HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



noon at which a resolution was adopted fa- 

 voring the metric system of measurement as 

 the official standard of tlie United States, and 

 urging upon Congress its adoption. It was 

 pointed out that the metric system, which is 

 in general use in Europe, where large quan- 

 tities of Anieric;".n lumber are sold, since it 

 is much finer in detail than the American sys- 

 tem, would result in the saving of fractions 

 which have heretofore been lost in the meas- 

 urement of lumber under the American sys- 

 tem. 



At the same meeting the following financial 

 committee was appointed to look after the 

 money end of the annual convention of the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association which 

 will meet at Memphis, May 3 and 4: R. J. 

 Darnell, W. S. Darnell, F. E. Gray, S. B. An- 

 ■derson and George C. Ehemann. The Lum- 

 bermen's Club looks for an attendance of be- 

 tween 300 and 400 delegates and is preparing 

 to give thorn a royal reception and splendid 

 entertainment. 



J. J. Bruner, who has for some time been 

 traffic manager for Bennett & Witte at Mem- 

 phis, has resigned that position to accept a 

 similar one with the E. Sondheimer Company. 



J. R. Blair and C. R. Palmer will take 

 charge of the western office of the L. H. Gage 

 Lumber Company, located in the Scimitar 

 building. Mr. Palmer, who has spent some 

 time each year in the local office, will liave 

 charge of the inside management, while Mr. 

 Blair will look after the mill at Eaiie. Ark.. 

 and other outside interests of the company. 

 Mr. Blair has been at the plant at Earle for 

 a numl>er of years. F. E. Stonebraker. who 

 was for a number of years western manager 

 for the company, recently resigned to become 

 president of the Crittenden Railway Company, 

 which is building a line from Earle to Heath. 

 Ark. 



E. M. Terry, the newly elected secretary and 

 traffic manager of the National Lumber Ex- 

 porters' Association, succeeding Elliott Lang, 

 resigned, reached Memphis yesterday and is 

 now comfortably ensconced in the office of the 

 association in the Tennessee Trust building. 

 He was under the shadow of considerable per- 

 sonal bereavement over the death of Ernest 

 M. Price of Price & Hart, with which concern 

 he was connected before accepting the present 

 position. 



There will be an addition of 120 rooms to 

 the Hotel Gayoso of this city through the 

 widening of the Main street frontage to 65 

 feet, and the building of twelve stories facing 

 on this street. The hotel is patronized largely 

 by lumbermen who pass through the city and 

 the increase in facilities will doubtless be 

 much appreciated by them, as the accommo- 

 dations have been inadequate heretofore. Con- 

 tract for the work will be let within the next 

 few days. 



The Arthur Hardwood Flooring Company, 

 recently organized here for the extensive man- 

 ufacture of hardwood flooring, has made ap- 

 plication for an increase in its capital stock 

 from $50,000 to ?100,000. The company is now 

 erecting its plant in North Memphis and will 

 be ready for operations within the next thirty 

 to sixty days. 



Judge Heiskell of tlie Chancery Court of 

 Shelby county, has handed down a decision 

 here to the effect that taxes cannot be col- 

 lected for city, county and state purposes on 

 logs brought into Memphis from other states 

 to be manufactured into lumber. The decision 

 came in the case of I. M. Darnell & Sons 

 Company against the city of Memphis. The 

 statutes of Tennessee exempt logs cut from. 

 Tennessee soil from taxation of the character 

 described and it is held by Judge Heiskell 

 that it is impossible to tax logs from other 

 states without violating the interstate com- 

 merce regulations through discrimination in 

 favor of one state as against others. 



The Memphis Column Company, capitalized 

 at $50,000, is erecting a plant in North Mem- 

 phis for the manufacture of wooden columns 

 for building purposes. The company is char- 

 tered under the laws of Michigan and is of- 

 ficered as follows: R. Morrell. Benton Har- 

 bor, Mich., president; W. A. Preston of the 

 same pLace. vice president; S. B. Anderson of 

 the Anderson-Tully Company, Memphis; treas- 

 urer; W. E. Conroy, South Bend, Ind., secre- 

 tary and general manager, and W, H. Berk- 

 heiser, Benton Harbor, Mich., superintendent. 

 The management has closed a deal for five 

 acres in North Mempliis on Wolf River and 

 the Illinois Central and is already erecting 

 the necessary buildings thereon. It is pro- 

 posed to have the plant in operation within 

 the next few weeks. 



At a meeting of the directors of the H. 

 -Vlfrey Company, recently formed here with a 

 capital stock of $400,000 for the manufacture 

 of tight cooperage heading, the following of- 

 ficers were elected: H. Alfrey. president; W. 

 F. Alfrey, vice president; Chas. Hudson, sec- 

 retary and treasurer. The company will oper- 

 ate five mills, four in Arkansas and one in 

 Mississippi. It will be the largest company of 

 the kind in the South. 



John R. Goodwin is the complainant in an 

 original bill filed in Chancery Court here 

 against E. E. Taenzer and the Mempliis Saw 

 Mill Company, which is based primarily on the 

 conviction of James "VVhims, in .the Criminal 

 Court, of feloniously cutting timber from the 

 property of the complainant. The bill is filed 

 for the purpose of securing $2,000 alleged to 

 be due complainant for timber wliich he al- 

 leges was purchased from Whims. It is 

 claimed in the bill that the complainant noti- 

 fied the defendants that, in case they pur- 

 chased timlaer from Wliims. he would hold 

 them responsible for the amount involved. A 

 bill has been filed by Mr. Goodwin against 

 W. H. Russe and George D. Burgess, in which 

 the same allegations are made. 



