HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



lack of information has been felt. What a few large operators have 

 learned from representatives sent into those regions, has not been 

 marie public. However, the real situation is gradually becoming 

 known, and in course of time the general users of wood in this 

 country will be in a position to figure intelligently on the forest 

 resources of the countries of tropical America. 



The Sundry Civil Bill Again 



THE PEOBABLE PASSAGE of the Sundry Civil Appropriation 

 Bill at Washington, embodying the obnoxious provision wliich 

 caused its veto by ex-President Taft, is causing considerable com- 

 ment all over the country and in very few instances is this comment 

 favorable. The provision specifies that no part of the appropriation 

 f,hall be used for the prosecution of labor unions and farmers' or- 

 ganizations violating the Sherman antitrust law. The bill has 

 ]iassed the House and Senate and it is surely to be hoped that 

 sufficient pressure will be brought to bear upon President Wilson to 

 compel him to see the injustice of this provision as it will affect 

 employers. President Wilson argues that the amendment to the bill 

 is not in effect guarantee that the unions and farmers' organizations 

 will not be prosecuted for violation of the law, but maintains that 

 specific provision wOl be made for such prosecution at a subsequent 

 time. Nevertheless it is difficult to conceive of the necessity for 

 such a course; in fact, the most significant part of the controversy 

 is the very fact that the most prominent manufacturers in the 

 countrj' have voiced their decided protest against the passage of the 

 bill with this amendment, which would surely indicate that in their 

 opinion and in the opinion of their legal aid the provision is a real 

 danger. 



All He Asked Was a Little More Time 



THKEE TEAVELING COJIPAXIONS, Gray, Brown, and Green, 

 were breakfasting at a hotel in the South. Gray ordered coffee, 

 rolls, creamed potatoes, bacon, and fried eggs. Brown told the 

 waiter he might duplicate the order for him ; and Green said : ' " You 

 may bring me the same, all but the eggs — you may eliminate the 

 eggs. ' ' In due time the waiter appeared with the breakfasts of 

 Gray and Brown, which he served; then, stepping around to Green, 

 lie said in a conciliatory voice: "We got fried eggs, an' poached 

 eggs, an ' boiled eggs, an ' scrambled eggs, an ' cm 'let, sah, but we 

 ain't go no 'liminated eggs." "Well," said Green, "my' doctor 

 says my eggs must be eliminated. Have it done at once, and hurry 

 up my breakfast. ' ' Presently the waiter was back again, but 

 without the breakfast. "The cook says tell you, sah," he said, "he 

 jes' can't 'limiuate no eggs dis mawnin. " "Now, see here," said 

 Green, in apparent anger, ' ' I never before was at a hotel where 

 I could not have my eggs eliminated. Go tell the cook that, and 

 tell him to eliminate those eggs double sudden, or I shall complain 

 to the manager." Away went the waiter, but returned almost 

 immediately, followed by the cook. "I come to 'splain to you 

 myse'f 'bout dem eggs, sah," said the excited chef. "I ain't been 

 here on'y a week, an' I don' wan' to lose my job, an' dis is de 

 ve'y fi'st ordah I had fob 'lim'nated eggs since I come. I was 

 goin' to 'lim'nate 'em right off, but when I looked round for de 

 'lim 'uater, dey ain 't got none. Co 'se I can 't 'lim 'nate eggs 'thout 

 a 'lim 'nater, but I's goin' to have the boss git one this ve'y day, 

 an ' if you '11 'scuse me this mawnin ', nex ' time you come I 'II suah 

 'lim 'nate yo ' eggs better 'n yo 've evah had 'em 'lim 'nated bef o ' ! " 

 Green wanted " 'lim'nated" eggs because his doctor said that 

 ordinary eggs were not good for his health. In diagnosing the case 

 of the hardwood trade it would appear that undue price inflation 

 might result in fatty degeneration of demand or some other startling 

 complication inimical to the best interests of that apparently healthy 

 patient. 



