The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIV. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1902. 



No. 13 



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. S., Canada and Mexico $1.00 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. 



ADVERTISING INDEX ON PAGE 25. 



THE BUSINESS SITUATION. 



Business is buouiiiig aloug at about as 

 higli pressure as ever, but to our way of 

 tliinliing it is far from being on a sound 

 basis. Mercliants are crowded with more 

 business than tliey can handle, factories 

 and foundries are behind with orders, rail- 

 road earnings are heavy and the October 

 dividends, being declared by many of the 

 corporations, are satisfactory; but in spite 

 of all, the shrewd business man looks upon 

 the situation with more or less distrust. 

 In spite of all the rush and bustle of high 

 pressure prosperity there are many rea- 

 sons to believe that a sharp reaction is 

 coming in a short time, and the sooner 

 it comes the better. 



The selling of English steel in Chicago 

 is a matter of much significance. Under 

 normal conditions this country is an ex- 

 porter of steel. Under normal conditions 

 we produce more steel than we consume, 

 but at present an abnormal demand has 

 caused such am advance in prices that 

 English steel can pay the freight and 

 tariff charges and be delivered in Chi- 

 cago at a profit. This means that with a 

 return of normal conditions the price of 

 steel must decline sufficiently to absorb 

 all those charges and more before Amer- 

 ican steel can undersell English steel in 



the oi)en market. That will mean a tre- 

 mendous shrinkage, which will need be 

 disti'ibuted through many channels, to the 

 railroads, ore field.s. steel plants and the 

 laboring people; and the process of dis- 

 tribution is liable to jar things consider- 

 ably. 



And the conditions which exist in the 

 steel trade exist in almost all lines of 

 Inisiness. Everything is on an inflated 

 l>asis and the time is due for the people 

 to come to their senses, and the sooner the 

 better, because the higher things go, the 

 liarder they will hit the ground when the 

 foundation gives way. That things can 

 continue as they are even the most op- 

 timistic do not expect. The reaction is 

 only a question of time, and the sooner it 

 roiues, the less disastrous it will be. 



(Ine especially bad feature of the pres- 

 ent situation, it seems to us, is tlie extent 

 to which the control of the business of the 

 lountry has passed Into the hands of spec- 

 ulators and gamblers. The greatest in- 

 dustries of the country, upon whose wise 

 and conservative management the happi- 

 ness and prosperity of many of our citi- 

 zens depend, as made the stakes in their 

 crazy games of chance in a manner almost 

 l)eyon(l l>elief. Tihey are reorganized and 

 consolidated and bonded and mortgaged 

 until their own father wouldn't know 

 them. Then they are unloaded uiwn the 

 credulous public as something new and 

 strange and wonderful. There was never 

 anything like it in the world before, and 

 the gi-ave financiers of Europe are looking 

 on in astonishment and wondering with 

 what sti-ange new virus of folly the 

 American people have become inoculated. 

 There will come an end of all tills some 

 day soon. Their gigantic operations were 

 only rendered lyossible by the concentra- 

 tion of all the great wealth of this great 

 country into Wall street, but the money 

 belongs to the people, and not to Wall 

 street, and the people, not liking the looks 

 of things— beginning already to doubt the 

 soundness of their wonderful Morgans and 

 Moores and Harrimans — began to with- 

 draw their money from Wall street, and 

 the Wall street bankers began to put the 

 screws on the gamblers, money mounting 

 to from 4 to 20 per cent. Then, to avert 

 a panic the government was forced to 

 come to the relief of Wall street. The 

 relief is only temporary, however, and all 

 the money in the United States treasury 

 will not save the gamblers from ultimate 

 annihilation. 



There is an old Greek saying to the 

 effect that whom the Gods would destroy 

 they first make mad, and M'organ and his 

 kind have surely gone mad. They have 

 had such success in blowing up their bub- 

 bles and building their wind palaces that 

 they have evidently become possessed of 

 the idea that they are omnipotent, and 

 have even declared through the news- 

 papers which they control that Theodore 

 Roosevelt is not a safe president and that 

 they sliall defeat him for the nomination 

 for tlie presidency if possible, and if that 

 is not possible they will nominate a "safe" 

 man on the Democratic ticket and elect 

 him. 



They want safe men now— quiet men— 

 and must have them, because any noise or 

 concussion is liable to prove disastrous to 

 their bubbles. Everybody must keep mighty 

 still— mighty still— and because President 

 Roosevelt made a few very conservative 

 speeches, in which he mildly said that it 

 might be well to enact some legislation 

 which would enable the people to control 

 the trusts, ratlier than that the trusts 

 should control the people and set their will 

 at naught, as in the case of the coal trust, 

 Wall street threw half a dozen fits, and 

 in order to prevent a collapse at an in- 

 opportune time Mr. Roosevelt had to get 

 a sore leg and go home. 



It may strike you that we are a trifle 

 hard on the gamblers and speculators— 

 the Morgans, the Moores and the balance 

 of them— but we believe that what we are 

 saying is mild and conservative to what 

 you will be saying in a year or two. 



To sum up the situation, we state that 

 business continues good, demand strong 

 and prices as high as ever, or higher, but 

 that in our opinion this is a good time 

 to sail close to shore. You won't make 

 any mistake in so doing. There is a large 

 crop of corn coming in which bids fair 

 to bear a good price, and present condi- 

 tions may hold another year, or someone 

 may throw a brick and start something 

 most amy time. 



Everything is on too high a basis, and 

 we doubt if it is possible for things to 

 ease off gradually. 



In the meantime business is mighty 

 good. 



After an adjournment of several months 

 tlie Cincinnati Lumbermen's Club will re- 

 sume its regular monthly meetings. The 

 date set upon for the first one of the season 

 is Monday, October 13. 



