12 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



increase in price does not by any means 

 represent a net gain. If be securetl bis 

 timber before tbe advance be bas made 

 a good tbing on his timber, but that does 

 not enter into the protits of his saw mill. 

 If he paid $5 an acre for timberland which 

 is now worth $10 an acre, that proat was 

 made in tbe timberland and tbe timber 

 must be charged to tbe saw mill at the 

 increased price. 



Lumber prices in almost all lines now 

 seem to be at the top notch. People will 

 not pay beyond a certain price for any cer- 

 tain wood as long as there are cheap and 

 abundant substitutes. This has been 

 pretty conclusively demonstrated m the 

 matter of oak. The country is undoubtedly 

 getting along with less than tbe normal 

 supply of oak and yet oak prices will not 

 in our opinion go any higher. In fact, it 

 seems that in Chicago, oak prices are 

 scarcely so strong as they were 60 days 

 ago, and this in the face of the fact that 

 eak lumber is very scarce, as a trip to the 

 producing sections will convince almost 

 anyone. The fact seems to be that peo- 

 ple won't pay any more for oak than they 

 are paying at present. Rather than pay 

 more they will find a substitute. There 

 was never a time in Chicago, we believe, 

 not even excepting the World's Fair year, 

 when there was more building going on 

 than at present, and still it is hard to get 

 tbe present price for oak for finishing pur- 

 poses. Tbe fact of it is that people are 

 using something else and when more fav- 

 orable conditions bring a larger supply of 

 oak it will take lower prices to move it, so 

 we would advise our readers not to be un- 

 duly bullish on the oak market. We would 

 not have tbe producers become excited 

 over tbe present situation to the extent of 

 paying unduly large prices for logs, or 

 making undue efforts to produce oak lum- 

 ber with the understanding that prices 

 will go any higher or that there will be 

 a sti-ong demand for any excessive supply 

 of oak, even at tbe present prices. 



The poplar market is sti-ong, but prices 

 are, in our estimation, as high as they will 

 go and possibly higher than they can be 

 maintained. 



Northern hardwoods are doing ex- 

 tremely well. They have been, generally 

 speaking, in ample supply throughout tbe 

 season and are about tbe only hardwoods 

 which have been, consequently such sub- 

 stitution as bas taken place in the consum- 

 ing trade bas been largely in favor of the 

 northern hardwood. This is especially true 

 of birch, which is in better demand at a 

 better price than at any time for a good 

 while. Moreover, it has created a market 

 for itself and probably will continue to 

 hear a higher price in tbe future. It was 

 fortunate for the producers of northern 

 hardwoods that their logging season was 

 curtailed during the winter and the pros- 

 pects now are that the surplus stock in 

 northern hardwoods will be cleaned up 

 nicely, and if a conservative policy in the 

 matter of putting in logs be followed next 



winter, the favorable conditions now exist- 

 ing should carry through another year. 



Yellow pine bas shown some inclination 

 to decline in price during the past month 

 and is, in fact, not nearly so strong as 

 three months ago. 



Taken as a whole the hardwood condi- 

 tion is favorable, but there is nothing to 

 justify any undue efforts toward contract- 

 ing or producing hardwood lumber. If 

 prices are to be maintained at their level 

 it will need conservative action. 



THE MANTTFACTTJREBS' ASSOCIA- 

 TION. 



The Record trusts that none of its read- 

 ers inferred from its etlitorial which ap- 

 peared in its last issue that it is un- 

 friendly towards the attempt which is be- 

 ing made to bring the manufacturers of 

 hardwood lumber into an association. We 

 heartily approve of such an association, 

 and recognize the great good it can ac- 

 complish. We also recognize the earnest- 

 ness and sincerity with which the effort 

 is being made. We only criticize the spirit 

 of opposition to the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association, Which seemed to us 

 to appear in some of the proceedings. 



