12 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



that a business man is so lost to all sense 

 of decency as to prove unworthy. 



The Chicago lumbermen have just been 

 made the victims of such a man, how- 

 ever, and we consider . that the trade 

 should know of it. The S. Grollman 

 Company was engaged in tlie manufacture 

 of piano stools at East Tolleston, Ind., 

 iTud doing a business which was" appar- 

 ently prosperous, and the lumbermen of 

 Chicago extended them a credit of several 

 thousands of dollars. Then all at once 

 the company failed; the factory was put 

 up at auction, and bid in by Mr. GroU- 

 jnan's brother-in-law for a small sum. 

 Mr. Grollman took advantage of the bank- 

 xiipt law and unless his creditors can find 

 a way to prevent, will be free to start into 

 business again. The assets of the defunct 

 S. Grollman Company would, it is alleged 

 Ijay about 30 cents on the dollar of the 

 merchandise claims, but it seems that the 

 company has floated approximately $200,- 

 000 of notes, which are now outstanding 

 and unpaid. In fact, it seems that the 

 manufacturing of piano stools -was very 

 much of a side issue, the main business 

 of the firm appearing to be to float paper. 

 Mr. Grollman says he cannot remember 

 what was done with the proceeds of those 

 notes, except that some of them were 

 issued as "accommodation" paper. The 

 creditors who furnished merchandise to 

 the company are now endeavoring to have 

 the $200,000 of accommodation paper 

 thrown out, and Jlr. Grollman boimd over 

 to the grand jury. 



The examination of Mr. Grollman before 

 the referee in bankruptcy afforded one of 

 the most pitiable exhibitions we ever saw. 

 He couldn't remember anything. He had 

 borrowed money of relatives, but couldn't 

 remember how much nor when. He had 

 received, just prior to his failure, $500, 

 from Sears, Roebuck & Co. in payment for 

 merchandise, and had made no account of 

 it, as he paid it to his brother-in-law. The 

 stubs of his check books were gone, he 

 didn't know where, etc. 



It is apparently a very bad piece of busi- 

 ness, and while the Chicago creditors may 

 get some satisfaction by prosecuting Mr. 

 Grollman, he will not. probably, mind that 

 S50 long as he is enabled to hang on to the 

 money. 



The trouble about such a piece of busi- 

 ness is that it destroys confidence and 

 the man who is really ti'ylng to do a 

 sti'aightfoi'O'ard business has to suffer. 

 The S. Grollman Company was niv 

 l^arently doing a safe, though small, busi- 

 ness, and had little difliculty in going 

 about in such a city as Chicago among 

 the banks and uotebrokers and discount- 

 ing their paper. It may be done without 

 anyone knowing about it and a Chicago 

 merchant is put to his wits' ends to know 

 •whom to credit, and one result of the 

 Grollman episode will be that a good 

 many business men wlio are really entitled 

 to credit will be denied. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT COM- 

 BINE. 



One of the most recent, as well as one 

 of the largest, combinations in the coun- 

 ti-y. and one which concerns the hardwood 

 trade, was effected in the organization of 

 the International Harvester Company, 

 with a capital stock of $120,000,000. Ao- 

 ' cording to the statements published in the 

 daily press the company is a merging of 

 the McCormick Harvester Machine Com- 

 pany, the Deering Harvester Company, 

 the Piano Jlanufacturing Company, the 

 Milwaukee Harvester Company and ^Yar- 

 der, Bushnell & Glessner Company, five 

 of the largest manufacturers of agricul- 

 tural implements in the United States. 



The avowed object of this combination 

 is that it may not be necessary to ad- 

 vance the price of harvesting machinery to 

 the farmers. Everything which enters 

 into the manufacture of harvesting ma- 

 chinery has advanced in price in the past 

 few years, and if the price of the imple- 

 ments Is not to be cut a cut is necessary 

 somewhere; and the new company pro- 

 poses to make the cut where it will be felt 

 tlie least— in the sales department. Auyono 

 at all conversant with the expense which 

 the competition of these great houses has 

 put upon the selling of their product will 

 realize the great saving which can be r-f- 

 fected by concerted action. We have no 

 definite figures on the matter, but we be- 

 lieve, as a result of our information and 

 observation, that 25 per cent, at least, of 

 the total price received from the farmer 

 for a harvester was absorbed by the sell- 

 ing agents. They would chase a farmer 

 ' across the fields, through the woods and 

 up a tree with the daring and persistency 

 of a sewing machine peddler. The elimi- 

 nation of this big item of expense will 

 mean a large addition to the profits of the 

 combination and will give the farmers a 

 mucii-needed rest. 



