22 



the National Association meetings by only 

 a very small delegation; that he felt if the 

 Wisconsin Association would send a large and 

 enterprising representation to the annual 

 meeting at Buifalo, to place before the 

 national organization the importance of the 

 hardwood industry of Wisconsin, it would 

 receive at the hands of the parent organiza- 

 tion treatment which it would regard as 

 entirely just. , 



Mr. Gibson further stated he was advised 

 that the state of Michigan proposed to be 

 represented at this forthcoming meeting by 

 a large number of delegates, who were mak- 

 ing practically the same complaints as are 

 Wisconsin manufacturers. He said further 

 that the time was now ripe for a policy of 

 getting together and making plans for a 

 unification of all hardwood grading rules 

 prevailing in various parts of the United 

 States, with a view to the establishment of a 

 base of universal hardwood inspection. He 

 alleged that he thought the subject was en- 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



tirely worthy the earnest attention of the 

 Wisconsin Association, and that a result 

 might be accomplished that would be of mani- 

 fest benefit to the hardwood industry of the 

 country as a whole, and incidentally redound 

 to the benefit of the Wisconsin trade. 



William J. WagstafiE and B. F. McMillan 

 made brief addresses endorsing the sugges- 

 tion of Mr. Gibson, and on motion of Mr. 

 Wagstaff, the chair was authorized to in- 

 crease the delegates authorized, from three 

 to five members, including the president and 

 secretary, and also of five alternates, making 

 a total of ten in number. 



The chair appointed as such committee 



B. F. McMillan, alternate Edw. J. Young; 



C. S. Curtis, alternate George E. Foster; Ed. 

 Landeck, alternate T. E. Wall; H. C. Hum- 

 phrey, alternate A. E. Owen; M. J. Colby, 

 alternate G. H. Chapman. 



A motion prevailed, thanking the Elks of 

 Marshfield for the use of their hall for the 

 meeting, whereupon the convention adjourned. 



Chicago Hardwood Exchange Lunch 



The Chicago Hardwood Exchange were 

 the guests of the Hardwood Record at a 

 lunch served in the Moorish room of the 

 Great Northern Hotel at 1 o'clock on Sat- 

 urday, May 8. The lunch was served in 

 the best style of the famous lumbermen's 

 iostelry; the table was set in the form of a 

 T and was decorated with flowers and ferns. 

 At the head of the table with the host, the 

 editor of the Hardwood Eecord, were 

 grouped the present and past officers of the 

 exchange. The affair was distinguished by 

 the presence of several old-time Chicago 

 lumbermen, including Harvey S. Hayden, 

 the first president of the exchange; C. A. 

 Barker, formerly a large Chicago white pine 

 operator, but now interested in hardwood 

 production in Petoskey, Mich.; and W. O. 

 King, la.st year's president of the ex- 

 change. 



The menu was as follows: 

 Blue Points 

 Celery Olives 



Consomme eu Tasse 

 Fillet of Bass Meunlere 

 Pattie of Sweetbreads with Green Peas 

 Great Northera Punch 

 Lettuce and Tomato Salad 

 Bisquit Glace 

 Cafe Noll- 

 Cigars 

 At the conclusion of the lunch, Henry H, 

 Gibson, editor of the Hardwood Eecord, 

 addressed the guests as follows: 



Gentlemen of the ChicaRo Hardwood Lumber 

 Kxchange : In mee'.mg with me in this way 

 today I wish you to know that I appreciate 

 that' you are rendering both the Hakdwooli 

 Kecoed and myself a distinct compliment. 



On the first of January last I came among you 

 practically a stranger to the majority of your 

 members and took over the conduct of the Habd- 

 WOOD Record, which was practically recognized 

 as the organ of the Chicago Hardwood Lumber 

 Exchange and of your parent organization, the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association. On 

 January 7. when I first had the pleasure of 

 meeting you as a body, I explained to you that 

 it was my purpose to conduct the Hardwood 

 Record to the best of my ability In a fair and 

 impartial way. in the Interests of the totality 

 of the hardwood Industry of this country, rather 



than to continue it as a disliiict and theretor(> 

 ex parte representative of any branch or inter- 

 est of the trade. I told you that I would treat 

 vour interests justly and impartially, and I 

 iielieve up to this time you will concede that I 

 have kept mv word. I propose to continue the 

 paper on these lines, deeming that whatever good 

 !an be accomplished to the whole of this great 

 hardwood trade will redoond to the benefit not 

 only fit the loculity but of the individual. 



