HARDWOOD RECORD 



45 



DANiEi, vn:mz. evansville, Indiana 



DIRECTOR 



G. 0. WORLAND, EVANSVILLE, INDIANA 

 DIRECTOR 



W. ritATT, JR.. CROFTON. KENTrCKY 

 DIRECTOR 



It is your duty, pollectively and individually, to support the work of 

 this committee, and to see that It has a sufficient fund at all times to 

 guarantee its operation without being hampered by false and forced 

 economies. There can be no question as to the value of the work done. 

 There is, however, every question as to the support it has received, and I 

 stand before you today to earnestly plead with you to appropriate at 

 least $2,000 for the immediate use of this committee. I am asking 

 nothing for myself, and can refer to many gentlemen in this room to 

 confirm the statement that I have demanded nothing for myself, and 

 your committee has unselfishly, and without hope of reward, worked 

 continually for the betterment of conditions, and has brought about 

 considerable betterments in conditions which you are. probably, all 

 enjoying. 



Mr. Brower: We took it up with the jobbers and also with the 

 retailers, where they were using substitute containers for wooden 

 boxes, at the request of individual customers. The jobbers said 

 they would co-operate with us. We went further in the matter; 

 we requested that the commissary departments of lumber interests 

 throughout the United States absolutely refuse to accept any 

 jiaekages packed in paper packages. This committee met with 

 opposition among many of the larger lumber corporations, who 

 said that a rule of that kind would savor of a boycott. If you 

 have not the right to protect your own interests, I don't know why. 



I could not, of course, tell anybody what to do. The effect of 

 the commissary department passing the resolution at the managers' 

 meeting in Baltimore has been felt all over the United States. 

 Shippers of packages are compelled to listen to purchasers. About 

 ninety per cent of the product shipped to lumber commissaries is 

 shipped by just such people, whose markets are competitive. When 

 a salesman of one of these manufacturers comes to a commissary 

 department, he is confronted with the fact that he must ship in 

 wood, or he has no possibility of making a sale. He reports to his 

 superior officer, and his superior officer thinks it is about time to 

 consider the difference in box costs, and the result is the restora- 

 tion of an enormous tonnage. 



The bos men have felt it and you have all felt it. Our next step 

 was to counteract the effect of the conteinplated move on the part 

 of the Transcontinental Freight Bureau, in classifying, in regard to 

 fruit products shipped in paper. The shippers said they were with 

 us, but they realized that if they made a protest to the Transcon- 

 tinental Freight Bureau that they would only be one interest; and 

 we therefore called upon the jobbers, telling them what our pro- 

 posal was before the Transcontinental Freight Bureau, and advis- 

 ing them to write personal letters of protest to this bureau. 



We flooded the Transcontinental Freight Bureau with protests 

 from wholesale druggists from one end of the country to the other. 



The result was that the Transcontinental Freight Bureau called 

 their meeting off. We were all ready to appear before the Western 



Classification Committee an3' time it was ready. TTufortuuately 

 for us, it refused to hold a meeting. I don 't know whether it did 

 not want to listen to us or whether it had some other good reason. 



This committee has done its work carefully aud has done it well, 

 but it has not had enough money to support it in its work. The 

 opposition committee of the Strawboard association has appointed 

 a secretary on a fixed salary of ten thousand dollars a year, and 

 he is guaranteed a sufficient sum of money to fight this committee. 

 This committee has had less than ten thousand dollars in the past 

 year for all its services, and it has taken up the work from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific and from Maine to Mexico. The importance 

 of the work must be apparent to all of us, so far as it affects your 

 low-grade markets; and as far as j-our high-grade markets are con- 

 cerned, they must feel a reflective influence; the box man is your 

 Ijest customer. 



We are trying to get the box men to come to the lumber market 

 and hold their annual convention there. They will meet on 

 Feljruary 15, 16 and 17. I think it is of great importance that this 

 association should appoint delegates to attend that convention, to 

 look, to learn and to listen. 



I am frank to say that I have been against a gigantic task this 

 year — trying to stake out an elephant with a shoestring. You all 

 are responsible. I am tired of holding the bag and unless I get 

 some tangible evidence of co-operation by the first of April, the 

 firm which employs me and which has given me my time for the 

 past year, tells me that I must go back into my own territory. If I 

 have to do that, I hope that some good fellow will come out of the 

 woods and will carry on the work just as capably as I have tried to 

 do. 1 thank you. [Applause.] 



President Carrier: I am sure that every manufacturer and 

 every purchaser of lumber is interested in the low grades. I 

 think this committee deserves the support of the manufacturers 

 of lumber; I mean financial report. They have not had the firian- 

 I'ial support that they should have had. I certainly hope in the 

 future and hereafter that they will be better financially supported. 

 Mr. Morgan of Memphis is the president, and Mr. Brower is sec- 

 retary, and I sincerely hope that the work that they have done 

 will not be lost by changing horses in the middle of the stream, 

 but that you will give them financial support to carry on the 

 work. Ever since the panic low-grade lumber has been a stum- 

 bling block and such work as they are doing helps us out greatly. 

 They have worked very hard and have had, up to the present 

 time, remarkable success; but there is a great deal to do and they 

 certainly deserve support. 



I will now call for the report of the committee wliicli I appointed 

 oil Dllicors' reports. 



