HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



GujASON, Akk.j Feb. 5. — Dear Sir : It is the 

 Inteation of our treasurer, George II. Lowry, 

 to be present at tbe Cincinnati meeting, for we 

 are decidedly in favor of tlie proposition. Yours 



truly, l'"KKKMAN Ll'MBEIi COMl'ANY. 



('OWEN, W. Va., I'^eb. 3. — Dear Sir: We are 

 very mucli intere>*ted in your association, liav- 

 ing been manufacturers of dimension stocl; for 

 many years. In fact, made it at a time wbeu 

 manufacturers did not care to save timber. It 

 always has seemed foolish to us to throw away 

 a good per cent of the log after once having it at 

 the mill. We will become members even if we 

 cannot send a representative. Yours truly. 

 Smoot Lumber Company. 



KANSA.S CiTV. Mil., Feb. 3. — Dear Sir: Unless 

 unavoidably prevented we will send a represen- 

 tative to the Cincinnati meeting, as we are 

 Jieartily in accord with the movement. Yours 

 truly, Beekmax Lumber Company. 



Carrolltox, Ala., Feb. 5. — Dear Sir : We 

 are in receipt of yours of the 1st inst., referring 

 to meeting of dimension association. Unless 

 something unforeseen intervenes between now 

 and date you name, we will be with you in Cin- 

 cinnati. Yours truly. International Felloe 

 Manufacturing Company. 



lioth President E. L. Davis and Secretary C. 

 S. Bacon of this association wish the Hard- 

 wood Record on their behalf to cordially and 

 earnestly invite everyone interested in hardwood 

 dimension production to be present at this 

 meeting and assist by their experience and ad- 

 vice in placing the association on a permanent 

 basis. I'resent indications point to an attend- 

 ance of tlie majority of individuals interested in 

 mailing all varieties of hardwood dimension 

 stock. 



Foreign Conditions. 



One of the interesting addresses delivered at 

 the recent annual meeting of the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association of the United States 

 was by Lewis Doster, -the stenographic report of 

 which was not received in time for insertion 

 with the regular report published in the last 

 issu3 of the Hardwood Record. It will be re- 

 called that last midsummer, owing to falling 

 health. .Mr. Doster retired from active service 

 as secretary of the association, and made a 

 European trip. His many friends, both in the 

 association and out of it. Will be delighted to 

 know that he is again at home, fully recovered 

 and will take up as his exclusive work the secre- 

 taryship of the association. As Mr. Doster is a 

 close observer of both men and conditions, his 

 analysis of affairs in Great Britain and on the 

 continent will be read with particular interest 

 by every member of the hardwood trade. 



"i have been in Europe during the past foyr 

 months and studied all kinds of commercial con- 

 ditions, and at every point I never saw such a 

 change of sentiment as has recently occurred in 

 all the European countries I visited. They have 

 developed a financial reaction that has fooled 

 even themselves, and especially the lumber buy- 

 ers who are caught without stocks and plenty of 

 customers who want the goods. Some of them 

 had iieard of the enormous stocks of this coun- 

 try and hastened over here to take advantage of 

 them, but came back to Europe absolutely dis- 

 heartened. In the first place, there were no 

 stocks here, and there were no iow prices ; 

 prices were getting higher the longer they 

 stayed, and they returned with higher ideas of 

 American liardwoods. I know of buyers now 

 coming over here, wanting to contract for new 

 supplies, and they say they want also some of 

 the old contracts filled that they couldn't get 

 the lumber for last year. Of course I realize 

 in a great many instances why those people can- 

 not get the lumber. 



"One of the points which our association took 

 up before I left America was that we issued a 

 letter to the producing trade regarding ship- 

 ments of lumber on consignment to Europe. We 

 found on this side that there was a sentiment 

 against it, and people had been writing us and 



telling us how badly they had been treated. 

 The European buyers said they did not want it, 

 and foreign lumber trade journals were advising 

 this country not to send lumber on consignment. 

