June 2D. 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



that its advancing anil more complete development might bring the sym- 

 metry and the strength necessary for the larger usefulness that we can 

 now plainly see has come to us with maturity. A deliberate survey will 

 bring conviction that this growth and culture have been well calculated 

 to equip us for our present and very obvious responsibilities and oppor- 

 tunities, and you will agree that we awake on this particular twenty-fifth 

 birthday anniversary to problems of very much more weight and import 

 than any of our earlier years. Indeed I believe that we are offered in the 

 present circumstances a challenge to the very best of which our association 

 is capable, and that every one of you will recognize at once the efficient 

 agency we have at hand in this splendid organization of hardwood men. 

 for accomplishing every reasonable purpose that can be required of us. 

 not only within the industry itself, but as our proper contribution toward 

 the benefit of the consuming public we are permitted to serve. For respon- 

 sibility and opportunity are equal, when measured by the same unit of 

 intelligence, applied in the spirit of high purpose. 



Lumber Inspection 



The original and controlling purpose of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association has been to provide and administer a fair and practical system 

 of inspection for hardwood lumber. Regulations designed to carry out this 

 purpose have not been prepared overnight and carelessly, nor in any snap 

 way to hurriedly meet the demands of some ulterior purpose, nor have 

 they been composed in servile response to the dictate of some influence or 

 authority outside the industry Itself. On the other hand, and as you gen- 

 tlemen well know, this accepted plan of inspection is the result of twenty 

 years of conscientious study and contact with the manufacture and use of 

 hardwood lumber, and of a perfectly natural process of evolution, and it 

 possesses, therefore, the peculiar merit and integrity that come only with 

 that kind of growth. These are the reasons why the inspection rules of 

 the National Hardwood Lumber Association have not only successfully 

 resisted efforts aimed at their destruction, but have earned almost universal 

 approval, and consequent use by every branch and corner of the Industry 

 from the manufacturer to the final consumer. These rules are "scientific" 

 in just so far as the term scientific can be used in a practical business 

 sense, and in just so far as the classification of trees, as the source of our 

 raw material, supplied by nature in infinite variety of form and quality, 

 can be reduced to the terms of a formula to be expressed by practical 

 men. We frankly admit that perfection has "not been reached In these 

 rules or in their application, but the charter of general approval they 

 enjoy by reason of their general adoption at once gives discredit to the 

 sincerity or information of those few persons who from time to time would 

 destroy them to give place to an uncertain and untried substitute. 



The care and the honesty of purpose with which not only our inspection 

 work, but other branches of association effort are conducted, is beyond 

 question. The material facts of our extensive membership roll and of our 

 sound financial condition confirm in these two aspects the success of the 

 organization. Please let me repeat, therefore, that we are wonderfully well 

 prepared and equipped for any further useful place that destiny may offer 

 us within a proper field. 



In looking about us today with the idea that perhaps our work should 

 be extended, the question is not what we ought to do, but what we ought 

 not to do. for there are many paths open, each to be approached with 

 caution, however, and with a saving knowledge of the practical limitations 

 within which additional activities may promise to maintain our past record 

 of success and approval. Thus far, our strength has laid In rigid adher- 



ence to the primary purpose of the organization, a simple purpose but 

 an all-engaging one, as indicated by the statement that the present annual 

 business turnover alone of the association amounts to between $300,000 

 and $350,000 a year, requiring a large staff of trained men, and having 

 to do with a volume of work that will be more fully and ably covered in 

 the report of your secretary-treasurer. The dlflScult question Is how, if 

 possible, to add to our usefulness, and at the same time preserve for our 

 present large task, and to insure for any added efforts, the confidence we 

 have now established in the integrity and efficiency with which the affairs 

 of the association are conducted. 



Sales Code 



At last years annual meeting in Philadelphia the members of the asso- 

 ciation wisely violated our traditional "singleness of purpose" by a 

 majority vote favoring the preparation of a "National Sales Code," to be 

 submitted to the present convention. Tou will recall this action of last 

 year, when resolutions were adopted in effect that "it is the sense of this 

 body that a sales code be adopted by the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association," and that "a committee of five be appointed to take charge 

 of this code, work it out and present it to us at our next meeting." 



Extreme care was exercised in selecting this sales code committee, so 

 that Its members might be fully representative of our entire membership, 

 and command the confidence as well as of the consuming industries, and the 

 association is to be congratulated upon the type of men who were willing 

 to accept the arduous duties entailed, involving conference and corre- 

 spondence to enlist the interest and harmonize the divergent views of some 

 fifty or sixty lumber trade and lumber consuming organizations, and 

 culminating in a meeting yesterday whose result promises the submission 

 to the convention tomorrow of a carefully thought out sales code, repre- 

 senting such a resolution of honest but differing viewpoints as I believe 

 has never before rewarded the efforts of any group in the hardwood indus- 

 try. Tomorrow's discussion may perchance disclose a variety of opinion 

 among our own members as to this particular code, or may revive the basic 

 question whether you really want a code : this latter question for the 

 reason that the enthusiasm of many who last year urged the adoption of 

 a code, was occasioned by unusual conditions in the trade following the 

 war, and particularly during 1920, when the rapid fluctuation of values 

 and the nnstable condition of supply and demand often gave rise to con- 

 flict between buyer and seller, and the unjustifiable repudiation of con- 

 tracts. These compelling reasons of last year may not now be so evident. 

 The report of this sales code committee, however, will certainly be given 

 your most earnest attention. If the hardwood trade here represented now 

 decides that a sales code is required. I need not repeat the conviction 

 expressed one year ago, that our association is the one organization 

 through which a fair code can be successfully promulgated in the interest 

 of producers and dealers alike, and at the same time in the interest of the 

 large representation of consumers whose cooperation has been so diligently 

 sought and so helpfully given in the preparation of the code now to 

 be presented. 



Having reminded you that we have thus already strayed from the path 

 of tradition, and in the direction of true enterprise as I take it. by 

 seriously considering the adoption of a sales code, I will take the liberty 

 no"w of proposing for your consideration other projects which should have 

 our careful thought and united action, if that be your wish. Just as an 

 individual may not always be the best final judge of his own opportunity, 

 so as an association we may now be called upon to respond to what comes 

 to us either as a direct popular demand, or as the soggestion of our Fed- 



Ben C. Currie, First Vice-President 



J. R. Thistlethwaite, Second Vice-President 



John I. Shafer, Third Vice-President 



