February 10. 1917 



With about four hundred delegates in their seats, President B. B. 

 Burns called to order the convention of the Hardwood Manufacturers ' 

 Association of the United States, at the Hotel Sinton, Cincinnati, 

 Tuesday, January 30. He opened his address with an earnest 

 plea for all the lumbermen to stand together at the end of the Euro- 

 pean war and thus develop a foreign market. He sounded the key- 

 note of the convention, ' ' Cooperation, ' ' which, he declared, has been 

 recognized by the United 

 States Government as the ' ' sal- 

 vation of the country's busi- 

 ness. " 



Address of President 



It gives me pleasure to groct 

 you. and welcome .vou to this. 

 our fifteenth annual convention. 

 In the very few minutes that I 

 shall give to this artdross I will 

 touch liriefly upon a few subjects 

 which I believe furnish the ma- 

 terials for a strong association 

 structure. I hope we shall give 

 them, and other subjects which 

 may be discussed at tbis meet- 

 ing, our earnest consideration. 



We are here today for a pur- 

 pose, and that purpose is to 

 study our industry and plan for 

 the improvement of conditions 

 surrounding it. They need im- 

 provement. The first essential 

 to success in business and in as- 

 sociation work is loyalty, which 

 means, in this instance, devotion 

 to the principles of our associa- 

 tion. This quotation, borrowed 

 from an editorial in i'avl;itiifs nl' 

 October, 1914. is very much to 

 the point : 



You can Ituiid tlie finest ma- 

 chine in the world, but it will 

 accomplish nothing unless if is 

 properly oiled ; it will clog and 

 choke and Ijeconic a total wrecl^. 

 not Ifccause it is nttt properly 

 constructed, not because it conlil 

 not accomplish what it was in- 

 tended for, but simply becatisc 

 the contributing factor to its ef- 

 ficiency was not thoroughly ap- 

 preciated. It is the same thing 

 with a commercial organization. 

 The finest scheme of operation 

 in the world may be devised. 11 

 maj' be designed to reach tin- 

 smallest details of the industry's 

 methods and practices, hut it 

 will fail just as completely as 

 the machine unless it is properly 

 oiled. Oil. in this case, is 

 lo.valty. 



The next factor, and the one 

 which is a natural outgrowth of 

 loyalty, is co-operation. This 

 word confronts us everywhere 

 we turn. We see it and hear of 

 it so often and apparently know 

 it so well that we fail to drink 

 in its full significanci?. It means, 

 in plain language, collective ac- 

 tion. It is the vital principle of 

 private business, association work 

 We have concrefe examples in tlie 

 familiar to you to require comment. 



■There should be a greater degree of organization and of mutual help- 

 fulness in all lines of trade and industry, so that American business may 

 be welded into a commercial and industrial whole. The part of the 

 government is to co-operate with business men, on request, and to bring 

 about the results that will benefit business and hence promote our national 

 welfare." 



Business conditions today might be termed good, hut they could be better 

 in many respects, and especially as relates to lumber. Lumbermen gen- 

 erally are not reaping the profits they should from their tremendous 



I investments in timlierlands, log- 



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success today, whether Mpiilii- 

 or other lines of human cnchMvor. 

 teel and oil industries, which are too 

 Terhaps the most remarkable example 

 of collective action may be found in the wonderful war machinery developed 

 by the German Empire. Whether or not we are in accord with it. wc cannot 

 help but be impressed with what preparedness means, and tin' principle 

 might well be applied to our own business. 



Our government at Washington recognizes the necessity of co-operation 

 as the salvation of the country'.s business, both at home and abroad. .Ml 

 of the utterances of the representatives of the Federal Trade Comndssion 

 emphasize it and make it clear that the government is encouraging busi- 

 ness men to work together. 



This quotation, taken from an address delivered by Chairman llnrley 

 of the Federal Trade Commission, before the Portland Cement .Association 

 in May, 191G. indicates very clearly the attitude of the government. 



—18— 



roads and mill property. 

 There is an occasional good year, 

 but there are too many lean 

 ones. Members of other indus- 

 tries are enjoying a much 

 greater degree of prosperity. 

 Much of the profit in lumber 

 comes from the increased value 

 of stumpage. This is not as it 

 should bo. 



A chart, recently prepared and 

 distributed by the Southern Pine 

 Association, indicates an ad- 

 vance in cement from 1912 to 

 1916 of 32,6%, in brick 17.3%, 

 in steel 63.5% and in yellow 

 pine lumber only 6/10 of 1%. 

 I quote these figures on yellow 

 pine because there are none 

 available on hardwoods, but it 

 is fair to assume that the condi- 

 tion is not very different. 



A bulletin, recently issued by 

 Secretary Kellogg of the Na- 

 tional Lumber Manufacturers' 

 Association contains this state- 

 ment : 



A recent compilation by the 

 best authorities on the prices of 

 111 commodities on the New 

 York market compared with only 

 two years ago, shows a minimum 

 increase of 19%, Ji maximum of 

 467%, and an average of 85%, 

 yet the oflicial government fig- 

 ures show that the himber man- 

 ufacturer got 10% less for his 

 product in 191."i than in 1906. 



There is a reason for this con- 

 dition. There is also a remedy 

 for it, and just now we are more 

 interested in finding the remedy, 

 and. In looking for it, we must 

 come back again to that word 

 " Co-operation. " Co-operation 

 will be; used a great many times 

 here today : we want you to hear 

 it and to realize fully just what 

 it means. Mr. Dooley said: "I 

 will belavo anything if yez will 

 only tell me often enough," and 

 wc are going to tell it to you so 

 often during this meeting that 

 w-hen you go Imme you will be 

 filled with the spirit of co opera- 

 tion, any you will realize as 

 never before just what it means 

 to you. 



We lumbermen need more of 

 peratKiU. We need nuire zeal — we need more enthusiasm 

 We must have it, if we ever expect to see the lumber 



the religion of co-« 



for t»ur business. 



business take the place it should occupy as the second largest industrj," in 



the country. One man can't maintain his enthusiasm for a very long time 



going it ahme. He may have the best thing in the world, but tmless he has 



the help of others he cannot develop it to its biglii'st possibilities. 



Methods of manufacture should receive our attention. (Jovernment sta- 

 tistics show that only about 3"i% of the total volume of timlier that stands 

 in the forest reaches the ultimate consumer. The remaining 65% is lost 

 in stump, sawdust, slabs, broken timber and logs left in the woods. Some 

 of this waste, of course, is necessary, but certainly not all of It. With 

 timber growing scarcer year by year, stumpage prices advancing rapidly, 

 and the increased cost of taxes, supplies and labor, something »hould be 

 done to reduce the waste to a minimum. Some of this can be accom- 

 plisliod through improved operating methods, and I believe that a careful 

 study of manufacturing methods should be one of the chief functions of a 



