46 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



MEMPHIS 



Weather conditions tliroughout tbis section 

 during tlie past fortnight have continued ex- 

 tremely favorable for the production of hard- 

 wood lumber and fairly good progress has been 

 made. However, the car shortage is Just as 

 pronounced as it has been heretofore, while 

 the streams in this territory have not received 

 any more water, with the result that the supply 

 of logs available is somewhat re.stricted, so far 

 as a number of plants are concerned. The fall, 

 however, has been so open and conditions have 

 been so favorable for operation, that the amount 

 of lumber produced has probably been quite 

 up to the average for this period for the past 

 three years. There has been no change in the 

 attitude of manufacturers uriless perhaps they 

 have shown a tendency to operate their plants a 

 little more fully where possible. There has 

 been further improvement in trade conditions 

 and the amount of lumber being delivered by 

 some of the firms here is heavier than since 

 the panic. In fact, three of the larger firms in 

 this market have made the statement within 

 the past two days that they were doing the 

 best business they have done since October. 

 1907. There is a more optimistic feeling all 

 around in regard to the domestic markets, and 

 the opinion is expressed by some of the lead- 

 ing exporters who have been abroad that there 

 are better things in store in the way of in- 

 creased business with Europe. 



There is nothing to be desired regarding gen- 

 eral business conditions in this section. Bank 

 clearings on several days recently have es- 

 tablished new high records and the figures for 

 the week just ended were larger than the ones 

 for that preceding, despite the fact that the 

 latter were, up to that time, the heaviest ever 

 recorded. The very high prices obtained for 

 cotton, together with the very large volume of 

 business doing therein, are largely responsible 

 for the exceptional showing in clearings. How- 

 ever, there is a good general business, and every 

 Interest in the trade here, including the hard- 

 wood industry, is making its coatribution. Build- 

 ing operations are on a liberal scale and some 

 large projects have been announced within the 

 past few days. 



The movement of freight in this section is 

 necessarily very heavy. Receipts of cotton at 

 Memphis for the week just ended broke all pre- 

 vious records. It has taxed the railroads to 

 their utmost capacity and lumbermen as well an 

 ether interests can trace some of their car short- 

 age directly to the movement of cotton. There 

 is no prospect of any immediate letup in receipts 

 of cotton here, which is only another way of 

 saying that there is no relief to the very de- 

 (ided car deficit. As giving some idea of th^ 

 shortage of cars it may be stated that there is 

 not a lumberman here who is receiving anything 

 like the amount of cars ordered for interior 

 points. In fact, some of them are not getting 

 more than fifteen lo twenty-five per cent of 

 what they order. 



George T. Kendal of the Memphis Saw Mill 

 Company, who makes his hMdquarters at Grand 

 Rapids. Mich., has been spending some lime in 

 Memphis recently. Mr. Kendal says that the 

 hardwood industry is in a more satisfactory con- 

 dition and calls particular attention to the fact 

 that there is a greater demand for timber land 

 tliau there has been for several years. 



Wright Smith, W. N. Coulson and others, who 

 are connected with Lee Wilson & Co., left here 

 on November 20 for Wilson, Ark., where they, to- 

 gether with other employes of the firm, were 

 guests of I'resident Wilson on a hunting trip, 

 which will last through Thanksgiving week. In 

 addition to these guests, a number of the firm's 

 patrons were also present. The occasion has 

 come to be an annual one, and the Memphis 

 contingent look forward to it with much pleas- 

 ure. The party will camp in ti'uts. The scene 



of the hunting will be about six miles back of 

 Wil.son, Ark., where Lee Wilson & Co. have ex- 

 tensive interests. 



W. R. DarUsdale of W. R. Barksdale & Co. 

 has returned from a trip to Chicago. He says 

 that he finds 5omo improvement in trade condi- 

 tions and that his three mills, which have been 

 idle for some time, have all resumed operations. 



The Dai'uell-Taenzer Lumber Company, the 

 Memphis Veneer & Lumber Company, the Mem- 

 phis Hardwood Flooring Company, the Green 

 River Lumber Company, the Bellgrade Lumber 

 Company and other firms in this city and sec- 

 tion, which were joint plaintiffs in the action 

 brought before the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission against the Transcontinental Freigh(>Bu- 

 reau, protesting against the advance from To to 

 S5 <-ents in the rates on liardwood lumber ship- 

 ments from Jlemphis and Mississippi river points 

 to J'acific coast terminals, have been awarded 

 reparation. The amount in each case covers the 

 excess in rates paid by them on shipments at 

 the higher levels. This action was brought more 

 than two years ago and the lumbermen of this 

 section won a signal victory. It is a rather 

 strange coincident that, just when the awards 

 are being made, the Transcontinental Freight 

 Bureau is making an effort to again raise tlie 

 rate from 7.j to So cents per hundred potmds. 

 The Lumbermen's Club of Memphis and various 

 other organizations in the interested territory 

 have taken up the matter with the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission and have already suc- 

 ceeded in securing an order from that body 

 suspending the advance for some time. They 

 are now engaged in an effort to .secure a per- 

 manent injunction against the roads involved in 

 order that the question may be settled for all 

 lime. W. B. Morgan, vice-president of the 

 Hiver & Rail Committee of the Lumbermen's 

 Club, and .James S. Davant, of the Memphis 

 Freight Bureau, are among the prominent work- 

 ers to this end. The amounts awarded in the 

 old cases ranged from §51.60 to $1,480.77. 



