HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



Annual Northwestern Lumbermen's Association 



The tweutyseconU aiiiuial iiieetiug of the- 

 Korthwcstern Hardwood Lumbermen's As- 

 sociation was held in the afternoon and 

 evening of December 7 in the rooms of the 

 Commercial Club, Miuneaiiolis, Minn. There ' 

 was a representative attendance of hard- 

 wood jobbers of the Twin Cities. The meet- 

 ing was followed by a good and well served 

 (inner in the dining room of the Commercial 

 Club, after which the members adjourned to 

 attend a performance at the Orpheum The- 

 atre. 



The business session was failed to order 

 by President A. H. Barnard. The first busi- 

 ness on the program was the reading of the 

 minutes of the last annual and last monthly 

 meetings by Secretary J. F. Hayden. The 

 minutes were approved as read and Presi- 

 dent Barnard then presented the following 

 annual address: 



President's Address 



This organization is made up of the hard- 

 wood manufacturers and jobbers of the North- 

 west (Wisconsin and Minnesota). At this 

 meeting we miss our first president, W. C. 

 Bailey, a man who had the good of the organ- 

 ization at heart at all times, and we will miss 

 him more and more as tiie years roll by. His 

 advice was always good and his judgment 

 sound; he was one of the very best on rules 

 of grading and had much to do in the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association in advising as 

 to rules. 



So far as my observation goes, I think we 

 are all getting on well with the railroads; re- 

 funds are made promptly for overcharges in 

 rates and weights. 



I believe we should all worlc together and 

 confer with each other as to supply and de- 

 mand, and there is much good that can come 

 from these conferences. As to general market 

 conditions, what we want is some sort of a 

 market price on standard grades. If we could 

 just get something of this kind under way 

 there would not be so many low prices. The 

 manufacture of the lumber has much to do 

 Willi its value; it is the poorly manufactured 

 stock that sets the price today, and not the 

 good which should be the standard as in tlie 

 other lines of goods. We should strive to 

 handle all the large manufacturer's products 

 and then we would have a better standard, 

 and in my judgment it is far better that the 

 manufacturer should sell to the jobber than to 

 try to market his own stock, because we are 

 on the market at all times. 



The national inspector lias much to do in 

 satisfying the manufacturer and we all know 

 that there is much less trouble than in former 

 years. And let me add that the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association inspectors han- 

 dled 10,147,094 feet last month as compared to 

 7,398,604 feet in the same month last year. 

 This, gentlemen, is a great showing and ought 

 to make you who do not employ the inspector 

 give him much more work in shipping out 

 your stocks. Remember, he is under bond to 

 give a fair and impartial scale and grade, so 

 that your interests are protected as well as 

 the man you are buying of, and I find this a 

 large step in bringing together manufacturers 

 and jobbers. The manufacturer who formerly 

 could not get on with the independent grader 

 is now perfectly satisfied, and often specifies 

 that the national inspector ship out the stock. 



Business conditions have been far from good, 

 owing to the unsettled crop conditions all sum- 

 mer, which made buyers hold off. This 



biuuyliL u lot of .■'mall stocks on the market 

 which were offered at low prices; these have 

 been about all cleaned up and prices should 

 show a steady advance from now until spring. 

 Factories have all been busy and this means 

 cutting up lumber. So take it all around, 

 business has been much better than we figured 

 it would be. 



There is today among manufacturers of 

 other lines of lumber a sj'stem of issuing mar- 

 ket reports giving prices at which actual sales 

 have been made. These are reported in con- 

 fidence by association members to their secre- 

 taries, who compile from them a statement of 

 the high, low, and average prices received 

 from different items of stock. This, in my 

 judgment, would bo a fine thing for us, if we 

 could get such a system in operation in our 

 association. 



I am very pleased to announce that our 

 membership has been increased by four new 

 members. This is a fine showing, and the 

 firms are first class business men. Let us all 

 attend the monthly meeting so we can ex- 

 change views on the market situation. 



I wish to thank you for the honor shown in 

 selecting me as your president for the past 

 two years, and bespeak your cooperation and 

 support for my successor. 



The annual report of the secretary was 

 the next order of business: 



Keport of Secretary Hayden 



The comparatively small number of meet- 

 ings held during the past year gives your 

 secretary little to report on the work of the 

 association since the last annual meeting. 

