40 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Attorneys for Louis Eosscrt & Son state that formerly the Bossert 

 Arm sold $500,000 worth of trim annually in Manhattan and the Bronx, 

 but much of this business has been lost because builders feared to use 

 the material lest strikes would be called. Amona; manufacturers of trim 

 named as defendants in the suit are the Empire City-Gerard Company, the 

 Murray & Hill Company, the Harlem River Wood Working Company, 

 the Jamestown Mantel Company, the Meisel-Danowitz Company, the 

 Niagara Woodworking Company, Levin. Kronenberg & Co.. the Batavia 

 & New York Woodworking Company. Several individuals connected with 

 these firms are also named. 



It is alleged that through a compact between the carpenters' union 

 and the union trim plants Ihe manufacturers agreed to operate union 

 shops on condition that the union protect them against the competition 

 of the non-union shops, and prevent the use of the latters' materials 

 by calling strikes. The result of this has been to close Manhattan to 

 the open trim shop and debars the public from the benefit of competition 

 in this material. 



This is another chapter to the history of the so-called trim suits and 

 the final outcome is awaited with interest by manufacturers of trim, 

 not only in New York but throughout the entire country. 



Old Zeb Evans 



In this connection is shown a photograph of 

 Zeb Evans, probably one of the oldest active par- 

 ticipants in the manufacture of forest products. 

 While he has now retired to Los Angeles, where 

 he is enjoying the pleasures of a well spent life, 

 he is still, though eighty-four years old, capable 

 of taking an active part in woods operations and 

 spends his days trimming off the tops of butchers' 

 blocks. 



Zeb says that he can take a cross-cut saw and 

 make a cut a sixteenth of an inch clear across 

 the top of the biggest butcher block. His pref- 

 erence runs to Atkins silver steel saws, which 

 he has used for nearly sixty years. The old man 

 says that he has cut timber in the wilds of 

 Indiana and then, when the center of the hard- 

 wood industry moved southward, down through 

 the southern states. He enjoyed all kinds of 

 pleasure, he says, in his day, but none has 

 equalled the satisfaction he has derived from 

 pulling the high-class saw turned out by the 

 Atkins people. 



Zeb Evans is a second cousin of the famous 

 "Fighting Bob" Evans. 



Biltmore Doings for May 



"Biltmore Doings," recording the \vork of the 

 students of Biltmore Forest School, says that 

 the school arrived on May 1 at Biltmore, N. C, 

 where it made a close study of the famous 

 Biltmore estate, observing the results of the 

 work of Dr. Schenck during his years as for- 

 ester for that estate. The students were very 

 much surprised to find that the white pine 

 plantations made seventeen years ago are even 

 now yielding timber of merchantable size. Stands 

 twenty-one years old will yield over 10.000 

 feet lioard measure of box lumber to the acre. 

 The students also observed other plantations of 

 the various species and mixtures of species, and 

 looked into the fuel wood and tannic acid in- 

 dustry developed by the doctor. 



The students, on leaving Biltmore. went 1m 

 Sunburst, N. C, the seat of the operations of the 

 Champion Lumber Company, where they are in 

 the heart of an immense operation yielding 150,- 

 000 feet per ten-hour day. The students were 

 given the freedom of the woods and mill and given 

 every assistance by those in charge. They were given an opportunity of 

 studying highly etBcient methods of logging and lumbering in rough coun- 

 try, noting the operation of both the Clyde and Lidgerwood systems of 

 aerial skidding. There Is considerable competition between the crews of 

 the two types of skiddcrs as to which can do its logging in the most 

 inexpensive manner, which condition presents the work to the students 

 in the most favorable manner. 



Regular surveying trips were taken during May, notable among these 

 being a preliminary survey on a mountain stream where the students 

 laid out preliminary lines for skidding operations. Interesting trips were 

 also made to the splash dam. pole chutes, narrow gauge railroads and 

 other contrivances used for conveying logs and pulpwood. 



The whole stay at Sunburst will cover about six weeks, during which 

 time the students will 1m thrown in close contact with every form of 

 practical work. 



