October 25, 191G 



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Chats With the Folks Down South 



Mart Brown of the W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company, Louis- 

 ville, Ky., remarked to me the other day that the only speck he can 

 see on the horizon is the inability to get cars with which to bring 

 stock out of the South. He says that business is better than his 

 company had had any reason to exiiect. The yellow pine operation in 

 Alabama is suffering particularly from the car need. 



Clarence Mengel of the 0. C. Mengel & Bro. Company, Louisville, 

 seemed rather disturbed the other day when he heard of the ' ' close to 

 home" activities of the German subsea raiders, and their effect on 

 marine insurance rates. Mr. Mengel said that the new raids directly 

 caused the advance of about 300 per cent, but added that his company 

 could worry along for tlie time being, having an unusually good stock 

 of mahogany logs. J. C. Wickliffe, secretary of Louisville's big 

 mahogany institution, was on his way back from England at the time 

 the Kaiser 's U-boats became so agitated. The vessel on which he 

 returned received a wireless message giving warning of the submarine 

 activity. However, the journey was completed without any mishap. 

 Mr. Mengel also commented on some splendid walnut veneers that the 

 Louisville mill has been working up, something of particular fitness 

 for individually selected table tops and other specialties where exclu- 

 siveness is desired. 



C. R. Mengel, Jr., of the same company, has been in Minneapolis 

 for some time, but is now located at Chicago and will represent the 

 Mengel company on the road selling mahogany. He finds Chicago a 

 better and more advantageous location for western territory. 



W. E. (BUI) DeLaney of the Kentucky Lumber Company, Lexing- 

 ton, Ky., was the host at the grand circuit "trots" which were being 

 pulled off while I was in town. Having been a follower of the running 

 horse all my life, I never very much fancied the harness nags, but the 

 grand circuit has been presenting some wonderful talent this fall, 

 and DeLaney and I became almost enthusiastic, that is, over everything 

 except our profits. 



In speaking of business, BUI told about the active movement of 

 lumber from his Kentucky mills. He said that business has been very 

 good, especially with quartered oak, and has so much confidence in the 

 future of oak and other southern hardwoods that he is not rushing 

 around looking for orders at present prices, reasoning, as do most 

 manufacturers, that the difference between the value of the lumber in 

 the log and its value when ready for cutting up is not sufiBcient at 

 present to make active seUing good business. Therefore it is not only 

 sound business but more in accord with the policies of conservation 

 to let the lumber stay in the tree until top market values are assured. 



He dei>lored the influence of the mills which jirc delivering o,-ik in 

 Chicago at $.30 and $53 to $54, which practice is not helping to 

 strengthen the oak situation. According to this operator, oak men are 

 showing themselves exceedingly poor merchandisers and must bestir 

 themselves if they are to conserve their markets. 



C. L. Ritter of Huntington, W. Va., made the trip over to Turkey 

 Creek, Ky., the other day with Manager Selinanfer of the Turkey 

 Foot Lumber Company of Lexington to look over the company's big 

 mUl, which is one of the best that has ever been constructed in the 

 South. The Turkey Foot Lumber Company has a remarkable supply 

 of fine white oak. 



I had looked forward to a nice chat with R. H. Vansant of Van- 

 sant, Kitchen & Co., Ashland, Ky., but when I got there found that 

 the colonel was confined to his home rather seriously ill. His worthy 

 lieutenants told me that the company is having a good, lively business 

 in poplar, and is cutting some oak. The mills wUl probably run on 

 a larger scale next year and thereafter cut more of the heavier hard- 

 woods than in the past. 



Across the river at Coal Grove, O., the Yellow Poplar Lumber Com- 

 pany's big mill is cutting up a lot of magnificent oak. It has about 

 as much quartered oak as any miU that we ran across. President Leon 

 Isaacsen and Secretary Crawford expressed themselves as being very 

 well pleased with business turned over .so far this year. This com- 

 pany is making a fine lot of flooring besides its quartered oak lumber. 

