22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



October 10, 1919 



and Langlade county lumbermen had put in to make the Antigo 

 meeting a success. 



Mr. Ecbson pointed to the fact that the motto of the congress 

 could not be more pertinently expressed than in the motto of the 

 international Eotary, which says: "He profits most who serves 

 best " He suggested that the creed of the rotarians is so nearly 

 like the object of the congress that by merely changing the name 

 the creed could be adopted in toto by the lumbermen 



The next address was by A. L. Osborn, president of the Medford 

 Lumber Company, Oshkosh, Wis. Mr. Osborn is one of the old war 

 horses of the northern lumbermen and is always on the spot wher- 

 ever there is a fight for the right in progress. His address at 

 Antigo was so refreshingly new and so vividly in tune with the 

 times that Hardwood Record will reproduce it in full in its October 



25th issue. , j? , i 



Following Mr. Osborn 's address the meeting adjourned for lunch. 



Afternoon Session 



Charles F. Kellogg, treasurer of the Kellogg Brothers Lumber 

 Company of Grand Eapids, Wis., gave the first address of the 

 afternoon entitled "Why We Like You." Mr. Kellogg spoke 

 frankly and pointedly from the standpoint of the retailer who buys 

 lumber from the men who make up the membership in the sales- 

 manship congress. 



Mr. Kellogg 's address was humorous but decidedly to the point. 

 He opened with a compliment to the lumbermen from a social stand- 

 point and affirmed that there now is and will continue to be the best 

 feeling between retailers and manufacturers in the northern states. 

 Mr. Kellogg said that undoubtedly each retailer has some par- 

 ticular firm or firms with whom he prefers to deal and that that is 

 the ease with his firm. With these particular shippers in mind he 

 then said: "We like you because you take care of our require- 

 ments." This service incorporates prompt acknowledgment of 

 orders for various items with advice on probable shipping date 

 and special effort to furnish difficult stock. He said that when 

 the spirit as well as the letter of service is injected into each trans- 

 action, barter and sale are lifted from cold-blooded business and 

 put into the class of personal communion. 



Mr. Kellogg said that whether or not the advertising in behalf 

 of hemlock made by the association members is 100 per cent 

 effective depends upon every man within the organization of the 

 manufacturers — from the log man to the car loaders. He said that 

 the successful manufacturer bidding for the confidence of his cus- 

 tomers is one who sees to it that neither the carelessness nor the 

 unwillingness of his employes to handle their duties undermines 

 the work he is doing or the work of the association. He pleaded 

 that the lumber manufacturers consider all of these points of 

 service, including the handling of stock as well as personnel, and 

 close attention to every detail of proper manufacturing as a mat- 

 ter of self-interest under which they will build up a decided asset. 



Mr. Kellogg said that the yard man who will take the trouble, 

 and is able to talk sensibly to the customer regarding conditions in 

 the industry, can save to the lumber business many a friend who 

 mi_ght otherwise be lost on account of a misconception for the 

 reasons for the high prices of lumber. In the same manner the 

 manufacturer or the lumber salesman can be a help to the public, 

 the retailer and the industry by doing a little explaining himself 

 on the question of high prices instead of passing the buck to the 

 dealer. 



Mr. Kellogg then went on to compliment the manufacturers on 

 the improved character of the retail advertising copy service they 

 have been placing at the disposal of the retailers. 



He pointed out in a friendly way the criticism he felt of the 

 millman who was busy on war work during the period when the 

 retailer was compelled to practically shut down. At the end of 

 the war the retailer got behind the "build now" movement, in 

 many cases contracting to supply materials at the price fixed at 

 that time. Most of this he figured on buying when it was needed 

 and because before that time arrived the manufacturers had shot 

 prices out of sight, the retailer in many cases sustained a material 



loss. The retailer, according to Mr. Kellogg, can not change his 

 price every two or three days, and for that reason he was stuck 

 and stuck bad when he tried to give his support to the "build now" 

 campaign. He pleaded for stabilization in prices which will enable 

 operators to know how to figure. This is absolutely essential to the 

 retailer who must make bids to contractors on jobs, the details 

 of which may be closed up for two or three weeks after the bid is 

 made. Then, if the retailer goes out to buy lumber he will likely 

 under present conditions find out that the prices have advanced 

 way out of line from the figure he quoted. He said that if these 

 conditions continue the dealer will either have to figure several 

 dollars higher on his cost price or the contractor will have to add 

 considerable to his bid to enable him to absorb the possible advance. 