Lumberman's Son Wins Honors 



Birchiill Hammer, sou of Thomas B. Hammer, head of the Hammer 

 Lumber Company, Philadelphia, was awarded the William West Frazer 



prize of ."JilOti for the highest scholarship of the athletes composing the 

 track, baseball, crew and football teams. He is a member of the class 

 which graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, June 17, is prominent 

 in athletics and a leader in college affairs. He is a lineal descendant of 

 Dirk Keyser, and also, through his mother, a descendant of Weigert 

 Levering, two of the original settlers of Germantown, in 1683. 



Minnesota Bate Decision Important to Arkansas Lumbermen 



The state's victory in the Supreme court of the United States in the 

 railroad rate cases is the principal topic of discussion in Arkansas busi- 

 nes circles at this time. The people are rejoicing over this, the tirst 

 victory in the state's tight against the railroads in the matter of the 

 two-cent passenger and the maximum freight rate as fixed by the 

 Arkansas Railroad Commission under the act of the Arkansas Legisla- 

 ture of 1907. 



The act over which this contention has been raised between the rail- 

 roads and the Arkansas Railroad Commission was passed by the General 

 Assembly of 190S, and provides that all railroads of fifteen miles in 

 length or less are limited to a charge of five cents per mile for passen- 

 gers ; those lines of more than fifteen miles and not over eighty-five 

 miles in length are limited to three cents per 

 mile, while those of more than eighty-flve miles 

 in length are limited to two cents. 



In the early part of 1908 the Arkansas Rail- 

 road Commission, under the authority of the act 

 of the legislature, prescribed certain maximum 

 freight rates for the various lines, as well as 

 the maximum passenger rate as provided in the 

 act. Shortly after this new tariff had been pub- 

 lished hy the Arkansas Railroad Commission 

 eighteen railroad companies brought suit in the 

 United States circuit court at this place, seek- 

 ing to enjoin the commission from enforcing 

 the revised tariff rates. Upon application being 

 made. Judg(* Jacob Triel>er, United States dis- 

 trict judge for the eastern district of Arkansas, 

 granted a temporary restraining order against 

 the commission which, after testimony had been 

 taken during the years of 1909 and 1910 in the 

 federal courts at St. Louis and Chicago and In 

 the federal court at Little Rock in 1911, was 

 made permanent by Judge Trieber, upon the 

 theory that the rates as fixed by the Arkansas 

 Railroad Commission under the new schedule 

 were confiscatory. 



Shortly after the restraining order was Is- 

 sued in 190S the Arkansas legislature made an 

 appropriation of $.'iO,000 to be used In employ- 

 ing counsel and in paying the necessary court 

 costs in an effort to prevent the enforcement 

 of the temporary injunction, and again in 1911 ; 

 after Judge 'I'rieber had made the Injunction 

 permanent against the railroad commission the 

 legislature appropriated an additional .$12,000 

 to be used in appealing the ease to the United 

 Slates Supreme court. The transcript was 

 lodged In the Supreme court in the fall of 

 1911. and argument was heard by that court 

 in the spring of 1912. However, final decision 

 was not given in the case until this week. 



Under the decision of the Supreme court, as 

 handed down hy Justice Hughes, the Injunction 

 was dissolved, and the rates as fixed hy the 

 Arkansas Railroad Commission were upheld. It 

 will be necessary for the railroads in Arkansas 

 to prove more convincingly that these rates 

 are confiscatory before a permanent injunction 

 will li<". 



This is one of the first developments following the now famous Minne- 

 sota rate case decision of the United States Supreme Court. 



Southern Roads Advance Rates to Ohio Crossings 



The Louisville & Nashville railroad announces changes in various rates 

 from local points in Tennessee to Ohio river crossings. It is anticipated 

 that other roads will follow suit, following the institution of increases at 

 competitive points. 



The actual increase is on the average not large, there Iving some two- 

 cent advances, while the bulk are but one cent. The objection to be raised, 

 however, is that , there being such a large number of advances in the new 

 tariffs submitted, the aggregate will result in a very material additional 

 burden. 



Afraid of Agitation 



Lumber operations in the Philippines appear to respond qtiickly to agi- 

 tation affecting political affairs. A London trade paper reports that 

 "the largest lumber mill in the Philippine islands has suspended oper- 

 ations because of agitation over the Jones hill now pending in Washing- 

 ton which grants independence to the Philippines." 



•OLD ZEB" EVANS 