 For some reason there appears to have been 

 less interest in the work of the organization, 

 and several attempts to hold meetings have 

 failed to bring out a quorum. Possibly the 

 hardwood trade has been so good during the 

 year that members have not had time even 

 to eat an occasional lunch at the usual place 

 of meeting. 



During the past year, S. H. Davis, the 

 Forbes-Everts Lumber Company and I. P. 

 Lennan & Co. have retired from the hardwood 

 lumber business, and are no longer members 

 of the association. To replace these losses we 

 are glad to welcome the Nolan Brothers Hard- 

 wood Company, who have recently decided to 

 maintain an office in Minneapolis, the Foster 

 Lumber Company, the Fullerton-Krueger 

 Lumber Company and the Webster- Whipple 

 Lumber Company. 



But the greatest loss to the association, and 

 one that cannot be readily replaced, came in 

 the death of William C. Bailey, the first presi- 

 dent of this organization, and one of its most 

 loyal members during its twenty-two years 

 of life. Suitable resolutions have been pre- 

 pared, covering this matter and will be pre- 

 sented to this meeting for adoption. 



The work of the new national inspector in 

 this district has been satisfactory, and there 

 lias been an absence of complaint that his 

 services could not be secured when wanted, a 

 complaint that was frequently heard during 

 the previous year. 



Treasurer's Keport 



The report of Treasurer C. F. Osborne 

 showed the following condition of the asso- 

 ciation's finances: 



Balance on hand Dec. 7, 1909 $ 26.93 



Received, dues, etc 96.00 



Report of Board of Arbitration 



P. K. li.imilton, reporting for the Board 

 of Arbitration, stated that it was simply a 

 repetition of last year's report. 



One complaint of five cars was turned 

 over to the national inspector. Since then 

 nothing had come to the attention of the 

 board, who were glad to report such har- 

 mony. 



D. F. Clark aslced the national inspector, 

 Mr. Borgeson, how much lumber had been 

 inspected for the association members dur- 

 ing November. 



Mr. Borgeson said 229,000 feet had been 

 inspected, and that the work for members 

 had supported the inspector in this district. 



F. A. IColan called attention to the fact 

 that Polk's Lumber Directory did not con- 

 tain the National Hardwood Lumber Asso- 

 ciation 's rules, and moved that the secre- 

 tary write Secretary Fish, of the National 

 association, to that effect. The motion was 

 carried. 



D. F. C'laik then read a compilation of 

 the work done by inspectors of the National 

 association during the month of November, 

 a total of — 



Salaried inspectors 5,872,475 ft. 



Fee insjiectors 5,310,363 ft. 



J122.93 

 Disbursements 112.14 



Balance on hand $ 10.79 



On motion the reports of the officers were 

 adopted. 



Total 11,182,838 ft. 



N. 0. Bennett, reporting for the member- 

 ship committee, referred to the report of 

 the secretary on the subject. 



Report of Railroad Committee 



A. S. Bliss, chairman of the railroad com- 

 mittee, said that several members had been 

 having some work done by the Western 

 Freight Traffic Association and it had been 

 \ery satisfactory, which fact was confirmed 

 by President Barnard. Mr. Bliss added that 

 the Western had been very good about giv- 

 ing rates when applied to, and saved much 

 trouble and error, as well as much money 

 by giving combination rates. 



Report of Forestry Committee 



D. F. Clark, chairman of the forestry com- 

 mittee, referred to the vote on amendment 

 to the Minneapolis constitution for forestry. 

 The amendment failed of adoption, showing 

 that the people are not interested. He 

 believed it would be a long time before the 

 people would take the matter seriously. A8 

 a delegate to the National Conservation Con- 

 gress last summer, ho had heard little of real 

 interest. There will be an awakening 

 eventuallj- and the country will take steps 

 to protect and conserve the forests. 

 Report of Waterways Committee 



Mr. Nolan, for the waterways committee, 

 said he had nothing to say except to thank 

 the association for appointing him a dele- 

 gate to the National Rivers & Harbors Con- 

 gress at Washington. He also spoke of the 

 work being done on the Mississippi river. 

 He pointed out the importance of the 



