HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



Fourteenth Annual Meeting of JWational Wholesale 



Lumber Dealers' Association. 



O F F I C E R S — 1 SMJ 6 - 1 U (J 7 . 



Lkwis Dim,, President Baltimore, Md. C. H. Prkscoti', Jr.. 2d \'ice-President Cleveland, O. 



J. M. Hastings, Isl \ice-President Pittsburg, Pa. Fred'k W. Com;, Treasurer New York City 



KuGENf; F. Perrv, Secretary New York City. 



The fourteenth annual meeliug of the Na- 

 tional Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association 

 imveneil in the auditorium of the New Willard 

 Hotel, Washington, D. C. at 10:30 a. m., Wed- 

 nesday, March 7. with I'resideut Lewis Dill in 

 the chair. Of the 306 members of this associa- 

 tion, llji; concern.s answered to their names as 

 the roll call wa.s road by Secretary Perry, and 

 there wer» li)3 individuals present. President 

 1)111 delivered his auuual address, as follows: 



The President's Address. 



The VE.ui's Pkosperity. 



In the annual ropun of the president last 

 year, reference was made lo the signs of a busi- 

 ness prosperity which then seemed at hand. It 

 is needless to say that all optimistic expecta- 

 tions have boi'u more than realized, and that 

 our place, as himbermen, in the great commerce 

 of the nation tiuring the banner year has been 

 a conspicuous one. and as lumbermen we have 

 earned our full share of the increment. The 

 leaps and bounds by which we have gone for- 

 ward in all of the branches of commerce and 

 manufact\ire have startled us as participants, 

 and have caused wouder and alarm to the rest 

 of the world. 



The demaud and supi^ly in lumber during the 

 year and the lesultant effect to the trade is so 

 well known to y»->u as to neither require nor 

 justify more than mere mention. Yet it may be 

 desirable, and it will be only fair to officially 

 mark the time and circumstances of our coming 

 iuto these better days, so that in the far-off 

 future, if some searcher after truth and the 

 history of our great industry shall seek to find 

 them in the written words filed in the archives 

 of this and like associations, he will discover 

 here, at least, an appreciation and grateful 

 acknowledgment of the blessings we have re- 

 ceived and for those we are about to receive. 



Read in the light of today, the literature of 

 the annual meetings for many years gone by 

 would be accepted as supplication and prayer 

 that we might be delivered from a profitless 

 trading and a worse than mad competition. Now. 

 everybody is happy. None of the members of 

 this 'association and perhaps no one in the trade 

 has today a cause fur serious complaint. If in 

 the passing the fullest measure of prosperity is 

 not resting with our home group, the wholesaler, 

 or with our brother the retailer, it is with great 

 delight that we observe the long visit the gen- 

 eral is making with our equally near relative 

 and long-time sufferer, the manufacturer. With- 

 in a half dozen years back, a paper was read 

 on this floor, and the title of it was, "The 

 Education of the Manufacturer." It was the 

 product of a wholesaler's pen, and he sought to 

 impress on this benighted brother the importance 

 of arriving at a selling value by adding to the 

 cost of stumpage and milling and the one dollar 

 per thousand feet allowed for profit, various 

 other items of cost or loss, such as depreciation, 

 bad debts, interest, taxes and insurance. It 

 would be interesting to know if the author has 

 in view the preparation of any additional in- 

 structions, or if be is of the opinion still that 

 any items of cost are being omitted which might 

 properly be charged, in order to furnish a base. 



We are all in favor of high prices and fixed 

 high prices. Struggle with the problem as we 

 may, we caunot get away from the fact that the 

 increased and increasing value of stumpage and 

 the cost of production justify the figures of 

 to-day, and will compel them for the future. 

 It was predicted during the early part of the 

 year that the marked increase in prices would 

 decrease the consumption, but those prophecies, 

 up to the present time, have proven false. While 

 we are going ahead at this splendid pace and 

 while we are keeping in mind the homely proverb 

 which says, "A shower of musli is worth nothing 

 to him whose bowl is bottom upward." there is 

 another adage which says, "What always has 

 been probably always will be." and we should 

 not forget that overproduction, the arch-enemy 

 from whose antics we have suflfered so much in 

 the past, is often the result of prosperous times 

 and during the coming year, perhaps even now, 

 we may be on the crest of the wave of pros- 

 perity. At least one need not be a pessimist to 

 utter a single word of caution. 



With the many plans of offense and defense, 

 in the interest of the trade, and in which our 

 association is involved, perhaps none is as im- 

 portant or so neariy represents the principal 

 business for us and our sister associations, 

 whether local or national, as seeing to it now. 

 when supply and demand are in our favor, and 

 all other conditions favorable, as never before, 

 that the relations of the several branches of the 

 trade to each other be kept clearly in mind, and 

 the established customs and channels of trading 

 be mure carefully adhered to. It is an un- 

 pleasant subject and comes as a harsh reminder 

 in these days of easy comfort, but we believe 

 there is especial reason to call attention to the 

 principles involved and to restate them plainly 

 — a better understanding and adjustment of 

 them at this time may prove to be an anchor to 

 windward for use and protection in a possible 

 stress or storm in trade matters of the future. 