The stave plant of J. F. Hasty & Sons of 

 Paragould. Ark., which was destroyed by fire 

 some time ago, has been rebuilt and has re- 

 sumed operations. This plant had not been idle 

 except temporarily since 18.88, until the fire 

 made it necessary to rebuild. 



It now transpires that the railroad which 

 gave the order for 5.000,000 ties to the Na- 

 tional liUmber & Creosoting Company at Texar- 

 kana. Ark., was the St. Louis Southwestern 

 (Cotton Belt) Ilaiload Company. It further 

 transpires that the 2.'>,000 acres of land ou 

 which the company has secured an option is 

 owned by Hoshall & McDonald Brothers of 

 Helena, Ark. This is said to be the largest 

 single order for cross ties ever closed by any 

 railroad in the South. 



Final survey for the Dyersburg & .Jackson 

 Railroad will be made at once and it is an- 

 n'Dunced that active work of construction will 

 begin liy the first of 1011. This road will tap 

 a ver.v rich r.ection of West Tennessee and it 

 will increase the facilities of some of the Mem- 

 phis lumbermen for developing timber lands 

 which they own in the territory through which 

 the line will pass. 



The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Rail- 

 road Comi)any has secured a strip of land at 

 I'aducah. Ky.. on which additional facilities 

 may be installed in order that it may be in 

 position to accommodate the increased Inisi- 

 ness due to the connection whicli lias been ef- 

 fected with the Burlington System at that point. 

 It is stated that, after December 1, the Bur- 

 lington System will be sending at least fifty 

 cars a day into I'aducah and that the move- 

 ment is expected to rapidly increase after that 

 time. Tills system will use the Nashville, Chat- 

 tanooga & St. Louis for reaching Memphis and 

 other points on that line in the South. 



'J'he Dowell Land Company, with headquar- 

 ters at Walnut lildge. Ark., has been formed 

 for the pron"-tion of laud, timber and agr'- 



cultnral enterprises. It has a capital stock of 

 $50,000 and S. C. Dowell is president. 



The Bureau of Publicity and Development has 

 made arrangements to send James S. Warren, 

 general manager thereof, to see the firms which 

 are inquiring regarding Memphis. It is the 

 idea of the bureau that it will be better to 

 have Mr. Warren make these visits in person 

 than to rely upon correspondence, and this 

 course will be adopted in all cases where there 

 is a prospective enterprise in sight. When- 

 ever Jlr. Warren is absent on these trips his 

 work will be looked after by John M. Tuther, 

 secretary of the Business Men's Club. 



S. B. Anderson of Anderson-Tully Company, 

 and R. J. Darnell of R. J. Darnell, Inc., both 

 of whom recently returned from Europe, are 

 of the opinion that there will be a better 

 business in American hardwoods in Europe at 

 an early date. These views on their part are 

 expressed as a result of the investigations made 

 while abroad. 



Fire which originated In the dry-kilns of the 

 Bluff City Lumber Company. Clio, Ark., Novem- 

 ber 19, destroyed 300,000 feet of high-grade 

 lumber, together with five dry-kilns belonging 

 to the company, entailing a loss of more than 

 .?20.000. John F. Rutherford of Pine Bluff, 

 president of the company, states that the loss 

 is fully covered by insurance. It is expected 

 that the plant will be kept ruuning steadily, as 

 if was not damaged. 



NASHVILLE 



Hamilton Love of the firm of Love, Boyd & 

 Co. is a member of the board of directors of 

 the new Nashville Traffic Bureau, recently or- 

 ganized under the auspices of the Nashville 

 Board of Trade. The organization will be for- 

 mally incorporated in the near future. It will 

 keep in its employe an expert man on trafiic 

 matters and on the laws pertaining to the same. 

 The bureau will have an office open at all times. 



News has been received of the death of Dan 

 J. Ernest, formerly a Nashville lumberman, at 

 his new home, Evansville. Ind. The deceased 

 was well and favorably known in Nashville, 

 where he had many friends. 



A recent visitor to Nashville was John H. 

 Baskette, now in the woodenware business at 

 Helena, Ark., but formerly a member of the 

 Prewitt-Spurr Manufacturing Company and for- 

 mer city councilman in Nashville. Mr. Baskette 

 is devoting all of his time to the manufacture 

 of buckets and tubs and other hollow wooden- 

 ware. He is using gum and cottonwood and 

 finds both quite satisfactory for such use. 



F. W. McLain of Bedford county, Tennessee, 

 and until recently associated with the Helena 

 Woodenware Company of Helena, Ark., has de- 

 cided to locate in Nashville in the lumber busi- 

 ness. He has secured offices in the Homestead 

 building and will deal in yellow pine and cy- 

 press, in carload wholesale business, but will 

 handle some hardwoods also. 



C. II. Edwards of Paris, Ky., a popular and 

 well-known lumber salesman in this section, was 

 in Nashville recently, on his way south. He repre- 

 sents the American Lumber & Manufacturing 

 Comp.any of Pittsburg, Pa. 



A recent vkitor to Nashville was A, (^ 

 llawos of the Hawes Lumber Company of Chi- 

 cago. .\ part of his stay in Nashville was with 

 bis old frienii D. S. Hutchinson of the Pearson- 

 Ilutchinson Lumber CompMii.v. 



LOUISVILLE 



The Louisville Hardwood Club is planning aq 

 active year, and I'resident T. M. Brown, who ra 

 cently took hold of the reins, has started out IB 

 approved fashion by perfecting his organizatiog 

 through the appointment of committees. TB 

 following compose the standing committees i<| 

 the year : 