 As these two items are decidedly specialties," it is always possible to 



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take care of any demand from its well-stocked miU-yard. The Yellow 

 Poplar Lumber Company formerly delivered its logs mainly by river, 

 but last spring inaugurated a new rail haul system, and is finding 

 it a much more satisfactory and tmiform method of supplying the 

 mill. 



While at Hiintington, West Virginia, B. Bruce Burns, president of 

 the Hardwood Manufacturers ' Association of the United States, and 

 the active man in the C. L. Ritter Lumber Company, the Tug River 

 Lumber Company, and the Rockcastle Lumber Company of Hunt- 

 ington, conducted me to his magnificent residence in the highlands 

 overlooking the beautiful city of Huntington. I must confess to a 

 distinct enthusiasm for the progressiveness of this quite remarkable 

 young city, which- has all the earmarks of a regular metropolis, in 

 so far as its growth and industry and its advantages are concerned, 

 Mr. Burns has always been a great believer in knowing just 

 "where he is at, "and checks up on each day's run of the mill and 

 the woods' crews, knowing at all times just what lumber is going 

 into pile. He says there is too little exchange of information be- 

 tween manufacturers on logging, manufacturing and marketing of 

 hardwoods. In speaking of the increased cost of logging and the 

 constant evidence that manufacturers are marketing their products 

 continuously at prices based on the other man's bid rather than on 

 actual costs, Mr. Burns said that these conditions can never be fijlly 

 remedied until the manufacturers support association work not only 

 with their financial resources, but with the resources of their experi- 

 ences. He said that while the directors of any trade association 

 can, of course, grind out just so much routine work and provide for 

 just so much development, no organization' can ever get anywhere 

 untU it has the active support of its whole membership. 



On the cost question, Mr. Burns said : ' ' More centralized effort 

 is neetled in behalf of oak and other hardwoods. We need to con- 

 centrate on working out a cost system that can be universally used. 

 This would be the greatest commercializer we could possibly have. 

 It would enable the hardwood manufacturer to merchandise his lum- 

 ber in place of merely taking orders for it as he has in the past. ' ' 



D. K. Hewitt of the D. E. Hewitt Lumber Company is another big 

 man in the Huntington lumber trade. Mr. Hewitt said he has been 

 wondering just what is the cause of the lack of stability in markets. 

 ' ' We have a good volume one week and then a week of poor Imsiness. 

 More cooperation between manufacturers both in manufacturing and 

 selling would benefit all of us," is the way he summed up the 

 situation. 



Mr. Hutchinson of the Hutchinson Lumber Company, Huntington, 

 was up to liis ears in a deskful of checks and orders when I droi)ped 

 in on him one afternoon. Naturally his state of mind was not at all 

 gloomy. 



Mr. Hutchinson has a "regular" system of keeping tab on things. 

 The success of his methods proves that the man who is not making 

 comparisons of the various grades of stock on each bunch of logs 

 that he puts into the mill is not getting the most out of his timber. 

 Mr. Hutchinson believes in a close tally of every item of cost, par- 

 ticularly so these days when feed, supply and labor items in hard- 

 wood manufacture are mounting sky high. 



George E. Breece of Charleston, W. Va., is not only one of the 

 biggest hardwood men in the country, but also holds down the man 's 

 size job of mayor of Charleston. Under his guidance I saw all there 

 was to see in his town and was much impressed by two facts: One 

 that Charleston is ideally located and the other that it bears the 

 stamp of a most prosperous commercial character. 



There is one thing though that I noticed at Charleston and which 

 I didn 't like to suggest to Mr. Breece, because he was so almighty 

 nice to me while I was partaking of his hospitality. And that is I 

 haven 't seen so many brick streets for a long time as I rode over 

 in West Virginia towns. The fact of these streets being used so gen- 

 erally in the heart of a big lumber producing territory is only another 

 suggestion of tlie lack of teamwork on the part of the lumber inter- 

 ests. It is this very absence of a working-together spirit among 



