20 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



by the Hardwood Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, and contrasted the resultant benefit 

 with what it was possible for the JMation.il 

 Hardwood Lumbermen's Association to coa- 

 fer upon the industry. He advised the mem- 

 bers of the association into strict adherence 

 to the rules of the Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, and said that Nashville lumbermen 

 were absolutely loyal to it. 



Mr. Lieberman continued his address 

 with a panegyric on Nashville and th" 

 great state of Tennessee, of which it was 

 the commercial lumber center, referring to 

 the commonwealth as being the best tim- 

 bered state in the Union, and one still rich 

 in white pine, yellow pine, ash, walnut, 

 beech, oak and the greatest of hardwoods, 

 poplar; and delivered a final peroration of 

 most hearty welcome to the guests to con- 

 sider the Capital City of Tennessee as 

 theirs, as well as the keys thereof, and 

 stated that a committee of three, consisting 

 of the bashful John B. Eansom, the beau- 

 tiful James H. Baird and the genial Hamil- 

 ton Love, constituted a committee to de- 

 liver over to the assembled guests anything 

 in sight in the city for which they wished. 

 "You will find on the desk of every 

 lumberman in Nashville an open and signed 

 check book, and if you run short of funds, 

 go and fill out a check to any amount you 

 may require and any bank in Nashville 

 will cash it for you," was the enthusiastic 

 and generous way in which Mr. Lieberman 

 concluded his welcome. 



President Van Sant then presented an 

 address as follows: 



Presidfint's Address. 



Mr. Lieberman. Gentlempn and Members of 

 the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of 

 the United States : A great pleasure attending 

 this third annual meeting of the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association of the United States 

 Is the fact that It affords us the opportunity to 

 visit this beautiful city and commercially great 

 city of the South ; a city famed for its beauty, 

 for its flnandal strength, for the commercial 

 Integrity of its business men, and. again, a city 

 that has had such a great and honorable lum- 

 IJer history. Comprised within the limits of the 

 Nashville hardwood district have been vast for- 

 ests, at one time deemed inexhaustible and still 

 of great extent, which have contributed much 

 to the commercial and domestic welfare of this 

 country. 



Nashville is not a local city of Tennessee: it 

 Is a city known in every state of the union 

 where lumiwr Is consumed. Nashville is known 

 In London and in Liverpool : it Is known in 

 Glasgow, in Hamburg and in Paris, as for injuiy 

 years It has given forth the very best of its 

 lumber products in supplying the demands of 

 the chief lumber-consuming sections of the 

 known world. 



I thank ytui, Mr, Lieberman, and you. gen- 

 tlemen of the South, for the conrtes.v of your 

 Invitation to meet with you here. and. in be- 

 half of this association. I wish to express our 

 gratitude for the welcome you have given us, 

 and the pleasure and comfort your hospitality 

 vouchsafes. 



Another distinct pleasure is that I see so 

 many members of this association present, and It 

 Is with tuii|ualllied satisfaction that I greet you. 

 Yotir presenee bere means much to your presi- 

 dent, bvit it means more to the association. 

 It signllles y(nM' interest In this great work that 

 has l>een undertaken l)y you in behalf of the 

 hardwood industry of this country. You have 

 had Interest enough in it to leave your homes. 

 and. in many eases, to travel long distances to 

 meet here with your fellows of this association, 

 and I know ilint yon have made sacrifices of 

 time and money to do so. The personal com- 

 pliment to niyself that your presence lends is 

 oversliad<»wed liy Ihe compliment you pay to the 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' .Association of ibe 

 United States. Gentlemen. I am proud and 

 happy to greet you. 



Hardwood Forests. 



The hardwood forests of this country, ouce 

 the most magnilicent of tlie known world, have 

 l)een suhiected to a drain ever since the pilgrim 

 fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. Our prede- 

 cessors in the hardwood Industry, as well as the 

 present generation of lumbermen have been un- 

 mindful of the great Inheritance of wealth that 

 has fallen to us and. to a great extent, we have 

 lost sight of judicious practices lu relatinn to 

 our patrimony. We are cutting billions of feet 

 of hardwood lumber each year ; we are devastat- 

 ing millions of acres of our forests each year. 

 As we go further and further into remote sec- 

 tions of mountain and swamp for our timber, it 

 should be brought forcibly to our minds that 

 we are approaching the beginning of the end 

 of our inheritance. 