 Yet I found that a great many manufacturers 

 were shipping over there regardless of all these 

 conditions. After I was able to travel around 

 iin the other side, I visited a number of ports 

 where these consignments had been shipped, and 

 was given papers showing the commission mer- 

 chants' charges for handling this consignment 

 material. I was unable to get my trunks from 

 New York, only having landed last Sunday, and 

 so I could not bring down a number of the pa- 

 pers on which I had made notes regarding the 

 detailed expenditures and commission on the 

 stock. It was marvelous. I thought I would 

 need the papers as you would not believe me un- 

 less I had the documents. Ridiculous and exor- 

 bitant charges were made for every possible 

 movement of the lumber. Every turn made was 

 charged for in some way so that when the re- 

 turns were made up to the shipper on this side, 

 he owed money to the commission merchants in 

 Europe. Instances of that kind were given me 

 by men who were large shippers of lumber from 

 this side, men who were led to believe that they 

 could send the stock to Europe and there would 

 be nothing but gold in return. There was noth- 

 ing but the opposite, and the- return was a bill 

 that they were obliged to send gold for. On 

 my personal visits to large buyers over there 

 they informed me that consignments interfered 

 with the general run of business, and said they 

 did not cater to that kind of a movement. I 

 hope the association will in the near future pub- 

 lish some of the results of consignments so that 

 the members can fully realize the conditions that 

 actually exist. It was found in consequence of 

 these consignments that it was necessary to 

 force the lumber to a sale, owing to excessive 

 dock and storage cliarges, and it naturally made 

 the lumbermen use a great many unfair meth- 

 ods to carry through the sale before the bill for 

 the return was made, as in most instances there 

 were no returns made at all. I was asked and 

 advised, that if I returned in time for this con- 

 vention to place the matter before it and give 

 my personal knowledge of what was before the 

 English customer. There are buyers there who 

 will want our lumber and they will buy and set- 

 tle on our regular official methods of grading, 

 which is the only way that lumber should he 

 sold to get logical and successful returns. 



"The general condition in every European 

 country has been a reaction : there is nothing 

 but prosperity and money. In the cotton dis- 

 trict of England they are building new mills 

 one after another and the quantity of American 

 cotton which they are taking is something won- 

 derful. I didn't know there was so much cotton 

 grown in America until I got to England and 

 saw it coming in. All European governments, 

 especially England's, with its liberal policy, has 

 the confidence of the people. England wanted a 

 change of government an_d, according to the last 

 election returns, it is getting a liberal policy. 

 That is what the country has wanted and every 

 business man predicted a change and felt sure 

 when the change was made it would bring 

 business to a better standpoint than ever before. 



"At no point was there any accumulation of 

 American hardwoods, especially in the higher 

 grades. Prime oak and prime poplar were in 

 great demand, not only in England but all over 

 the continent. The car shops, both for railroad 

 and electric car service, have plenty of orders 

 and use a great deal of panel and wide poplar. 

 Quartered oak is beginning to strengthen, being 

 similar to the situation on this side. The mills 

 have been taking largely plain oak, hist since the 

 prices for plain have advanced, it should give 

 an easy foreign market for quartered oak the 

 coming year. Plain oak, inch and thicker, is 

 growing remarkably in strength, and the indi- 

 cations point that the values of this product, 

 which generally are behind those in America, 

 are beginning to show a favorable comparison. 



In the past, European markets have generally 

 been $2.00 or $3.00 behind what the same 

 product would bring here, less freight and other 

 expenses ; and it is unnecessary, owing to the 

 tremendous demand for domestic purposes, to 

 ship to European countries, unless the full list 

 prices are obtained." 



Building Operations for January. 



Official reports from over fifty representa- 

 tive cities throughout the country, compiled by 

 The American Contractor, Chicago, show that 

 building operations are being carried on to a 

 decidedly greater extent than is usual at this 

 season of the year. That the unusually open 

 weather which has thus far prevailed has had 

 something to do with this unprecedented activ- 

 ity, must be admitted, might indeed go far to- 

 wards explaining the highly gratifying conditions 

 at present prevailing, were it not for the cir- 

 cumstance that the recent general average of 

 gains over the corresponding months of the pre- 

 ceding year have been for a long time substan- 

 tially maintained. The logical conclusion is 

 that the present construction movement rests 

 upon a very substantial foundation and is al- 

 most certain to be carried forward, during the 

 present year, at least. 



