i6 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



the Indiana feTades the dealers made no 

 objection. 



Such were the conditions under which 

 the inspection rules of the National asso- 

 ciation for the first two years were 

 offered to the trade; at least, in so far as 

 these rules applied to the hardwoods' of 

 Indiana and the South, aad the action of 

 the Indiana association in adopting those 

 rules was entirely perfunctory and did not 

 mean anything or amount to anything. 

 * * * 

 In the meantime, however, a new condi- 

 tion was growing rapidly out of the old. 

 Consumers of hardwood lumber had heard 

 of the National Hardwood Lumber Asso- 

 ciation and were growing curious about it. 

 They had heard of the movement for uni- 

 form inspection aud of the uniform 

 National rules and wanted to see 

 them. It had not been th« Intention that 

 those niles should fall into the hands' of 

 the consumers, but a salesman anxious for 

 an order is not apt to allow an abstract 

 principle to stand in his way, and any con- 

 sumer that wanted a set of National in- 

 spection rules had little difficulty in .get- 

 ting it; and frequently he got it with the 

 understanding that it was lie^'towed as a 

 special favor, that the rules were not in- 

 tended for him, etc. So that by the time 

 the National association had been In ex- 

 istence a couple of years, the consumers 

 ■were pretty wjell supplied with National 

 rules and had learned that under those 

 rules much of the lumber tiiey were re- 

 ceiving as firsts and t'econds could l>e re- 

 duced to a common grade and had at a 

 common price. 



Just about that time, too, the consumers 

 Tvere having more lumber offered them 

 than they could use and were in a very 

 independent postion. Following the boom 

 times of 1889 there was a period of a year 

 and a half of oversupply of hardwoods, 

 when it was difficult to find oustjmers. 



During that eighteen months. I believe 

 there was? mor? trouble and loss on ac- 

 count of inspection than ever before in 

 the same length of time. Certainly luuch 

 of tliat trouble was caused l>y the National 

 inspection rales, because of their being 

 much more severe than the custom the 

 hardwood trade had established. Instead 

 of being a protection to the hardwood 

 trade, it was through the rules that the 

 trade sustained its greatest los'ses. A 

 lumberman would ship a customer a grade 

 of lumber such as he had been accus- 

 tomed to make, and which had theretofore 

 been satisfactory, and the customer would 

 appl.r the rules of the National association 

 and find 20 per cent or more of lower 

 grade. The lumberman could not call for 

 a reiusipection under the National rules, be- 

 cause he knew tliat under those rules the 

 lower gi'ade was there. Under the old sys- 

 tem, when the customer would apply the 

 Chieago rules, or the St. Louis rales, the 

 shipper could repudiate these rules and 

 declare he would have none of them; but 

 how could he repudiate the rules of the 



Secured Red\iced Insurance Rates. 



II. M. GARDINER, 

 CHICAGO, ILL. 



Mr. Gardiner, who was the chief instru- 

 ment in securing the reduction in hard- 

 wood lumber insurance rates in Chicago, 

 as reported elsewhere in this issue, is the 

 same quiet but industrious worker who 

 has mere than once sho\\-u his value to the 

 lumlier trade. For a period of ten years 

 lie served as assistant secretary of the 

 Lumlierman's Association and in that ca- 

 pacity became thoroughly acquainted with 

 the lumber interest.s of the city and more 

 particularly as to the insurance phases 

 since he was also at the time promoting 

 the welfare of the Lumbermen's ilutual 

 Insurance Company. Two years ago, or a 

 little more, he started out on his own hook 

 and lias built up a lucrative business. This 

 latest conquest which lie accomplished un- 

 aided save by the help of the cl .ak of the 

 Exchange, will save the hardwood lumber 

 yard dealers of Chicago over ¥2,.500 per 

 year, and a natural conclusion would be 

 that :\Ir. Gardiner has sened his own in- 

 terests at the same time. The Kecord in- 

 dorses him and promises the hardwood 

 trade of Chicago that with a little reci- 

 procity they will hear further from him 

 to their own advantage. 



National association of which he way more 

 than likely a member? 



I believe the National association would 

 have been abandoned tlien and there only 

 for the certainty that its rules would sur- 

 vive it. Too much progress had be?n 

 made to stop or turn back, however, and 

 something had to be done. 



* :J: * 



The situation had just began to reach an 

 acute stage when, in April, llXtl, a meet- 

 ing of the Indiana Hardwood Lumber- 

 man's Association was held in Indianapo- 

 lis to outline what would dc asked of the 

 National association at its meeting to be 

 held in Chicago on May 24 and 25. 



I arrived in Indianapolis from Cincinnati 

 shortly after noon and found the Indiana 

 lumbermen holding the 13rst real meeting 

 they had ever held. There were twentj- 

 flve or thiity of the leading hardwood lum- 

 bermen assembled in one of the parlors of 

 the Grand Hotel, and they were an earn- 

 est, not to say an angTy, lot of men. 



The subject of attending the Chicago 

 meeting was under discussion. One lum- 

 berman after another arose in his place 

 and denounced the National association as 

 having done more harm than good. 

 Finally one speaker made a vei-y strong 

 and concise statement of the case, setting 

 foi-tli that the rules of the National associ- 

 ation on oak were merely the old Chicago 

 and St Louis rules combined: that those 

 rules were notoriousl.v unfair to the ship- 

 per; that the National association was 

 dominated by lumber dealers and that it 

 was time for the manufacturers and shiiv 

 pers of lumber to form an association of 



their own and formulate rules _ which 

 would represent the custom of the trade. 

 This? speech was received with great ap- 

 plause and it was evident the speaker had 

 his audience with him. 



President Burkholder, than whom there 

 is no more loyal supporter of the National 

 association, was plainly won-ied by the 

 course of events and called on me to give 

 the members my ideas as to wliat would 

 be done at Chicago. 



While listening to the speeches I had 

 been getting warm under the collar my- 

 self. I couldn't deny but that the Na- 

 tional rules had done more hai-m to the In- 

 diana lumbermen than they had done good; 

 I couldn't deny that those rules, so far as' 

 oak was concerned, were merely a com- 

 pound of the old Chicago and St. Louis 

 rules; that those rules had been made 

 originally by the dealers, and that they 

 were more severe than the custiuii of the 

 country warranted. I agreed witli them 

 so far but disagreed with them as to who 

 was to blame. Of the twenty-five or thirty 

 lunibernieu present there were only three 

 or four I had ever seen at a meeting of the 

 National association, although I knew that 

 there had never been a meeting of the 

 National association to which each of 

 them had not received repeated and urgent 

 invitations; and while I knew, in a general 

 way, that the rales of the National assx)- 

 cation affecting woods manufactured by 

 Indiana lunil>ermeii were not satisfactoi-y, 

 I had never known of the Indiana lumber- 

 men offering a sulistitute for those rules. 

 I knew of one thing which the Indiana 

 lumliermen had no means of knowing. 



