HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



Is It a Legitimate Lumber Enterprise or a Get=Rich= 



Sluicic Vroposition? 



The Text. 



In an editorial in the Hamavood Eecobb 

 of l'"eb. 25, congratulating the harchvood lum- 

 ber trade on its general escape from ' ' high 

 and low" financing methods, and deprecating 

 the few notable transactions in lumber af- 

 fairs in which the public had been severely 

 mulcted, appeared the following paragraph: 



' ' There is a very energetically han- 

 dled alleged lumber enterprise which 

 has been exploited from Philadelphia 

 headquarters during the past year, in 

 which the promoters allege that they 

 have untold wealth in Mexico in the 

 way of timber lands, and they make 

 statements of marvelous profits that 

 they are turning over to stockholders. 

 It is dollars to doughnuts that this 

 company is paying dividends from 

 stock sales and has not yet earned a 

 cent from its alleged Mexican invest- 

 ment. The public is herewith warned 

 against buying stock in any such en- 

 terprise, as there is not one handled 

 in this way that has come to the no- 

 tice of the Hardwood Eecokd that is 

 worthy of confidence. ' ' 



The Mahogany Business. 



The history of the mahogany busi- 

 ness, ever since it became of even pass- 

 ing importance as a commercial pur- 

 suit, has not been an attractive one to 

 either investors or manufacturers. 

 There can be counted on the fingers of 

 one hand the names of concerns which 

 have ever made any considerable 

 amount of money out of the mahogany 

 lumber business. Primarily, mahog- 

 any grows in. tropical climates, usually 

 in rough sections where transportation 

 facilities are nil or very limited; na- 

 tive labor conditions are very bad; ex- 

 pert loggers from the States are diffi- 

 cult to secure, and when they are ob- 

 tainable rarely can stand the climate 

 for any length of time. Even in what 

 is regarded as good mahogany terri- 

 tory the timber is of very sparse 

 growth, seldom exceeding one tree to 

 the acre. Delivering the mahogany 

 logs to points of transportation means 

 practically cutting a road with the 

 machete through almost impassable 

 undergrowth, and by main strength 

 getting it out. In fact, every item of 

 cost as figured in a normal logging 

 operation is multiplied time and time again 

 in securing mahogany logs even under the 

 most favorable conditions. 



There are individuals and corporations in 

 the United States that have spent fully a 

 quarter of a century in securing mahogany 

 timber lands and learning the trade of get- 

 ting this timber to the seaboard, transport- 

 ing it, and converting it into lumber. "Where 

 there has been one successful operator there 



have been at least a score of failures. The 

 mahogany producing sections of Mexico, Cen- 

 tral AnuTica, South America, Africa and the 

 West Indies are strewn with abandoned tram- 

 roads, Lidgerwoml skidding rigs and pull en- 

 gines. The greater portion of mahogany tim- 

 ber that lies anywhere near accessibility has 

 already been felled and exported. 



Dividends 8% Guaranteed 



Payable SemhAnnually 



The following dividends have been 

 paid by this Company FROM THE SALE 

 OF MAHOGANY LUMBER since April 1, 

 1905: 



April 1. 1905 ... 5% 

 October I, 1905 ... 5% 

 January 31. 1906 . . 2% 



Total .... 12% 



We exceeded our dividend guarantee 

 last year, and will do so again this year. 



Next regular senii=annual dividend 

 o! 4% payable April 1. 1906. 



We own a 288,000-acre tract of land which is 

 PAID FOR IN FULL and deeded to a Philadelphia trust 

 company for stockholders' protection; 20.000 acres 

 being cultivated. We have standing on our land 

 an almost inexhaustible supply of marketable ma- 

 hogany, logwood and other valuable cabinet lum- 

 ber and dye woods. Live stock, etc., raised for 

 market; we have 2,000 head of cattle now. Twen- 

 ty-seven mile railroad line, fully equipped, on our 

 property. 



A few shares for sale now. Write at once and 

 participate in the next dividend of 4 per cent. 



OFFICERS: 



President, WM, H. ARMSTRONG, Ex.U. S. R. R. Commis- 

 sioner. Philadelphia. Pa. 



Vice-President, COL. .\. K. McCLURE, Ex-Editor Times, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



Sec'y and Treasurer. C. M. McM.\HON, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Handsomely illustrated paper and booklet 

 FREE. Write to-day. Address 



INTERNATIONAL LUMBER AND 

 DEVELOPMENT COMPANY 



705 Drexel Building 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



During the last few years there has been 

 developed quite a number of alleged mahog- 

 any enterprises in Mexico and Central Amer- 

 ica. These ventures with very few excep- 

 tions have not been exploited by experienced 

 lumbermen, but by amateurs, perhaps honest 

 in their convictions, who evidently did not 

 know what they were going against. Very 

 few of these companies today survive. They 

 started off with great eclat, in many eases 



spending vast sums of money only to meet 

 failure and disappointment as the outcome 

 of their great expectations. 



However, there are some corporations in 

 the United States which, after expending 

 great sums of money in learning the trade, 

 have eventually put their mahogany enter- 

 prises on a fairly remunerative and satis- 

 factory basis. Latterly the consuming 

 demand for mahogany has not kept 

 pace with the imports of the wood, 

 with the dual result that the market 

 is loaded down with fully two years' 

 stock of mahogany, and prices have 

 fallen to a range that represents but 

 very little over initial cost. The writer 

 of this article has within the last six 

 months seen high-class Cuban dimen- 

 sion stock sold at eight cents a foot 

 on a Grand Kapids freight rate; he 

 has seen a very good quality of firsts 

 and seconds Mexican wood sold at 

 eleven cents on the same freight basis, 

 and as a matter of fact today about 

 the highest range of prices obtained 

 for the very best type of plain wood 

 on the freight named is from thirteen 

 to fifteen cents. Mahogany can be 

 bought in practically limitless quanti- 

 ties at the present time at about the 

 same price asked for quarter-sawed 

 white oak. 



International Lumber & Development 

 Company. 

 On this page of the Hardwood 

 Recokd is reproduced an advertisement 

 which appeared in the Philadelphia 

 North American of Sunday, March 11. 

 This advertisement occupied the space 

 of one column, and is one of a series 

 of similar announcements that have 

 been made by this company for some 

 time past. 



A copy of this advertisement was 

 forwarded by the Hardwood Record 

 to leading mahogany producers with a 

 letter asking if in their belief the 

 statement of this company that it had 

 paid dividends of twelve per cent from 

 April 1, 1905, to Jan. 31, 1906, out of 

 profits arising from the sale of ma- 

 hogany lumber, could by any possible 

 chance be true, based on their experi- 

 ence as mahogany producers. In ex- 

 planation of this matter the editor of 

 the Hardwood Record stated that his 

 object in discussing the mahogany proposi- 

 tion was two-fold : First, in the present con- 

 dition of the market, he deemed it unwise 

 that it be further overloaded by additional 

 supplies of the wood. Second, he wished to 

 protect investors from possible loss in any 

 lumber enterprise of questionable character. 

 These correspondents were also invited to 

 supply the Hardwood Record with any in- 

 formation they had concerning the company. 



