The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, DECEttBtR 10, 1904. 



No. 4 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBLISHED BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



ON THE 10TH AND 2STH OF EACH MONTH. 

 134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



C. D. STRODE 



- - EDITOR. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



I). B., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



PoreiKD Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION. 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and others are re- 

 quested to notify us of changes in per- 

 sonnel or organizations of hardwood 

 lumber firms. We desire especially to 

 receive particulars of installation of 

 new plants, transfers of property and 

 timber holdings and experiments in 

 new methods of manufacturing or the 

 otilization of by-products. New publi- 

 cations of interest to the trade, including 

 catalogues, stock lists and circulars will 

 receive attention if sent to this office. 

 Qur columns are also available for 

 criticism and comment on any article 

 published or for news of any sort con- 

 cerning the hardwood trade. 



Our readers will confer a favor when 

 writing to advertisers if they will state 

 that they saw the advertisement in the 

 Hardwood Record. This is little 

 trouble and costs nothing, but it helps 

 us and is information wanted by the 

 advertiser. 



THE BUSINESS SITUATION. 



It is a good time to hold your breath and 

 hang on. Prices have not advance(} much 

 as yet, but in our opinion they will. We 

 met a man last week who had been handi- 

 capped during the past six months by the 

 sickness of his partner. He had not been 

 able to push lumber sales very much, and 

 as a consequence he had a good stock of 

 lumber. We told him we thought he had 

 made money and we still think so. The 

 sickness of his partner may prove a 

 blessing in disguise. 



The stock market has been very erratic 

 during the past week, with a downward 

 tendency. But don't you bother about the 

 slock market. It will come up again, and 

 the ways of stock market gamblers are 

 beyond finding out. We don't see a thing 

 in the way of next year being a good busi- 

 ness year. And we figure it out that prices 

 will be higher. We may be mistaken in 

 this, of course, but such is our belief. 



The cotton market has broken badly in 

 the past week and is down to 7V2 and 8 

 cents. This is due to the enormous crop 

 and anyhow the farmer who is wide awake 

 had his crop sold at 10 or 11 cents. Any- 

 how there is a good margin of profit at 

 7% and 8 cents and those who have not 

 sold will reap a good profit and the whole 

 world will be more prosperous. The high 

 price and scarcity of cotton was closing 

 the factories and throwing many people 

 out of work. Besides. having an 

 abundance of cotton at a reasonable price 

 will encourage manufacturers to establish 

 themselves in the South. There is virtue 

 in a big crop of any kind. Corn and wheat 

 hold firm so that the farmers, generally 

 speaking, will be very prosperous in the 

 year 1905. 



One evidence of their prosperity lies in 

 the fact that in almost every section the 

 cull grade has been absorbed by the local 

 demand. The farmers being prosperous, 

 many of them are building new corn cribs, 

 pig pens and the like, so that they have 

 taken all the cull lumber. In good time 

 they will want more furniture, implements, 

 etc., and will take all the lumber a man 

 has to spare. 



Then there are no serious labor troubles. 

 The demands of labor pushed to the ex- 

 treme, make it hard for the American 

 manuacturer to continue, and it is all a 

 question of competition. We believe the 

 American labor is inclined to take a con- 



servative and reasonable view of the situa- 

 tion. 



Plain sawed oak is very scarce and very 

 high. There is no stock in the hands of 

 the consumers, dealers or manufacturers. 



Quarter sawed oak, while in good de- 

 mand, is in fairly ample supply, in the 

 common and better grade. The culls and 

 mill culls are practically wiped out. 



Poplar still is weak, but there are the 

 most encouraging reports. For one thing, 

 the long draught in the river district has 

 been broken. There have been no tides as 

 yet that will bring out large supplies of 

 logs. The river mills, however, are get- 

 ting enough logs to run on. 



Ash, Cottonwood and gum are all strong 

 at better prices. 



Northern hardwoods situation remains 

 unchanged, except that the prospects for 

 a good demand have increased, thereby 

 strengthening the market to that extent. 



As we said at the beginning of this arti- 

 cle, this Is a good time to hold on and 

 hold for the best. 



THE BLESSINGS OF LABOR. 



We have seen many dead men in our 

 time and heard of many more, but we 

 never saw or heard of one whom we 

 thought worked himself to death. They 

 speak of the "curse of labor" as though it 

 were a curse instead of the greatest bless- 

 ing bestowed on man. For labor is a bless- 

 ing. Who doubts it? Not the man who 

 has had to spend much time in idleness. 

 The severest punishment they give in the 

 penitentiary is to confine a man and give 

 him nothing to do. The result is, if the 

 punishment is long, the man goes insane. 

 No one knows better the blessings of labor 

 than the man who has been forced to 

 spend a great deal of time in idleness. 



They talk of eight hours a day! Only 

 eight hours out of the twenty-four! The 

 man who would be satisfied to work eight 

 hours a day when he has work to do, is a 

 poor thing. Ten hours is little enough. 

 When the days are long, as they are in 

 the summer season, we would recommend 

 eleven or twelve hours. 



This is a ten-hour country. There is 

 not enough men as it is, and there is so 

 much to be done. And the man who stands 

 out for eight hours is a poor stick. 



And ten hours' work won't hurt anyone. 

 If the eight-hour day is essential to the 

 health and happiness of humanity, it would 

 be different. 



Another thing is to do well the work 



