HARDWOOD -RECORD 



poplar and gradually the other hardwood 

 commodities, but it tras not until several 

 years later that the first distinctively hard- 

 wood yard was opened in St. Louis, this 



J. r. RICHARDSON. 

 J. r. & W. II. Richardson. 



being opened by Wm. Druhe who had, prior 

 to that time, been a dealer in white pine. 

 Since then the growth of the hardwood in- 

 dustry in St. Louis has been wonderfully 

 rapid and the stocks carried have reached 

 tremendous proportions. 



Along during the latter part of the 

 eighties the business had grown to such 

 proportions and was handled in such a hap- 

 hazard way that the need of some sort of 

 an organization became apparent. This 

 talk gradually took definite form and in 

 1890 there was a mass meeting of all St. 

 Louis lumbermen, including those in the 

 various branches of the business, and the 

 Lumbermen's Exchange of St. Louis was 

 organized, with K. M. Fry president, Wm. 

 Druhe vice president and W. E. Barns sec- 

 retary. The hardwood members of the or- 

 ganization predominated and it can un- 

 doubtedly be claimed that this Exchange 

 was the first hardwood association ever or- 

 ganized. After a year of its existence the 

 matter of uniform hardwood inspection be- 

 came a leading issue in St. Louis and the 

 Lumbermen's Exchange, after many meet- 

 ings and much discussion, formulated a set 

 of inspection rules and put in operation its 

 inspection system, the date of the adoption 

 of these rules being January 27, 1891. At 

 that time nearly all of the hardwood lumber 

 markets had inspection rules of one kind or 

 another, but not one of the markets had an 

 inspection system under the control of an 

 organization which could issue inspection 

 certificates which would hold good as legal 

 documents in any court. This inspection 

 system is still in force and has been the 

 model from which has been copied the other 

 inspection systems, including that of thi' 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association. 



The same can be claimed of the old St. 

 Louis inspection rules, as a glance at the 

 rules in force in various markets will show 

 whole paragraphs taken bodily from the 

 St. Louis rules. 



The Exchange has worked a wonderful 

 influence upon the St. Louis market in the 

 way of eliminating and preventing rascality 

 and the putting of all 'dealers on an equal 

 basis and it is still of great importance in 

 this respect, although as much lumber does 

 not pass through the hands of its inspectors 

 as during the first years of its existence. It 

 is a last court of refuge, however, in cases 

 of dispute regarding grades and probably 

 will remain so for some time. 



As no organization can exist without oc- 

 casional differences of opinions, so the Lum- 

 bermen's Exchange of St. Louis has had its 

 ruptures, the most serious of which occurred 

 some five or six years ago when some rad- 

 ical changes in the methods pursued by 

 the Exchange were contemplated. Almost 



E. M. FRI. 

 President R. M. Fry Lumber Co. 



exactly one-half of the members withdrew 

 and organized the St. Louis Hardwood & 

 Lumber Manufacturers' Exchange, which 

 existed for something more than two years 

 with an inspection system of its own, fol- 

 lowing the old ideas. With a rival organiza- 

 tion in the field, the old Exchange did not 

 promulgate the new ideas, which left the 

 two organizations following identical paths 

 and, to quote the expression of one of the 

 lumbermen, "Nothing but buUheadedness 

 keeping them apart. ' ' A reconciliation was 

 finally brought about, however, and the two 

 organizations merged under the name of 

 the older Exchange, it being decided that 

 the age of the older organization might 

 give it weight. 



Those who have been presidents of the 

 two Exchanges include R. M. Fry, of the 

 E. M. Fry Lumber Company, Loyd G. Har- 

 ris, of the Loyd G. Harris Manufacturing 

 Company, F. H. Smith, of the F. H. Smith 

 Company, Howard Watson, Geo. E. Hib- 



15 



bard, of Steele & Hibbard, W. A. Bonsack, 

 of the Bonsack Lumber Company, A. J. 

 Lang, N. Waldstein, of the Waldstein Lum- 

 ber Company, and C. F. Liebke, of the C. 

 F. Liebke Hardwood Mill & Lumber Com- 

 pany. The organization started in with 

 W. E. Barns, editor of the St. Louis Lum- 

 berman, as its first secretary, he serving 

 without pay and he was followed by Geo. 

 E. AVatson, now of the Geo. E. Watson 

 Lumber Company, who served about ten 

 years, and he in turn by L. M. Borgess, the 

 present incumbent. 



The St. Louis inspection system has by no 

 means been abandoned, as it seems best 

 adapted to the needs of the market. It has 

 received the careful attention of many fair- 

 minded men and has today been brought as 

 near perfection as possible. It has been 

 managed with a singleness of purpose and 

 a unity of interest impossible for any other 

 hardwood organizations representing, as 

 they say, many conflicting interests. Any 

 inspection system to be successful must be 

 kept clean and honest and that is what has 

 been accomplished in St. Louis. 



The inspection record of the present secre- 

 tary for the year 1904 is as follows : 



Feet. 



Yellow pine 865,177 



Plain sawed oak 11,080,611 



Quartered oak 4,184,810 



Ash 1,594,168 



Poplar 2,355,828 



Cypress 4,106,882 



Gum 1 2,322,118 



r-ottonwood 2,444,830 



Walnut 124,531 



Cherry 20,350 



Plain sycamore 186,685 



Quartered sycamore 7,807 



Hickory 182,328 



Pecan 56,326 



Maple (softt 275,754 



Butternut 59,057 



Hackberry 15,593 



Basswood 104.000 



Elm 276.724 



Cedar 14.201 



Birch 11,655 



Locust 5,120 



Beecli 11,560 



F. W.\LDSTEIN, 

 President Waldstein Lumber Co. 



In speaking of the last year's business, 

 his ideas being expressive of the entire 

 lumber business of St. Louis, L. M. Borgess, 

 secretary of the Exchange, says: 



