THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



13 



get an order if be could. If he got an 

 order, which he very rarely did, he would 

 count that sufficient, and if he did not gat 

 an order would evidently conclude there 

 was no use trying further. He would, 

 however, stay in the phice long enough 

 to have worlicd the town, but evidently 

 spending his time loafing: and then reiiort 

 he couldn't get any business. 



The lumberman had found a number of 

 tlieir former customers who had not been 

 called on in three months, and who joli- 

 ingly said they supposed he had gone out 

 of business. He piclied up a good lot of 

 orders, but he was sore; and when he 

 meets that salesman there will be things 

 doing. 



Selling lumber, or, for that matter', sell- 

 ing anything, on the road. Is hard work — 

 the very hardest kind of work. A man 

 must be keyed up to the top notch of alert- 

 ness and determination all the time, and 

 it's miglity wearing; but the mau who 

 can't stand it has no business mion the 

 road. 



His boss not being present, the temp- 

 tation for a man to shirk and skip the 

 disagreeable tasks are very great, and 

 there are very few salesmen, we believe, 

 who do not yield to it to some extent. 

 But that isn't the way to get business. 

 The salesman gets business very often 

 where he least expects it, and everybody 

 in his line should be called on. But for 

 the mau who really lays himself out to 

 get orders, it's mighty hard work. 



We say the "man who really lays him- 

 self out to get an order," because there 

 arc different ways of calling on the trade. 

 Some men merely go about, it seems, in 

 a perfunctory way. They call, present 

 their cards, ask if anything in their line 

 is wanted, get turned down and go away. 

 A salesman may get over a lot of territoiy 

 in that way and not work very hard — but 

 he won't get many orders. 



Another salesman will start out of a 

 morning, keyed up for business. He braces 

 himself to meet and overcome each pros- 

 pective customer, and make him give up 

 an order; and each visit x'esults in an 

 easy victory or a hard fight, which may 

 result in victory or may not. That's the 

 kind of work that gets business, but, dear 

 reader, it's the hardest work in the world. 

 If you -have such a salesman as that, 

 we hope you appreciate him; and after 

 he has put in a day of that kind of work 

 we hope you don't require him to fill out 

 one of those big report sheets, telling on 

 whom he has called and what each man 

 said. 



The man who really gets Inisiness does 

 not, as a rule, call on very many people 

 in a day, and pays might little attention 

 to what is said to him if he doesn't get 

 the business. What he wants is orders. 



It is our observation that he who is good 

 at making excuses isn't good for mucli 

 else, and nothing disgusts a really good 

 salesman so much as having to make out 



one of those reports. The fellow who has 

 sat around the hotel all day, or gone from 

 place to place handing out cards like a 

 man passing bills, can beat him to death 

 at it. A salesman of the latter class has, 

 we believe, that report in his mind all 

 day and thinks more of it than he does 

 of getting an order. We do not under- 

 stand that tlie salesman referred to at the 

 beginning of this article had to make out 

 a report, but if he had been required to do 

 so, it would no doubt have been a good 

 one. 



The really good salesman will not give 

 up as long as there is any show for an 

 order at all. He makes a finish fight evei-y 

 time, but if he fails he can't see much 

 sense wasting time telling what the poor 

 man said. Nothing counts, with him. but 

 orders. 



GRO"WTH OF THE VENEER BUSINESS. 



As hardwood timber liecomes scarcer 

 and of poorer quality it is but natural that 

 the business of rnaking and using veneers 

 should expand; and it is expanding at a 

 great rate. It has now become a large and 

 important section of the lumber trade. 



Who the genius was who first thought 

 of using a thin covering of quartered oak 

 to hide a cheap taole top we don't know, 

 but he laid the foundation of a big busi- 

 ness and confen'ed a great boon on a very 

 deserving class of people. 



