HARDWOOD RECOt^D 



17 



lumbermen have lost opportunities of saving 

 money and they have besides, by accepting 

 policies of board stock companies, assisted 

 in raising the rates. They have but them- 

 selves to blame. 



Hundreds of thousands or dollars have been 

 saved for policy-holders by the mutual lum- 

 ber companies, through the payment of cash 

 dividends and concessions in rates. It is 

 estimated by a well-known insurance expert 

 that all the lumber insuring organizations 

 are saving .$500,000 per annum for their 

 policy-holders, to say nothing of the money 



saved by prevention of fires due to their in- 

 spections. 



The lumber mutuals will live because they 

 furnish indemnity of an unassailable charac- 

 ter at the minimum of cost. It is because 

 this has been done in the past that the stock 

 companies have failed to crush them. Be- 

 cause they will do this in the future, be-, 

 cause the sense of fair play and trade loyalty 

 is in the heart of every lumberman, the years 

 til come will prove even more satisfactory to 

 the lumber mutual companies than the years 

 which have gone before. 



Strode's Stuff. 



Threatened With Prosperity. 



Yes, I am threatened with pr<'Sperity. I 

 have escaped it thus far, but the signs are 

 all right now. 



In the first place my family is practically 

 raised. A good many people thought I did 

 not know what I was doing when I got mar- 

 ried so young — before I was worth anything. 

 I had figured it all out in my mind, however. 

 I figured I would do my duty by my country 

 and get my family raised early, so we could 

 have some fun together while I was still 

 young enough to feel funny. I was afraid 

 that if I waited until I got rich my wife 

 wouldn't have waited for me — she couldn't. 

 Somebody would have coaxed her away ; then 

 I would have been in a pretty fix, wouldn 't 

 1? So we just got married and trnsted to 

 the Lord to provide. 



As a result we have four children, all prac- 

 tically raised and changing from a family of 

 consumers to one of producers. Some have 

 graduated from school and some have ' ' quitu- 

 ated, ' ' but they have nearly all got through 

 somehow and all are earning money. Soon 

 my wife and I will have nothing to do but 

 to grow old together as gracefully as possible 

 and we will have a long time to do it in. 



Then with the ghost walking regubrly on 

 the new paper, and no financial trouble of any 

 kind, I can feel an attack of prosperity com- 

 ing on. You see a man or woman whose 

 tastes are modest and whose wants are few 

 always has the world at an advantage ; and it 

 doesn't take much to satisfy my wife and me. 



But I am really threatened with prosperity 

 at last. Not the prosperity of the millionaire, 

 but prosperity enough for me. 



I have entered somewhat into particulars 

 so that you may understand wherein niv cir- 

 cumstances are different from what they have 

 always been. With my big family of consumers 

 changed to one of producers it makes all the 

 difference in the world. 



Another thing, in talking about my chil- 

 dren, I am only getting even for the times 

 I have had to listen to you talk of your 

 children. I am not self-assertive in conversa- 

 tion and as soon as I mention the subject of 

 children you get started and I am in for a 

 two hours' session. But in this department I 

 get even. I can talk about my children and 



you can 't butt in. I suppose they are not 

 really very worderfiil oliildren. but I believe 

 they are. 



Anyhow, I am threatened with jirosperitv, 

 and of late I have given much thought to 

 what I shall do with my money — when I get 

 it. I may be somewhat premature in this, 

 but it is better than going ahead until I am 

 right -square up against it, as most people do. 

 It's a funny feeling, this feeling of respon- 

 sibility for money — that you haven't got as 

 yet. And after I have figured it all out 

 wouldn't it be a joke if it would really come 

 my way and I would have the ilisbursement 

 of it? 



There is a great deal of science about giv- 

 ing away money. Just to look at it it seems 

 easy enough, but it isn 't. If a man wants 

 a dollar you 'cl naturally suppose that the way 

 to do was to hand him the money; that shows 

 how little you know about it. You 'd pauper- 

 ize the man. Then he 'd be of no account. 

