14 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



The Mstrv About Town. 



HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL HARD- 

 WOOD LUMBER ASSOCIATION. 

 (CONTINUED.) 

 Oue curious thing about tlie efforts 

 wliicli Lave been made dui-ing tbe past tive 

 years to organize the hardwood lunilier 

 trade has been the opijosition which that 

 movement has always met with from Mr. 

 J. E. Defebaugh. whose position, first as 

 editor of the Timberman, and later of the 

 American Lumberman, has enabled him to 

 wield a strong influence. From the very 

 beginning of the movement Mr. Defebaugh 

 has oppo.sed it, openly when he dared, 

 secretly when he must, but opposed it Mfe 

 has with all his power from the beginning. 

 Why he should have done and still con- 

 tinues to do this is incomprehensible ex- 

 cept to those very familiar with his char- 

 acter. It is not my desire to enter into a 

 discussion of the motives which have 

 prompted his course, but those who have 

 been most active in promoting the inter- 

 ests of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association will all bear testimony that 

 they have met that opposition at every 

 turn. 



When the first meeting of the National 

 association was so unexpectedly successful 

 in agreeing upon a set of inspection rules, 

 and the prospects for the St. Louis meet- 

 ing were good, Mr. Defebaugh made his 

 first open move in opposition. He issued 

 a call for a meeting of the manufactur- 

 ers of hardwood lumber to be held in St. 

 Louis, immediately after the meeting of 

 the National association. This call was 

 issued on the letter head of the Timber- 

 man and as a result of that call a meet- 

 ing was held in St Louis on aiay 10, 1898. 

 five days after the first annual meeting of 

 the National association, for the purpose of 

 erecting a rival organization. 



This meeting was not largely attended, 

 there only being twelve hardwood lumber- 

 . men present. They wore, however, repre- 

 sentative men of large interests and it was 

 hoped that succeeding meetings would be 

 more successful. It was to be an organiza- 

 tion composed exclusively of manufactur- 

 ers as opposed to the National association, 

 membership in which was open to both 

 manufacturers and dealers. 



This meeting resulted in the organiza- 

 tion of the Mississippi Valley Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association, with C. A. 

 Ward of Chicago as president. A constitu- 

 tion and by-laws was adopted and other 

 steps talieu to give the association a foun- 

 dation. 



The attendance at St. Louis being small 

 it was decided to call another meeting to 

 be held in Chicago on .Tuly 19. At the 

 Chicago meeting only six firms were rep- 

 resented, but steps were taken to push the 

 organization. Money was subscribed, a 

 secretary was appointed and put on the 

 road to solicit membership. 



After about six months another meeting 

 of the Mississippi Valley Manufacturers' 

 Association was held at Memphis, but in 

 spite of the utmost efforts of the secretary 

 and others interested, tlie meeting was only 

 very lightly attended and the association 

 never held another meeting. 



This association, however, made but lit- 

 tle effort in the direction of preparing in- 

 spection rules. An inspection committee 

 was appointed and did some work, but 

 the trade never seemed to take much inter- 

 est and no set of rules was ever placed be- 

 fore the pul)lic. The central idea of the or- 

 ganizers of this association was to bring 

 the manufacturers of hardwood lumlrer 

 into a combination, somewhat similar to 

 a trust, for the purpose of marketing the 

 product of the manufacturers through a 

 central selling body directly to the con- 

 sumers. This Idea was not popular and the 

 association died out without having any 

 perceptible influence upon the trade. 



It was promoted by Mr. Defebaugh in a 

 spirjt of animosity, and there being no 

 special reason for its existence, apparently, 

 other than that of Mr. Defebaugh's desire 

 to use it, and no demand for its services 

 from anybody, it could not, of course, pros- 

 per. It is hard enough to make an asso- 

 ciation a success when there is a popular 

 demand for its services; when it comes to 

 attempting to push an association for 

 which there is no popular demand it be- 

 comes an almost impossible task. 

 •^ ± » 

 On November 3, 1898. the Srst semi- 

 annual meeting of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association was held at Cincin- 

 nati. The attendance was unexpectedly 

 large and the interest manifested in the 

 proceedings was very great. The liberal- 

 minded men of all branches of the trade 

 were beginning to recognize the advantages 

 which might come to the trade through 

 the National association and they flocked 

 to the Cincinnati meeting in large numbers 

 from all sections of the country, the East 

 being especially well represented. 



Nothing of especial importance trans- 

 pired at this meeting. The rules were 

 gone over again and F. H. Smith of St. 

 Louis, at that time chairman of the rules 

 committee, presided over what was prob- 

 ably one of the most interesting meetings 

 of that committee ever held. The trade 

 had apparently just grasped the possibili- 

 ties of the situation and everybody at the 

 convention seemed to have a different idea 

 as to what uniform inspection rules should 

 be. After listening to the eloquence of the 

 different members for a few hours, Mr. 

 Smith realized the impossibility of secur- 

 ing any results under that system and 

 rvded that any suggestions for changes 

 in the rules should be submitted to the 

 committee in writing. This stopped the 



flow of oratory and left the committee 

 some time in which to revise the rules. 

 The rule thus established, of requiring sug- 

 gestions for changes to be submitted in 

 writing to the committee, has been gen- 

 erally followed ever since and is, in fact, 

 tlie only possible plan under which a com- 

 mittee can make any headway. A good 

 many members may have felt more or less 

 aggrieved at times that tliey were not per- 

 mitted to appear before the committee per- 

 sonally, but if they bear iu mind the fact 

 that if the privilege is accorded them, it 

 must also be accorded to the remaining 

 members of the National association, they 

 will appreciate the ditticultics of tlie situa- 

 tion and acknowledge that the ruling is 

 correct. 



The first semi-annual meeting held at 

 Cincinnati was chiefly notable for its un- 

 expectedly large attendance and for the 

 character of the firms represented. No es- 

 pecial advance was made iu the revision of 

 the rules, that revision being largely along 

 the line of correcting and finishing the 

 work done at the St. Louis meeting six 

 months before. 



Up to that time the making of hardwood 

 inspection rules had been almost entirely 

 in the hands of the lumber dealers, and the 

 rules which had been made had invariably 

 been more severe and called for a higher 

 grade than it was the custom of the coun- 

 try to make. No one made a grade accord- 

 ing to the rules of any market unless he 

 was caught in a position where he could 

 not help himself. So strong had been the 

 custom in the matter of making rules that 

 the National association at the Cincinnati 

 meeting made a set of rules far above the 

 level on which the trade was actually do- 

 ing business. So strong was the feeling 

 that that was the thing to do tliat had any- 

 one at that meeting of the National asso- 

 ciation proposed a set of rules upon which 

 the members of the association could and 

 would do the bulk of their business, he 

 would have been almost universally con- 

 demned, both by the manufacturer aud 

 dealer. 



So that the rules adopted at the Cincin- 

 nati meeting were like the rules which 

 had been adopted by different organizations 

 in the central markets ever since rules 

 have been adopted at all. A shipper might 

 settle on those rules if he were caught in 

 a tight place, but he would not sell upon 

 them if he could possibly avoid it. That 

 was the idea of making rules in those days, 

 however, and the trade considered them 



prctt.v good rules. 



« £ * 



So the Cincinnati meeting ad.iourned 



with the members heartily congratulating 



each other on the spirit and harmony of the 



meeting, and. in fact, there was much 



ground for congratulation in that the hard- 



