The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIV. 



SaTURDAV, AUGUST 9. 1902. 



No. 9 



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 $t.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. 



/IDVE''T«:i» R 'NTX ON PflOf 2S 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are 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 BTJSIlfESS SITUATION. 



Rusiiu'.ss continues to boom along at a 

 great rate, despite the fact that this is sup- 

 posed to be the dull season of the year. 

 It is our opinion that production and 

 Iirices are both above the normal at pres- 

 ent. This is, we believe, generally con- 

 ceded to be a fact and may be leading the 

 iiinntry into a position from which it will 

 lie difficult for it to extricate itself when 

 less prosperous times come. The profits 

 of all corporations are very large, and, in 

 many cases, the capital .stock of those cor- 

 porations is being increased to a point 

 where it will require indefinite continu- 

 ance of present conditions for that stock 

 to bring fair returns. 



The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 

 Railway is a sample of what we mean. 

 B.v years of wise and conservative man- 

 agement it had been made one of the 

 richest and best paying pieces of railroad 

 property in the United States. "Within the 

 past month, however, the control has 

 passed into new hands, some speculators, 

 with Moore Bros, at their head, having se- 

 cured a majority of the stock of the road, 

 and they are proceeding to reorganize it. 

 For each .^lOO share of the old stock the 

 holder is to be given $100 in mortgages. 

 .$70 in prefen-ed stock and %\i\<i in com- 

 mon stock, which means that Instead of 

 paying dividends on each .flOO of .stock, the 

 road will now be called upon to pay inter- 

 est and dividends on' ."j;270. 



Tlie ob,1ect of the reorganization syndi- 

 cate is not to permanently beneat the 

 stockholders or the road, but to clean up 

 immediate profits. They probably bought 

 a controlling interest in the road at about 

 if 170. Last week the new securities "when 

 issued" were quoted at 4.j bid for the 

 common stock, 82 bid for the preferred 

 stock and 91 bid for the bonds. That is, 

 for each share of stock costing .$170, they 

 will receive securities which have a pres- 

 ent market value of $228. It is conceded 

 that under present conditions the road can 

 pay returns on that amount, but present 

 conditions will scarcely last. 



People in Chicago have an excellent ob- 

 ject lesson in over-capltalizatlou. The 

 Union Ti-aetion Company having an abso- 

 lute monoiMly of surface street car lines 

 of the north and west sides, is unable to 

 pay dividends in spite of the fact that 

 their equipment is taxed to the utmost to 

 take care of the business. It is capitalized 

 to a point where, with all the business it 

 can possibly care for, it can earn nothing 



for its stockholders. Charles T. Yerkes 



squeezed the traction lemon very dry Ije- 

 fore he left Chicago. 



In .spite of such Instances, hoAvever, it 

 is difficult to say when a business in this 

 western country is over-capitalized. The 

 country is developing so rapidly and so 

 enormously that all precedents are value- 

 less. 



The expausion of the iron and steel in- 

 dustry for the present year exceeds by 

 far anything in the history of the coun- 

 try. By figiues issued by the Iron Trade 

 Review, there is in course of construction 

 furnaces which will add to the production 

 of iron and steel 8,500.000 tons per year, 

 aside from any additions made to the ca- 

 pacity of the United States Steel Corpora- 

 tion. All of this new equipment will be 

 available by Jan. 1, 190.3. 



There is no doubt but this is a_ needed 

 increase under present conditions, for there 

 is, at the present time, almost a famine in 

 some lines of iron and steel production and 

 an embarrassing shortage in all lines. 

 When hard times come the weakest will 

 go to the wall. 



During last week the market for farm 

 produce of all kinds was strong, with 

 higher prices on all items except wheat, 

 whicli showed some loss, selling around 

 70 cents. The top price for cash corn for 

 last week was 01 cents for No. 2 yellow. 

 December corn (new crop) was easier at 

 .45 cents. The top price for cattle was 

 .$8.85. Hogs were lower, closing Saturday 

 at $7.82. Still, there is no reason why 

 farmers should starve at those figures. 



Business in lumber continues in large 

 volume, at strong prices, except in yellow 

 pine. Avhich is considerably weaker. 



In hardwoods the situation is satisfac- 

 tory all along the line. Tlie southern 

 woods are in very short .nipply throughout 

 the producing territory, and sellers are not 

 crowding the market, and although this 

 is usually the dull season of the year, prices 

 are well maintained. In northern hard- 

 woods the situation is very satisfactory. 

 Producers report this season's cut of maple 

 as practically all sold, except in the No. 3 

 common grade, and the close of navigation 

 will find the shipping yards cleaned up in 

 better shape than at any time in several 

 years. Birch and elm are in larger sup- 

 ply and are being offered by shippers to 

 some extent, lint tiiken all around, the en- 

 tire hardwood situation could scarcely be 

 better. 