It is possible now for people of moderate 

 income to put on a good deal of style in 

 the way of furniture, etc., and that is a 

 good thing. Even a newspaper man may 

 flash a quartered oak chiffonier upon the 

 people, and have a. center taWe with a 

 fancy top for the price of three or four 

 subscriptions, and anything which permits 

 of the beautiful and esthetic being brought 

 within the reach of the poor, hard-driven 

 and downtrodden of the earth is worthy 

 of commendation. 



Incidentally the veneer business lias af- 

 fected the hardwood lumber business in 

 divers ways. Throughout certain sections 

 the veneer mills have advanced the price 

 of high-class logs until they are out of 

 the reach of those who manufacture lum- 

 ber and the lumber trade loses the profits 

 which would accrue from making those 

 logs into lumber; but the veneer business 

 has also made a profitable market for a 

 large amount of inferior stock, of which 

 we are producing a constantly increasing 

 quantity. On the whole, we believe the 

 veneer business is more of a benefit to the 

 lumber trade than a detriment, although 

 the lumbermen of Indiana and Ohio may 

 not agree with us. 



Whether it is a benefit or a detriment, 

 however, is of little consequence now. The 

 veneer business is here to stay and the 

 situation must be accepted and made the 

 most of. If the competition of the veneer 

 people becomes too strong, the manufac- 

 turer of lumber can do what some have 

 already done— put in some veneer saws. 



Such action gives the lumberman the ad- 

 vantage, as he can then buy a straight 

 run of timber and utilize all of it. His 

 best logs he may cut into veneers and with 

 the inspection rules of the National asso- 

 ciation adjusted as they are at present, the 

 balance of the product will still make a 

 pretty good showing. 



There are people who object to veneered 

 furnitin-e because of its lacli of genuine- 

 ness, but in our opinion a cheap table is 

 all the better for a genteel coating of ve- 

 neer. It really makes the table better and 

 is certainly more sightly, on the same prin- 

 ciple that a cheap man is all the better 

 for a nicely finished veneer of good man- 

 ners and good clothes, even though it 

 doesn't deceive many people nor hide the 

 fact that he is really only a basswood man 

 after ail. 



THE ANNUAL HOO-HOO. 



In a letter from Frank N. Snell, chair- 

 man of committee on arrangements for 

 the eleventli annual Hoo-Hoo meeting at 

 Milwaukee, he says: "We have a splendid 

 program arranged and have the money 

 raised to carry it out. We will be ready 

 to take care of every Hoo-Hoo coming 

 here for the meeting, and Ave are looking . 

 for a big attendance. We are making spe- 

 cial preparations for the entertainment of 

 the ladies who will be here, so as to make 

 their visit to Milwaukee pleasant and at- 

 tractive, and we know that all those of 

 the male persuasion will have a good time 

 in our city during the meeting and an 

 much longer as we can prevail upon them 

 to stay with us." 



MEETING OF THE TRAFFIC COM- 

 MITTEE. 



The traffic eo.nimittee of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association held a 

 called meeteing at the offices of the traffic 

 manager, Mr. \v. D. Ilnrlbut, at 670 Old 

 Colony Building, Chicago, on Tuesday, 

 August 5. The full committee was pres- 

 ent, as follows: 



W. H. Russe, Memphis, Tenn. 



Fred. W. Upham, Chicago, 111. 



.T. i\I. BuUard, St. Louis, Mo. 



C. R. Mengel, Louisville, Ky. 



P. M. Possell, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Mr. Hurlbut made a report, showing 

 satisfactory progress, and stating that he 

 had, so far, been able to accomplish a 

 good deal that was of benefit to the trade. 



One thing was the wiping out of the 

 reconsigning charges at St. Louis. Here- 

 tofore reconsigning of lumber brought to 

 St. Louis had been allowed, but on such a 

 basis as cost the lumbermen of St. Louis 

 aljout 1% cents per 100 pounds, amounting 

 to about 65 or 70 cents per 1,000 feet. By 

 the efforts of the traffic department, lum- 

 ber may now be brought to St. Louis and 

 reconsigned on a through rate. This will 

 afford the St. Louis trade much relief aufl 

 Mr. Hurlbut is now working on other mat- 



