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The Handle Trade 



CONDITIONS IN THE BROOM HANDLE TRADE 



The last summer has been tho hardest one on the broom handle 

 manufacturer almost ever known, t'sually there are about six 

 months of dull times, just enough to afford a chance to overhaul 

 and repair shops and give the men a chance for a little vacation 

 before starting the winter's grind. This year, however, trade 

 became very dull along in June and kept getting worse until, by 

 the middle of July, few handle factories were doing any business 

 at all, and conditions continued this way until the middle of 

 September. Since then trade has opened up slowly and now it 

 is about normal. 



At this season the large broom manufacturers usually buy U)i 

 heavy stocks of handles for winter use, and by the middle of 

 Xovember they have enough handles in stock to run them until 

 spring. But it is the smaller broom makers that afford the 

 most profit to the. handle manufacturer, as they pay the highest 

 prices, pay the quickest and use more of the lowest grades of 

 handles. Most of the big broom plants will not use anything 

 except the highest grade handles, and expect to get them at 

 a price that will not pay for the low grades. They take advan- 

 tage of the handle men who need money, or those who are not 

 posted in the trade and draw them into a contract whereby they 

 will get the handles for five or six dollars less than they would 

 cost in the open market. These contracts are seldom filled out, 

 because the prices named in them are so low that the handle maker 

 usually finds that it would be cheaper to go out of business than 

 to make handles at such prices. Sometimes it takes the manufac- 

 turer a long time to find out just what it costs to make a thou- 

 sand broom handles, but he will find sooner or later, when he 

 takes stock, that instead of a nice profit he has sustained a loss. 



One firm, selling extra No. 1 parlor handles, best grade, at $17 

 a thousand, pays the same prices for lumber and more for labor 

 and manufacture than another concern that cannot make a broom 

 handle for less than $17.25 a thousand. It is not difficult to see 

 how the former will come out at the end of the year. It is not 

 only selling the best grade of handle at less than cost, but it has 

 three lower grades that it cannot hope to get as much for. 



The writer does not know of Jjny other business connected with 

 wood-working that labors under the same conditions as does the 

 handle trade. In every other one that he knows anything about, 

 there is no part of the product that has to be sold at a loss; 

 everything must bring in its own profit. In the handle trade, espe- 

 cially the broom handle line, it is different. The extra No. 1 and 

 the No. 1 grades sell for four or five dollars above cost, but the 

 No. 2 and No. .3 grades sell below the cost line, and the question 

 of a profit for the entire lot rests with the kind of a price that 

 can be secured for them. The high grades are easy to sell, but the 

 low grades are hard; in fact, the lowest grade. No. 3, usually is 

 exported, as there is but little market in this country for it. The 

 prices on the low grades have remained the same for some time, 

 while the high grades have by hard work been forced upward. 



There is a good deal of competition in the handle trade, and 

 the worst of it is that a part of it comes from concerns like the 

 one referred to, which do not know what it costs them to produce 

 their handles. The men who think that handles are easy to make 

 and that there is a fortune to be made in them, also cause the 

 trade a great deal of trouble, as they cannot make a decent handle, 

 and what they do make are sold at any price they can get for 

 them, to get them off their hands. And there are sawmills that 

 make a few handles as a side line, which sell at any price offered. 

 These all tend to keep prices down to a lower level. There is one 

 handle that is seldom made by any other than the regular handle 

 makers who are experienced in making it. It is called the Misses 

 or Gem. This is the highest type of broom handle made. It is 

 the same length and size as the regular parlor handle, except that 

 it is turned very small in the throat. It is difficult to make per- 

 fect handles of this type. They are all made from selected, 

 straight-grained white maple, and it is almost impossible to sell 

 the low grades, but in spite of the most careful grading of the 

 stock there will be some low grades. The beginners and the men 

 who make handles as a side line have so much trouble with this 

 style of handle that most of them refuse to make them. This has 

 enabled the regular handle men to get the price up somewhere 

 near where it belongs. It is now selling around $2G and may go 

 up to $30 before a year passes. Even at its present price, there 

 is little in it besides trouble, and it is preferable not to make it, 

 but those who do business on a large scale have to make what 

 their trade demands. 



It is enough to make one feel like starting out to buck the Sher- 

 mau anti-trust law and trying to effect an organization that will 

 take over the broom handle business of the country and put it 

 on {I paying basis or form a company that will buy up the outputs 

 of the principal factories and sell them to the broom makers at 

 a reasonable profit. There should be a profit of at least $1 for 

 every thousand handles manufactured, but under present condi- 

 tions there are few firms that will average this small amount. 



H. B. Alexander. 



NOTES OF THE TRADE 



Tiie Ohio Handle Factory of Jonesboro, Ark., has been reorganized 

 and will begin operations within a few days. It has been capitalized 

 at $8,000 by local men. This concern was sold recently under a 

 decree of the chancery court to the First National bank of .lonesboro. 

 E. C. Stuck is president; W. E. Stuck, vice-president; 0. \. Frinlar, 

 secretary and manager; J. E. Parr, treasurer. The factory will 

 manufacture shovel handles. 



A li.-indlo 

 & ShcfTicld. 



fac'torv is to be established at Newton, Tex., bv Sterling 



An a<lditional factory will be erected at Macon, Ga., by the Stand- 

 ard Handle Company. 



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The Mail Bag 



B 115— Seeks Silo Material 

 Edioburg, lud., .Nov. 14. — Editor Hardwood 

 Record : Can you give me a few names of mills 

 In the South that manufacture pine and cypress 



for constructlDK silos? . 



This correspondent has been furnished a 

 list of cypress and pine producers who pos- 

 sibly would be interested in marketing lum- 

 ber suitable for silos, and any others desir- 

 ing to communicate with him can have the 

 address by referring to B 115. — Editor. 



—34— 



B 117 — Birch and Maple of the South 

 .Tamcstown, N. Y., Nov. 18. — KUllor IIaudwuud 

 ItKCOiiD : ricase tell mo where the moat birch 

 timber Is found in tlic soulhoin states, and 

 it any hard maple srows there that Is suitable 

 for the manufacture of furniture? 



The writer of the above letter has been 

 advised that a high type of birch grows in 

 eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina 

 and in some parts of Virginia iind West Vir- 



ginia, and a scattering growth through the 

 mountain country further south. He is fur- 

 ther informed that maple of the same botan- 

 ical variety of northern hard m.tplo grows 

 in the same range of territory to a consider- 

 able extent, that the texture of this wood 

 is a compromise botweon the hard and soft 

 maple of the North, and that this lumber 

 constitutes an eminently desirable material 

 for furniture production. — Editor. 

 B 118 — Seeks Black Walnut 



Detroit, Mich., Nov. 20. — Killlor IlAimwooD 

 liECOKD : Would you be so kind as to give us 

 the names of concerns from whom we could 

 obtain black walnut ? We employ about a car 

 monthly, and would appreciate your assistance 



