30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



A Restraint of Competition 



There is a national law which provides severe penalties for 

 combinations acting in restraint of trade, and among the anti- 

 trust cases now up for hearing before the supreme court, pretty 

 nearly the whole industrial organization of the country is on trial. 

 There is probably a manifest justice in the law that prohibits 

 combinations made for the sole purpose of raising prices to con- 

 sumers beyond a reasonably profitable one, but how far-reaching 

 the ramifications of this law will go, is a debatable question at the 

 present time. 



There is a fine distinction between restraint of trade and a 

 logical restraining of unintelligent competition. Leading banks in 

 all cities operate together through a clearing house, and one of the 

 chief factors of clearing house associations is to restrain unprofit- 

 able competition. They do this sometimes by open rules and more 

 often by the combined power of the banks upon reckless and 

 unwise practices. A bank that gets into disfavor with its neighbors 

 in the clearing house association can not exist in New York, 

 Chicago or any other leading city. It is absolutely driven out of 

 business. Is a clearing house an organization for the restraint of 

 trade, or for the restraint of unsafe competition; restraint of wild 

 cat methods; restraint of unsafe 

 business? Does such an organi- 

 zation make for the betterment 

 of the stability of the business 

 houses whose funds it handles, 

 or is it a menace to them? 



The prime object of all lum- 

 ber organizations is to restrain 

 unfair and unwise competition 

 among their members. Do these 

 organizations restrain trade, or 

 do they act in restraint of fool- 

 ish competition? 



A leading magazine discusses 

 this problem and avers that to 

 restrain competition is often 

 not at all to restrain trade, but 

 to promote it, and is so clear 

 that hardly anyone thinks of 

 challenging it. Unrestrained 

 competition means nothing short 

 of industrial anarchy. 



For months and years there 

 have been scandals promulgated 

 concerning combinations in the 

 lumber industry. The "lumber 

 trust ' ' has been shown as a vil- 

 lainous octopus to the minds of 

 the public by means of vicious 

 editorials and cartoons in the 

 daily press, and still in spite of 

 several exhaustive governmental 

 investigations, there has not 

 been found a scintilla of truth, 



in the various statements, of the actual existence of a trust in any 

 department of the lumber liusiness. 



Nearly every branch of American industry today abounds with 

 various associations of individuals engaged in specific lines of 

 endeavor, and in very few instances has any attempt been made 

 toward trust formation. These associations, and notably in the 

 lumber industry, have been entirely social and educational affairs. 

 In the educational feature, members have been told a great many 

 things about their own business. They have been shown that the 

 average cost figuring has been erroneous and very much below the 

 actual facts. They have been shown what constitutes legitimate 

 business profits, and while few in the lumber business of late have 

 been able to shape their affairs to accomplish this result, they are 

 still working to that end. There is no lumber trust, but there is 

 an endeavor, through competent organized effort, to eliminate so 



far as possible unrestrained, unintelligent and demoralizing com- 

 petition. This is as it should be, and there is little fear of any 

 legislation which shall prohibit such a course of action. 



Cbcre Is ]Vot 



"J^ow 18 there, is there, a 

 more welcome eight on the foot- 

 stool than the man who does his 

 worh well, and does it well, because 

 he lihes to do it well, because he 

 is proud to do it well, because it 

 is right that he should do it well? 

 JVo there is not." 



Renry B. fuller 



Canadian Reciprocity Treaty 



The manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion has written a letter .which evidently voices the sentiments of 

 his organization on the subject of the proposed reciprocity arrange- 

 ment now in progress between the United States and Canada. He 

 alleges that as a summary of the principal articles affected by this 

 arrangement, the amount involved is nearly $50,000,000 per annum, 

 and of this sum, forty-two and a half per cent of the total is 

 involved in forest products. 



He contends, therefore, that tlie lumber industry is asked to 

 carry the greater portion of the load of the diminution of tariff 

 duty, and twice as great in extent as any apparent benefit it is to 

 receive. He argues that the benefit, such as it is, is more 

 apparent than real, as Canada already admits lumber free. 



The Record never has been in entire sympathy with the prevail- 

 ing duty on lumber, as it believes that it will not make a Conti- 

 nental cent's difference to the 

 industry whether lumber is on 

 the free list or not. It occurs 

 to the writer that the wise thing 

 to do is to establish reciprocal 

 trade relations not only with 

 Canada but with a good many 

 other countries. 



Lumber Export Trade 

 for December 



From the advance sheets from 

 the monthly summary of com- 

 merce and finance issued by the 

 Department of Commerce and 

 Labor, it is shown that the 

 value of December exports of 

 forest products was $3,777,432, 

 as compared with $2,725,049 in 

 December, 1909. For the twelve 

 months ending with December, 

 1910, the total forest product 

 value of exports was $41,675,785, 

 as compared with $32,856,078 in 

 1909. The export values of hard- 

 woods for 1909 were about two 

 and a quarter million dollars 

 more than in 190S, and these 

 figures would demonstrate that 

 in spite of the general complaint 

 over the lumber export business 

 which prevailed during 1910, 

 there was a substantial increase, although it is doubtful if the 

 profits arising from the trade generally are as satisfactory as those 

 secured in the domestic business. 



Sales Managers' Conference 



At the present writing there is every evidence that the sales 

 managers' conference which will meet at the Auditorium hotel, 

 Chicago, on Thursday, February 23, is going to call out the fore- 

 most hardwood sales managers, to the number of more than a 

 hundred, to thrash out the problems that surround the selling 

 situation. There are infinite possibilities in this meeting, and 

 beyond question it will result in the organization of a strong 

 alliance among' those responsible for the marketing of a large 

 portion of the hardwoods of the country, and should redound in a 

 great deal of benefit to the trade. 