 He 'd never want to work again. After he 

 had spent the dollar in riotous living he 'd 

 expect someone to give him another. The 

 way to give away money is to hedge the giv- 

 ing with so many restriction? that a fellow 

 had about as soon not have it. Then it can 't 

 do any harm to him. Nothing can be more 

 reprehensible than to give a poor man a 

 quarter; you should let him work and earn 

 it. True, some men do not want to work 

 and are not thankful for an opportunity 

 of sawing wood to earn the money, or doing 

 other light and frivolous work. What some 

 men want is a quarter, but it is wrong to give 

 it to them. The experienced philanthropist 

 would chase him off the premises with a club. 

 Then the poor man will have nothing to do 

 but to go to work, and he will only be re- 

 quired to pass a half day at the pleasant 

 task of converting wood into stove lengths 

 by means of a buck saw, and then he can 

 set a quarter. Tliere is no trouble about 

 that. 



What I Would Do. 



If I should become wealthy one of the first 

 tilings 1 would do would be to load a train 

 with paint and start south W"ith it. I would 

 give every farmer along the way a barrel of 

 paint with the understanding that he apply 

 it to his house and barn himself. That would 



be an ideal gift, for to get any good out of 

 paint it would have to be applied. It is no 

 good so long as it stays in the barrel. 



Then the paint is purely ornamental, which 

 is a good thing in a gift. A man cannot 

 cat paint nor drink it nor wear it for cloth- 

 ing. It will cause the house to last longer, it 

 is true, and the sooner most of the houses of 

 the South rot down and disappear from the 

 face of the earth forever the better it will 

 be. 



It is with no desire to preserve the archi- 

 tectural beauty of the buildings that I recom- 

 mend paint. There are two things which 

 offend the farmer from Indiana or Illinois 

 in making a trip south. One is the unkem])t 

 condition of the fences, and the other is the 

 unpainted condition of the buildings. He 

 wants to get off the train and lay up a few 

 rails, cut down a few weeds — and apply paint. 

 Lord! the whole country south of the Ohio 

 river would be better for a baptism of paint. 



Here is a fertile soil and a fine climate 

 and I cannot understand the kind of people 

 that are so reluctant to use paint. I like 

 the country with the biff red barns and the 

 big white houses with green blinds; the well 

 kept fields and fences; the fine fat stock, and 

 general air of prosperity. I can tell of the 

 nrosperity of the country largely by the 

 quantity .of paint they use. 



The trouble is that the owners don 't live 

 on the farms in the South. They live else- 

 where and spend all the income from the soil 

 in the cities. Anyone that knows anything 

 would not be content to live in a two room 

 unpainted cabin with the fences down and 

 weeds growing about the door. No one would 

 be content with such an existence save a ne- 

 gro or some poor white of the ' ' cracker ' ' va- 

 riety. 



!Maybe the gift of paint would arouse some 

 long dormant artistic instinct in these people. 

 They wouldn 't want to see a newly painted 

 house enclosed in a weed lot, and maybe 

 they would cut the weeds down. Mayba they 

 would lay the rails up and be generally re- 

 spectable. I have an idea, however, that 

 should a philanthropist — ^a really and truly 

 tihilanthropif-t — go through the South offering 

 to give paint away he would be misuudcr- 

 .stood. The natives would look coldly upon 

 him, and in many eases he would be chased 

 away with Winchesters. Tney are powerful 

 handy with their Winchesters — these people 

 who don't paint. They wouiu probably resent 

 the proposal in the spirit of the man who was 

 being taken out to be hanged by his neigh- 

 bors because of his extreme laziness. The 

 man nade no particular objection, because 

 it was too much trouble to object. He 

 made one last request that they put plenty 

 of straw in the wagon and make his last 

 imirney comfortable. This was accordingly 

 done and some blankets spread over it upon 

 which the man was laid. As they were jour- 

 neying alone- the road to the place of execu- 

 tion they were stopped by another man. 



"What is the matter?" he asked. It 



