HARDIWOOD RECORD 



30G 



disaster to the business interests of tliis coun- 

 try to confer sucli a power upon tlie Interstate 

 Commerce Commission. Permit me to call your 

 attention to the fact that for ten years after 

 the establishment of the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission it exercised the power of regulating 

 rates, iniring these years the law worked well. 

 and in some cases the railroads asked that this 

 power be exercised in connections where they 

 were mutually interested. Several hundred 

 cases were adjusted without adverse criticism. 

 In 1S97 the supreme court decided that con- 

 gress liad not conferred upon the commission the 

 pow-er to fix a rate. This, for all practical pur- 

 poses, made the law valueless except for tJie 

 purpose of collecting data and giving publicity 

 to facts. Since that time the commission could 

 hold meetings and decide contests, but it could 

 not remedy the evil complained of. The rail- 

 roads could do as they pleased, as there was 

 no power to enforce the commission's decrees. 



All that is demanded by the shippers of the 

 country is the reiistablishment of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission with the power that it 

 was supposed to have had when it was lirst 

 created. There would he no agitation today on 

 the question of governmental regulation of rail- 

 road rates if there had not been a system of 

 rebates practiced by railroad corporations in 

 favor of large shippers, thereby discriminating 

 against a host of other shippers. All the Amer- 

 ican wants is a square deal. As a rule (there 

 are some exceptions) he wants only an equal 

 chance with his competitor, and it is wrong to 

 state that President Roosevelt and the people 

 favoring this particular legislation proposed by 

 him are unfriendly to the railroad corporations. 

 The United States government is not now and 

 never has been unfriendly to any particular 

 class of its subjects, and would not. if it had 

 the power, harm by any act the proper earning 

 power of any corporation whether in the rail- 

 road business or any other line of business. It 

 is my firm conviction that it is the duty of the 

 United States government to provide such ma- 

 chinery for the regulation of corporations doing 

 an interstate commerce business that the prac- 

 tice of discrimination against any shipper or 

 class of shippers will have to cease. 



We have been told by the representatives of 

 the railroad side of this question that there 

 were no rebates nor discriminations since the 

 passage of the Elkins' Act. This is a good 

 measure and no doubt conditions have im- 

 proved, but this law falls short of the power 

 necessary for the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion to have to properly protect the rights of 

 shippers, and what would seem to be a peculiar 

 position for the railroad corporations who have 

 never given rebates nor discriminated against 

 any of the shippers along its lines is the ap- 

 pearance in Washington of a committee repre- 

 senting the Trans-Mississippi railroads, promis- 

 ing tlie Interstate Commerce Commission that 

 in the future they will work in harmony with 

 the commission and do everything in their 

 power to prevent further unlawful practices of 

 this kind. 



The United States government is greater than 

 any individual or any corporation or any corn- 



equal privileges and rights as citizens in the 

 use of these common carriers. It matters not 

 how large a shipper may be nor how small, it 

 Is a fundamental principle of our government 

 that each should enjoy the same privillges. Try 

 as we may, we cannot get away from thi§ prin- 

 ciple, and I believe that now is the time to 

 settle this question. It is to be noted that the 

 people most interested in this legislation pur- 

 posed by I'resident Roosevelt are the law abiding 

 and intelligent business men of this country. 

 The railroad rate question is the livest issue 

 before the American people today. There is no 

 power so strong in the United States as public 

 opinion. I'resident Roosevelt represents public 

 opinion on this question and if the United States 

 senate fails to pass a law strengthening the 

 hands of the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 in the matter of railroad rates along the lines 

 fiuggested, we will find this question bobbing up 

 in tile next national campaign as a campaign 

 issue. I believe the business interests of this 

 countr.v would regret to see this. This ques- 

 tion should not be made a political issue. It 

 is simply a question of square dealing, and a 

 political part.v that might happen to get tlie 

 matter of rate regulation into their side of the 

 platform would carry the matter entirely too far. 

 President Roosevelt is right on this question, 

 and we should stand by him to a man. 



However, I shall not suggest in this conne. 

 tion any resolutions but submit the report to 

 you for .your consideration and such action as 

 you may deem advisable. J. M. Pbitchard. 



Mr. Pritchard's analysis of the work of 



tlie Interstate Commerce Law Convention 



It was more or less of a disgrace to be a hard- 

 wood lumljcrman. and I remember having a con- 

 versation with an old friend a dozen or fifteen 

 years ago who said, "Our business is more or 

 less disreputable and IC iinylhing can be done to 



GARDNER I, JONES, BOSTON, MASS. 



bination of corporations. It is a government ot 

 the people, by the people and for the people, 

 and it is, therefore, absolutely necessary 

 that the government so control the interstate 

 commerce business that all persons may enjoy 



C. KRAMER, RICHMOND, IND. 



was referred to a committee on resolutions, 

 consisting of S. Burkholder, Daniel Wertz 

 and George H. Palmer. 

