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Copyright, Thb Hardwood Company, 1917 , 



Published in the InleresI of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products (hereof, and Logging. Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker, Managing Editor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor- 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 



Vol. XLII 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 10, 1917 



No. 8 



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Review and Outlook 



General Market Conditions 



THE ONE BIG QUESTION commanding the immediate attention 

 of our American business men today is what wiU be the effect of 

 the latest development in our international relations upon our busi- 

 ness. The United States approaches the ultimate result of present 

 uncertain developments in a stronger position than it would ever be- 

 fore have been possible for it to maintain. This does not refer to the 

 financial strength of the nation or to anything in which its purely mate- 

 rial interests are involved. The situation which makes the present crisis 

 less acute from a business standpoint is, rather, psychological. 



For two and a half years we have been the unwilling audience of the 

 greatest spectacle in the world's history. We have become immune 

 to easy excitation. Calamities which prior to the present world 

 catastrophy would have commanded overpowering headlines in our 

 press, now are referred to briefly as matters of every day news of 

 small concern. We are less affected by the sensational and have been 

 so surfeited with excitement, with horrors, and with crises, that we 

 as a nation now refuse to be startled very far out of our regular 

 channels unless there is the definite proof that whatever situation con- 

 fronts us has in itself the possibility of materially and concretely 

 affecting our national structure. Even in the speculative markets the 

 effect of this change in our way of looking at things has been apparent, 

 but in the productive and material end of our industrial and commer- 

 cial life, the two-and-a-half years of highly charged sensation have 

 left us more or less stolid and less easily moved than we ever were 

 before. 



Thus the country seems to be satisfied with future and present de- 

 velopments in a purely concrete way, and to consider actualities rather 

 than to allow imagination and panic to hold full sway, and the nation 

 as a whole seems to be pretty well convinced that the new conditions 

 in themselves do not constitute a sufiScient possibility of disturbing 

 the basic reasons for the present prosperous conditions — the buying 

 power of those abroad and at home who are taking the products of 

 oirr industries. 



The natural result of the first news of the break was general caution, 

 but any moves on the part of our industrial and business heads to pro- 

 vide for reasonable safety have not been carried out in a helter-skelter 

 fashion and have not been accompanied by the scurrying to cover 

 which but a few years ago would surely have instantly marked such 

 a radical development in our relations to the rest of the world. 



In short, it seems now that the only visible effects of our first real 

 crisis will be the orderly institution of those precautionary measures 

 which common sense would dictate. In hardwood circles there have 

 been but few cancellations of orders for hardwood products and cor- 

 respondingly few cancellations of orders for the raw materials going 



into these products. Without a doubt there will be fewer contracts 

 and orders for any substantial period ahead, but it is quite likely that 

 the current consumption as it continues from week to week and month 

 to month, will make up in the aggregate very close to, if not quite so 

 much as, what would have moved had the new developments not mate- 

 rialized. And beyond that it must be remembered that the conditions 

 within the industry, which in themselves could not be affected one way 

 or the other by foreign complications, are just as strongly as, if not 

 stronger than, they were before the present crisis developed. 



The northern operators are just reaching the zenith of their car 

 shortage, wWle new embargoes and new restrictions, natural and 

 artificial, as affect the input of logs, are keeping southern operators 

 badly hampered. No conditions now manifest or even existent in the 

 imagination can so affect the hardwood situation as to make hardwood 

 products anything but highly desirable property now and for as far 

 ahead as the average lumberman or consumer usually figures. 



Open Competition 



THE HARD WOOD MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION has 

 blazed a trail straight to the desired goal by forming and adopt- 

 ing a plan for open competition among its members in manufacturing 

 and selling their product. The need of a steadier and better market 

 has been long felt. Statutes have stood in the way of regulating 

 prices and production by agreement beforehand. There is no law and 

 there can be no law against a man telling what he has done, after it 

 is done, or listening to simOar information from competitors engaged 

 in the same kind of business. A full outline of the plan on which it is 

 proposed to proceed will tie found in this issue, in the report of the 

 hardwood meeting at Cincinnati last week. 



The plan contemplates no discussion of future prices or future out- 

 put. Competition will be left to regulate both; but this competition 

 will not go blindly for lack of information. Details of operations vrill 

 not be kept secret, but will promptly become open history for all the 

 members. Each will promptly know how much lumber was cut last 

 month, how much was sold, how much is still on hand, and what price 

 each member received for what he sold. No member fixes or discusses 

 prices for anybody but himself, and he does that on information which 

 deals whoUy with past activities. He makes up his mind as to how 

 much he can get for his lumber, and he tries to get it, without knowing 

 whether or not any competitor is underselling him. He will not know 

 that unto all the reports have been received at the association's head- 

 quarters and the secretary has announced the results. Not till then 

 will it be possible for the members to compare notes, and for each to 

 determine whether he made good trades or not. All members of the 

 association are competitors, and each tries to make the best sales he 