Therefore, it is timely to suggest that we 

 have reached the period for conservative and 

 economical methods in the handling of our for- 

 ests, if we are not so entirely selfish as to pur- 

 pose not to leave for posterity any remnant of 

 the timber wealth. The time for conservation 

 in hardwood timber cutting is certainly at hand. 



In this connection 1 want to compliment the 

 president of the United States for his interest 

 in the subject of forest conservation and the 

 rebuilding of American forests, which was mani- 

 fested by the aid and support he gave the 

 Forest Congress, which convened at Washington 

 on the second of this month. The educational 

 features promulgated at that meeting should be 

 of Interest to every hardwood lumberman in Ihe 

 TTnlted States, and the carrying out of the prac 

 Ileal suggestions there made should contribute 

 very largely to their commercial success in the 

 future. 



Status of American Hardwoods. 



Perhaps all of you have not anal.vzed the im- 

 portance possessed by American hardwood in 

 the commerce of the world. It Is largely to this 

 country that Great Britain. Germany. Austria- 

 Hungary and France look for their supplies of 

 liardwood with which to provide for the mak- 

 ing of furniture, vehicles and house furnishings. 

 Outside of a very limited quantity of oak still 

 standing on the continent of Kurope. which is of 

 high qualilv. Ihe I'nited States is the source of 

 -Muply for practically all the world's hardwood 

 demand. Than American oak. there Is none bet- 

 ter, and so It is recognized both at home and 

 abroad. 



Poplar, as It is almost universiiily called in 

 Ibis country, or whltcwood as it is sometimes 

 called abroad, is a great and exclusive product, 

 'nils wood is a native of America, and is the 

 sole surviving species of its genus. It is one 

 of the highest prized of the broad-leaved growth 

 of this country, and. in size, it is Ihe largest 

 that grows lu Ihe T'nited States, save the red- 

 woods of California. .Vmong tlie broad-leaved 

 Irees. It bears the same relation as does the 

 white pine to tlie conifera>. Of this wood, the 

 home consumptiiui and foreign demand are eijual 

 to the present production. 



In walnut, another of the famous .\merlcan 

 woods, the forest trade still demands a general 

 supply. For ash and hickory, our friends across 

 Ihe water are obliged to come lo us. as well 

 as for Cottonwood, red gum. elm and maple. 



The chief foreign customer for American 

 hardwood is Great Britain. F.ngland Is .lust 

 getting over a period of financial depression inci- 

 dent to Ihe immense expense encouutered in the 

 prosecution of tiie Boer war. Commercial condi- 

 tions and prospects are better lliere ni»w than 

 In years. Great Britain is again in tlie market 

 for' imports of many kinds, and especially for 

 hardwood lumber. 



American hardwoods are essentially the stand- 

 ard commodity across the Atlantic and that 

 Ihe foreign buyer does not pay a higher price 

 for them is entirely a fault of ourselves. I 

 wish right here to insist that much better prices 

 could be secured for all American woods on 

 the other side of the .\tlantic if Ihe pernicious 

 system of shipping lumber on consignments 

 were stopped. If the manufacturer will cease 

 doing this lie will find that the foreign buyer 

 will come to his very door and pay for his pro- 

 ducts, f. o. b. ears, higher prices than be now 

 receives on the dock at Liverpool cu- Hamburg. 

 History of the Association. 



The history of this association is ;i Iirief one. 

 The needs of such an organization were recog- 

 nized l)y leading hardwood manufacturers three 

 years ago. at a time wlien the hardwood manu- 

 facturer was 'every man for himself.' It waa 

 at a period when more ihan eighty per cent of 

 the lumber producers along the Ohio river had 

 made failures and this percentage was charac- 

 teristic of the history of the hardwood business 

 in nearlv ail sections of the I'ulted States. The 

 association was organized as a commercial neces- 

 sity. It was organized on the theory of self- 

 prpservatlon. Plans were, therefore, formulated 

 for an association to comprise the hardwood 

 manufacturers of the I'nited States, with Its 

 aim to educate the hardwood manufacturer to 

 a knowledge of the value of his timber, to en- 



able him to correctly estimate the cost of his 

 jn-oduct, to instruct him in the best possible 

 methods to produce lumber, to train him in cor- 

 rect and just methods of selling, to inform him 

 concerning the quantity and quality of stocks 

 on hand, to post its members on the commercial 

 standing of every individual in the trade to 

 whom it Is sold, and, paramount of all, to edu- 

 cate the manufacturer and consumer alike into 

 the necessity of having a just and uniform sys- 

 tem of lumber inspection. These things, and 

 more, it has accomplished, and on these suc- 

 cesses I wish to congratulate you. 



