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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1922 



Published in the Interest o( the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging. Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and ZSth of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edwin W. Meeker, Vice Pres. and Editor 

 H. F. Ake, Secretary-Treasurer 

 Lloyd P. Robertson, Associate Editor 



Seventli Floor, Ellsworth Building 

 537 South Dearborn St., CHICAGO 

 Telephone: HARRISON 8087 



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Vol. LIII 



CHICAGO. AUGUST 10, 1922 



No. 8 



Review and Outlook 



' ANrCAL 

 tiAKUgN 



General Market Conditions 



THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR in a receut speech 

 in New York City expressed confidence that within the next week 

 both the coal and the rail strike will have been settled. When such 

 culmination of government and other efforts come about, the balance 

 of the predictions of the secretary will without question speedily 

 develop, namely, that the country will then have successfully and 

 conclusively entered upon an era of splendid business and prosperity. 



The fact remains, though, that the coal and rail strikes are not yet 

 settled. In their present form they constitute an increasingly ap- 

 parent menace. The southeastern district has felt the effects of the 

 rail strike and more poignantly than other regions in spite of the fact 

 that a large percentage of the coal comes from that section. Em- 

 bargoes on freight shipments have already been put into effect on 

 roads traversing the southeastern states and considerable stoppage 

 of freight movement has thus resulted. Fundamentally, though, 

 the whole country is straining at the harness in the effort to go for- 

 ward and the moment the brakes as applied by the rail and coal 

 strikes are released, the procession will move forward speedily. 



Even facing these adverse influences, conditions have followed 

 along with a very fair measure of satisfaction in the hardwood in- 

 dustry both as to production and consumption in lumber and veneers. 

 Furniture manufacturers report salesmen on the roads are meeting 

 with mediocre success primarily because of hesitancy caused by the 

 raO strike, but orders already placed and now in process of fulfill- 

 ment at the factories are calling for a considerable amount of mate- 

 rial. Basic facts to be remembered are that stocks continue low 

 both at mills and in the consumers' hands, and even current im- 

 provement in factory production needs immediate speeding up in 

 orders. 



One gets frequent indications of full time production at the fac; 

 tories in the advertisements for cabinet makers, particularly in the 

 northern section. The producing condition at the factories are still 

 rather spotty, being excellent in some sections and mediocre in 

 others. However, the consuming industries are going along with 

 every prospect of a definite era of substantial improvement just as 

 soon as the national labor situation is straightened out. 



Scientific Grade vs. Scientific Inspection 



HARDWOOD RECORD IS CONSTRAINED to the belief that 

 there is no little misunderstanding of the application of the terms 

 scientific and technical as those terms are applied in the construction 



of the Hoover plan of organization within the lumber industry. No 

 little criticism has been born of the evident belief that the terms are 

 meant to apply to the method of inspection, it being contended that 

 anything which smacks of scientific or technical formula will be con- 

 fusing and impracticable, first, because it will require the re-education 

 of inspectors, and secondly, because such formute must if technical 

 and scientific be so involved as to fall beyond the ken of the average 

 inspector. The Hoover program in its broad sense deserves a fair 

 hearing and such prejudicial misconceptions should be eliminated in 

 order that intelligent judgment may be possible. 



The use of the terms ' ' scientific ' ' and ' ' technical ' ' is possibly un- 

 fortunate as both terms have been applied in a derogatory sense so 

 often as to leave improper conception of their application here. It is, 

 though, the very essence of the Hoover program that such technical 

 work as will be undertaken through the agency of a special engineer- 

 ing service shall be applied first in an investigation of the needs and 

 manufacturing practices of consuming groups for the purpose of 

 simplifying and then of standardizing those requirements. The matter 

 of technical application will cease there, it being the theory behind the 

 movement, as expressed recently by a prominent hardwood manufac- 

 turer, who has made considerably progress along these lines in his own 

 renianufacturing plants, that ' ' the more scientific the formulation of 

 the rules, the less science is needed in their appUcation." 



Wliile it is planned to begin such engineering investigation at an 

 early date, the accomplishment of this phase of the work is at the 

 moment all in the future and there are therefore no available illus- 

 trations which might simplify the task of describing the theory be- 

 hind the movement. It is, though, the belief of those sponsoring it 

 in the hardwood industry that grade specifications can be prepared in 

 so simple a form as to be readily understood by anyone. These specifi- 

 cations will come out of the engineering study of the consuming in- 

 dustries in close and intimate collaboration with those consuming 

 factories, and with proper recognition of the product of the log. 



The principle on which this study will be based is that the cutting 

 requirements of certain groups of consuming lines may be brought so 

 closely together, in fact in many cases at present are so close together 

 that one "cutting factor" can be applied to cover all of them. To 

 illustrate, let us assume that the bulk of the cuttings in one certain 

 group of industries is 48 inches (and immediately under) long and 

 5 inches (and immediately under) wide, and that this same group 

 used a certain percentage of smaller cuttings, say 24 inches (and 

 immediately under) long and 4 inches (and immediately under) wide. 



The first specification might then be known as the "primary fac- 