He then pleaded for stabilization on the basis of a certain period 

 of time so that guaranteed prices up to a certain date could be 

 given. He said that the manufacturers are making a mistake in 

 not keeping the retailers informed of market values in the same 

 manner that the sellers of other materials handled by the retail 

 yard are doing. 



Following Mr. Kellogg, representatives of five of the lumber 

 papers addressed the congress briefly as follows: "The Lumber 

 Journal and the Lumber Industry," E. W. Meeker, Hakdwood 

 Record; A. L. Ford, American Lumberman; Hugh K. Taylor, Lum- 

 ber, St. Louis; J. F. Hayden, Mississippi A' alley Lumberman; L. E. 

 Fuller, Lumber World Review. 



The Function of the Wholesaler 



L. Germain, president of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' 

 Association, and of The Germain Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., came 

 all the way from Florida to Wisconsin in one jump in order to keep 

 his promise to deliver his paper "The Function of the Wholesaler." 



Mr. Germain's talk follows in part: 



The huge volume and great variety of luml)t.^r is today manufactured 

 into many different grades and sizes by approximately 49,000 sawmills, 

 five per cent of which produce fifty-five per cent of the total production, 

 while the remaining forty-five per cent of the production comes from 

 approximately ninety-five per cent of the mills. 



By reason of all this lumber being in constant public use, to economically 

 serve the consuming public, some agency for distribution became neces- 

 sary, through which the producer and the retailer or consumer could 

 reach each other with the least expense to both. This need for economic 

 lumber distribution developed the wholesaler, who by reason of his knowl- 

 edge of the various kinds of lumber manufactured in all sections of the 

 country, required by the consuming public, and his ability to handle these 

 various kinds and species of lumber in different places, and in large quan- 

 tities, has for forty years made it possible for the wholesaler to serve the 

 consuming public by supplying any or all species needed at a minimum 

 cost of distribution. 



The term "wholesalers" has often been misapplied and confused with 

 the commission agent, the jobber or the broker, none of whom performs 

 his function, so in referring to the wholesaler we should clearly recognize 

 that in distributing the manufacturer's product in carload lots of lumber 

 to either the individual consumer or to the retail yard, he acts inde- 

 pendently of either, or both, he is engaged in buying and selling lumber at 

 wholesale for and on his own account, advances money in payment there- 

 for, takes title, to the lumber at point of producion, assumes tran.sporta- 

 tion hazard and risk and customarily extends credit to his purchasers, 

 thus carrying the burden of finance and credit risks with resultant neces- 

 sary services to both of his clients. 



Having defined the wholesaler, it is interesting to note that of the total 

 mills in the United States, only about three per cent of the mills who 

 produce about forty-seven per cent of the total distributes their own 

 product either through their own selling organization or through mill 

 selling agencies, the remaining ninety-seven per cent of the mills being 

 dependent upon the wholesaler to a greater or less extent for the dis- 

 posal of their product. There are approximately 3,500 wholesalers serv- 

 ing approximately 25,000 retailers and wholesale consumers of lumber the 

 country over. The capital investment In the wholesale lumber business 

 undoubtedly amounts to more than $1,000,000,000, and the organization 

 of especially trained experts employed by wholesale firms has been esti- 

 mated at approximately 100,000 persons. 



The wholesaler furnishes an absolutely indispensable sales force to the 

 small mill operator. He is the agent through which the smaller manu- 

 facturers have been and are enabled to effectively and vigorously compete 

 in the sale of their product. 



He places at the disposal of each mill an efflcient sales organization 

 which it would be impossible for a single small mill to maintain inde- 

 pendently. 



Not only does he save the small mill the capital Investment necessary 

 to maintain a sales organization, but also actually helps to finance most 

 mills, both large and small, by paying cash or from seventy-five to ninety 