We should fix the status of the poacher and 

 keep it fixed, and his place should be with the 

 scalper and illegitimate dealer wherever he ma.v 

 be found. The uarrowness of such a view as 

 this will be pointed out and the most vehement 

 and acrimonious cry against it will come from 

 the operator who is selling wherever be can and 

 to whomever he pleases, seemingly without rea- 

 son and always withoitt care as to custom or 



J. M. HASTINGS, I'lUST VICE ri!]:si liKNT. 

 PITTSBntG. I'A. 



channel for distribution. When called to ac- 

 count, his arguments are specious and the blame 

 he seeks always to put on others. He is a 

 maverick, roaming at will over our lands, drink- 

 ing at the cleare.^t streams and feeding in the 

 best of pastures. He must be caught and brand- 

 ed. No association should permit him member- 

 ship, and no iudividual should, under any condi- 

 tions or at any time, permit trading with him — 

 either buying or selling — and simple as the 

 process may seem, you may depend upon it, if 

 applied, bis will be a short shrift. 



In this connection it is a pleasure to be able 

 to state that our association is on terms of 

 friendly intercourse with existing associations, 

 covering all of the branches of the industry, and 

 that these relations with the retailers, especially 

 the se\'eral associations representing the busi- 

 ness in the North and East, whore an active and 

 large part of the business of the members of 

 this association is carried on, are, in all particu- 

 lars, mutually satisfactory. While no written 

 agreement or legislation of binding cliaracter 

 has been sought by either interest as the basis 

 of an alliance, since the withdrawal from the 

 Boston Agreement, yet the situation is one of 



thorough accord and appreciation of the rights 

 and obligations of each, and all matters can be 

 and are being handled by the oflicers and through 

 the ottices of the various associations, with 

 frankness and confidence, and naturally with 

 good results. In so far as it lies within our 

 jjower, this condition, which makes for the 

 friendships and the pleasure and profit of the 

 business, shall be made to continue. 



The committee reports and those of the sec- 

 retary and treasurer will give you in detail the 

 work of the several departments and of the as- 

 sociation in general for the year, and leave for 

 me only the mention of the most important 

 features, with a view of emphasizing them. 



C.vn Stake Equipment Mattek. 



The experiment of a midsummer meeting, tried 

 for tlie first time at Ottawa in August last, was 

 in every way a success. No more aggressive 

 handling of association matters and no more 

 important results have, been brought about 

 tlirough any previous meeting. By all of us in 

 attendance the title of princes in entertaining 

 and in good fellowship was voted to our Cana- 

 dian members and their neighbors and the assur- 

 ance given them that the.v were without a suc- 

 cessful competitor for the title on our side of 

 the line. 



It was at the Ottawa meeting that the Car 

 Stake Equipment and the complaint filed by us 

 with the Interstate Commerce Commission was 

 commenced. Delegates from eighteen lumber trade 

 associations were present and an alliance was 

 formed there for prosecuting the demands set 

 forth in the complaint, as the common cause of 

 all. More than forty associations are now par- 

 ties to this alliance, and while af the present 

 lime consideration of the matter is in the hands 

 of the committee representing the railroad and 

 lumber interests, and temporarily withdrawn 

 from the commission, yet should the attempt to 

 adjust it out of court fail, you may depend 

 upon the men serving on your committee to fol- 

 low it as a fight to a finish. The furnishing of 

 equipment and paying of freight on the same 

 lias been an unjust and unreasonable tribute 

 forced from us by the railroads, and when it can 

 he figured out as being an annual tax on the in- 

 dustry of from -eight to ten million dollars, it 

 quite justifies all the labor and expense which 

 has been so freely given, and all that may be 

 called for in the "future, until it is settled and 

 settled right. 



Membership of Association. 



The membership has increased during the year 

 in a most encouraging way both as to quality: 

 and quantity. Seventy-two new members have 

 been admitted, leaving, however, a net gain of 

 only fifty-two. It may be of interest to you to 

 know that the loss of twenty members by death, 

 failure and retirement from business during the 

 year is the normal seven or eight per cent, in- 

 dicating that about fifteen years is the business 

 term of life of our members. The members ad- 

 mitted during the year come from a score of 

 states with the principal gain in groups or sec- 

 tions coming from Canada, the southern states 

 and the Pacific coast. At the close of this year 

 every section of the country, and probably every 

 lumber producing state, is represented in our list 

 of members. In the acquisitions from the Coast 

 are several of the largest operators and influen- 

 tial men of that territory. A recent letter from 

 one of them says that the dealers of the Coast 

 are being convinced of the need of our associa- 

 tion, and he urges that we And a way to present 

 its advantages to those men of the far west and 

 the coast generally, and if we do. assures us that 

 a liberal "share of all of these operators will 

 join, and incidentally mentions that two billion 

 feet of lumber was sent east of the Rockies dur- 

 ing the year. If you are inclined to liberal 

 things to a great degree. I am willing to prophesy 

 that a meeting well attended, another midsum- 

 mer meeting, held on the Pacific coast, will put 

 us in a position which for number and grade of 

 members and for the breadth and scope of the 

 worlv possible to follow will so increase our influ- 

 ence and power as to make us easil.v and truly 

 the "Great National Association." 



Statistics. 

 We have felt the need of statistics which 

 should represent the volume and value of the 

 business, and its relation to rail and water trans- 



