22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



announces that a program of unusual imporlam-c will be carried out, 

 and it is believed that the tenth annual session of the organization 

 will insure the presence of even a larger attendance than ever before, 

 which in previous years has been the largest gathering iu number 

 of lumber manufacturers that have ever attended lumber association 

 meetings. 



The Yellow Pine Manufacturers' Association will hold its annual 

 meeting at New Orleans on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Feb- 

 ruary 6-S. This is also a very important meeting and will naturally 

 bring out a very large attendance. 



The annual meeting of the Lumber Sales Managers' Association 

 will be held at the Auditorium hotel, Chicago, on Thursday and 

 Friday, February 15 and 16. There was an error in the date pre- 

 viously given announcing this meeting. A live wire committee has 

 in charge the arnuigement of a program for this meeting, that 

 should make attendance worth the time of every lumber sales' man- 

 ager in the country. 



The National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association will hold its 

 annual meeting on ]\Iarch 6 and 7, but as yet the place of the meet- 

 ing has not been designated. 



Our Blundering President 



An authorized interview with President Taft was published in the 

 Outlook of December 2. The story occupies eight pages, and is 

 made up of apologies, explanations and attempt at justification. In 

 relation to his alleged tariff reduction program, the President is 

 quoted as saying that his chief objection to needlessly high tariff is 

 that it nourishes monopoly. It holds further a constant temptation 

 to the formation of little trusts which often are more oppressive to 

 the public than big ones: "For example we have found local lum- 

 ber markets controlled by retail lumber trusts, growing out of the 

 big trusts, which dictate prices to the wholesale trade and which 

 draw their chief support from duties which I believe quite unneces- 

 sary for purposes of legitimate protection." 



Further on the interviewer makes Mr. Taft rcsponsibk" for tlie 

 following statement : 



"But I could not get free lumber either. The onl}' way I pro- 

 cured any substantial reduction from $1.50 was by sending the con- 

 ference committee an intimation that I should veto the bill if it 

 carried a lumber duty higher than $1.25." 



The President then takes a throw at Pinchot by saying: "Gifford 

 Pinchot, for instance, threw his influence into the scale for a $2 

 duty on lumber instead of backing a general effort to put it on the 

 free list. This concession to the lumber interests was regarded by 

 him as justified by his need of the support of the big lumbermen 

 in prosecuting his forest work. The bill carried only a $1 duty." 

 It is astounding that the President of the United States should 

 give voice to the statements quoted. He practically alleges that 

 lumber trusts exist among manufacturers, who dictate prices to the 

 wholesale trade, and this trade in turn dictates prices to the retail 

 trade. This statement is astounding from the fact that it cannot 

 fail to have a direct influence on the attitude of the courts before 

 whom sundry retail lumbermen are now under indictment for an 

 alleged infraction of the anti-trust law; and, furthermore, it will 

 have the effect of inspiring additional attacks on himbcr maimfai- 

 turers and wholesale merchants, for alleged infraction of this law. 

 In the face of a statement like this from the President of the United 

 States, is it remarkable that the Hearst newspapers, the Chicago 

 Tribune, and other leading daily publications and magazines shouM 

 reiterate the statement that a lumber trust exists? Of course the 

 figures of the interviewer on the subject of the duty on lumber arc 

 badly involved, but the explanation of Gifford Pinchot '.s attitude in 

 relation to this duty is not based on the facts. Mr. Pinchot was 

 not won over to the advocacy of a $2 lumber duty by reason of any 

 support promised or implied for the prosecuting of bis forestry 

 work. Undeniably his supfiort was secured on the plea of promi- 

 nent lumbermen that a substantial duty imposed against Canadian 

 lumber would contribute to forest conservation by reason of a higher 

 price possible of attainment for coarse lumber, thus rendering a 

 more comprehensive cleanup of the forest possil)!"' on a profit !d)Io 

 basis. 



