HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



as the invoice goes, and I see that So & So in Chicago are shippers. 

 I am well acquainted with thoni, know their reputation; they are a 

 good house. He further grants me the privilege of looking at this 

 stock. It would take only half a lumberman to see in an instant 

 that he is getting a high grade of No. 2 common. I take in the 

 surroundings at a glance. I sec his inspector at work ou a car. 

 His work indicates that he could possibly plow corn better than Iio 

 can inspect lumber, but it is not my place to criticise, besides, if 1 

 did, what do you suppose that man of years of experience would 

 tell me? I would not attempt it, and if I did I could' not convince 

 liim that he was not getting a good grade of No. 1 and that his 

 inspector of long experience did not know hjs business. I am 

 sorely tempted, for I see that it would not be hard to induce him 

 to try the stock I have to offer if I meet the price. 



"What do I say? 'Get thee behind me, Satan?' Not me. If I 

 do I add to that ' and push, ' for as I said before, we were only 

 human, all fighting for existence, and the contagion has fallen on me 

 for I walk out of his office with an order for a trial car at $27 — 

 my competitor's price. I make the grade just a shade better than 

 So & So in Chicago, and I get the business until their man comes 

 round and shades the price 50 cents, then he gets it again. 



"But here is the point: When I saw this chance to get this 

 business, should I have refused it in order to contribute my share of 

 personal influence toward making conditions better? I look at So 

 & So in Chicago, and they hiive gotten rich off just such business 

 that other lumbermen have stumbled over. But if this consumer had 

 paid me my price, $33, wouldn't I have given him a nice, straight 

 grade? I surely would, and so would ninety per cent of the lum- 

 bermen in business today. They would have to if the consumer 

 demanded it. 



"Such lumber buyers are iu a class by themselves. I have never 

 ■ been able so far to logicalh' classify them. No doubt this par- 

 ticular buyer patted himself on the back and gave himself credit for 

 about ten points for driving such a good bai'gain. They are hard- 

 headed, corner-cutting, cost-reducing men, but they haven't a thor- 

 ough knowledge of lumber and depend on their inspector to get 

 justice, and they hire a man to fill this position for about nine 

 or ten per, so in this respect, as well as in the lumber, they get just 

 what they pay for. Suppose one of these men should change 

 inspectors suddenly, and get a good, live, up-to-date inspector. One 

 of two things would happen at that plant in short order: this firm 

 would either be out of lumber or they would pay the market price 

 for it. 



' ' The remedy, then, is to educate the consumer. This is a much 

 easier task than to try to elevate the morals of the shipper under such 

 deplorable circumstances. Let me suggest, however, that the medium 

 you use to first inform him that he does not know his business be 

 ' either a newspaper or a megaphone. Personal visits and demonstra- 

 ■ tions would be dangerous. The one who did it would likely have 

 to eat his meals from the mantelpiece for some time afterwards. ' ' 



The point made by this correspondent that the cause for the 

 mixed grade imbroglio lies largely at the doors of the consumer 

 is not new or unknown to the general run of the trade. The atti- 

 tude of the price buyer is certainly inimical to the establishment and 

 maintenance of universal and uniform grade. 



Anyone who is at all familiar with the situation knows that, in prac- 

 tically every instance where the buyer permits grades to be made 

 for him to suit his price, he gets the "hot end" of the transaction. 

 Nine times out of ten the buyer could get much better value by buy- 

 ing a proportion of the higher and lower grades involved in the 

 blend and mix them himself. When the seller has the license to 

 make a ' ' special grade ' ' that has not the backing of some standard 

 of inspection, it is human nature to make the grade just as low as he 

 thinks the customer will stand. This fact may be illustrated by an 

 anecdote : 

 I Two leading manufacturers were discussing tlus proposition. The 



one stated that he absolutely refused to make a mixed grade ship- 

 ment for anyone; that he made standard grades and refused orders 

 involving the putting in of a portion of lower grade with the higher 

 one. Tlie other man stated that that was not his system. He 



said : ' ' Wlien a man asks me to put two thousand feet of No. 1 

 common, thoroughly mixed, into a car of firsts and seconds, I tell 

 him that it is an irregular transaction, and one which would render 

 any future adjustment difficult and that I do not care to make a 

 shipment in this way unless my measurement and grading will be 

 accepted as final. When I get his 0. K. on this proposition, recog- 

 nizing fully that he is putting up a grade with which to steal from 

 somebody, in phice of putting two thousand feet of No. 1 com- 

 mon in tlie shipment, I put in four thousand feet and realize as 

 much ou tlie graft as he does. 



Without doubt the people who should be chiefly benefited by tUo 

 establisliment of a standard of hardwood inspection would be the 

 eventual buyer of tlie lumber, and they are the people to which a 

 campaign of education should be directed if they care to realize the 

 full value of their dollar in making lumber purchase. 



A gieat many people today are entrusted with the buying of lum- 

 ber who know little about the subject, especially about grades. They 

 are essentially "price-buyers." They want to make a showing at 

 headquarters that they are making purchases under market prices. 

 They may be hard-headed, cost-reducing men, but they certainly do 

 not thoroughly analyze the grade proposition in lumber purchases. 

 There is not one man in ten that secures a cut-price on standard 

 varieties of lumber that does not get hurt in the grade. 



A New Association Suggested 



One of the callers at the litcoRD oiEce a few days ago was a sales 

 manager of a leading hardwood manufacturing house. This gentleman 

 suggested, pursuant to a talk covering the difficulties that a lumber 

 sales manager encounters, not only in marketing his product but in 

 getting a close line on credits, that he believed it would be an admir- 

 able idea to organize an association for lumber sales managers, per- 

 liaps exclusively among hardwood men, for the making of plans for 

 a more systematic sales system and the exchange of information on 

 the subject of grades and other topics. 



It would seem that this suggestion is a most admirable one and 

 the Record will be jileased to have an expression from the sales 

 managers of leading lumber manufacturing and jobbing houses con- 

 cerning their ideas on the proposition. If it is deemed wise that 

 such an organization be effected, the Record will take pleasure in 

 lending its :iid, and will cheerfully issue a call for a meeting to be 

 held for the formation of such an association. 



Beyond doubt a community of action among leading sales man- 

 agers would very materially assist in an intelligent marketing of 

 hardwoods. 



The Ballinger Report 



.\ foregone conclusion has come to pass. The republican majority 

 of the committee appointed to investigate Ballinger has reported that 

 the secretary is a "nice man," with intent and heart single to the 

 liest interests of the American people. 



Of course, Glavis might have been emotional; he might have been 

 overzealous; might have been insubordinate; and might have been a 

 lot of other things, but the history and record of the secretary as set 

 :igainst the record and the histor\' of Mr. Glavis, does not look very 

 well to the average taxpayer. 



Then, again, the public is reasonably conversant with the splendid 

 record of e.x-Forester Pinchot and fully recognizes his untiring ener- 

 gies in behalf of the best good of the whole American people in pro- 

 tecting their interests. Mr. Pinchot 's crime was betraying a state 

 secret. Up to the time that he became head of the forest division of 

 the government, the public domain was supposed to constitute a source 

 of public plunder for corporations and the general run of "interests." 



I'rom Mr. Pinchot leaked the fact that the public domain was public 

 jirojierty, and that every American citizen had an equal claim for an 

 interest in it. This is the sad scandal of the affair. 



The result of the Ballinger whitewash will be the adding of another 

 million or so of political insui'gents, which will throw the president 

 and the erstwhile dominant party still further into the depths. 



i'inchot will "come back," but Ballinger is on the road from 

 which he never can return. 