Ill addressing vou today I wish that you might 

 consider me as a brother lumberman rather than 

 as manager of A lumber trade newspaper. I 

 served an appreuticeship of many years on the 

 lop of a lumber pile, with a board rule in one 

 hand and a niiirkiug stick in the other, and 

 without any egotism I believe that I am com- 

 petent to pass iiidKiiieiit on a good man.y fea- 

 Iiues of the lumber trade. I have no wish to 

 appear pedantic or to force any opinions upon 

 vou that will not contribute to your best In- 

 icrests, but I do most firmly believe that by 

 reflecting a consensus of the best opinions of 

 ihe best men in this trade the Hardwood Rec- 

 oup can be made to be of great value to you 

 iu vour pursuit. 



With all due respect to you and lo the two 

 ■uganizations with which you are identified, I 

 think that generally the viewpoint from which 

 vou have looked upon I lie hardwood industry m 

 the past has been rather narrow. This hard- 

 wood lumber business is a great and widely dis- 

 tributed commercial pursuit, (ieographically, In 

 production, it extends from the Atlantic to the 

 Missouri river and a little beyond. In distribu- 

 llon it embraces not only every state in the 

 rnion. the Dominion of ( anada. Mexico and 

 the great consuming markets of Great Britain 

 and the Continent, Iml sliipments of hardwood 

 are even made to Africii and the Orient. With 

 this breadth of product im and distribution there 

 are many divergent iiitcM'ests which cannot be 

 lustly appreciated from the comparatively small 

 viewpoint enjoyed liy the Chicago Hardwood 

 Exchange, or even by the wider views of the 

 National Hardwood l^umlier Association. 



In this great hardwood business the thing 

 that lies nearest my heart Is the establishment 

 of a base of universal inspection that shall be 

 just alike to nianul'iicturei-. jobber, retailer and 

 consumer, and an impartial method of applying 

 rules of insnection that shall be disinterested, 

 impartial and equally just. I have been asso- 

 ciated In the lumber business for so many years 

 that I know so-called uniform Inspection of all 

 hardwood Is a chimerical proposition. Uniform 

 inspection is Impossible until such a time as 

 all trees grow alike ; all hardwood men are 

 equally himest and just : all inspectors are free 

 from guile, and all b-rnrd rules are of the same 

 length. 'limber of a given botany, growing 

 under different conditions of latitude or corre- 

 sponding latitude, of soil or rain fall, possesses 

 different physical characteristics. Take for ex- 

 ample old-fashioned Indiana white oak. sawed 

 to a given size, and let the most competent 

 inspector that you have Inspect it : then put 

 this same inspector, applying the same rules, on 

 a lot of swamp growth oak of the South, and 

 when those two lots of lumber are laid down side 

 by side in your Chicago yard there is an abso- 

 lute difference in the value of the two lots, 



ranging from five to ten dollars a thousand 

 feet This is no new fact to you. To a greater 

 or lesser degree, the same i-esult obtains in 

 every kind of American hardwood. iou know 

 that the maple growing in .he northern portion 

 of the southern peninsula of Michigan is In- 

 finitely better than that growing in certain 

 sectioiis of Wisconsin. You know that the 

 birch of Wisconsin and of the northern penin- 

 sula of Michigan is better than that growmg in 

 other sections. You know the basswood 01 

 Wisconsin is better than the bassw;ood growing 

 in other ranges. You know that the poplar ol 

 the Big Sandy and Guyandotte, for example, la 

 better than the hickory poplar of higher alti- 

 tudes or the low ground poplar of eastern North 

 Carolina and of the extreme South. 



