HARDWOOD RECORD 



W, E. BERGER, AWIILAND. KY.. rOPLAR, C. L. HARRISON. CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO., THOMAS W. FRY, ST. LdllS, MO., COMMIT- 

 BASSWOOD & BUCKEYE STATISTICS STANDARD WEIGHTS COMMITTEE TEE ON COSTS OF MANUFACTURE 



worth speaking of. The furniture trades have lieeu quiet. There 

 is a bristling demand for the upper grades, but a very poor 

 demand for the lower grades. The railroads along' in the earlier 

 part of the year were using considerable stock, poplar, ash, oak, 

 and, of course, pine; they also usually demand the best grade 

 that they can purchase. Their trade, I am sorry to say, has 

 fallen off in our district and up to January 1, or a little prior 

 to that, our market was overstocked with low-grade stock of 

 all hardwoods, but the upper grades have been scarce and are 

 still scarce. It is pretty hard to tell just exactly the condition 

 of the market. We are in a kind of go between stage. J.ast 

 fall trade conditions in the St. Louis district were prett.y good. 

 The furniture factories, however, have now opened up and are 

 buying quite strongly, which I think is a verj- good sign. Our 

 section having been practically flooded with rain in the last 

 season, 1 hope there will not be an overproduction of low-grade 

 stock and that the consuming market in that respect will im- 

 prove. I think it will improve as to moving lower grades. 



I cannot say that present conditions are especially good, but 

 are as good as we can e.xpect to have at this time of the year, 



I hope the tariff disturbance we have in view will not worry 

 prospective buyers. I hope it will be settled advantageously 

 for us lumbermen regardless of politics and that we may look 

 for good results from that tariff board that I see by the morn- 

 ing paper the president has appointed. I think if the tariff coulci 

 be taken out of politics and stop affecting the minds of pros- 

 pective builders and buyers of railroad bonds and stocks it would 

 help our lumber market considerably in all branches of the 

 trade. That is about all I have in my mind at present. [Applause.] 

 President Carrier: I wish to call upon Mr. M. L. Pease of the 

 Galloway-Pease Lumber Company, Poplar Bluff, Mo. 



Mr. Pease: I am not in a position to speak to you definitely 

 about the condition of stocks except with reference to our own 

 concern. There is very little manufacturing in our own imme- 

 diate section outside of our own mill, except car stock. As I 

 understand, most of the small dealers producing car stock are 

 shut out on account of rain and high water. As to ourselves, 

 we are having a good trade and a good demand. 



President Carrier: We have with us one of the largest box 

 shook manufacturers in the country. That industry is very closely 

 allied to ourselves and therefore we would like to hear from Mr. 

 W. B. Morgan of the Andersou-Tully Compan}-, Memphis, Tenn. 



Mr. Morgan: Mr. President and gentlemen, as a wooden box 

 manufacturer, who for the last three or four years has had prob- 

 ablv a little morn ttiau his share of troubles, I would say that 



I do uot think there is any box concern in the country which 

 during that period has made fair profits on the business done. 

 In fact, I doubt seriously whether, if the box manufacturers 

 were to charge oft' the regular depreciation, they could show any 

 profit whatever on the business they have done. The substitute 

 ])ackage, as you know, has had a very serious effect upon the box 

 trade in general, and for a number of years — two or three at 

 least directly after the panic — the box manufacturers were only 

 able to operate at about fifty per cent of their capacity. At the 

 present time I am glad to state that the factories are nearly 

 all busy, but they are not getting a price for their product that 

 will allow for a reasonable margin of profit. The talk that we 

 have ,iust heard from the membership has indicated that the 

 demand for low-grade stocks is not what it might be, and con- 

 sidering the fact that the wooden box manufacturers are the 

 largest users of low-grade lumber, it is not surprising that mill 

 operators today find their stocks of low grade much bigger than 

 they should be. 



L do not see anything in the immediate future for wooden pack- 

 ages and I do not see under the circumstances how the sawmill 

 operators are expected to secure very much higher prices for 

 their low-giade lumber. I believe that the box trade will con- 

 sume more than they have, but they cannot pay higher prices 

 than they have been paying at this time on the business which 

 they can secure. In connection with box work I cannot help 

 but bring in a reference to Mr. Brower of the National Classi- 

 fication Committee. Mr. Brower is employed by a large corpora- 

 tion, and while his firm is indirectly interested in the wooden 

 box trade, at the same time they are not interested to the ex- 

 tent of the time and money that they have spent in this work. 

 Mr. Brower has devoted practical!}' a j-ear of his time, they pay- 

 ing him a big salary, in work for the lumber and wooden box 

 interests. He has drawn no money at all from the fund that 

 has been subscribed to carry on this work, but has done all this 

 work simply because he took hold of it a year ago and has taken 

 an interest in it. I think that he is the man that will handle 

 the work and if money is provided for another twelve months' 

 campaign I am (juite certain you will see a decided improvement 

 in the box trade and also in the demand for low-grade poplar. 

 I will say to you that in my connection with this committee I 

 have not devoted much time and work to it, because I have had 

 my time taken up trying to market the output of several large 

 box manufacturers, which was no easj- job. I notice that all 

 the lumber organizations in the country ha\e subscribed to this 

 fund for the protection of the hardwood manufacturers. This 

 association, it seems to me, is more directly interested in the 



