18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



July 25, 1922 



By B. F. Dulweber 



Director Hardwood Mamifai'turers" Institute 



Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, fellow manufacturers of hardwood 

 lumber: I am just a common sawmill man, not an orator, so I will 

 have to ask your permission to refer to my notes as I proceed. 



Before leaving my native heath, one of my friends, who is like- 

 wise a hardwood sawmill man, asked me if I did not have some 

 hesitancy about attending this meeting and delivering to you my 

 humble message; he evidently feeling that I would be accorded an 

 antagonistic reception and perhaps even fearing for my bodily 

 safety. 



I want to say to you that I entertain no such fears; that I appear 

 before you at perfect ease and in complete confidence. If any 

 doubt had existed in my mind it would have been dispelled by 

 what I heard while sitting in your meeting this morning. Your 

 discussion of inter-insurance, re-consignment* privileges, stock and 

 price statistics and forestry problems, shows you to be real, "sure 

 enough" manufacturers, with the characteristic manufacturer's 

 viewpoint, and proves to me that you fellows up here are thinking 

 along exactly the same lines as the manufacturer from the South, 

 the East or any other part of this country. 



I feel, therefore, that at heart we are brothers. We are engaged 

 in the same enterprise, and though I battle with floods and over- 

 flows, mosquitos and water moccasins, and you with ice and snow 

 and zero temperatures, our problems are closely related, and though 

 there may be slight differences of opinion, these differences are not 

 fundamental and I feel that there exists a mutual bond of sym- 

 pathy and respect between us, and I am, therefore, addressing you, 

 not as antagonists, but as brothers, whose interests are my interests, 

 and the interests of all manufacturers of hardwoods alike. 



The Washington Conference 



Much has been said of the Hoover standardization conference 

 held in Washington during the latter part of May. While I played 

 but a very humble part in that conference, and my participation 

 was quite insignificant in comparison with the attention it has 

 attracted, I could not but be impressed with the grave dangers that 

 it holds for the hardwood industry, and likewise the glorious oppor- 

 tunities that it presents. 



In terms that were unmistakable, the Secretary of Commerce 

 expressed the belief that the manufacturer of any commodity was 

 accountable to the public for the protection of public interests, and 

 the creation of such standards as would best meet the needs of 

 the consumers and at the lowest possible cost. Mr. Hoover held 

 that in the lumber industry the establishment of such standards 

 and inspection rules was very clearly the function of the manu- 

 facturer and suggested that the industry should strive for: 



(1) The construction of such grades and specifications as would 

 minimize waste and costs and the standardization of nomenclature 

 as nearly as possible. 



(2) The grade branding of lumber at the mill and full guarantee 

 to the public of quality and quantity. 



(3) The simplification and standardization of sizes as will make 

 for greater economy in production, distribution and consumption. 



(4) The creation of a national instrumentality of an entirely 

 independent character set up by the industry itself for the admin- 



*Delir€red at the semi-annual meeting of the yortlirrn ffrmlock and 

 Hardwood Manufaoturera' Association, Hotel Pflster, Milwaukee, Wis., 

 July 14, 1922. 



Upon motion oj Edward S. Hines, seconded by R. B. Ooodman, and 

 unanimously adopted, this addresa ions ordered printed and distnhuted 

 among the memiership of the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association. 



istra.tion of inspection rules on all kinds of lumber in cases of dis- 

 pute between buyer and seller, the services of such organization to 

 be extended to foreign countries. 



Hoover Favors Self-Correction 



Mr. Hoover made it quite clear that it was desirable that these 

 objectives be attained by the industry itself, and he clearly ex- 

 pressed himself as being personally opposed to governmental regu- 

 lation in such matters, but he likewise made it quite clear that if 

 the industry did not concern itself as regards these matters and 

 embrace the opportunity to bring about such improvement on its 

 own initiative, there were forces at work that unquestionably would 

 bring about governmental control. 



I do not submit this to you as a threat, my friends, nor do I wish 

 to frighten you into doing something that is contrary to your best 

 judgment, but I do appeal to your common sense to carefully con- 

 sider the propositions that have been submitted, and I believe you 

 must agree that the successful working out of these problems will 

 result beneficially to the entire industry. 



Taking up the first proposition relating to such standardization, 

 or the establishment of such rules as will best serve consuming 

 needs with the minimum of waste and at the lowest possible cost. 

 I am sure that any one who has given the subject the slightest 

 thought will agree that the present rules covering the inspection 

 of hardwood lumber are crude and unscientific in the extreme, and 

 have no relation whatever to the consuming requirements. 



History of Present Rules 



These rules are the outgrowth of conditions that existed in the 

 early days of the industry, when the uses for hardwoods were 

 extremely limited, and when the consuming manufacturer produced 

 a varied line of articles instead of specializing as they do today, 

 and as a result could use advantageously cuttings numerous in size 

 and of varying qualities. Likewise, the price of hardwoods in that 

 early day was such that the question of waste was not the important 

 problem that it has since become, and as a result the consumer 

 very largely bought his hardwood "log run." In time it was 

 realized that the term "log run" had little significance, and it was 

 then that hardwood inspection rules first came into existence, purely 

 for the purpose of having some arbitrary measure by which the 

 value of the log run product could be determined, and not for the 

 purpose of answering any particular manufacturing requirements. 



On this basis we have built. There have been slight changes 

 from time to time, not for the purpose of producing a product that 

 would tend to reduce waste, but merely in deference to the wishes 

 of one class or another who thought a certain grade should be 3" 

 and up wide, instead of 4" and up wide, and similar unimportant 

 changes that had no relation whatever to the uses to which lumber 

 was to be put. 



Must Fit Rules to Consumption Needs 

 Today conditions are entirely different, and the same vehicle 

 tii;)t may perhaps have satisfactorily met the situation in the 

 beginning is now wholly inadequate. The price of hardwoods, due 

 to the greatly diminished supply of timber, and the reduction in 

 average quality, is materially higher, and all our thinking people 

 must agree that this price must gradually and continuously further 

 increase as our supply of timber further diminishes and becomes 

 less accessible to utilization. Therefore, it behooves the manu- 

 facturer of this product to do something to reduce the unnecessary 

 waste that occurs in the utilization of the lumber that ho produces, 

 to at least partially offset this constantly increasing price. 



