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Builders of Lumber History 



NUMBER CVIIl 

 ELMER W. HARRIS 



I .See Portrait Supplement) 



This is a story about a specialist — about a specialist in the hard- 

 wood lumber business. It's a story that is unique in this long list 

 of Hardwood Kecord reviews of people who have made history in 

 lumber enterprises to find an individual in a non-producing timber 

 state who has achieved both commercial success and personal dis- 

 tinction in hardwood afifairs. 



Such a man is Elmer W. Harris of Harris & Cole Bros., Inc., of 

 Cedar Falls, la., who by specializing in house trim and mouldings 

 has built up a big manufacturing industry, and from whose plant is 

 distributed goods not only over Iowa and all the country between the 

 Missouri and Mississippi rivers, but whose trade extends into Wiscon- 

 sin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and even farther East. 



Mr. Harris is essentially the exponent of the commercial possibil- 

 ities of specializing in one particular feature of the lumber business. 

 He was born in Pt. Dodge, la., on January 19, 1875. His father was 

 JQ'orman H. Harris, who was born and raised within forty miles of 

 Chicago on a farm near Crystal Lake. His mother was Mary Eliza- 

 beth Westlake, born at ^Xewburgh, N. Y., w'hose people removed 

 to Illinois in the early days of her childhood. Mr. Harris was reared 

 at Cedar Falls, and was graduated from the high school of thai city 

 in June, 1894. He entered the employment of Harris & Cole Bros., 

 Inc., in January, 1896, working under the guidance of the founders 

 of the business, his father and Eutledge Harris, his uncle. He 

 received his total business experience in connection with this plant 

 and oflBce, in various lumber manufacturing plants in Tennessee and 

 Alabama conducted by this house, and as a traveling salesman, work- 

 ing in the interests of both northern and southern departments of this 

 business. 



The elder Mr. Harris died in 1905, and Ehner W. Harris was 

 elected president of the company. Mr. Harris was married to Miss 

 Amy Suddard at Lawndale, a Chicago suburb, on December 14, 1907, 

 and the result of the union is one daughter, Amy Elizabeth, now 

 fourteen months old. 



Of Mr. Harris personally it can be said that he is not of the type 

 that stands in the middle of the road, but essentially has well con- 

 ceived and matured opinions of his own on every subject connected 

 with business, with politics and with social affairs. He is a thorough 

 believer that "all things come to him who waits" — if he hustles 

 while he waits. He believes further that Emerson was exactly right 

 in bis observation regarding the lieaten path which the world will take 

 to the door of a man who performs a given task better than anyone 

 else, and this idea has always dominated the policy of himself, his 

 brothers and his associates in Harris & Cole Bros., Inc., in the con- 

 duet of every detail of their business. He believes that every rail- 

 road in the great Middle West is and always shall continue to be 

 the much beaten path to their factory. 



In politics Mr. Harris is a progressive Republican. He believes 

 that some men by reason of their -unusual ability are entitled to 

 unusual rewards, but he does not believe that any man is 

 several hundred million dollars smarter than any other smart man. 

 Hence he is a believer in progressive republicanism, as he thinks it 

 stands for a more accurate distribution of rewards for honest labor 

 than do the principles of either the stand-pat Republicans or stand- 

 pat Democrats. 



Mr. Harris and his associates specialize not only in interior trim 

 and mouldings, but also in oak and red gum finishing lumber, which 

 they furnish in any and every desired form ready to be put into a 

 building. Above all else they guarantee "to ship right and to ship 

 quick." They trademark their goods— they trademark them "Dura- 

 built," and on this slogan they have established friendly business 

 relations with a very large clientage of retail lumbermen, corporations 

 and large structural builders throughout the great territory wliich 

 they serve from the Cedar Falls mills. 



—26— ■ 



The latest supplemental enterprise of Harris & Cole Bros., Inc., 

 is the purchase of a large tract of oak and gum timberlands in 

 Lamar county, Alabama. The company is now engaged in the erec- 

 tion of a model single band sawmill plant at SuUigent, Ala., antl the 

 building of ten miles of logging railroad for the purpose of convert- 

 ing this timber into lumber. Sulligent is on the Frisco System, mid- 

 way between Memphis and Birmingham. 



L. L. Harris, a brother of Elmer W. Harris, is the manager of this 

 new plant, which will be in operation in about sixty days. It is 

 expected that the high-grade stock in this mill will be moved • o the 

 company's plant at Cedar Falls, for remanufacture, while the low- 

 grade will be made into dimension stock for the furniture trade. 



As its supplement to this issue, HARDvyooD Record presents the 

 counterfeit presentment of Elmer W. Harris, and it does so witli the 

 belief that it will be appreciated as an office ornament by many of 

 his personal customers throughout not only the retaU but also the 

 wholesale consuming trade of the country; and besides that ir will 

 form an introduction for Mr. Harris to many new customers, who 

 will appreciate knowing something about a man, who believes in 

 doing all things well. 



Low-Grade Hardwoods 



A well-versed liardwood wholesaler is of the opinion that too many 

 low-grade hardwood logs, especially in ash, oak, beech, maple, bass- 

 wood, birch and chestnut, are cut in inch boards, and sold at a very 

 low price, that should be manufactured into joists and scantling, 

 which would stand to be sawed to 1%" thick by S, 10 and 12" wide, 

 10' to 18' long. This character of stock, sawed in tliis way, will 

 easily raise the value over one inch from two to three dollars a 

 thousand, and a large portion of it can usually be marketed close at 

 home on a low freight rate. This suggestion is worth considering, 

 notably by many small miUmen. 



Not an Exact Science 



A correspondent submits a series of four inspection reports on one 

 car of chestnut lumber, one inspection certificate being that of a 

 leading lumber association, as follows: 



FIRST INSPECTION. 



4,177 feet 4/4 Ists and 2nds. 

 9,439 feet 4/4 No. 1 common. 



13,616 feet. 



SKCOND INSrECTION. 



2,634 feet Ists and 2nds. 



9,011 feet No. 1 common. 



674 feet No. 2 common. 



05 feet No. 3 common. 



1,259 feet soiiiul wormy. 



i:),633 feet. 



THIRD liNSrKCTION. 



2,618 feet Ists and 2ds. 

 7,057 feet No. 1 common. 

 876 feet No. 2 common. 

 93 feet No. 3 common. 

 2,098 feet. 



13,,342 feet. 



FOURTH I.NSPIiCTIO.N. 



1,761 feet Ists and 2ds. 



7,657 feet No. 1 common, 



1,243 feet No. 2 common. 



2,475 feet sound wormy. 



13,1.36 feet. 



The correspondent's comments on tlic various reports arc that "We 

 arc willing to certify that the genoriil run of hardwood inspections 

 that are now in practice is a good deal of a farce. This series of 

 inspections is not an unusual experience, and we have cases where 

 inspection will vary as much as this one when the car is repeatedly 

 inspected by the same man." 



The writer alleges that cnreful and intolligent inspectors arc get- 

 ting scarcer every ilny. 



