16 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 10. 1922 



New National Hardwood Body Proposed 



Mass Meeting of Manufacturers Called to Organize for Realization of Hoover 

 Conference Program; Sponsors of Call Would Set Up 

 New Inspection System 



For the purpose of forming a national association of hardwood 

 lumber manufacturers, to institute a grading and inspection service, 

 and carry out other determinations made at the recent conference 

 in Washington on .lumber standardization and trade practices, 

 a mass meeting of the hardwood millmen of the country 

 has been called by the organization committee of the proposed 

 American Hardwood Institute. This meeting has been set for June 

 15, 16 and 17 at the Henry Watterson Hotel in Louisville, Ky. One 

 hundred and twenty-two of the leading hardwood manufacturers 

 of the country, chiefly of the South, have endorsed the call. 



Call for this meeting was issued late Thursday afternoon, June 1, 

 by the organization committee of nine, appointed by the American 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, at its last annual at Louis- 

 ville, following a two-day session. This committee will be in 

 charge of the meeting. James E. Stark, its chairman, will very 

 likely preside. 



The cardinal purposes of the institute are thus set forth by the 

 committee: 



1. To have inspection rules and service in conformity with the 

 Hoover idea, setting up technical and engineering service to 

 co-operate wth the National Lumber Manufacturers ' Association. 



2. To establish a statistical bureau providing such information 

 as may be of benefit to the industry and within the legal rights of 

 trade association activities. 



3. To carry on such trade extension work as may be deemed 

 wise by the convention to promulgate. 



The official call, which briefly explains the accomplishments of 

 Secretary Hoover's recent standardization conference, which dis- 

 cusses the necessity for setting up adequate machinery to carry 

 out the ideas of the Department of Commerce, and which has been 

 sent to all hardwood manufacturers, appears on the outside front 

 cover of this issue of Hahdwood Record. 



Hoover Meeting Ideas Will Be Pushed 



The hardwood associations having membership strictly of manu- 

 facturers, such as the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation, the Northern Hemlock & Hardwood Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation and the Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, 

 are almost unreservedly supporting the program for simplification 

 of sizes of lumber and the establishment of national inspection 

 systems and guarantees, the foundation for which was laid in 

 Washington on May 22 to 26, inclusive. On these dates, for the 

 first time in the history of the lumber industry, hardwood men, of 

 every class, sat at the council table with softwood lumbermen and 

 Government officials for a discussion of their common problems. 



The delegates at the initial meeting decided that before the 

 lumber industry could run it must first learn to walk. A program 

 was decided upon accordinglv. But three things were taken up for 

 discussion, and there was no idea of settling any one of the three 

 on the spot. The foundation, and a substantial one, for these was 

 laid, and the momentum will not be allowed to die down. Addi- 

 tional meetings in Chicago and another on the coast are expected 

 within the next sixty days as a "follow up" of the Washington 

 conference. The American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 has called a mass meeting to organize the manufacturers of hard- 

 wood lumber to establish a manufacturers' national inspection 

 system, in accordance with the ideas adopted at the conference. 



The three things for which the groundwork was laid are: First, 

 simplification of grades; second, standardization of sizes, and third, 

 guarantees of grades and quantity. 



Because of the wide differences between the hardwood men and 

 the softwood there was, as was expected, some disagreement as to 

 whether or not the plan for one class of lumbermen would be 

 acceptable to the other class. 



Horace F. Taylor of the National Hardwood Lumber Association, 

 in outlining the position of the hardwood lumbermen, expressed the 

 belief that the softwoods lumbermen must follow the practices 

 already made by the hardwood lumbermen, who, he declared, have 

 already, partially at least, gone a long way in adoption of sim- 

 plification of grades, standardization of sizes and . guarantees of 

 grades and quantity — the three things sought by the delegates. 



"I think I am safe in saying that the hardwood lumbermen and, 

 no doubt, most of you realize it, have already gone a long way in 

 these matters, especially the standardization, which is now a fact. 

 There is only one set of official rules, and I feel it is safe to say 



that 95 per cent of the lumber that is shipped today, as to hard- 

 woods, is shipped according to specifications and rules of the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association," Mr. Taylor said. 



"Those rules have been the result of 25 years' development, 

 and they have now reached the point where in the wisdom of our 

 1,450 members the minimum of change is made each year. We 

 have reached the point where we think that the stabilization is 

 the thing, rather than change. 



' ' We have not only been successful, I think I may sa.v modestly, 

 in establishing these rules and having them widely recognized, 

 but we are about to go a step further in the work of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association, and that is the presentation of a 

 general sales code for hardwoods. That goes a step further than 

 the mere application of rules and regulations, because the purpose 

 of that sales code — which will be considered at our general meeting 

 — will be the standardization of a method of bu.ving and selling 

 hardwood lumber, eliminating uncertainties as to terms and as to 

 practice. We are not attempting to foist something new upon the 

 industry, but simply to codify the practices which are now 

 approved. 



' ' In the matter of grade marking of hardwood lumber, I might 

 speak for the hardwood industry, and I do not hesitate to say 

 that I have no doubt it will be adopted by the hanlwood lumber 

 producers, if it is a thing that should be done. 



"I think it is a serious question, however, whether it 

 is practicable in connection with hardwoods, as it might be in con- 

 nection with softwoods. I believe we already go farther than the 

 mere marking of grades on each piece of lumber, in the fact that 

 when it is inspected and the certificate issued it bears the guaranty 

 of the association, that within reasonable limits, the inspection 

 will always hold out. It is a simpler process, a more practicable 

 process, and meets with no objection from aiiv branch of the 

 industry. 



"I do not know that I have anything further to suggest in con- 

 nection with the hardwood branch of the trade, Kelatively the 

 volume is not anything like that of the softwoods, but the relative 

 value of the hardwood business is large. 



"We already have a single standard of rules to, be followed in 

 shipments, which is a long step in advance, and if we can make our 

 experience in the establishment of that situation of value to any 

 of the rest of the industry we are at your command." Mr. Taylor 

 concluded. 



