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HARDWOOD RECORD 



tract of timber is not successful in another. The feed and care of 

 live stock in Michigan would not apply in Mississippi. The arrange- 

 ment of machinery in one mill cutting certain classes of timber 

 would not be suitable for the mill in another locality and of another 

 size. Details of cutting orders vary with the location and character 

 of the plant. The yard laid out advantageously for a Wisconsin 

 sawmill would be entirely inadequate and undesirable for a manu- 

 facturer in Arkansas. Instructions for sawmill operators applicable 

 in Louisiana would not apply in North Carolina. The piling and 

 covering of lumber as successfully employed in the North would not 

 do in the South. 



Grading is another subject in which every man is a law unto him- 

 self, but properly loading cars is a topic that might be discussed 

 with a good deal of freedom and advantageously applied to all 

 sections where lumber is produced. In line of suggestion of a suit- 

 able comment on this topic, it should be noted that the wise lumber 

 producer in effecting a sale seeks to do it without any restrictions 

 as to the size of the load he should put on the car, and he must needs 

 secure the largest ear that he can coax away from the railroad. If 

 it is a box car, fill it to the roof, and if it is a flat or gondola, pile 

 the lumber on the car carefully and evenly to the limit of weight, 

 taking particular pains that only the good edges and ends shall 

 appear on the outside, and put in enough stakes and cross pieces so 

 that the load will carry safely to destination. 



These instructions are not new, but they constitute the consensus 

 of the best judgment of the biggest and best people in the trade. 



A New Slogan 



The HardW'Ood Manufacturers' Association of the United States 

 through the ofEees of its secretary is putting out to its members a 

 design shown in this paragraph, which it asks its members to employ 

 in all their advertising matter. 



The Eecord has had instructions from a dozen or more members 

 of this organization to carry this design in their advertisements in 



al inboth Grade aa\d 

 Measurement 



this publication so it will be noted tliat members of the association 

 are putting themselves on record to guarantee a "square deal" in 

 both grade and measurement of lumber as advocated by the Hard- 

 wood Manufacturers' Association of the United States, and con- 

 curred in by its various members. It would look as though this 

 insignia were a logical development of the "square deal" propa- 

 ganda so diligently urged by President Carrier and his predecessors 

 at the head of this big hardwood organization. 



How to Buy Lumber to the Best Advantage 



The Record has had numerous complimentary letters referring to 

 the editorial in last issue under the title of "The Propensity to 

 Steal," in which a correspondent analyzed the situation salesmen 

 encounter in effecting sales to the average wholesale consumer of 

 hardwoods. 



Perhaps the most pertinent comment that has been received is the 

 following : ' ' Same old story — I go against it every day — this fel- 

 low has it right — make the punishment fit the crime! " 

 " This is just a sample of the comments on the situation. If the 

 average "price buyer" for furniture and kindred lines could see 

 himself as the lumber salesman sees him, he would soon awake to the 

 fact that he is making a monkey of himself, in which he is being 

 ably assisted by the astute salesman. 



Advice is notoriously cheap, but certain it is that the price-buyer 

 of hardwoods is a lobster. The moment a buyer permits himself in 



this day and generation to attempt to secure his lumber at three to 

 five dollars a thousand less than the standard price, he lets down the 

 bars to a lowering of grades that costs him money every time. He 

 puts himself in the seller's hands, and has no recourse for adjustment 

 of the current purchase, and his alternative lies in experimenting 

 further with a new source of supply and have the "dose" repeated. 



Today there is a standard value of standard grades of hardwood 

 lumber. There isn't a variation of a dollar a thousand on grades of 

 corresponding value. There is only one logical system for the buyer 

 to pursue in making his hardwood purchases, and that is to buy stand- 

 ard grades as laid down by the Hardwood Manufacturers or the Na- 

 tional association. If he is able to economically employ mixed grades 

 and seeks to cheapen his total average price, the sensible plan lies 

 in buying a proportion of the various grades that he can use, and 

 mix them himself. By this system only> is he enabled to secure the 

 co-operation of the associations for re-inspection and passing on the 

 standard of the quality he has purchased. The moment he permits 

 the seller to make him a "special grade" he is getting the worst of 

 the transaction, as it is only human to make the grade as low as the 

 seller thinks the customer will possibly stand. 



The "wise" lumber salesman is not spending his time trying to 

 educate buyers on the subject of grades, but attempts to market the 

 lowest possible grade that will satisfy the purchaser. Millions of 

 feet of No. 1 common today masquerade as firsts and seconds, and as 

 many millions of No. 2 common masquerade as No. 1. 



The salesman likes to find a buyer who has no specific knowledge 

 of grades, and is satisfied to accept anywhere from twenty-five to fifty 

 percent of No. 1 common mixed in firsts and seconds; and that is 

 about as he sells it. Sales of this character result in a good many 

 arguments and disagreements in future adjustment, but the weakness 

 of the buyer 's position is such that he rarely succeeds in securing a 

 square deal. 



There are too many people having charge of the buying departments 

 of concerns handling large quantities of hardwoods that are not posted 

 on the grade proposition, and too often they delegate the inspection 

 of their lumber to incompetent sealers. It would be wisdom on the 

 part of lumber buyers to thoroughly acquaint themselves, with the 

 inspection rules of the two major hardwood associations (there is not 

 enough difference in the total results of a just inspection under either 

 one of these association rules to wad a gun), and buy with the dis- 

 tinct understanding that the purchase is made based on either one of 

 these sets of rules. This is a safeguard for securing what they buy. 

 The moment a seller attempts to work off a proportion of a lower 

 grade for a higher one, the association's inspection bureaus can be 

 called in and an honest re-inspection and adjustment made. 



Special grades are not made in the interest of the buyer, but mani- 

 festly for the benefit of the seller. When the consumers of hardwoods 

 awake to this situation they will find that there is money in their 

 pockets b.v buying standard grades as laid down by the hardwood 

 organizations. 



Sales Managers' Association 



The suggestion made in the last issue of Record that no little 

 benefit could be secured by hardwood sales managers throughout the 

 country by their organizing into an association, has received the most 

 hearty approval on the part of almost a score of these gentlemen. 



Details will now be worked out and it is more than likely that a 

 call will .be made for a meeting of hardwood sales managers to be 

 held at Chicago about tlie middle of February, for the purpose of 

 threshing out the problems which surround the marketing and dis- 

 tribution of hard\roods, and passing on a proposition for the organi- 

 zation of a hardwood sales managers' association or club. 



The sales managers of a large number of leading manufacturers and 

 jobbers throughout the country are interested in the proposed asso- 

 ciation, and it would seem to the Record that its formation is emi- 

 nently desirable, and would contribute to a marked degree in unifying 

 sales methods and would redound to the manifest benefit of the trade. 



It is hoped that it will be possible to issue a definite call for this 

 meeting in the Record of January 10. 



