HARDWOOD RECORD 



He says that he knows a publisher who charges considerably more 

 per page in a paper of 4.000 circulation than is charged by a similar 

 publication claiming lIO.OOO, and that he finds that his business comes 

 so easily that he is mighty particular about whom he admits at that 

 price. This man, according to the article, has faith in his mission 

 to his subscribers. On the other hand, it is the low rate and the 

 special bargain paper which discredits trade and technical journals 

 in the eyes of men who are accustomed to pay good prices for good 

 goods in the expectation of getting money value for what they pay. 



35 



Altogether the talk embodies a great many ideas which could very 

 well command the attention of most of the biggest merchandizing 

 and other lines of trade throughout the country. The lumber business 

 in its immensity, being the second largest industry in the United 

 States today, should be vastly concerned with any new ideas in 

 solving this problem of merchandizing which is becoming more and 

 more difficult each year. Hence, Hakdwood Eecord submits these 

 few ideas in the hope that they will at least receive the attention of 

 the trade which it endeavors to represent. 



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Locating the Trouble 



In a recent address before the Society of American Foresters, 

 R. S. Kellogg of Wausau, Wis., took this pointed text: "It is 

 better to waste timber than to waste money." 



He spoke on the subject of the future utilization of timber, and 

 his text embodied his conclusion. He held that it is unreasonable 

 to expect a business man to save scraps and low-grade timber 

 when it costs more to save it than it is worth. A good deal of 

 that kind of business has been done in the past, and he cited two 

 instances where large operators marketed millions of feet of lumber 

 at an actual and considerable loss. No one should expect the 

 practice of conservation to be carried that far. To do so is not 

 conservation at all, but waste. 



The loss is in the low grades because the market for that stuff 

 is poor. Box makers are the chief buyers, and they sometimes 

 find it impossible to use it aU, and the price drops very low. One 

 of Mr. Kellogg 's statements is worth careful thought. He says 

 that when the price of box lumber advances, the business of the 

 fiber box people increases. History, he says, has shown this to be 

 the case. The question suggests itself whether a permanent ad- 

 vance in the price of such lumber would enable the fiber box 

 people to capture a large part of the box business. A straw which 

 shows the current of thought among shrewd business men is seen 

 in the fact that a fiber board mill has just been completed in Wis- 

 consin at a cost of $2,000,000. It is assumed that the builders of 

 that mill expect to sell their product to box makers. The mill will 

 r.se much waste, and will not draw heavily from the kinds of 

 timber that now go into box lumber. This means that there will 

 be as much low-grade lumber as ever, but part of the market for 

 it will be taken by the increased output of fiber boxes. W'hat is 

 to become of the low-grade lumber? Are the sawmills to con- 

 tinue to cut it, in spite of the fact that it is better to waste 

 timber than to waste money? 



It is stated as a fact, established and proved by experience, that 

 when the price of stumpage advances, it never goes back. When 

 prices of standing timber are good, sales are made; when poor, 

 the owners simply hold. This is true because the owners of timber 

 are generally able to hold it. Taking this view of the situation, 

 it is apparent that lumber's tendency is bound to be upward in 

 response to increased cost of stumpage. If low grades are slow 

 sale, or no sale at all, the profit (if there is to be a profit on 

 lumber) must ultimately come from the good grades. Dreamer.s 

 (not lumbermen) have told how the whole tree, from the root 

 collar to the twigs, ought to be hauled to market in some way or 

 other. That dream may come true sometime, but it hasn't yet. 

 It is the height of folly to pile up supplies far ahead of demand. 

 That would be wasting money to save timber, which, according 

 to the text, is no economy at all. 



Economy lies in the direction of increasing the demand rather 

 ihan the supplies. The supplies are all right Ps they are; the weak 

 place is in the sales end of the business, ilr. Kellogg strikes at 

 the low place in the breastworks, and declares that the men with 

 lumber to sell must adopt better business methods in advertising. 

 They must create demand by pushing lumber in ahead of the sub- 

 stitutes which are taking the markets. Manufacturers of these 

 substitutes are fighting by day and sleeping on their arms at 



night, and are taking market after market while the lumberman is 

 following the tactics of the cross-roads merchant who sits on his 

 store porch and waits for customers to come around. That method 

 is out of date now. While waiting for the customers to drop in, 

 the wide-awake competitor goes out, hunts up the customers, tells 

 them what they want and sells it to them, while the merchant, 

 sitting dozing on his porch, wonders why business is dull. The 

 beginning of a new era in merchandizing lumber has already 

 begun. It is to be hoped that the new idea will be pushed as 

 vigorously as have questions concerning more efficient methods of 

 lumber manufacture. The millman cannot quite adopt the policy 

 of cutting to order in all cases, but he should try to work round to 

 the plan of getting the order as soon as possible after he has the 

 stuff with which to fill it. Printers' ink, used with judgment, not 

 thrown away, will help mightily, Mr. Kellogg thinks, in connecting 

 the man who has the lumber and doesn't want it with the man who 

 doesn't have it but wants it. 



Manufacturers Becoming Better Housekeepers 



The constant menace of fires in industrial plants of all kinds, 

 while a source of unceasing dread to the manufacturer, used to be 

 considered by him as something almost inevitable which he had to 

 figure on and for which he had to spend large amounts each year 

 to insure himself against loss. The realization of the vast and 

 unnecessary annual fire loss occurring in this country has been 

 gradual, but it is safe to say that such realization is now a fact 

 among the more modern classes of American manufacturers in many 

 lines. They are showing a vastly difl'erent attitude toward preven- 

 tion of fires and instead of accepting such catastrophes as in- 

 evitable, are refusing to admit that there is any just reason for 

 their occurrence and are making every effort to prevent them or to 

 suppress them during their ineipiency. Probably no other industry 

 has suffered from this cause more than the lumber manufacturing 

 business. The very nature and surroundings of sawmills openly 

 invite fires and in the past, after they have started, it has been 

 practically impossible to cheek them. However, this condition is 

 changing rapidly with the advance of modern ideas and efficiency 

 of operations. 



The advent of the mutual insurance companies really opened 

 a new era in this direction, offering insurance at much lower cost 

 than the old line companies. These mutual companies, specializing 

 as they do in sawmill risks, have become not merely writers of in- 

 surance policies, but have devoted themselves to a close study of 

 means for preventing and checking fires at sawmill plants. They 

 have done a vast amount of jiropagandist work, offering many sug- 

 gestions invaluable to the sawmill operator, who has gradually 

 absorbed these ideas and applied them to his own plant with the 

 result that the sawmill fire today is not nearly so common an 

 occurrence as in the old days of more slipshod methods. Due 

 credit must be given to the lumber manufacturer for the willing- 

 ness he has shown to do his part in eliminating causes contribu- 

 ting to conflagrations. He is increasingly particular in his house- 

 keeping with the idea of cutting down the fire hazard. 