There is nothing whatever in the Na- 

 tional Hardwood Lumber Association 

 which need interfere with the organ- 

 ization of the manufacturers into a 

 separate association of their own. In 

 most sections such organizations al- 

 ready exist. The manufacturers of 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana have lo- 

 cal organizations doing effective work for 

 the interests of their members, and all 

 working in perfect harmony, and, in fact, 

 constituting the chief support of the Na- 

 tional association. 



Tbe dealers of the various markets also 

 have their local organizations, with whose 

 proceedings the National' association has 

 nothing whatever to do; in fact, the Na- 

 tional association, as originally organized, 

 and as provided in the original constitu- 

 tion, was to be composed of various local 

 organizations and its constitution was only 

 amended to admit individual members be- 

 cause there were so many manufacturers 

 not affiliated with any local organization. 

 The National association was organized 

 primarily to promote uniformity in the in- 

 spection of hardwood lumber, and that 

 is tbe only tiling it had undertaken to do 

 until at the St. Louis meeting the traffic 

 department was organized, and there is 

 certainly nothing in the effort to establish 

 uniform inspection or to organize a traffic 

 department to look after the freight mat- 

 ters of its members, which need interfere 

 in any way with tbe Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation. Indeed, every local association 

 should lend its heartiest support to this 

 work, which is beyond the province or 

 power of any local association to handle. 

 There is much need of the Manufactur- 

 ers' Association and there is a good future 

 for it, but we believe it made a mistake 

 when it arrayed itself against tbe effort 



which tbe trade has been making through 

 the National association to secure a uni- 

 formity of hardwood inspection. There 

 bas been a great amount of bard and dis- 

 interested work done to promote uniform 

 inspection and the trade is interested in 

 it and will resent any attempt to defeat 

 it. 



There is not a rule in the new rules of 

 the National association which is not al- 

 most entirely the work of the manufactur- 

 ers, with tbe exception of poplar. The 

 reason the National association rules on 

 poplar have not been dictated by the man- 

 ufacturers of poplar is, we believe, due 

 almost entirely to tbe fact that the manu- 

 facturers of poplar have never been rep- 

 resented in the National association to any 

 great extent, and the expressed sentiment 

 of such poplar manufacturers as did be- 

 long to the National association bad al- 

 ways, previous to the St. Louis meeting, 

 been opposed to any change in the old 

 poplar rules. Any one who bas followed 

 the proceedings of tbe National associa- 

 tion with any degree of attention will 

 concede that such is the case. 



The hardwood manufacturers of tbe 

 South unquestionably need an organiza- 

 tion to which every hardwood manufac- 

 turer should belong, and we urge on all our 

 readers who are eligible to membership 

 to join the Hardwood Manufacturers' As- 

 sociation of tbe United States. Let them 

 join and give that association the benefit 

 of their counsel and advice. No manu- 

 facturer has a right to criticize tbe efforts 

 of those engaged in tbe work of organiz- 

 ing tbe Manufacturers' Association so long 

 as he remains at home and refuses to add 

 his efforts to theirs to promote tbe welfare 

 of that branch of the hardwood business 

 in which they are engaged. 



It takes some experience in association 

 work to make a success of a lumber asso- 

 ciation, and it seems to us that the history 

 of past lumber associations is that tbe 

 matter of fixing prices had better be left 

 alone until such a time as a strong or- 

 ganization is affected. Alany a promising 

 association, honestly conceived, bas come 

 to an untimely end by tbe efforts of its 

 promoters to make prices before they were 

 in condition to control production, or to 

 represent aflytbing like a majority of the 

 output. 



The law of supply and demand fixes 

 prices. Whenever the supply overruns the 

 demand there is no association that can 

 maintain prices in the lumber trade. The 

 only associations in the lumber trade, or 

 any other trade, which have been success- 

 ful in conti-olling prices have been those 

 that were strong enough to control and 

 regulate tbe supply. It rather occurs to us 

 that it would be well for the Manufactur- 

 ers Association to perfect its organization 

 to some extent before attempting to con- 

 trol prices, especially at this time, when 

 prices are at tbe high-water mark and the 

 prospects of increased production in some 

 lines are as tbey are. It would need to 

 be a very strong association which would 