As a business proposition, the combina- 

 tion seems a sound and promising one. It 

 has control of most of the valuable patent.^, 

 has unlimited capital, and should make 

 one of the strongest institutions in the 

 country. Their capitalization not only 

 represents their combined manufacturing 

 capacity, but extensive timber and mining 

 properties, and their machinery is mar- 

 keted in all parts of the world. 



As for that portion of their business in 

 which the readers of tlie Record are most 

 interested— namely, the purchase of s<ip- 

 plies, we are not as yet informed. There 

 is, it seems to us, but one way for an in- 

 stitution of such magnitude to purchase 

 its supplies of hardwood lumber, and that 

 is on the inspection of the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association. Such action 

 will give every hardwood lumberman .in 

 opportunity to bid intelligently and will 

 result to the -benefit of the combination. 

 It is a line of business for wtoich all mem- 

 bers of the association are certainly enti- 

 tled to compete, and in the interest of the 



association and the trade at large we 

 trust such an arrangement may be made. 



A FALL CAMPAIGN. 

 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has returned 

 from Eiu'ope, so the press dispatches state, 

 in excellent health and spirits, and will 

 now proceed to do a lot of work. There 

 are several things which he considers 

 about his size lying around waiting for 

 him to give them some attention. 



In the first place, Mr. Charles W. 

 Schwab, head of the Steel Trust, is re- 

 IKirted to have liroken down in health, 

 which goes to show tliat he has been over- 

 rated. A man of unsound body has no 

 business at the head of the Steel Trust, 

 and if he had a sound body, but not sense ■ 

 enough to protect it and Avork as he could 

 stand it, he certainly hasn't capacity 

 enough to hold his' present position. It 

 has seemed to us that we have observed 

 symptoms of wabbling in Mr. Schwab's 

 mentality before this. His gambling es- 

 capades in Europe last winter seemed 

 rather inconsistent with the dignity of Ills 

 position. The Record is not hypercritial 

 nor inclined to throw bricks at people 

 without just and sufficient cause, but when 

 a man undertakes to be president of a 

 Steel Ti-ust much is expected of him. 



It is reported that ilr. Morgan will take 

 care of the trust until such time as M'r. 

 Schwab either returns to work or another 

 is secured to take his place. Mr. Morgan 

 will probably haVe s'ome diffioulty getting 

 a good man for Jlr. Schwab's place, for it 

 isn't every day that a man appears on the 

 surface of events who is capable of hand- 

 ling a two billion dollar trust, about 2.5 

 per cent of which is water. Everybody 

 has the fullest confidence, however, that 

 until such time as a substitute can be se- 

 cured, Mr. Morgan will, among other 

 thjngs, keep the Steel Trust running satis- 

 factorily. 



Then there is the coal strike, which 

 Mr. M'organ is expected to settle. At least 

 the press disptitches so state and there is 

 a large section of our population who be- 

 lieve he can do it and would be pleased 

 to have him try. With coal at .$10 a ton 

 and winter but a month or two away the 

 consumer isj beginning to take an active 

 personal interest in the coal strike. The 

 coal trust will probably not let us freeze, 

 and there is a growing impression that one 

 reason the sti'ike has not been sooner set- 

 tled is that the trust had a large surplus 

 stock on which the strike enables them to 

 advance the price. 



Mr. Morgan will also, it is said, give 

 the matter of consulidating all the rail- 

 roads south of the Ohio River under one 

 management immediate attention. Like- 

 wise a good big block of the railroads 

 north of the Ohio. To accomplish these 

 worthy undertakings! he will need to es- 

 tablish a Northern Securities Company and 

 a Southern Securities Company, control 

 several state legislatures, and it may even 



