24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



will be seen that there is something radically wrong with costs 

 prevailing in the Memphis district. As the matter now stands on 

 high-class oak logs, the only possible way of getting even on their 

 cost is to manufacture quarter-sawed stock, and when the quarter- 

 sawed market is overloaded, and it has been for the last year, 

 there is no money in that game. 



The thing of first importance Memphis operators have before 

 them, is to cut the price they are paying for logs a good five 

 dollars a thousand, if they are going to attempt to continue busi- 

 ness on a profitable basis. 



Freight Movement on the Great Lakes 



Lake commerce during September, as measured by the volume of 

 freight shipments between domestic ports on the Great Lakes, 

 aggregated 10,730,460 short tons compared with 11,892,412 short 

 tons shipped during September, 1910. The lumber shipments for 

 September were 142,686,000 feet, and the season has shown a lake 

 shipment of 843,408,000 feet. These figures show a little smaller 

 totals than the year before, which was the natural expectation. 



Constructive Railway Policies 



The Eailv.ay Business Association has issued a pamphlet under tlio 

 title "Constructive Railway Policies in Many States in 1911," in 

 which it reports that in the state legislative period of 1909 forty-one 

 legislators passed 664 laws affecting railroads, and during the 1911 

 legislative j'criod forty legislators passed only 276 laws, showing a 

 decrease of 388 in number of enactments, or fifty-eight per cent. The 

 association believes the publication of this fact to be important as 

 reflecting the tendency of public opinion in the curtailment of the 

 enactment of laws curtailing railroad prerogatives. It is contended 

 that many states have enacted so much legislation as to seriously 

 hamper the railroads in a sane and logical conduct of their own and 

 the public's business. 



The diminished number of laws would indicate a tendency to cease 

 additional law-making aifeeting carriers. Further restrictions seem 

 to be unpopular, and the average state legislature is now evincing 

 anxiety to attract capital for the development of transportation and 

 business, rather than to place laws on the statute books that shall 

 discourage this development. 



Overlooking a Good Bet 



The talk was on the fads a.'id fanc-ies of the cabinet world, 

 and of the furniture trade in particular, for various domestic and 

 imported woods, and in the course of the talk the prediction was 

 made to the Sales Manager that in the future every wood, native 

 or imported, that had individual beauty of color or figure eventu- 

 ally will become a factor in the cabinet wood trade; that no one 

 particular wood would ever again dominate as some of them have 

 in the past and that there would be no general favorites, Init a 

 general disposition to look for new offerings and uni()iip fig\ire and 

 color in woods. 



The Sales Manager bristled a little at this and said: "No, 

 there is nothing doing, and nothing in that kind of a proposition 

 to encourage one to take it up. I know, for we have experimented 

 with it a little. And right now we have stored away in our yards 

 some special woods that we cut by way of experiment that are 

 :irit selling and that I would be glad to move at a reasonable price. 



"The trouble with these things is that when you und'.-rtake 

 the marketing of anything new in wood you have to introduce it 

 and create a market for it, and this takes so much time and money 

 that it is not worth while. The same amount of effort will l)ring 

 more returns if concentrated on pushing well-known products. 

 Tor that reason I don't think any of thc'so things will amount to 

 much until the favorite woods become so scarce that there will 

 not be enough to supply the needs, and they will simply have to 

 turn to something else." 



That sounded like good logic, and it was reasoning based on 

 ■ictual experience; ihorpfore should have weight. Moreover, it 

 is well known that many of the woods in high favor today had 



their original introduction by stress of circumstances that com- 

 pelled it; by the scarcity of some other wood at some strenuous 

 time in the industry, when the supph' was not equal to the de- 

 mand, necessitating the substitution of any and everything else 

 available. Some of these substitutes eventually made a name 

 and a place for themselves, and they are today highly valued 

 and are not by any means regarded as substitutes. 



Admitting all this, and accepting it without argument, when the 

 situation is viewed from that point, there still remains this fact — 

 a man maintaining that attitude is often overlooking some of the 

 "best bets" of the trade. 



There are some live-wire salesmen who have been looking so 

 hard and going hungry so long for special talking points, for new 

 features in their work, that they would literally tear their hair 

 and shout "Good Lord" at the idea of letting an opportunity of 

 this kind go by, and missing a chance to introduce something new. 



Something new is the salesman's glory, something with features 

 and talking points, and here we have a man regarding the time and 

 trouble involved in introducing a new wood as a handicap, while 

 other men are going hungry for something new to talk about on 

 their rounds to arouse interest and to awaken the trade they visit. 



It is worse than hiding a light under a bushel for a man to 

 cut something unusual and unique in lumber, some new offering 

 that is worth while, and then pile it away in a dark corner and 

 simply mention it occasionally in his letters. Majbe, too, at the 

 same time, his advertising space in the lumber journals is filled 

 with stock or stereotyped matter merely setting forth that he is 

 in a given line of business and has stock to sell. And there is 

 hidden on some corner of his yard or in some nook of a shed 

 something that should and easily could be made an enlightening 

 feature in the advertising without in any way detracting from 

 the value of his ad carrying the message that he is in the lumber 

 business. 



It is well for a man to shake up himself occasionally and look 

 at things from different viewpoints, no matter whether he is a 

 millman, sales manager, or a salesman on the road. There is more 

 or less tendency, from the fact that we are creatures of habit, to 

 fall into a groove or rut and assume a repellant attitude toward 

 any and everything that tends to force us out of it and make us 

 break new ground. It is when a man gets into this kind of a habit 

 that he generally overlooks the "best bets" of the trade and, 

 figuratively, goes to sleep at the switch. 



Famous Holland Forest in Ruins 



A terrific and disastrous wind-storm swept Holland on the night 

 of September 30, which was the most severe ever experienced 

 within the memory of the inhabitants. Not since the fearful 

 Whitsuntide storm of 1861 has such havoc been wrought by the 

 elements. The Hollanders were very proud of their ' ' Hague wood. ' ' 

 which was one of the forest preserves of that country, and it is 

 alleged that this timber area was practically ruined. More than 

 three thousand trees were torn up by the roots and now lie in 

 windrows like grain swathes in the path of the mower's scythe. 

 These are the beeches and the elms. The oaks were splintered and 

 broken and their great limbs or the crowns torn off. The Hollanders 

 aver that never again will this generation behold this wood in its 

 stately majesty, and that ages will have to pass liefnro it will n'g.-iiii 

 its former glory. 



An eye witness says that it is pathetic to sec all these mon- 

 archs of the glade stretched low in an inextricable wilder- 

 ness of intertwined branches and upturned roots. Thousands of 

 people visited the forest wreck, undeterred by the obstacles. They 

 came to pay a last farewell to the trees that had sheltered them in 

 the hot summer days. Old men and old women came leaning on the 

 arms of their sons and daughters, and silently stood looking at 

 their fallen friends. In parts of the wood not a single big tree 

 has been left standing. The grief of the citizens of The Hague 

 can be best un<ierstood when it is known that this forest dates 

 buck more than four centuries, and it has sheltereil the pleasure- 

 seekers of maur generations. 



