36 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Seeks Hardwood and Poplar House Trim 

 Boston, Mass., Oct. 7, 1910. — Editor Hard- 

 wood Kecokd : Can you furnish us the names 

 and addresses of some first-class millmen in 

 the South who can get out and supply us with 

 hardwood and poplar house trim and mould- 

 inssV This stock must be liiln-dried and 

 smoothly worked. 



— COMPA.NY. 



The foregoing letter is from a leading Bos- 

 ton lumber yard and the writer has been sup- 

 plied with a list of several producers of kiln 

 dried hardwood and poplar trim and mould- 

 ings. Any other readers of the Eecokd who 

 would like to communicate, with the inquirer 

 can have the address upon application. — 

 Editor. 



Japanese Oak 



Detroit, Mich., Oct. :;0, 1910 : — Editor 

 Hardwood Kecord : Considerable quantities of 

 Japanese oak logs are being imported at several 

 Pacific Coast points, there sawed into lumber 

 and utilized for flooring, interior finish and 

 furniture purposes, thus materially affecting the 

 sale of oak lumber and oak flooring produced in 

 the Mississippi Valley 'ind farther east. Shall 

 be glad to have some information concerning 

 this source of supply, etc. 



I am aware that considerable Japanese oak 



in the form of logs is being imported at Port- 

 land and other Pacific coast points and util- 

 ized for the purposes named. I have no 

 knowledge of what these logs cost, but it is 

 undoubtedly enough below the price of east- 

 ern oak to warrant the purchase and manufac- 

 ture of lumber from this source. It is com- 

 monly reported that the quality of this oak 

 is very inferior as compared with the better 

 types of Mississippi. Valley and eastern oak, 

 but it forms a substitute that is interfering 

 materially with shipments from the East. 



This competition has been brought about 

 by the short-sighted policy of the transcon- 

 tinental lines which deman<! .such a high 

 freight rate on eastern hardwoods. The rate 

 is seventy-five cents a hundred and the rail- 

 roads are now trying to advance it to eighty- 

 five cents. The present rate is fully twenty- 

 five cents a hundred higher than it should be 

 and seriously militates against the sale of 

 hardwood lumber and flooring at western 

 coast points. — Editor. 



NeWs Miscellany 



Meeting Memphis Lumbermen's Club 



At the regular semi-monthly meeting of the 

 Lumbermen's Club of Memphis, held at the Hotel 

 Gayoso, Saturday, October 15, A. L. Foster, 

 chairman of the Uiver and Rail Committee, sur- 

 prised the members with the announcement that 

 the transcontinental railroads had issued a tariff 

 placing the advance to 8,") cents per hundred 

 pounds on shipments to P;icific coast terminals 

 in effect November 15, whereas it was the un- 

 derstanding of the committee that the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission had held up the ad- 

 vance for 120 days from October 10. Mr. Fos- 

 ter said, however, that there was apparently 

 some misunderstanding, as the railroads were 

 not disposed to treat the rulings of the com- 

 mission lightly. The committee is investigating 

 the matter and will report it at an early date. 



ilr. Foster also referred to the minimum 

 weight of carload shipments of lumber, and said 

 that, as the roads in this territory had showed 

 no disposition to increase the minimum from 

 34,000 to 40.000 pounds, his committee deemed 

 it best not to take up the subject at the present 

 time. 'I'he railroads in the southeastern ter- 

 ritory are discussing this increase and are put- 

 ting it into effect, but Mr. Foster pointed out 

 that lumber shippers of Memphis arc not af- 

 fected thereby. 



A. B. Nickey, president, and S. M. Nickey, sec- 

 retary, of the Green Uiver Lumber Company, 

 were elected to active membership in the club. 

 Two other names were proposed, one active and 

 the other associate. These will be voted upon 

 at the next meeting. 



George C. Ehemann, chairman of the commit- 

 tee on statistics, gave the report of his commit- 

 tee. This has been substantially given before in 

 Habdwood Record, the full details being pub- 

 lished at the time the figures were completed. 

 Mr. Ehemann called attention to the wide pub- 

 licity that had been given this report through 

 the lumber journals and other mediums, as well 

 as through the circulation of printed cards bear- 

 ing these return?. Ho said that the committee 

 had done its work so thoroughly that it was pos- 

 sible to obtain the official figures from all but 

 abofit seven or eight firms. He thought that 

 about 20 per cent ought to be added to these 

 figures because of the fact that 1909. the year 

 covered by the statistics, was a period of ab- 

 normal depression. 



.J. II. Dought.v, who. together with J. T. 

 Willingham and J. S. Warren, constituted the 

 special committee which went from the Bureau 

 of Publicity and Development to Grand Rapids, 

 Mich., with a view to securing woodworking en- 

 terprises for Memphis, gave a report of this 

 trip. The only directly tangible result was the 

 statement that a prominent manufacturer of a 

 staple line of goods had decided to establish a 

 branch factory at this point as soon as he had 

 recovered from a heavy expenditure on his plant 

 at Grand Rspid.s. Mr. Doughty said that his com- 

 mittee soon decided that it was idle to talk 

 .tbout having big manufacturers move their 

 plants to Memphis because of the financial issue 

 involved as well as the labor question, and so 

 efforts were directed toward securing auxiliary 

 plants. He thought that, while there was little 

 to show for the trip, effective work had been 

 done which would bear fruit in the end. Mr. 