The New Thought 



nUSINESS MEN ABE VAEIOTJSLY ACCUSED of being purely 

 ^ cold-blooded in their attitude toward those less fortune in their 

 business ventures. This belief is perhaps warranted to a certain 

 extent, as it is merely natural that the fittest who survive should 



not show undue compassion for those who have not found tlie way 

 to business success. But that the American business man is an 

 absolutely cold-blooded individual is disproved in many instances. 

 One of tlie most recent and most striking of these has particular 

 bearing upon the lumber business. 



A prominent Chicago lumberman, John C. Spry, is responsible for 

 the inauguration of an idea w'hich is highly meritorious. Mr. Spry 

 in a letter suggests that there are many men connected with the 

 lumber business who sooner or later come to want, and he deplores 

 the fact that there is no provision for taking care of those disabled 

 through sickness or old age. Mr. Spry takes a very enlightened view 

 of the relation between employer and emplo.ye, maintaining that if 

 through misfortune^ a man is not receiving a competency, business 

 at large has nevertheless prospered partly through his service, as 

 each individual is a unit in business. 



The main idea of the suggestion is that several homes be estab- 

 lished in this country at different points, which shall not be consid- 

 ered charitable institutions, but shall offer facilities for the benefit 

 of those formerly connected with the lumber business, but rendered 

 incapable of maintaining themselves. Mr. Spry's idea that a motion, 

 should be put on foot to establish such a system /if homes certainly 

 merits the earnest consideration of the lumber trade in all parts, 

 of the country. It can well be seen that the lumber trade could; 

 afford to maintain such refuges when it is considered that it is the- 

 third largest industry in the countiy and when the enormousness 

 of the aggregate capital engaged is considered. 



Record Price for Oak 



VV/HAT iS SAID TO BE THE HIGHEST PEICE ever paid 

 "" for oak timber was recently obtained by the ow-ner of a tract 

 in the forests of High Spessart, Bavaria. The contents of the 

 trunks were calculated and the logs were sold by the cubic foot. 

 The best timber brought an equivalent of $830 a thousand feet, 

 board measure. The best log sold at the rate of $900 a thousand 

 feet. The timber was bought for a veneer mill which wiD market 

 the veneers in England and other European countries. Some of the 

 cheaper grades of oak put on the market at the sale were purchased 

 for barrel staves. 



These facts should surely carry weight with those propagandists 

 who advocate immediate, intensive forestry in this country on a nation- 

 wide scale without considering its feasibility from a business point of 

 view. It is merely a simple problem in proportion : A'^alue of forest 

 products abroad is to value of forest products here as intensity of for- 

 estry application abroad is to x, the unknown being the feasible 

 intensity of forestry work in this country under present conditions 

 and market values. 



Who Is the Guilty Party? 



AEECENT ISSUE of a prominent vehicle journal contains an 

 article by a German purported to be well versed in aU 

 questions pertaining to lumber and its production in all parts of 

 the world. This gentleman recently made an extended trip to- 

 various lumber producing sections in this country and his ob- 

 servations, as expressed in the article, rather raise a doubt as-, 

 to whether or not he confined his observations mainly to the- 

 ' ' coffee-pot ' ' mills which can still be found in remote sections- 

 of the country, or whether he is merely laboring under a misap- 

 prehension as to what he saw. The article opens with a knock 

 for the wasteful methods employed by American lumber manu- 

 facturers. It is conceded by lumber manufacturers themselves that 

 their methods are not above criticism in the matter of utilizing- 

 the greatest possible percentage of their timber; but the writer 

 makes a further observation that the American manufacturer's 

 logs are literally chewed up and then says that when a lot of 

 one-inch boards that run seven-eighths inch at one end and an inch 

 and a quarter at the other, with proportionately the same amount 

 of differences between the edges of the boards, have been re- 

 jected by the dealers often enough they are loaded in a schooner 

 and sent to South American ports or elsewhere as far away as 

 possible, where they cannot be returned. It is scarcely believable- 



