46 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Interstate Commerce Commission asking a five per cent increase in Ireigbt 

 rates. 



Hardwood floor layers liave settled their strilje with tlie employers. 

 About 125 had been on strike since Jlay 1. The men will receive a mini- 

 mum wage of fifty cents an hour, an eight hour day and Saturday half 

 holiday. The agreement is for three years, dating from Nov. 1, 1913. 



About 700 carpenters have gone on a sympathetic strike, on account 

 of the strike of the planing mill employes who are asking recognition of 

 the union and a closed shop. The carpenters refuse to work on buildings 

 where planing mill products made by non-union labor are used. 



=■< TOLEDO > 



A number of prominent lumber dealers joined the first trade exteu- 

 sion trip of the season, which left Toledo May 20 on a four days' trip 

 througii northwestern Ohio, southern Michigan and eastern Indiana. 

 These trade trips are being made annually by the wholesale and retail 

 board of the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and have been in progress for 

 the past couple of years. Thirty-eight towns will be visited by the Toledo 

 "boosters" on this trip. 



The Booth Column Company reports business extremely good, with 

 orders coming in faster than they can be filled. Prices are holding up 

 well and prospects are for an even better season than last year, whicli 

 was a record breaker for this concern. 



The Big Four Hardwood Company reports business in piano cases as 

 booming. This end of the business, which is practically new, has been 

 steadily growing and the concern has all the orders it can fill. 



The Gotshall Manufacturing Company reports a good line of trade gen- 

 erally. The portion of this plant burned last season will be rebuilt this 

 year and work will be begun at an early date. 



=-< MEMPHIS y 



Practically perfect weather has prevailed throughout tlic Memphis 

 territory, and splendid progress has been made with logging operations 

 during the past fortnight. There has been some rainfall but it has not 

 been sufficient to interfere with either milling or logging work. As a 

 result there is a very satisfactory supply of timber in sight. Conditions 

 in this respect are in striking contrast with those following the flood of 

 the previous year. Some mills have had some difficulty in securing all the 

 timber they need, but they are the exceptions which prove the general 

 rule of plenty. 



Every plant in Memphis which was forced to close down as a result of 

 the overflow at Memphis has resumed operations. Even the wood- 

 working plants on Henning island have been able to start up theip 

 machinery- again. This is only another way of saying the flood is entirely 

 a matter of history, so far as the lumber industry at this point is con- 

 corned. Trade conditions are considered good as a rule and owners and 

 operators of lumber and woodworking enterprises are not only able to 

 run but they are working their machinery at pretty full capacity. 



Practically all of the mills in the St. Francis basin, which found it 

 neces.sary to close down, have been able to resume. There is one strikins 

 exception — that is in the case of the Crittenden Lumber Company at 

 Earl, Ark. This firm has been badly handicapped by the overflow of it'* 

 railroad and the consequent inability on its part to handle timber. The 

 road is still under water for a distance of seven or eight miles and no 

 definite time has been given for the resumption of operations. 



C. K. I'almer, of the L. H. Gage Lumber Company, with headquarters 

 at Providence. R. I., has been spending considerable time at Memphis and 

 Earl during the past few weeks. 



Traffic conditions have become normal with respect to every road enter- 

 ing Memphis with the exception of the Marianna cut-oEE of the St. Louis. 

 Iron Mountain & Southern. The Frisco has resumed through trains 

 direct to St. Louis over its own rails, while the Yazoo & Mississippi 

 Valley has made the necessary repairs on its line through to Xew 

 Orleans. It is estimated that it will require several weeks to complete 

 the necessary repairs on the Memphis-.Marianna cut-off. There is a 

 great deal of timber along this road and lumbermen are awaiting the 

 completion of the repairs with a groat deal of interest. 



J. W. Dickson, president of the Valley Log Loading Company, has 

 just returned from a visit to French Lick Springs. Ind. He went there 

 from Louisville, where he attended the meeting of the executive com- 

 mittee of the National Hardwood Lumber Association. 



While it is confirmed that the E. Sondheimer Company will discontinue 

 its yards at Cairo as soon as the lumber there has been disposed of. it is 

 denied by Mr. Sondheimer that the company has any idea whatever 

 of moving its headquarters from Memphis to Detroit. He said that 

 the company had not even contemplated such a move. It is impossible 

 to say how long it will require for the company to move the lumber which 

 it has stored at Cairo. This is the second Memphis firm to decide upon 

 the abandoning of its Cairo yards during the last year. The other was 

 the Gayoso Lumber Cotnpany. 



O. O. Scholder, southern representative of the Standard Oil Company, 

 has been chosen president of the Business Men's Club for the ensuing 

 year. He was elected by the directors of that organization. The Lum- 

 bermen's Club of Memphis is affiliated with the Business Jlcn's Club 

 and the two are working band in hand for the interests of the vast 

 territory of which this city is the logical head. 



