THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



15 



The MaLi\ About Town. 



HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO HARD- 

 WOOD LUMBER EXCHANGE. 



There lias been such a complete chauge 

 in the hanhvood lumber trade in the past 

 five years that onlj- those who were in 

 business previous to that time can under- 

 stand it. Previous to that time there was 

 no organization; now the hardwood trada 

 is as completely organized as any other 

 branch of the lumber trade. The worl^ 

 has all been accomplished within five 

 years, and when one remembers the con- 

 ditions which e-xisted at that time and 

 realizes how much more dithcult it was to 

 organize the hardwood ti-ade than to or- 

 ganize any other department of the lum- 

 ber business, the results reflect much 

 credit on the hardwood lumbermen who 

 undertook the work and carried it to com- 

 pletion. To a hardwood lumberman the 

 hi.story of the work of organization is in- 

 teresting. Our history of the National as- 

 sociation attracted much attention, and at 

 the request of a number of our readers 

 we have concluded to supplement it by a 

 brief history of the minor organizations 

 which each contributed to the success of 

 the general movement. 



I shall begin with the history of the 

 Chicago Hardwood Lumber Exchange be- 

 cause it was in this body that the move- 

 ment for a general organization of the 

 trade began, and it is largely to the steady, 

 persistent, unwavering support of this 

 powerful body that the ultimate succes.? 

 is due. 



Beyond question, Chicago is the largest 

 hardwood lumber market in tlie world. I 

 do not mean that the Chicago hardwood 

 lumbermen handle more hardwoud lum- 

 ber than those of any other marlcet. Cor 

 I do not believe they do, for the Chicago 

 lumbermen handle but a small portion of 

 the hardwood lumber which comes to this 

 market. Nor is Chicago much of a ship- 

 ping point for hardwood lumber. When 

 hardwood lumber comes to Chicago, as a 

 rule its career is at an end. When it 

 leaves Chicago it is in the form of manu- 

 factured goods, furniture, flooring, mold- 

 ing, railway equipment, pianos and or- 

 gans, etc. More hardwood lumber makes 

 its final destination and is manufactured 

 and consumed here than in any other mar- 

 ket. I believe that even Frank Smith of 

 St. Louis will concede that. The claim 

 was once made that Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 •cuts up as much hardwood lumber as Chi- 

 cago does. A lumber paper looked the 

 matter up and presented statistics show- 

 ing that Chicago cuts up more than three 

 times as much hardwood lumber as the 

 entire state of Michigan. 



Tlie foregoing statement is made merely 

 to show what power and influence for 



BY C. D. STRODE. 



good or evil the Chicago Hardwood Lum- 

 ber Exchange, as the governing body of 

 this great market, has; and all who have 

 followed the work of organization of the 

 past five year.? will bear witness that all 

 that power and influence has been on the 

 .side of progress. 



Chicago is so situated that all kinds of 

 hardwoods are marketed here and her 

 lumbermen are about equally interested in 

 the inspection of maple, birch, elm and 

 other hardwoods of the North, and oak, 

 ash, gum and other hardwoods of the 

 South. And yet, in the matter of uniform 

 inspection rules, the Cliieago Exchange 

 has never been contentious. It has in- 

 sisted on only one point— that the lumber- 

 men get together. 



It conceded to the lumbermen of Michi- 

 gan and Wisconsin the right to make the 

 in.spection rules on northern hardwoods 

 and the fight over the inspection of south- 

 ern hardwoods w-as not a Chicago figlit. 

 S^ch influence as the Chicago Exchange 

 exerted was on the side of the producers. 

 • • • 

 In the histoi-y of the National associa- 

 tion we touched on the conditions which 

 prevailed in the trade at the time of the 

 organization of that association. But the 

 tide had turned at that time and things 

 were not at their worst. Tbey were at 

 their -worst two years earlier, when tlie 

 Chicago Hardwood Lumber Exchange was 

 organized. At that time the crganization 

 of the National association would have 

 been impossible. 



At the time the Chicago Hardwood Lum- 

 ber Exchange was organized things were 

 at their worst, and Chicago, being tlie mar- ' 

 ket where the most lumber was sold, the 

 market in which nearly every lumberman 

 in the Mississippi Valley had sold, was 

 selling, or expected to sell, the market 

 which was the dumping ground for every- 

 thing and everybody, things were worse 

 than anywhere else. 



The fact that Chicago is so essential to 

 the hardwood lumber ti'ade, that it is the 

 purchaser and consumer of so much stock 

 for which there is so little market else- 

 where, made the bad state of affairs more 

 noticeable hero, and caused the trade so 

 much loss and aggravation that there was 

 an almost universal howl of execration 

 against the Chicago market. 



And conditions were bad here. Bad in 

 every way, and the worst feature of the 

 whole situation was the lumber newspa- 

 pers. I am out of the lumber newspaper 

 business now, except as a paid contributor, 

 and I wish to state it as my private and 

 personal opinion that I never saw as un- 

 scrupulous and unfair a lot of newspa- 

 pers, representing any line of business, as 



were the Chicago lumber papers at that 

 crisis in the history of the hardwood lum- 

 ber trade. And the worst of that is th.at 

 a man may be wrong in his business meth- 

 ods and it will affect no one except him- 

 self and those with whom he comes in 

 contact in a business way; but when a. 

 newspaper goes wrong it means much 

 more than that. The newspaper has many 

 tongues and talks to many people; and 

 when all those tongues speak evil the re- 

 sult is disastrous. 



The press at that time, instead of at- 

 tacking conditions, attacked individuals, 

 which was of no avail at all, as is evi- 

 denced by the fact that the principal ob- 

 ject of their attack. Mr. M. J. Becker, is, 

 I understand, still doing business in Chi- 

 cago and, I am informed, doing very well. 

 What was needed was such an orsaniza- 

 tion of the trade as would make illegiti- 

 mate practices difficult and unprofitable. 

 For the trouble was not caused entirely by 

 the lumber buyers. Not by any means. 

 Much of it was caused by the ignorance, 

 unreasonableness and even rascality of the 

 shippers. Mr. Hitchcock, at that time 

 publislier of Hardwood, and a very fair- 

 minded and upright man, told me that in 

 90 per cent of the disputed cases which 

 came under his observation during those 

 dark days, the shipper was wrong. That 

 is, he didn't deliver what he had agi-eed 

 to deliver, eitlier because he didn't know 

 how or because he didn't want to; then 

 the buyer, having au advantage, would 

 push it to the utmost. 



Whoever was at fault, however, whether 

 the buyers, the shippers or the newspa- 

 pers, or all of them, conditions were de- 

 plorable, and the hardwood lumbermen of 

 Chicago, or a number of them, realized 

 that something had to be done, and it 

 seemed tliat nothing short of an organiza- 

 tion of the entire hai-dwood trade would 

 avail. T-here was at that time no organi- 

 zation among the hardwood lumbermen of 

 Chicago. There were about a dozen of 

 them belonging to the Lumbermen's As- 

 sociation of Chicago, an association formed 

 by the pine dealers, and a very strong 

 and efficient "organization, so far as the 

 pine business was concerned. When the 

 hardwood lumbermen joined the Lumber- 

 men's association, a hardwood committee 

 was appointed to have jurisdiction over 

 the hardwood trade of Chicago, and it 

 was with this hardwood committee of the 

 Lumbermen's association that the move- 

 ment for a better organization of the trade 

 originated. 



The members of that committee at that 

 time were E. F. Dodge, of P. G. Dodge 

 & Co.. chairman; R. T. Witbeck. of Heath, 

 Witbeck & Co.; L. B. Lesh, of Lesh & 