The public, tepublicans and democrats alike, have exercised a deal 

 of forbearance with President Taft and his blundering acts and 

 words, by reason of the general belief that he was honest. The 

 time has come when this chief public servant of the nation has 

 become a good deal more dangerous than the mythical bull iu the 

 china shojj, and it may be observed that entirely applicable to him 

 is the venerable adage that ' ' all hell is paved with good intentions. ' ' 

 The ancient story of the parrot who got into unseemly difScuIties 

 should be brought to the President's attention. All the bird's diflB- 

 eulties were traceable to too much loquacity, and his eventual deduc- 

 tions of his troubles were tersely expressed in, "Polly, you talk too 

 damn much! ' ' 



Death of W. B. Judson 



The bare uuuouucomont has just reached Chicago that \V. B. 

 Judson, former half owner of the American Lumberman, and founder 

 of the Northwestern Lumberman, which was consolidated in 1899 with 

 The Timberman to make up the American Lumberman, and who has 

 been residing in Seattle, Wash., for several years, died at Pasadena, 

 Cal., of apoplexy on Thursday, December 7. The news of Mr. Jud- 

 son 's death will be a matter of sincere regret to many persons in- 

 terested in the lumber trade, in whose interest he worked long and 

 faithfully. 



Settling Kicks 



In the Tips to the Trade department of a recent issue of Hard- 

 wood Eecord a suggestion was made concerning the undiplomatic 

 manner in which many manufacturers and jobbers handled what is 

 popularly known as ' ' kicks. ' ' Thi.s paragraph has been compli- 

 mented by several manufacturers, wholesalers and wholesale con- 

 sumers. One of the latter writes that "many sawmill men and 

 wholesale lumber dealers unfortunately make use of letters similar 

 to the stereotyped one you quote. Just at this time we have two 

 deals of this nature. In remeasuring lumber that we buy, before 

 making report on the shipment, we always take into account the fact 

 that inspectors will vary somewhat iu their scale, and we make it 

 a point to "split the difference" or to charge back one-half of the 

 shortage if we find any, preferring to do this rather than to demand 

 a reinspection or remeasurement. We recently received a car of 

 gum boxboards and found the ends of many of the boards so badly 

 split as not to come within the boxboard grade, and we made a 

 claim, agreeable to our usual practice in such cases. The reply we 

 have from the shipper is positively insulting, as it accuses us of 

 trying to steal a few feet of his lumber. Your letter fits his case 

 to a nicet}'. 



"We have another shipment of oak lumber, which has reached us 

 full of deep season checks. As the lumber is unsuitable to our use, 

 we have been obliged to refuse it -as not being up to grade. We 

 have asked the concern making the shipment to have an inspector 

 sent to reinspect, stating that if we were mistaken in our judgment 

 on the quality of the lumber we would pay the expoiiso. Our request 

 lias been ignored. This thing has been dragging for months. 



"In these cases the probable result is that both concerns will refer 

 to us as an unsatisfactory house witli which to deal, when as a matter 

 of fact the fault is entirely on the shipper's side." 



The writer of the letter above referred to says there are many 

 wholesale consumers of hardwoods, himself included, vrho prefer to 

 deal on the square with people who supply their wants, and who 

 object very materially to discussions over purchases and op|>ort uni- 

 ties for arousing ill-feeling caused by bad inspection, or, as ho posi- 

 tively believes in iiiiuiy cases, the wilful mixing of grades. Tie says 

 he knows there is a ])remium on this kind of work, because lie knows 

 of some purchasers who receive lumber and use it without remeasure- 

 ment or reinspection; who take invoices and accept them at their 

 face value. This premium for salting cars is a thing that the writer 

 would like to have eliminated, and he suggests that the proper thing 

 for lumber manufacturers to do would be to commence the branding 

 of every board in their shipment with the grade and measurement. 

 In this way the buyer would know just how each piece had been 

 inspected and measured, and what grade and feetago it was sup- 