The Interstate Commerce Commission has handed down a decision in 

 the case of May Brothers vs. the Illinois Central and the Alabama it 

 Vicksburg railroads in which it held that the rates on log shipments from 

 Pearson, Miss., to Memphis were unreasonable. The decision not only 

 orders the rates reduced from thirteen cents to nine and a quarter cents, 

 but also awards to May Brothers reparation in the sum of $91, together 

 with interest from Sept. 14, 1910. This ease was handled by the Memphis 

 Freight Bureau and the victory is regarded as far-reaching, despite the 

 fact that the amount involved is comparatively small. 



Dispatches from Brinkley, Ark., report the sale of 10.000 acres of 

 timberlaud near that point known as the Ilavenswa.v tract. It was pur- 

 chased by a party of Pittsburgh (Pa.) capitalists. The price is given as 

 .i;i35,000. The new owners, it is announced, propose to put in sawinills 

 and other woodworking plants for the purpose of developing the timber 

 on this property. As fast as the timber is moved it is planned to improve 

 and colonize the land. 



It is definitely announced that work will begin on the new bridge across 

 the Mississippi river at Memphis some time in Julj*. This information 

 comes from the chief engineer of the Rock Island System, which is back- 

 ing the Memphis & Arkansas Railroad Bridge & Terminal Company, which 

 will construct the bridge. Bids have not been advertised for this work 

 for the reason that the Rock Island System is contemplating putting it 

 through. 



The James Alexander Construction Company has been officially noti- 

 fied by the Illinois Central that it has been awarded the contract for 

 the erection of the new passenger terminal station of the Illinois Central 

 at this point. The pries named in the contract is .fuOO.OOO. The old 

 building on the site at Main street and Calhoun avenue will be torn down 

 at once and the work of excavating will begin June l.'i. The new station 

 will be used jointly by the Illinois Central, the Yazoo & Mississippi Val- 

 ley, the Keck Island and the Frisco System. 



The Valley Log Loading Company states that it will have loaded about 

 800 cars of logs for Memphis and other -points on the Yazoo & Missis- 

 sippi Valley line of the Illinois Central during May. This is at a con- 

 siderably reduced rate as compared with recent operations of this firm. 

 However, it is at present confining its work to the Yazoo & Mississippi 

 Valley line because the Mcmphis-Marianna cut-off of the St. Louis, Iron 

 Mountain & Southern is out of commission and will remain so for some 

 time. W. A. Waddiugton, secretary of the company, says 'that timber is 

 being gotten out rapidly and that the outlook is for unusually heavy 

 loading a little later. 



It is reported here that tlie Mark H. Brown Lumber Company has pur- 

 cliased the tract of 15,000 acres of timberlaud which was formerly owned 

 by Messrs. Zearing and Stonenian. Mr. Brown is out of the city and it 

 is understood that he is looking after matters connected witli the trans, 

 fer of the property in question. It is an exceptionally fine body of bard- 

 wood timber. 



The Interstate Commerce Commission has been active in connection 

 with several rate cases in wliich Memphis lumbermen are interested. One 

 of these covers rates between Memphis and i)oints south of this city, 

 while another involves the proposed advance of two cents per hundred 

 pounds on shipments of gum lumber from Memphis to New Orleans fo'* 

 export. At the hearing of the arguments in these cases the Southern 

 Hardwood Traffic Bureau was represented by J. R. Walker, attorney fo" 

 that corporation, and T. K. Riddick, a prominent attorney in this city. 

 After hearing the arguments, the commission took the cases under advise- 

 ment and a decision is not expected until some time later. One of the 

 principal statements made boiore the commission by Mr. Riddick was to 

 the effect that the lumbermen are paying $75,000 a year more on lumbc 

 rates than the.v sliould be called upon to pay. He ha<l iiartlcular refer- 

 ence to the alleged discrimination as between Memphis and Cairo. 



W. B. Morgan, secretary-treasurer of the Andersou-Tully Coinpany, has 

 recently returned to Memphis after attending the hearing of evidence in 

 the Pridham box case in Chicago. Mr. Morgan was made chairman of the 

 National Classification Committee on lumber and wooden box interests, 

 wbicli presented the testimony in favor of uniform rates as betweeo 

 goods shipped in wooden boxes and those shipped in fibre containers. lie 

 spent about five weeks in connection with this nialti-r. 



=-< NASHVILLE >-= 



Nashville still leads in building operations. This city ranked third 

 among the cities of the United States for the past four mouths, the local 

 gain during that time being 167 per cent. For April the gain shown 

 locally was 200 per cent. 



Douglass Hanley has become associated with II. II. Tibbs In the 

 Tibbs Furniture Company here. The firm will soon move to larger and 

 more convenient quarters. 



C. M. Morford, vice-regent for Hoo IIoo for the niiddle Tennessee 

 district, announces a big concatenation for an early date, when it is 

 expected there will be a record breaking attendance of old members and 

 available kittens. The date for the meeting has not been announced. 



During a discussion before the Nashville Lumbermens' Club at the 

 last meeting of that organization, the fact was brought out that the 

 railroads have not yet issued tariffs in compliance with recent orders of 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission in connection with milling In- 

 Iransit. permitting tlie shipment out of hardwoods on waybills for hard- 

 y^'ood logs shipped in whether tlie lumber outbound is Identical with tlie 



