HARDWOOD RECORD 



W. H. DAWKINS, ASHLAXD. KENTUCKY 

 DIRECTOR 



W. LAWRENCE, BOSTON, MASSACHU- 

 SETTS DIRECTOR 



J. L. STRICKLAND. GREENVILLE, MISSIS 

 SirPI DIRECTOR 



Mr. fee: Mr. IJostcr has the report. 



The report was read by Secretary Poster as follows: 



Report of Committee on Officers' Reports 



Mr. President ami si'iiili'mcii ui t\v conveution : Your committee 

 appointed for tlie purpose of considering officers' reports, submitted at 

 this mornin.sr's session, desires to report as follows : 



We feel that the members of this association are to be congratulated 

 on the great progre.s.s mad? this past .year toward the common end of 

 one universal set of grading rules. Voii are happ.v in having the officers 

 who so unselflshl.v give their individual time to the furtherance of the 

 welfare of this association. 



The reports show the untiring energj- and zeal with which they have, 

 each and all. looked after each detail of the work. 



Having in mind future contingencies that may arise, we beg to recom- 

 mend lo the association the appointment of a committee of three on arbi- 

 tration, which is to formulate plans and report to the association : also 

 the appointment of the following standing committees for the year 1911 : 



A committee of three on the subject of resolutions. 



Committee on statistics on each of the following woods: Gum, to 

 consist of nine : Cottonwood, to consist of seven ; Hickory, Pecan and 

 Sycamore, to consist of three : Cherry, to consist of three : Walnut and 

 Butternut, to consist of three : Beech, Birch, Elm and Maple, to consist 

 of seven ; Poplar, I asswood and Bucke.ve, to consist of nine : Oak, Ash 

 and Chestntit, to consist of nine : Mahogany, to consist of three : Vehicle 

 Dimension Stock, to consist of seven : Oak Dimension Timber or Car 

 Construction Oak, to consist of five : Chair and Furniture Dimension, to 

 consist of nine. 



We also recommend the appointment of these committees today, so 

 that the.v ma.v meet as early as possible after the program of today has 

 been carried out : that they may have time to report to the association 

 before adjournment. 



The work of tlu'se committees is of much im[)ortance. and the chair 

 man of each committee is requested to designate to his committee the 

 time and place of such meeting, so that tliis work may lie done promptly, 

 and all persons desiring to appear before these committees may have 

 due notice of the time and phtce of such meeting. 



A groat many matters of importance referred to in the president's and 

 secretary's reports are such that they cannot be acted upon intelligently 

 by this committee in the lime at their disposal. 



It is also recommended that all such matters be referred to the inccm- 



that it take such action as 

 T. W. Fry, Chairman, 

 Frank May, 

 F. F. Fee. 

 the report. 



ing Executive Board of the association, 

 the good of the association reiiuiri's. 



Mr. Vansant: I move the ;iilo|)ti()ii (jI' 



Motion seeouded and carried. 



President Carrier: We have with us today Mr. .lohu B. Crosby 

 of Chicago, who will aildress us n|Miu the subject, "Advertising 

 Lumber Products. ' ' 



Real Advertising vs. Simple Price Quoting 



I appreciate very highly your invitation to <!ome here and talk briefly 

 about advertising, as recently for the lirst time applied, or as about lo be 

 further applied, to lumber. 



1 know of no producing industry uion- amenable to advertising IX'lielit 



than tbe himber industry in its various distinct departments. I know of^.^ 

 no industry which should more logically spring to advertising as its bene- 

 factor, and perhaps its savior, than the lumlxn- industry. I know of no 

 industry hitherto more unanimously uninformed and therefore contempt-., 

 uous of advertising than the lumber industry. I know of no other indus; 

 try whose captains are keener in their discernment of advertising possi- 

 bilities, when properly presented, than the lumber industry, as far as my 

 associates and myself have acquaintance with them. 



For these reasons I am not having as hard a time at this moment as 1 

 might have had. Your retiring president (and .vour rcr.i/ retiring secre- 

 tary) .generously invited me to say something here, and then most 

 ungenerously refused to give me the least aid in deciding what to say 

 or how to say it. As my only means of getting ■veu, I think I shall 

 have to say it, whatever it is. 



I will make it a short and general discussion undiM- tlu' title of 



-VDVERTISIXr, vs. SlMPLE PRieE-Ql.clTINc: 



It is my belief that this phrase embodies the whole philosophy of a 

 question much discussed and upon which the disagreement might almost 

 be said to mark the line between careful and exact students of successful 

 advertising and those whose judgments on advertising are either im- 

 petuous and inexact, or whose lack of practical experience with It de- 

 tracts from their authority to judge it, without always lessening the 

 positiveness of their opinions. 



1 would as soon refer a bet on the proportion of nitrogen in the re- 

 claimed soil of Louisiana to the off-hand decision of the admiral of the 

 Swiss Ro.val Navy, as to entrust my case in court to the legal skill of 

 the most accomplished carver of gravestones, or ray sick child to the 

 medical ministrations of a pre-eminently able clam-digger, as to accept as 

 tinal and authoritative the judgment upon advertising possibilities, adver- 

 tising probability, advertising certainties, or advertising methods, of the 

 man who thinks advertising "may be all right for patent medicines and 

 breakfast foods and silk petticoats, but it is no good for my business." 



I have heard that a man of recognized business success and proven 

 business ability recently was moved to ridicule, good-humoredly, a very 

 important lumberman who is one of our clients, and to say. "I see you 

 are handling lumber the same as oatmeal now." 



'J'o quote a famous line. "This was considered a good joke iu thim 

 days." but its point does not make tbe same dent now. 



Those who hold that view should remember that, not many years ago, 

 the manufacturers of breakfast foods and silk petticoats were saying the 

 same thing. They naltirally felt that advertising was all right for patent 

 medicines and other things which were already being advertised, but that 

 goods not l>eing advertised wi're thereby proven, prima facie, to be inap- 

 propriate or impossible subjects for advertising. A little later the manu- 

 facturer of silk petticoats might well have said, ".\dvertisin.g is undoubt- 

 edl.v all riglit for patent niediciui's and breakfast foods, but it is no good 

 lor my business." 



It is hard lo explain, but it has every appearance of a fact, lliat. among 

 all classes of important business men, lumbermen have been until very 

 lately the slow'est and most reluctant to either understand or grasp the 

 modern prescription for stability of their market. 



They seemed 1o think that, because wood "had tlie worlil by the tail" 

 as a buildin.g material, anti for many other so-called standard uses, wood 

 always must remain immune to l)otb competition and substitution. They 

 apparently relied too much upon the antique doi'trine tliat what was and 

 Iiad been ahva.\s must be. 



