Juu.- ^5, 192:; 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



that was the organizatiuu which should have spoken most forcibly for the 

 hardwood industry. There were several regional organizations represented, 

 the Michigan Hardwood organization, the Wisconsin Hardwood organiza- 

 tion, the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, the American 

 Walnut Manufacturers' Association and the Mahogany Manufacturers' 

 Association. 



The question then became foremost as to whether this separation should 

 be recognized between the hardwood and the softwood industries. 



.iVfter calling on several of the representatives of the softwood groups, 

 the chairman of the meeting called on Mr. Sherrill of the American Hard- 

 wood Manufacturers' Association. Later Mr. Taylor, the president of our 

 association, was called upon. The representatives of this association 

 were very firm in their position that the hardwood industry should be 

 recognized as a separate group. In that position they were supported by 

 the representatives of the other hardwood groups, with the exception of 

 those representives of the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. 

 I wish I had the verbatim report of the conference from which to read. 

 The representatives of the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion argued against a separation of the hardw-ood and the softwood indus- 

 tries. I am confident that if they had joined the other hardwood interests 

 there there would have never been any question raised on that point, but 

 their opposition to this separation of the two Industries resulted in a 

 vote, and the representatives of the American Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 Association allied themselves with the softwood industry on the ground 

 that there was no reason why the standardization program should not 

 cover ioth hardwoods and softwoods alike. 



Mr. Dulweber of the American association made the statement — and I 

 want to be as accurate as I can. I would not do that gentleman any 

 injustice, but he made the statement that conditions in the hardwood 

 industry were not satisfactory ; that the rules of inspection in the hard- 

 wood industry were far from scientific, and that there was great need of 

 a change in the situation, whereby the grading of harciwood could be put 

 on a scientific basis. He further stated that the hardwood industry had 

 been handicapped in a way in building up standards for the reason that 

 the distributor or wholesaler of lumber had Interfered with the making 

 of rules, and that they envied the softwood manufacturers for the reason 

 that they had had no interference of that kind. 



The hardwood representatives at that conference were outnumbered 

 many times, of course, by the softwood interests, and when the matter 

 came to a vote of course the efforts of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association and the other hardwood representatives friendly to its policy 

 were outvoted. The committees were formed in accordance with Mr. 

 Hoover's suggestions, three general committees. We declined to bo repre- 

 sented on those committees for the reason that we did not assume the 

 ability or the knowledge to vote on any questions affecting the softwood 

 industry, and we did not admit the ability or the knowledge of the soft- 

 wood industry to legislate or vote on those problems which affect the hard- 

 wood industry. (Applause.) 



We were not represented as an association on those committees, but we 

 remained to be of any use if we could in the following proceedings of the 

 conference, and we appeared in the conference again when the reports of 

 these committees were presented. 



These reports, which were aided by the representatives of the American 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association in the getting up of these reports, 

 and which reports were all voted upon favorably by the represen*^^atives 

 of that organization, stated that a general standardization program, 

 including hardwoods and softwoods, was practicable and should be car- 

 ried out. The representatives of your organization could see nothing in 

 that effort, except an attempt to destroy this association and the standards 

 which we have endeavored to set up during the tw^enty-five years of our 

 existence. We maintained, as well as we could, a dignified attitude and 

 voted no on those propositions, explaining our vote, not that we were 

 opposed to the general plan of Mr. Hoover and his department, but we 

 were compelled to vote no for the reason that we had already stated and 

 emphasized so many times that it was impractical and impossible to con- 

 sider hardwoods and softwoods under the same general standardization 

 program. Our action has been twisted in statements which have appeared 

 in the press so as to make it appear that we opposed the Hoover program 

 in its entirety. Such was not the case, as your representatives at that 

 conference repeatedly emphasized their desire to cooperate with Mr. 

 Hoover in his program. 



Goodman Gives His Experience 



Mr. Charles A. rroodman; IMr. President and Gentlemen. I cannot add 

 very much more to what has been said by Mr. Taylor by your secretary 

 and by Mr. McClure. I was at the conference in Washington, not as a 

 delegate of this association but as one of the two delegates of the Northern 

 Hemlock and Hardwood Association. We were invited to this Washing- 

 ton conference. We went in and took our seats when the conference was 

 opened in the forenoon. The question immediately came up of having 

 three committees; one on standardization of sizes, one on nomenclature 

 and the other on the grade marking of lumber. I will briefly explain. 

 Iiecause many of you are hardwood men exclusively — it immediately devel 

 oped that what this conference was called to bring about was some stand 

 ardization of grade names and some uniform names for grades which woulil 

 represent the same quality in lumber. To illustrate that briefly it was 

 stated for instance that 1-inch lumber shiplap, (i inches, dressed and 

 matched, that Nos. 2 and M yellow pine and fir were practically the same 

 as far as grade and quality were concerned. They brought in several 

 iti'His of that kind where the grade names were confusing. We found 

 that an architect in New York raav draw up specifications for a house 

 to be built in California, or North Dakota, but this lumber is going to be 

 a certain grade and it may be that he figures whether the house is going 

 to be of yellow pine, fir or hemlock. When we saw what the object of 

 this conference was going to be the officers of your association and your 

 delegates immediately assumed that this was going to be largely a softwood 

 convention, and considered, rightly, that the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association's rules and their standards of measurement and a great many 

 other things, the guarantee of their measurements, the quality of ship- 

 ments were standardized all over the country, which was something that 

 this softwood committee was expecting to attain at some time in the 

 future. In other words, we thought that we had a plain program and 

 that the softwoods and the hardwoods could not be brought into thr 

 committee and discussed on the same plane. 



When your officers stated they thought there should be separate com- 

 mittees it looked as though there* would be six committees, three on hard- 

 woods and three on softwoods, but by the time the afternoon session was 

 opened the scene was shifted and there were only three committees 

 combined on each of these three propositions before the conference, 



Mr. Taylor and your delegates objected to this program, and the 

 gentlemen'representing the American Hardwood Lumber Association spoke 

 from the opposite standpoint when the matter was brought to a vote. 

 Of course, it was carried, because there was only one association's vote 

 against the program. 



As an illustration of how that worked out. I was on a committee on 



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615 



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