HARDWOOD RECORD 



II 



Hardly a leaf is to be seeu ou the trees 

 thus early in the year; but the soil is soft 

 and oozy, and we scent that the winter has 

 passed. The red maple is undoubtedly^ one 

 of the most beautiful trees of the Ameri- 



riUNT OF 



!ED MAPLE LEAF, ONETIIIRD 

 ACTUAL SIZE. 



can forest. As in the spring, the tree 

 is in advance of others in the autumn. 

 when it changes its hue to varied tints of 

 scarlet and orange. In brilliancy there is 

 none otlier to compare witli it. During the 



FOLIAGE AND FRUIT OF RED MAFLE. 



winter its twigs are of a deeper shade of 

 red than at other seasons of the year. ' ' 



One of the biggest lumber deals in the sec- 

 tion in years was recently closed at Mount 

 Sterling, Ky., by which Toledo. O., capitalists 

 purcliased from Miller & Itudley of Huntington. 

 W. Va., 5.000,000 feet of oalc and poplar logs. 

 The consideration was in the neighborhood of 

 ¥.50.000. The logs are on property along the 

 I.icliing river, and will be sawed and delivered 

 at Farmers, from which place they will be 

 t-hinped to the East. It is estimated that it 

 will talie a year t^> deli\cr the logs. 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER XVII. 



James Cooper. 



iSee Porlrait Supplement.) 

 If .luuies Cooper of Saginaw, Mich., whose; 

 jiortrait appears as the supplement to this 

 issue of the IlAKDWOOD Record, were asked 

 just what contributes most to success in busi- 

 ness life, he would probably say "strict at- 

 tention to one's own affairs." 



Mr. Cooper was born in Ogdeusburg, N. 

 Y., Nov. 21, 1857. He comes of sturdy north 

 of Ireland ancestry. Perhaps tho early death 

 of his father, who died when the subject 

 of this sketch was thiee years old, contrib- 

 uted to the early self-centering of his i-har- 

 acter. .James Cooper entered the public 

 schools of Saginaw, where his mother moved 

 in I860, and eventually graduated from the 

 high school of that citv. At the age of fif- 

 teen, during one of the school vacations, he 

 accepted a position as clerk in a Saginaw 

 bank, remaining in this employment before 

 and after he left school, for six years. Dur- 

 ing this time he also studied law and was 

 admitted to the bar. He never practiced his 

 profession, however, but entered the office of 

 the city treasurer as assistant, which position 

 he filleil for two years. 



In 1880 he engaged in the sawmill busi- 

 ness, the firm being "Wiggins, Cooper & Co., 

 at Saginaw, manufacturing, hemlock and 

 hardwoods. This concern was dissolved in 

 1887 and the firm of Briggs & Cooper organ- 

 ized, the partner being D. A¥. Briggs, the 

 well-known Saginaw banker, which firm con- 

 tinued in the sawmill business until the tim- 

 lier supply tributary to Saginaw valley mills 

 was practically exhausted. This firm was 

 mergeii into the Briggs & Cooper Companj-, 

 Ltd., in 1902, of which corporation Mr. 



Cooper became j)resident and general man- 

 ager. Since that time the company has been 

 a buyer of mill stocks and has engaged very 

 largely in the handling of northern and 

 southern hardwoods and white cedar shingles. 



The Briggs & Cooper Company, Ltd., main- 

 tains its general office in the Bearinger build- 

 ing, Saginaw, and has also a distributing 

 yard in that city. It has a iDranch office at 

 218 LaSalle street, Chicago, and a Chicago 

 yard; another branch office in the Randolph 

 building, Jlemphis, and a yard in that city. 

 The handlings of the company are upward of 

 20,000,000 feet of hardwood per year, and 

 35,000,000 white cedar shingles. The company 

 has done a maximum business of $60,000 in 

 a single month. 



Mr. Cooper is very much interested in as- 

 sociation work, at present serving hjs second 

 term as president of the Saginaw Valley Lum- 

 ber Dealers' Association, as well as being a 

 member of both the iS^ational Wholesale Lum- 

 ber Dealers' Association and of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association. 



James Cooper is noted for his strict integ- 

 rity, and his abhorrence of trickery and ir- 

 regular practices in connection with business 

 keeps the fakirs and sharpers, who linger on 

 the outskirts and prey upon the hardwood 

 fraternity, from trying to interest him in 

 their enterprises. 



Mr. Cooper is a man of very quiet tastes. 

 He is in no wise interested in social affairs, 

 and pays little attention to politics. He is un- 

 married and has no fads to distract him 

 from his daily affairs. His business asso- 

 ciates admire his forceful character and ab- 

 solutely fair dealing, and they highly respect 

 Ills business capacity, but even to them 

 ■ ' .lim ' ' Cooper is more or less of a sphinx. 



A Lumberman's Letters to His Son. 



Chicago, Nov. 7, 1905. 



My Dear Son : You must have let what lit- 

 tle brains you have go on a vacation. Don't 

 you know any better than to accept an order 

 from a New York scalper for seventy-five per 

 <-ent of firsts and seconds plain oak, and 

 twenty-five per cent of common, tlwroughly 

 mixed in the car? I don't give a rap how 

 big a scalper 's bank roll is, I don 't want 

 any such orders. It can mean but one thing; 

 he is figuring to soak some consumer with the 

 shipment, and if he doesn't get away with it, 

 he will come back with a kick that 's a peach ! 



Again, our grades are made as low as they 

 will stand, and wiien we put twenty-five per 

 cent of common into our firsts and seconds, 

 complaints are certain. You keep away from 

 this scalper trade — there 's nothing in it. A 

 hardwood lumber scalper has no right to live 

 anyhow. About all that can ever .justly hap- 

 pen to him is to die and go to hell. 



Between the fair grades established by the 

 lumber associations and the fact that a good 



many manufacturers arc now actually brand- 

 ing their lumber, this stuffing grades scheme 

 is absolutely a dead duck in the pit. It has 

 been tried out for years and it's a failure. 

 When you lower grades you lower values. I 

 have been in the lumber business a good many 

 years, and can well recall the scores of old- 

 time white pine men who conceived that salt- 

 ing' grades was a game equal to being presi- 

 dent of a life insurance company. It never 

 panned out. Every man of them was either 

 driven out of business or had the sheriff 

 on his front steps. 



Your Affectionate Father. 

 P. S. If you are going to steal, do it for 

 yourself, not for some other fellow. 



The Denver Hardwood Floor Company of 

 Denver, Col., Is having trouble with the local 

 building trades alliance, and threatens to locate 

 its proposed flooring plant elsewhere if. steps 

 are not taken to end the troubles .with labor 

 unions. The Denver real estate e.vchange is 

 intervening in the trouble in an attempt . i.i 

 adjust the differences. 



