The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIV. 



SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1902. 



No. 7 



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. 8., 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 PACE 25. 



Contributions on stibjects of interest 

 to lumbermen arc invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and otfiers arc re- 

 quested to notify us of changes 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. 



There are some new features in the Imsi- 

 ness situation this \yeek, chie'f of which is 

 the advance in interest rates clue to the 

 great demand for money in the West and 

 Xorthwest. We can usually determine the 

 consideration being given any subject by 

 the public, from the position which the 

 daily papers give to an account of that sub- 

 ject. When consideration of a sul)ject 

 reaches such importance that the great 

 dailies give it a position on the front page, 

 it is a pretty good indication of its im- 

 portance. The subject of the increased 

 demand for money by the West has reached 

 that stage and it is, therefore, worthy of 

 consideration by all business men. 



A late issue of the Chicago Tribune con- 

 tains an article on the subject, giving it a 

 prominent position on tlie front page, con- 

 taining, among other things, interviews 

 with the leading banl;ers as to the cause 

 of this unusual demand for money, and 

 those banliers, without exception, are un- 

 able to account or profess to be unable to 

 account for it. It is still two months, they 

 sa.v. before the usual demand for funds 

 for the purpose of inoving tlie crops, and 

 the fact that the western banlis are draw- 

 ing on the eastern banks for funds de- 

 posited with them is causing the bankers 

 gi'eat surprise. 



It would seem that men who make a 

 study of finance would at least be suf- 

 Heieutly well posted as to conditions that 

 such a large and general movement would 

 not come as a complete surprise, but it is 

 a fact, as we have observed it, that bank- 

 ers as a class see less distance into the 

 future than almost anybody else. 



It seems to us that the movement of 

 money to the West is a very natural move- 

 ment, one to be expected and not at all 

 difficult to account for. The West is not 

 drawing its money from the East because 

 it wishes to bury it. or burn it, or do any- 

 thing with it except to spend it. That is 

 what an individual usually wants with 

 money when he draws it from a bank, and 

 that is what the West, as a whole, wants 

 Avith its money at tins time. 



After people experience such a panic as 

 tliat of 1S93 and drag through the business 

 depression naturally following, it renders 

 them very economical for a period, and 

 when good times return and prosperity 

 rolls in upon them, their first and most 

 natural impulse is to hoard every dollar 

 the.v possibly can. After a number of 

 years of prosperit.v. however, when their 

 accumulations become very large and their 



confidence in the situation very strong, 

 tliey naturall.v look around for further in- 

 vestments, and plan improvements to add 

 to their comfort in living or to increase the 

 capacit.v of their business. 



It is almost impossible to realize the 

 tremendous prosperit.v which has come to 

 the farmers of the West and Middle West 

 (luring the past few years. Prices on cat- 

 tle and hogs in Chicago have been aljove 

 (J cents for about two years, and both cat- 

 tle and hogs are selling at 8 cents in Chi- 

 cago to-da.v. Tliese prices are as against 

 4 cents or thereabouts which was the pre- 

 vailing iHice for a number of years previ- 

 ous. Corn is to-day selling in Chicago at 

 from 85 to 90 cents a bushel. This price 

 is due, to some extent, to manipulation, but 

 December corn, which means the new 

 crop, is selling around 50 cents a bushel, 

 which is nearly 100 per cent advance over 

 the prices prevailing for a number of years 

 previous to the last two years. The price 

 on oats is also increased in about the same 

 proportion. Wheat is the only item on 

 the list which has not made a material ad- 

 vance. These great increases in price, ac- 

 companied by large crops, has made the 

 West rich, and it is l)egiuning to swell out 

 its chest and spend its money. The fact 

 that it is calling for its funds doesn't indi- 

 cate any lack of confidence in the situation, 

 but exactly the reverse. The West has 

 grown rich, especially the farmers, and 

 they want new houses, new barns, new 

 carriages, new pianos, etc. They also 

 want telephones in their houses, trolley 

 cars to pass their doors and so on. They 

 have the money to build and pa.v for them 

 and if the people down East have been 

 using this money to speculate with, to or- 

 ganize trusts, etc., and they are embar- 

 rassed because the farmer wants it, the 

 farmer is sorry, of course, but it is his 

 money. 



The great increase in the deposits in the 

 New York and Boston banks and. in fact, 

 in all the other banks in the country, has 

 come from the farmers, and it belongs to 

 the farmers, which is a condition some- 

 what new in this countr.v, but it seems 

 that almost any close student of condi- 

 tions would have known this and would 

 not have been surprised when they asked 

 for their money. 



One of the best barometers as to con- 

 ditions in the farming districts is the busi- 

 ness of the big mail order houses, such 

 ■ as Montgomery- Ward's and Sears-Roebuck 

 & Co.'s of Chicago. This is u.sually their 

 dull .season, as they deal almost entirely 



