HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



Incident to these hearings and investigations, the railroads have 

 been very generous to the daily newspaper and magazine press in 

 the way of advertising. Some of this advertising has told what the 

 railroads do for the public. Others what they want to do for the 

 public, and are unable to on account of the paucity of revenue. 

 Some of the announcements have attempted to show specifically the 

 proportion of rect-ipts that have been expended for various purposes 

 and invariably show the percentage that has been devoted to the 

 purchase of lumber and other materials entering into railroad use and 

 the large percentage that has been paid for labor. 



Unfortunately for sustaining the claims of the railroads that they 

 absolutely require increased revenues to carry on competent freight 

 service, the regular reports of earnings have shown that their business 

 was not nearly in so deplorable a condition as that of a good many 

 lumbermen. On the whole, the railroads on their side of the argu- 

 ment have made a very poor showing up to date. The evidence they 

 have presented has not constituted proof. Perhaps it is all right for 

 them to attempt to influence public opinion by their very sagaciously 

 written and arranged advertising, but they have held out a bigger 

 club than this to influence the situation by restricting their purchases 

 of railroad material to the very minimum. 



There seems to have been a concerted effort on the part of the 

 railroads to reduce their stock of materials to the very lowest pos- 

 sible notch. There has been a veritable paucity of orders placed by 

 leading railroads and many other big corporations for the past three 

 years. Eight now it happens that their situation is so desperate that 

 a considerable volume of business is being secured by the lumber 

 trade from railroad sources, but the purchases are still coming very 

 unwillingly. Comparatively speaking, the railroad business is an 

 extremely prosperous one when compared with the situation that 

 confronts the average manufacturer and merchant of lumber. 



Statistics To Be Furnished By The Roads 



Washington advices state that the railroads included in the terri- 

 tory in which the rate controversy is most pertinent have been re- 

 quested by the Interstate Commerce Commission to submit detailed 

 records of all costs and expenses of operation in that region during 

 the months of April, May and June for 1907, 1908, 1909 and 1910. 

 The objective of the commission is evidently the establishment of 

 the exact figures showing the increase in operating expenses of the 

 various carriers named, but it is also important to the shippers in 

 that it will enable them to secure certain information which here- 

 tofore has been denied them. 



The commission sets the latest date for the presentation of these 

 reports as December 5, a date which will probably have considerable 

 bearing on the ultimate outcome of the controversy. The statistics 

 now available, relative to past operating expenses, while they prob- 

 ably are honest as far as the roads are concerned, are of necessity 

 too vague, owing to the lines upon which the railroad business has 

 been conducted, to be of any particular value, and it is surely to be 

 hoped that the new requirements will have a desired effect on the 

 roads. 



"The Propensity To Steal" 



One of the best-known farm journals in the country under the 

 above heading, in its leading editorial, says that the moral tone of 

 & country is pretty low when universal tolerance of petty stealing is 

 looked upon as good business. Turn where you will, you wUl come 

 face to face with theft. 



The publication analyzes the situation in detail by stating, that 

 scales have long been manufactured that guarantee that the butcher 

 can sell meat for the same price he pays for it and make six cents 

 a pound profit. The selling scales cheat the purchaser, that's all. 

 The spring balance scales used in stores, by ice men, by junk deal- 

 ers, are so easily "fixed" that the customer is lueky indeed who 

 gets what he pays for or gets paid for what he sells. The scales may 

 be honest, built to weigh correctly, but in the hands of unscrupulous 



merchants they weigh a few ounces off every time. This system of 

 scale manipulation is employed by unscrupulous stock buyers, hay, 

 grain and coal dealers, and is the way the sugar trust stole millions 

 of dollars from the government. It is simply a case of honesty or 

 dishonesty on the part of those who do the weighing. 



In the matter of measures there are many ways of stealing from 

 the purchaser. The standard bushel contains so many cubic inches. 

 It makes a big difference what form the measure assumes, whether 

 or not the purchaser is cheated. Peek mea.sures so commonly used 

 in grocery stores are merely long tin cylinders and are used in 

 measuring potatoes, apples, etc. The measure may contain sufficient 

 cubic inches to be accurate if small grain were being measured, but 

 when it comes to potatoes and apples a cylinder may not hold a peck 

 of bulky material. There is too much waste space. 



Quart and gallon measures are often denied so as to cheat the 

 buyer. Measures often have false bottoms. Fruit boxes are of 

 varying sizes, and so with all sorts of package goods. There should 

 be a standard for cubical contents as well as the form of these 

 measures. 



The paper also chases the farmer and accuses many of them of 

 dampening the grain or hay so it will weigh more; of putting water 

 in their milk and of filling their hogs up with sand and swill just 

 before passing them over the scales. It says there is stealing all 

 along the line and the dishonest farmer is just as dishonest as the 

 merchant, but be hasn 't as much opportunity. 



It is hard for a publication like the Record even to suggest that 

 the propensity to steal in grade, weight and measure is not entirely 

 confined to merchants and farmers, but there is altogether too much 

 evidence of it in the conduct of lumber affairs, and this important 

 business will never be placed on a satisfactory basis until standards 

 of grades, measurement and trade ethics are established and en- 

 forced. 



Were there any way of legislating a dishonest man into an honest 

 one, with the entire moral tone of the trade so improved to the extent 

 that petty stealing in lumber affairs would be so thoroughly depre- 

 cated as to make the man indulging in it a marked and despised in- 

 dividual in the trade, it certainly would have its effect. 



The above observations are reminiscent of a conversation that took 

 place between two leaders in the hardwood lumber business a short 

 time ago. One was a jobber and the other a manufacturer. The 

 former purchased a carload of lumber from the latter. The conver- 

 sation took place in the jobber's oflice and was substantially as 

 follows : 



' ' Bill, I recently bought a carload of firsts and seconds plain oak 

 from you, didn't I?" 

 "You did." 



' ' I found about two thousand feet of No. 1 common in that car. 

 Bill." 



"I shouldn't be surprised if you did, because that is about the 

 proportion of No. 1 common we put into cars of firsts and seconds." 

 "But, Bill, here is your invoice which reads '12,000 feet of firsts 

 and seconds.' " 



"Yes, I reckon that's so." 



' ' Bill, do you presume to say to me that you are not only a Uar 

 but a thief as well?" 



"Well, I never had the thing put to me in just that shape before 

 but it 's really the custom of the trade, you know. ' ' 



"Bill, it is not the custom of my trade and my way of doing busi- 

 ness. I am going to give you a check in full for this car and want 

 to say to you that you never can sell me another, because I object to 

 doing business with a man who is a self-confessed liar and thief. ' ' 

 The above is an actual occurrence and the conversation did not 

 take place between a couple of pikers in the trade, but between two 

 of the biggest, best-liked and strongest men engaged in the hardwood 

 industry of the United States. 



Is it good business sense to sell one grade and deliver another? 



Is it good sense to ship short measure? 



Is it good sense to countenance a propensity to steal? 