Of the entire list of cities tabulated, only nine 

 show a decrease, as compared with January, 

 1905, and none of these is in the first class. 

 On the other hand, seventeen cities show an 

 increase of more than 100 per cent. These cit- 

 ies, and tlie percentage of their gain, are : At- 

 lanta, 109 ; Cleveland. 537 : Chattanooga, 284 ; 

 Detroit. 263 ; Duluth, 113 ; Hartford, 924 ; Min- 

 neapolis, 164 ; Nashville, 119 ; Omaha, 349 ; 

 Paterson, 141 ; Pittsburg, 264 ; St. Paul, 117 ; 

 Syracuse, 230 ; Topeka, 307 ; Toledo, 147 ; Wil- 

 mington, De'l., 158; Worcester, 216. New York 

 shows a gain of 44 per cent ; Chicago, 51 : Phil- 

 adelphia, 73 ; St. Louis, 74 ; and Kansas City, 



97. 



.Ian., Jan.. Per Per 



lOOti- 19U5. cent cent 



City. cost. cost. gain. loss. 



Atlanta $ 300.808$ 143,715 109 .. 



Allegheny 77.865 42,875 81 



Balttmnre - 985,000 832,000 18 .. 



Birmingham 361,296 .'•.•x;,k ,'- 



Briil-.'iSort 191,662 164,070 17 



Bnllalo 276.150 239,293 15 .. 



ChlcaEO 2,830.200 1.874.700 51 .. 



Cleveland 1,700,000 266,805 537 



Chattanooga- 69.980 18,181 284 .. 



Cincinnati 259,835 140,480 85 . . 



Columbus 93,925 101,045 .. 7 



Dallas 186,342 203,370 .. 8 



Davenport 12,350 18,180 ■• 32 



Denver 368,690 260,825 41 



Detroit 1.469.900 404..W0 263 .. 



Dnluth 65.836 30,901 113 .. 



EvansvUle 35.230 27,925 26 .. 



Grand Rapids 95.151 72.921 30 .. 



Harrisburg 30,225 70,800 .. 57 



Hartford 103.-J00 10,090 924 



Indianapolis 168,945 4<j2,843 .. 58 



Kansas City 631,410 320,250 97 .. 



Ixiuisville 377.873 463.080 . . 18 



Los Angeles 1.304.356 1,131,561 15 .. 



Milwankee 308,789 256.763 20 .. 



Minneapolis 432.705 163.510 164 



Mobile 37,135 35,270 5 



Nashville 753,044 344.306 119 



Newark 623,137 1,559,609 . . 00 



New Orleans 254,305 212,195 15 



Manhattan 13,355,300 7,058,850 89 



Alteration 1.171,175 743,270 .. 



Brooklyn 2.S9S.330 3.473,280 .. 16 



Bronx 1,851,350 2,052,450 .. 9 



Alteration 46.115 42,760 .. 



New York 19.322.270 13,370,610 44 



Omaha 124.500 27,690 349 



Philadelphia 1,738,320 1,004.805 73 



Paterson 50.063 20.789 141 



Pittsburg 1.419.534 389,317 284 . . 



lUiehester 135,992 82,825 64 



St. Joseph 70.040 57.950 21 



i^t. Louis 1,743.556 999.884 74 



.St. Paul 248.344 113.992 117 



San Franclsto 1.326,100 1,356.161 .. 2 



Scranton 84,675 49,290 71 



Seattle . 632.248 425,950 48 



Spokane 101,355 205,270 . . 50 



Syracuse 141,265 42,725 230 



Topeka 37,897 9,300 307 



Toledo 141,890 57,425 147 



Terrc Haute 21.165 10,875 95 



Tacoma 148.620 110.414 34 



Trenton 30.395 11.481 164 



Washington 724.368 496,465 46 



Wilmington 388,605 1.50,045 158 



Worcester 116.760 36.955 216 



Winnipeg SO.OflO 184,675 . . 56 



About 600,000 acres of timber land are to be 

 set aside as forest reserves in New' Mexico. 