 Appointment of Nominating Committee. 



On motion of S. Burkholder the chairman 

 was.iauthorized to name a nominating com- 

 mittee for olfice'rs for the ensuing year. He 

 named a committee consisting of C. A. 

 Wood, W. W. Knight and B. F. Swain. 

 J. V. Stimson's Paper. 



J. V. Stimson was then called upon for a 

 paper on the subject of the ''Organization 

 of the Hardwood Lumber Trade and the 

 Part the Indiana Association Has Had 

 Therein." Mr. Stimson's paper follows: 



The hardwood lumber business is not what it 

 has been ; even so late as a dozen or fifteen years 

 ago conditions were as bad as they could well be. 



It was no credit to a man to be a hardwood 

 lumberman ; he was looked down upon by the 

 white pine lumberman, by the yellow pine lum- 

 berman and by all other classes of lumbermen, 

 and was looked upon as a pariah with his band 

 against every man and every man's hand against 

 bim. There was no fraternal feeling among 

 them, no common purpose or impulse swayed 

 them ; every man in the business was the enemy 

 of every other man. The dealers in the different 

 markets were arrayed against each other, city 

 against city, and the manufacturer against the 

 dealer ; everything was in a condition of dissen- 

 tion and discord. 



THEODORE FATHAUER, CHICAGO, ILL. 



better conditions you can count me in." 



And in a comparatively short time, a dozen 

 years or so. the improvement has been wrought, 

 until I can stand here and assert that I am 

 proud to be a hardwood lumberman. 



Hardwood lumbermen have passed from the 

 foot of the class to the head thereof. It is 

 today the best organized department of the lum- 

 ber "business : it Is showing the way to every 

 other department of the lumber business : it is 

 blazing a new path and is sailing unknown seas : 

 "It is boldly standing forth, with flag unfurled. 

 To take the light of truth into the darkened 

 world." 



That all of this has been accomplished in so 

 brief a space is a matter of congratulation ; that 

 Chicago lumbermen. St. Louis lumbermen, Mem- 

 phis and Cincinnati lumbermen, can meet here 

 in harmony and hobnob with Indiana lumbermen, 

 and with each other, is a good thing : that tliere 

 still exists some slight friction is not a matter 

 for surprise, nor should it discourage' those 

 whose hearts are in this work of reform. It is 

 impossible tliat all this prejudice which has been 

 fifty years in forming, that all these feuds which 

 are the result of fifty years of growth, should 

 not require a little time to eradicate. Time can 

 heal these wounds, and time alone, but left to 

 itself time will do its perfect work. 



When it comes to speaking of the part Indiana 

 lias played, you must excuse me for claiming 

 that Indiana has been almost the "whole thing." 

 You see, Indiana lumbermen had this advantage 

 Irom the beginning — they did not need reform. 

 All we had to do was to reform the other fel- 

 lows. Indiana was ail right all the time: 



The lumber business exists on a higher plane 

 today than ever before. Anyone who has been in 

 the hardwood lumber business for the last twelve 

 or fifteen years will appreciate that, and anyone 

 who denies that organization is what accom- 

 plished it does not, I think, understand himself. 

 There has always been a certain portion, and it 

 seems to me a selfisli portion, of the hardwood 

 lumber trade which has stood aloof from all 

 associated effort ; but it is in gatherings of this 

 kind that the work has been accomplished, not 

 alone by the legislation enacted, important as 

 that is," but I believe that more is due to the 

 fraternal feeling engendered by such meetings 

 and the acquaintances formed thereat. A lumber- 

 man does not wish to attend these meetings and 

 be held in ill-repute : he doesn't like to have the 

 other lumbermen point him out as having some- 

 thing the matter with him. 



Our business is shrinking, it is true. Indiana 

 was in at the birth of the lumber business, and 

 bids fair to be in at the death. We did not or- 

 ganize any too soon, if we are to derive any 

 benefit from the work. The only regret I have, 

 regarding the Indiana association, is tliat it was 

 not born twenty-five years ago. The Indiana 

 association is not the strongest, numerically, pos- 

 sibly, because the association was not organized 

 until the glory of. Indiana had departed, but it 

 is as strong in influence as any of them. 



The National Association made a wise move 

 when it located its office at Indianapolis, where 

 it would be subjected to no influence except the 

 pure and holy influence of Indiana lumbermen. 

 The National Association did a wise thing when 

 it listened to the Indiana Association in the 

 making of its rules ; It did a wise thing when 



