14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 10. 1922 



the Hoover conference program would relieve the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association of the administration of grading and 

 inspection rules for hardwood lumber. 



Immediately this consideration is brought into view internecine 

 war is suggested. Will the National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion permit, without a fight, the supersession of its function of 

 grading and inspection of hardwoods! It seems hardly possible. 

 Then, if there is to be a tight, as there undoubtedly will be, how 

 will the members of the industry align themselves? The National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association is composed both of manufacturers 

 and wholesalers. Will the manufacturers in this association leave 

 it and join the forces committed to a national organization of 

 hardwood manufacturers, administering grading and inspection 

 rules for hardwood lumber? Or will they refuse to join this move- 

 ment to enforce the Hoover program? Or will some of them join 

 and some of them stand by the National? A multitude of such 

 questions arise. 



Should only the membership of the American Hardwood Manu- 

 facturers' Association (numbering between two and three hundred 

 manufacturers, the most powerful single group of hardwood manu- 

 facturers in the country) support the so-called Hoover program 

 there would be force enough for a considerable war. But the situa- 

 tion is further complicated by the fact that many manufacturers 

 who belong to the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 are also members of the National Hardwood Lumber Association. 

 How will these manage to choose their side of the field? What 

 will be the attitude, of the Government, as represented by the 

 Department of Commerce? Will the Government undertake to 

 compel the submission of those who may see fit to stand out against 

 the proposal to establish a strictly manufacturers' national hard- 

 wood inspection system? It has been repeatedly reported that 

 Secretary Hoover is averse to governmental compulsion in these 

 matters. But it is the policy of the Government at all times, and 

 has been suggested in this particular, to employ its power to relieve 

 situations deemed subversive to public interest. How long will it 

 be before the Government will discover that the hardwood civil 

 war, now apparently inevitable, has become subversive to public 

 interest? When it arrives at this conclusion will it align its powers 

 with the protagonists of the manufacturers ' movement or with 

 those who elect to battle for the perpetuation of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association and its wholesalers-manufacturers' 

 grading and inspection method? 



Any one at all familiar with the history of the hardwood lum- 

 ber industry for the last quarter century knows that there has been 

 an unceasing contest between the adherents to the idea of exclu- 

 sively manufacturers' rules and those who support the rules con- 

 trolled by wholesalers and manufacturers co-operatively. The con- 

 test has gone on even within the ranks of the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association, the contestants raging across the field of 

 battle year after year, with victory oscillating between the camps. 

 First one group and then the other of manufacturers set up rules 

 and attempt to administer them for the whole industry. The latest, 

 strongest and most tenacious group of manufacturers to do this is 

 the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. But nearlv 



three years ago a compromise was effected, and it seemed that the 

 busy hatchet would be given its allotted "six feet of eaith." The 

 directors of the National association waived their copyright to the 

 National rules, and these were adopted by the American associa- 

 tion, the understanding being that the latter association, as well 

 as the National, might administer the National rules. A year later 

 the majority report of the inspection rules committee of the 

 National, presented by the then chairman, John W. McClure, stated 

 that the long enduring hope of uniform inspection ' ' has been 

 realized. Uniform inspection rules for hardwood lumber is an 

 accomplished fact." But at the same convention (1920) at which 

 this report was made this resolution was adopted: 



' ' Whereas, After an experiment of nearly one year there is no 

 evidence of progress toward greater uniformity in inspection as a 

 result of the permission granted by this association to the American 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association to print the copj'righted 

 rules of inspection of the National Hardwood Lumber Association, 

 but that the results attained are entirely subversive of the objects 

 which this association sought to accomplish by that action, by 

 reason of the fact that a dual application of the rules is wholly 

 impracticable and impossible. 



"Therefore, be it resolved, That a demand is hereby made upon 

 the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association to discontinue 

 the application of the rules of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association as an ofiScial basis for the issuance of any form of 

 inspection certificates purporting to be based upon National Hard- 

 wood Association rules. ' ' 



Presumably this was the trumpet which aroused anew the cohorts 

 to battle. Whether or not the call for a mass meeting of manu- 

 facturers to promote the Hoover program is an issue of that briefly 

 lulled and soon renewed conflict it would be the veriest temerity 

 to insinuate. But it is evident that there is going to be more 

 serious strife within the hardwood industry, whether it be another 

 battle of the old war or the first battle of a new. 



Without presuming to examine the merits of the conflict, it seems 

 proper to regret that this must be so. It is regrettable that the 

 industry can not be united in a single bond of co-operative interest. 

 But it may be that there are interests and ideas involved which are 

 irreconcilable, as were the interests of the Slave and Free states 

 in the Civil War. Thus, if the conflict is "irrepressible," the 

 strong will have to enforce their will upon the weak. In the mean- 

 time, of course, there will be war, and, as General Sherman once 

 remarked, "War is hell!" 



By way of afterthought, and assuming that the manufacturers 

 who meet in Louisville will be successful in setting up another 

 system of National inspection, the war will take the form of the 

 struggle of the new system for recognition against the prestige 

 accumulated by the present National Inspection Service over a 

 period of twenty-five years. The outcome of this struggle will 

 depend largely on the attitude which the consumers assume toward 

 the new system. The consumers, as we see it, hold the balance of 

 power, and if they accept the new system it will succeed. If not, 

 it will not be able to overcome the lead held by the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association. 



Table of Contents 



REVIEW AND OUTLOOK: 



General Market Conditions 13 



Long Haidwood Inspection Rules War Enters a New Phase 13 & 14 



SPECIAL ARTICLES: 



Hoover Meeting Idea Will Be pushed 16-17 



Rate Cut Applied to Southern Hardwoods 19 & 22 



Chicago Is Getting Ready for Mid-Summer Furniture Market 3S 



Executive Committee Arranges for National Veneer and Plywood 



meeting 36 



THE EXECUTIVES' ROUND TABLE: 



Comments on Proposed Hardwood S£des Code 20 & 28 



NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL CAPITAL: 



Miscellsmeous t 21 & 22 



YARD AND KILN: 



Advice on Selection of Dry Kilns Best Suited to Hjirdwood Lumber. . .24-26 



CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS: 



Miscellaneous 30 & 32 



New National Hardwood Body Proposed 16 



Taylor Reports on Washington Conference 18 



Thirty-five Hundred Invited to National's Silver Jubilee 22 



Walnut Men Talk Business and Play Golf 27-28 



HARDWOOD NEWS NOTES 51-53 



HARDWOOD MARKET 53-57 



CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS 60-61 



ADVERTISERS' DIRECTORY 59 



HARDWOODS FOR SALE 62-64 



SUBSCRIPTION TERMS: In the United States and its possessions, and 

 Canada, $2.00 the vear; in foreign countries, $1.00 extra postage. 



In conformity with the rules of the postofflce department, subscriptions 

 are payable in advance, and in default of written orders to the contrary, 

 are continued at our ortion. 



Instructions for renewal, discontinuance, or change of address, should 

 be sent one week before the date they are to go into effect. Both old and 

 new addresses must be given. 



Both display and classified advertising rates furnished upon application. 

 Advertising copy must be received five days in advance of publication dates. 



Entered as second-class matter May 26. 1902. at the postofflce at Chicago. 