The Prescott Furniture Factory at Prescott, 

 Ark., was destroyed by fire a few nights ago, 

 entailing a loss of $37,000, with insurance of 

 only $5,000, according to dispatches to the 

 Memphis News-Scimitar. The fire, the origin 

 of which is not known, spread to tlie planer 

 of the J. A. D.avis Lumber Company and 

 burned this, causing a loss of $5,000, with no 

 insurance. The Prescott furniture factory had 

 been in operation about four years, and was 

 in prosperous condition. 



The Farrin-Korn Lumber Company has re- 

 moved its Memphis offices from 566 to 234-236 

 Randolph building. 



A. F. Cook has retired as general manager 

 of the Bliss-Cook Oak Company, the hard- 

 wood and oak flooring manufacturers of Bliss- 

 ville. Ark., but retains the position of secre- 

 tary of the company. A. P. Bliss, president 

 of the company, has assumed the position of 

 general manager, and Howard Coles has been 

 appointed superintendent. 



Minneapolis. 



B. Payson Smith of the E. Payson Smith 

 Lumber Company, who has just returned from 

 Memphis and Kansas City, says dry stocks of 

 southern oak have practically vanished. Large 

 buyers are on the ground trying to get sup- 

 plies, but are having difficulty in finding any- 

 thing, and prices are advancing every day. 

 The trade in the Northwest is not alive to the 

 situation, and is deferring its buying for 

 spring use until March. Mr. Smith predicts 

 that in March it will be practically impossible 

 to find dry oak stocks in any quantity. Plain 

 oak is selling at Memphis on a basis that 

 would mean ^^G to the wholesaler, delivered in 

 Minneapolis. The same condition prevails in 

 other hardwoods, and gum has scored a de- 

 cided advance in price. Mr. Smith is recover- 

 ing from an attack of malaria which overtook 



him in Missouri, obliging him to give up an 

 intended journey to Al.nbama, He spent ten 

 days at Hot Springs before he was in shape to 

 return liome. He will make the Alabama trip 

 as soon as he is able. A. S. Bliss of the same 

 company reports a good demand for north- 

 ern stocks, and a short supply of everything 

 hut birch, which is still to be had in fair 

 quantities, 



C. F. Osborne of Osborne & Clark reports 

 the retail yard trade holding up well. The 

 demand at present is chiefly for wagon stock, 

 and there seems to be an unusual amount of 

 repair work going on this winter. The sup- 

 ply of stock is much below normal, and prices 

 are firm. 



Cull boards of any description now find a 

 ready market among box manufacturers. 

 Basswood culls have increased in price, and 

 at $15 are cheaper than pine, but the active 

 demand has practically cleaned them out of 

 the market, and dealers have little benefit 

 from the advance. 



A block of black walnut cut from an old 

 fence post was the center of a reminiscent 

 crowd the other day in the Lumber Exchange. 

 It was sent to E. T. White of the W. W. 

 Johnson Lumber Company from his old home 

 in Illinois. Hardwood men mourn the days 

 when black walnut was cheap as pine is now, 

 and when liouses and fences were made of 

 roughly hewed walnut logs and poles, 



P, E. Hamilton of the Minneapolis Lumber 

 Company says his concern is finding a fair 

 demand for stocks from the factory trade. 

 Manufacturing conditions with them are now 

 first class, and they are hoping to see the end 

 of the logging season more successful than the 

 earlier part. 



The Hardwood Door Company was recently 

 incorporated with headquarters in St. Paul, 

 with power to do a general manufacturing and 

 mercantile business. The capital authorized is 

 $20,000. H. W. Bogart is president and treas- 

 urer, and V. Hinrichs is vice-president and 

 secretary. 



W. C. Bailey, the well known hardwood 

 dealer of this city, has returned to work much 

 improved in health. He has gotten out a new 

 form of price list covering his large assort- 

 ment of yard stock. 



Louisville. 



The shaft and pole branch of the American 

 Vehicle Wood Stock Association held a meeting 

 at the Seelbach, Feb. 7, to discuss the business 

 outlook. Like other people in the hardwood 

 lumber world, they have been hampered some 

 this winter in getting out raw material, and 

 are also feeling acutely the advance in hickory 

 and oak and have to struggle continually to 

 keep prices of the finished product up where 

 they can realize fair returns. Their organiza- 

 tion has been a great help in this work, and it 

 has a good man at its bead, B, F. Von Behren 

 of Evansville, Ind. ; the secretary is C. F. Col- 

 ville of Mt. Vernon, O. ; the vice-president, W. 

 Dann of Tuilahoma, Tenn. 



W. H. Uoskins is getting to be a yard-wide 

 and all-wool expansionist. Not long ago, In 

 addition to the sawmill enterprise here, he be- 

 came interested in lumber operations in Ar- 

 kansas, and now has bought the South Park 

 hotel at a summer resort near Louisville. He 

 is forming a company called the South Park 

 Land Company, which is to improve the hotel 

 and operate it. The company is incorporated 

 with a capital stock of $2.5.000. 



W. D. Sturm of the Bell & Coggeshall Com- 

 pany says that within the last few weeks gum 

 has gotten in line with advancing prices and 

 has scored an advance of $2 a thousand on 

 common. He says the lumber trade is better 

 than the box business these days. Their mills 

 in Mississippi have an excellent demand for 

 both gum and oak for export. 



At the Voss Mantel Company's factory they 

 are having more than they can do, and could 