Therefore I say uniform inspection is chimer- 

 ical However, a base of universal inspection 

 by means of rules and competent inspectors can 

 be established so that not only the grading of 

 the lumber but also a description ol its physical 

 characteristics shall go forward with your in- 

 spection certificate and with your mvoice, and 

 thus establish a base of comparative values. 

 With this plan in logical enforcement it will 

 enable vou hardwood lumbermen ot Chicaeo to 

 buy hardwoods anywhere and to ship them to 

 the most remote sections ot the world with the 

 assurance that the lumber will be received and 

 Ijaid for in accordance with invoice and inspec- 

 tion certificate. 



There is nothing particularly the matter witti 

 ihe rules of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association. Thev are recognized in a great 

 many localities as being standard and with 

 some exceptions are generally suitable. the 

 entire trouble lies in the application of these 

 rules This association had now taken steps to 

 hire competent inspectors on a salary basis, 

 •ind to rotate these inspectors on east and west 

 "lines to inspect woods with which they can 

 become familiar, which looks as though it might 

 lend to assist materially in uniformity and falr- 

 ress toward all concerned. But you as a part 

 of that association should go further than can 

 be accomplished by any one of the great hard- 

 wood associations. The good elements of all 

 systems of lumber inspection, whether it be 

 National. Hardwood Manufacturers", St. Louis, 

 Wisconsin Hardwood Association. New York 

 Lumber Trade Association, Boston Survey or 

 Philadelphia custom, should be considered in a 

 congress of all these interests, unified and sys- 

 tematized into a base of universal inspection: 

 then the entire subject should be placed in the 

 hands of an impartial inspection bureau, that 

 shall be not only national but universal in Its 

 character, to the" end that every man Interested 

 in American hardwoods shall be given a fair 

 »ieul and shall be in a position to do business 

 on the level. 



In this universal agreement, ot course, the 

 jobber has to lo<ik out for his Interests. How- 

 ever, the interests of the wholesale mei-chant in 

 lumber are so safeeuarded, and will continue to 

 be so, that he is iu a very safe position, not 

 only tor the perpetiiily of his business but for 

 its" perpetuity on lines ot profit. He is safe- 

 guarded in the first |dace by his superior knowl- 

 edge of the demands of the eoiisuiuing trade, his 

 acquaintance with ii and the fact that it prefers 

 to do business with him; the capital in his 

 business protects him ; bis geographical position 

 protects him, and If he can be assured that he 

 can do business with an avoidance of deductions 

 and without being obliged to spend a large por- 

 tion of his time in (he manipulation ot grades 

 and the settling or kicks, there is infinitely more 

 money in the merchandising of hardwoods under 

 such "ccuiditions than there ever has been. 



The forthcoming meeting of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association at Buffalo, May 

 IS and 19 next, it seems to me. should be a 

 most Immu-tant one. Hardwood lumbermen of 

 all class'es the country over have reached a 

 point where they have become advocates of a 

 universal base of inspection. The president or 

 the National association has so gone on record 

 above his signature. So has the president of 

 the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association ; and 

 1 think every officer ot both associations is ot 

 tiie same mind. Tluit great and important or- 

 ganization, the National Wholesale Lumber Deal- 

 ers' Association, which has now liecome more a 

 hardwood association than a building wood 

 organization, has llfleen out of its twenty-one 

 trustees who are hardwood men pi r sc, or inter- 

 ested largely in hardwood production and sale; 

 and it is vastly interested iu universal inspec- 

 tion I believe 'that il is possible to get together 

 all these manufacturing and jobbing interests, 

 and that they will agree in convention to a 

 base of universal Inspection. , . j 



I believe that the large consumers of hard- 

 wood lumber should have a hearing In the estab- 

 lishment of these rules and their application. I 

 believe it would be no more than just lo invite 

 to a hardwood congress n representative of the 

 car-building interests, of the harvester people, 

 of the wagonmakers. of the coltin trade, of the 

 furniture trade and perhaps others. They sbouia 

 have something to s.iy about the way n whl<* 

 lumber should be sawed and graded to best suit 

 their purposes. These people pay the bills, ana 