These have been and are the aims of this 

 association. — to the eventual end that the value 

 of hardwood timber and the cost of lumber 

 production may be established and a just profit 

 may accrue to the individual engaged in the 

 trade, to compensate him for the money In- 

 vested, the risk involved and the labor required. , 



The aims of this association have not been 

 entirely selfish, for, besides benefiting itself. It 

 has conferred equal benefits to the lumber con- 

 sumer. It has given him uniform manufacture, 

 uniform inspection and a systematic method of 

 doing business with the hardwood manufacturer, 

 which is generally appreciated. In the past the 

 lumber-buying public has been the victim of 

 careless and unbusinesslike methods, fraught 

 with dissatisfaction and with disrepute to the 

 manufacturing fraternity. The element of suc- 

 cess for an industry lies in its ability to pro- 

 mote uniformity of methods. This uniformity 

 we are accomplishing. 

 Manufacture and Grading of Lumber. 

 Ever since I have been interested in asso- 

 ciation work and realized the possibilities of Its 

 attainment the subject of universal inspection 

 of American hardwoods has appealed to me as 

 one of the most essential, if not the most Im- 

 IKjrtant thing that might be accomplished by 

 this association. I am a firm believer in univer- 

 sal inspection. I believe It to be the means 

 to an end whereby the best Interests of the 

 manufacturer, jobber and consumer will be con- 

 served, .Already we have achieved a result 

 along this line that has brought order out of 

 chaos. A permanent method to market hard- 

 wood lumber in a universal manner is a vital 

 question, and it is to the interests of all ele- 

 ments of the trade that they thoroughly famil- 

 iarize themselves with any method that tends 

 to a just and satisfactory marketing of our 

 products. It is my contention that the suc- 

 cess of the manufacturer redounds to the ad- 

 vantage of the consumer, as every progressive 

 and successful producer in mai-keting his stock 

 to the best satisfaction of the consumer is con- 

 serving the best interests of both. Wonderful 

 results have already been accomplished in this 

 direction, but there Is more work to be done 

 on these lines. 



The consuming trade desires stock of a unl- 

 foi-ni thickness, as well as uniform grades. Its 

 wish in this particular should lie gratified, as 

 the trade does not demaud the wasteful over- 

 thickness of stock that it has been almost a 

 universal custom to produce. This plan would 

 mean economy in raw material to tlie sawmill 

 man and uniformity in the production of lum- 

 lier and this uniformity would cause the mill- 

 man to manufacture his lumber well, stack It 

 well, season it well, and put It upon the mar- 

 ket lu the best possible shape for tlie consumer. 

 There never was a time when there was a profit 

 in liadiv manufactured lumber, nor in lumber 

 that wits badly cared for after beiug manu- 

 factured, . ^ 



The methods prevalent since the advent of 

 the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the 

 United States should, if necessary, be made still 

 more stringent. Manufacturers should abso- 

 lutely reject any proposal for the sale and ship- 

 ment of lumber which involves the mixing or 

 ■•salting" of grades. This pernicious practice 

 Is indulged in by some to the detriment of 

 every individual engaged In legitimate lumber 

 pursuits. Contributing to this system of do- 

 ing business is inimical to the prosperity of 

 uniform manufacture, grading and sale. When 

 a manufacturer in any way. aids or assists In 

 the frauding of a consumer, he is damaging 

 himself and his industry in proportion of a 

 thousand to one to the possible profit he can 

 himself hope to secure from the transaction. 

 The man who buys your lumber, the man who 

 Iiavs the bill, the man who supports your In- 

 du'strv. Is the man to be protected by this asso- 

 ciation. It should be the consumer's nrlvllege 

 to know that when he places an order for a 

 car of hardwood lumber, of a specific grade, 

 that he will have it filled correctly and Justly, 

 In accordance with the universal rules laid 

 down bv this association. It seems to me that 

 there could be no s.vstem evolved to accomplish 

 this end that will be more satisfactory to all 

 parties Interested than the methods used by 

 this association, save that more safeguards, if 

 i>ecessarv. should be placed about the system, 

 to the end that more security can be insured 

 to botli producer and consumer. At the present 

 time, there seems little room for the carrying 

 on of dishonest practices by producer, broker, 