 Doughty also called attention to the fact that 

 rod gum was being used to only a moderate ex- 

 lent at Grand Rapids, and rather created the 

 impression that this was due to the fact that 

 shippers were not quite as careful as they 

 should be. Sir. Willingham, he said, had agreed 

 lo send samples of red gum to Grand Rapids, 

 showing the high polish it would take and the 

 advantages to be derived from its use in furni- 

 ture manufacture, and interesting results are ex- 

 pected to follow this step. Mr. Doughty called 

 attention to the fact that the newspapers of 

 Grand Rapids would not publish the kind of .ad- 

 vertising the committee wished to run, although 

 they were assured that the committee had come 

 in .search of only auxiliary plants. However, he 

 said that Memphis was well advertised on the 

 trip and the committee felt that it had put forth 

 every possible effort in the interest of Jlemphis 

 and the publicity movement. 



.John W. McClure, manager of the basel)all 

 team of tli" Lumbermen's Club, gave his final 

 report. He said that of the four games 

 plajed during the last season Jlemphis had 

 won only one. but that circumstances were 

 such that the championship title still inliered in 

 the Memphis team. This, it was pointed out, is 

 due to the fact that none of the series of games 

 was actually finished this year. Mr. McClure 

 drew a strong distinction between playing on 

 home grounds and on foreign ones and attributed 

 the loss of the Cincinnati. Indianapolis and 



Nashville games to the fact that there were so 

 few Memphis lumbermen present to encourage 

 the team. Mr. McClure said he believed the 

 games were a splendid advertisement for Mem- 

 phis, inasmuch as lumber and other papers gave 

 so much publicity to them. Mr. McClure as- 

 serted positively in his report that the Memphis 

 team entered the season as the champions of 

 lumlierdom and that it ended the season with 

 the title intact. 



First Fall Meeting of Chicago Wholesalers 



At the opening meeting of the Chicago Whole- 

 sale Lumber Dealers' Association, held Tuesday, 

 October 18, the attendance was below the aver-' 

 age, there being but twenty present out of the 

 forty-five members on the books. 



President George T. Mickle opened the session 

 with a brief speech and then called for the min- 

 utes of the previous meeting and the calling of 

 the roll. There being no formal report from the 

 Trade Relations Committee, Chairman Dalby of 

 the Railroad Committee opened up a discussion 

 as to the question of industrial switching. The 

 principal topics for controversy were the exist- 

 ing switching rate and the 60,000 pound mini- 

 mum. C. L. Cross, speaking in regard to this 

 matter, stated as his opinion that the general 

 minimum should be 35,000 pounds, a figure which 

 is enjoyed by every other industry represented in 

 the Chicago switching territory. 



After various members had expressed opinions 

 both favorable and opposed to the case of the 

 railroads, George Griffith suggested that it was 

 bis idea that the association should act in con- 

 junction with the two other local associations in 

 presenting the lumbermen's side of the proposi- 

 tion. He suggested that the Railroad Committee 

 be given jurisdiction in the matter and empow- 

 ered to act in conjunction with similar commit- 

 tees of other organizations and to make the best 

 possible agreement with the railroads through 

 any medium which seemed to them most feasible. 

 The suggestion of F. B. McMullen that a con- 

 cession on the part of the roads for opening up 

 private team tracks' would be of untold value to 

 the lumbermen received the warm endorsement 

 of the various speakers, E. A. Thornton being of 

 the opinion that inasmuch as the wholesalers 

 would be principally affected in the matter of 

 rejected cars, it would be of special value to 

 them. 



Secretary Charles Westcott read the report of 

 the Membership Committee, in which the whole- 

 salers were advised of the acquisition of three 

 new firms into their membership, the R. A. Smith 

 Lumber Company and the Great Southern Lum- 

 ber Company, having come in during the summer, 

 while the Frost-.Iohnson Lumber Company is a 

 new member of more recent date. 



The report of the Inspection Committee led to 

 a general discussion of the Inspection Bureau, 

 the question of the inspector finally being re- 

 ferred to the bureau, which was instructed to 

 meet with the Board of Directors to work out a 

 plan to be presented at the next regular meeting. 

 This being the last of the regular business the 

 meeting adjourned. The following were present : 



F. J. Ilathway, Hathway Lumber Company. 



W. A. Herbert, W. A. Herbert & Co. 



J. C. McLachlin, Frost-Johnson Lumber Com- 

 pany. 



C. E. McLean, Chicago Car Lumber Company. 



F. B. McMullen, Fullerton-Powell Hardwood 

 Lumber Company. 



George T. Mickle, George T. Mickle Lumber 

 Company. 



(i. P. Nourse, Collins Lumber Company. 



J. A. Nourse, S. A. Nourse & Co. 



T. D. Phillips, McShane Ijumber Company. 



F. J. Pike, Pike-Dial Lumber Company. 



G. J. Pope, D. S. Pate Lumber Company. 

 C. L. Cross. 



Edw. Brown, Sargent Lumber Company. 

 10. A. Thornton. R. A. Thornton Lumber Com 

 pany. 



