Jauuai y 25, 1017 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



su!iui four and a. half billion feet of lumber a yearto suppiylhc' 

 requirements of their customers. This exceeds one-tenth of the 

 country's lumber output, and the box and crate maker finds a 

 place for every kind of lumber that comes from sawmills. Not- 

 withstanding this, these makers are not indiscriminate users of 

 lumber. They study the strength of woods, and likewise their 

 weight, with an eye singly to the needs of their customers, and 

 give oacli the particular wood he needs. Boxes and crates must 

 be strong enough to carry safely what goes in them, and beyond 

 that, there must be no unnecessary weight, for freight charges 

 are levied on tonnage when shipments are made. A forty-thousand 

 pound shipment of raisins should not go in beech boxes weighing 

 ten thousand pounds, but in white pine boxes of less than half 

 that weight. But when hardware or other very heavy merchandise 

 is shipped in crates and boxes, there must be sufficient strength in 



the wood to carry the load, and the strongest woods are used, almost 

 regardless of weight, for in such a case strength is the chief 

 consideration, weight secondary. 



Wood's strength must be duly taken account of in the cooperage 

 trades, particularly for containers that carry liquids; because the 

 yielding of a stave by but the fraction of an inch may result in 

 the loss of a barrel's entire contents. Furniture makers put the 

 strongest wood where the strain is greatest. That accounts for 

 the birch rail in "mahogany" beds, and birch parts in chairs 

 and davenports which otherwise are of mahogany or walnut. The 

 tendency in all the wood-using industries seems to lie in the direc- 

 tion of more painstaking selection of material in order that waste 

 may be reduced and efficiency increased, and due consideration 

 of wood 's strength at proper times and in proper places is often 

 directly connected with profit and loss. 



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^^ Annua) of Traffic Association 



^wf 





The Southern Hardwood Traffic Association at its annual meet- 

 ing held at Memphis on Thursday, January 18, left to the board 

 of directors the question of investigating and reporting upon the 

 feasibility of establishing a department for the booking of export 

 shipments of lumber. There was considerable discussion in regard 

 thereto. Some members opposed this plan on the ground that the 

 National Lumber Exporters' Association had imdertaken to book 

 export shipments of lumber for its members and had met with 

 quite limited success. Some of the leading exporters in Memphis, 

 however, very strongly favored the establishment of such a 

 department. 



The question of issuing a tariff book by the association itself 

 also came in for much discussion and was left to the discretion of 

 the board of governors. 



There was an executive session immediately following the open 

 meeting during which W. S. Darnell was elected director to 

 succeed the late D. D. Nellis, Elliott Lang of R. J. Darnell, Inc., 

 was elected treasurer to succeed W. S. Darnell, and J. H. Town- 

 shend was re-elected secretary-niarnger of the association for 

 another year. 



It was also decided at this executive session that there should 

 be an advisory board consisting of the president, the first and 

 second vice-presidents, and five members of the board of man- 

 agers. These gentlemen will consider all matters scheduled to 

 come up before the monthh- meetings of the board and will make 

 recommendations thereon. These recommendations will be mailed 

 to the other members of the board who do not reside in Memphis 

 and they will east their vote thereon. 



The annual began with an elaborate luncheon which was served 

 at the Hotel Chisca. The president, John W. MeClure, presided 

 until he turned over the gavel to his successor, .James E. Starke, 

 president-elect. 



Then President McClure submitted his annual report, an abstract 

 of which follows: 



President's Report 



During the two years of my administration I liave become more and 

 more impressed with the necessity for the organization and the importance 

 of our work. We have become an established institution of recognized 

 power and prestige. The association has become indispensable to the hard- 

 wood trade in this territory. We have returned to our members large 

 protits in savings and services on the comparatively small cost of main- 

 taining our organization. We have enjoyed a remarkable growth both iu 

 mi'uil)ership and in annual income. During the past two years our mem- 

 bership has more than doubled ami our annual revenue has grown from 

 .$11). 000 to .$21,000 in round numbers. I believe we have gained the con- 

 liilence and respect of the railroads in this section and that there will be 

 a possibility of closer co-operation between shippers and carriers in the 

 future. 



