The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIV. 



SATURDAY, MAY 3. 1902. 



No. 2 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBLISHED 



EVERY OTHER SATURDAY 



BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



U. S., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



Foreign Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION. 



The cost of advertising in the Wanted and For Sale 

 columns will be found at the head of that department. 



ADVERTISING INDEX ON PAGE 25. 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and otiiers are re- 

 quested to notify us of clianges in per- 

 sonnel or organizations of hardwood 

 lumber firms. We desire especially to 

 receive particulars of installation of 

 new plants, transfers of property and 

 timber holdings and experiments in 

 new methods of manufacturing or the 

 utilization of by-products. New publi- 

 cations of interest to the trade, including 

 catalogues, stock lists and circulars will 

 receive attention if sent to this office. 

 Our columns are also available for 

 criticism and comment on any article 

 published or for news of any sort con- 

 cerning the hardwood trade. 



Our readers will confer a favor when 

 writing to advertisers if they will state 

 that they saw the advertisement in the 

 Hardwood Record. This is little 

 trouble and costs nothing, but it helps 

 us and is information wanted by the 

 advertiser. 



THE BUSINESS SITUATION. 

 This is a curious country, made curious 

 bj- the higli-sti'ung, nervous temperament of 

 tlie people. They are either unduly de- 

 pressed of unduly elated a great portion 

 of the time. They shift from periods of 

 great business depression to periods of 

 enormous business activity, -with a sudden- 

 ness that is bewildering to the financiers 

 of older and steadier countries. At present 

 they are in one of their periods of great 

 prosperity, and are racing ahead at a speed 

 which bids fair to run them clear off the 

 earth and up in the air. 



The prices of all kinds of products have 

 advanced tremendously, to a point where 

 it seems probable that the advance will 

 check consumption. Almost every line of 

 business reports enormous profits and the 

 history of the country would indicate that 

 a reaction of some kind is due before 

 long. It will probably only be a slight re- 

 action, but our readers should not make 

 the mistake of believing that present con- 

 ditions are entirely norma). We would ad- 

 vise conservatism in making calculations 

 on the future. The time to take chances 

 is when the price of an article has fallen 

 below the cost of production and the time 

 for conservatism, it seems to us, is in a 

 time such as the present. 



The advance which is being made in 

 consolidating industries into vast corpo- 

 rations and trusts has been greater in the 

 past year or two than ever before. Where 

 it will all end we hardly dare to hazard a 

 guess. If the advance of the past two 

 years is maintained in the line of railway 

 consolidations, for instance, for another 

 five years, it seems that the entire railroad 

 system of the United States will be man- 

 aged under two or three heads. We are in- 

 formed that the recent excitement over 

 Louisville & Nashville stock was the be- 

 ginning of a movement for the consolida- 

 tion of all railroads south of the Ohio and 

 east of the Mississippi. That, with the 

 consolidation of railroad interests in the 

 Northwest, all of which has occurred 

 within the last year, is vei-y significant 

 of the course events are taking and will 

 probably continue to take. He who con- 

 trols the railroads of the country controls 

 the business of the country. If the steel 

 trust, for instance, can conti'ol the railroad 

 rates it can crush all competition and it 

 would not surprise us if the final outcome 

 of the whole matter would be that the 

 United States government would be forced 



to take over the railroads and operate 

 them. 



A good many of the unitiated have had 

 an idea that for the United States to re- 

 gain its prestige on the ocean would be 

 a long and arduous task. It turns out, 

 however, that it is a veiT short and simple 

 one. It was announced last week, and 

 the statement was fully corroborated, that 

 a syndicate of American capitalists had, 

 by the simple process of buying great lines 

 of steamships, practically gained control 

 of the Atlantic carrying trade. It seems 

 that well-organized and well-handled 

 capital, in sufficient quantity, can accom- 

 plish pretty nearly anything, and of cap- 

 ital and men to organize and handle it, this 

 country has an abundance. 



The old way of conquering the world 

 was to send out great fleets and armies 

 to subdue the various nations by force 

 of arms. The modern method of simply 

 sending out money is much simplier and 

 more effective and profitable. The United 

 States is not only competing with other 

 countries in the open market, but is going 

 into those countries and buying up their 

 choicest industries, building and owning 

 their railroads and revolutionizing condi- 

 tions by the introduction of American 

 methods. 



In all lines of manufacturing prices are 

 high and advancing and the manufactur- 

 ers have all the orders they can handle. 

 The 1st of April many of the larger cor- 

 porations declared dividends showing enor- 

 mous profits. In some lines, notably in 

 the iron trade, ordere cannot be placed 

 with a guarantee that they will be filled 

 at any time in the near future— In some 

 instances not under six months. 



The railroads seem to be all making 

 good profits and having all the business 

 they can do. The farmers are prosper- 

 ing, the banks have more money than they 

 can use to advantage, and, in fact, the en- 

 tire country seems to be knee deep in 

 pro.sperity. 



It seems to us that in spite of increased 

 wages and steady employment the labor- 

 ing classes are scarcely getting their por- 

 tion of the prosperity because of the great 

 advance in the cost of living, caused by 

 the high price of everything he buys. At 

 the same rate of living the grocery bill of 

 a laboring man is 20 or 25 per cent larger 

 than it was two or three years ago. The 

 same condition holds in the other lines 

 where he makes purchases, although not 

 to so great an extent. It is probably a safe 

 statement that his cost of living, and main- 