We are especially pleased to report a large increase in our membership 

 west of the river, which gives us a more evenly balanced membership among 

 the east-side and west-side shippers. This is a matter of great importance 

 to the future of our association. The interests of the east-side and west- 



side shippers are identical and the heartiest spirit of co-operation between 

 them is absolutely necessary to the establishment and maintenance of equit- 

 able rates from our southern hardwood territory. Our organization has 

 also been much strengthened by the aildition of our Louisville members and 

 the establishment of a branch office in that city. 



We have handled a number of cases before the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, with reasonable success. Probably the most important cases 

 were I. »& S. 74.j and 775 involving rates to northern and western points 

 upon which the commission has not yet handed down a decision. Even if 

 the decision is imfavorable, however, the suspension of these advances for 

 more than a year has been of inestimable benefit to our members. 



The nation-wide car shortage hearing recently conducted by the com- 

 mission was instigated as a direct result of the efforts of this association. 

 On October 20 we called a meeting at Memphis in which other organiza- 

 tions participated and that meeting resulted in recommendations and 

 resolutions duly presented to the commission and strongly supported by 

 large lumber organizations throughout the country. As a result the com- 

 mission started an investigation which caused some rather startling dis- 

 closures of railway methods, and brought quick relief in the situation 

 throughout the .South, not only in lumber but all other commodities. 



In the reclassification case, I. C. C. S131. a remarkable example of the 

 spirit of co-operation in our organization was demonstrated. For months 

 our board of directors studied the important questions involved and daily 

 meetings were held for two weeks during which our directors gave about 

 half their time to this work, some of our meetings extending over into even- 

 ing sessions. Many divergent views' were harmonized and our recommenda- 

 tions filed in brief form with the commission. We secured the strong sup- 

 port, both morally ami financially, of the National Hardwctod Lumber Asso- 

 ciation, anil the active co-operation of other important organizations. We 

 also co-operated with the large lumber organizations of the country through 

 the National Lumber JIanufacturers' Association and we succeeded in con- 

 vincing them of the justice of our views, .\s a result, our views were im- 

 pressed upon the commission, probably more than those of any other organi- 

 zation as evidenced by the report of Examiner Esch, presented by him to 

 the commission. When the commission acts as a result of this investiga- 

 tion, we feel convinced that there will be far-reaching benefits to the entire 

 lumber trade and particularly to the members of our association. 



Secretary's Report 



.Secretary Townshcnd said in part in liis report: 



The most important cases which we have han<lled during the past year 

 were I. & S. Dockets 74.~> and 77o. wherein the carriers attempted to justify 

 advances of through rates on lumber from Helena and eastern Arkansas 

 and all jioints east of the Mississippi river and south of the Ohio river to 

 Central Freight Association, Illinois-Wisconsin, western trunk line terri- 

 tories, and Buffalo-Pittsburgh group. 



The proposed advances were almost uniformly 1 cent per 100 pounds 

 on all kinds of lumber excepting cottonwood and gum. which constitute 

 sixty per cent of the hardwood trafiic, and as to which the proposed ad- 

 vances run from 2 f-j cents to 4 cents per 100 pounds. These advanced 

 rates were first suspended December 1, 1915, through the efforts of this 

 association which was the only hardwood organization which protested 

 against them. 



In connection with these advances, I wish to state that wc also filed 

 complaint before the commission asking that the rate from Memphis be pub- 

 lished as through rates to the territory mentioned and not made with 

 reference to Ohio river combination. This was known as the James E. 

 Stark i& Co. et al complaint. We also had two other complaints known as 

 the Lamb-Fish Lumber Company et al and The Kraetzer-Cured Lumber 

 Company et al complaints. These complaints requested that the rates 



