26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



The National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Assoeiatiou heretofore 

 and at the present time stands in the middle of the road between the 

 two big hardwood lumber organizations, and it is to be hoped that 

 its plan now being inaugurated, of making one more attempt to get 

 these two organizations to agree to a uniform and simple basis of 

 inspection, will be fruitful of success. 



The Lumber Sales Managers' Association 



Tlie officers and directors of the newly organized Lumber Sales 

 Managers' Assoeiatiou are busily engaged in securing membership 

 and consequent funds to organize and start out a campaign of work 

 outlined. It is believed by those most actively interested in the move- 

 ment that the association will build up a membership of at least one 

 thousand, and if even one-half this number can be secured, the asso- 

 ciation will certainly become a power for good in the lumber trade. 



The spirit of the convention as 

 voiced by one of the members is 

 that in the association there is 

 no idea, ability or interest to 

 attempt to regulate or control 

 prices. It is contended that that 

 is a matter which belongs to each 

 individual firm. There is no dis- 

 position to attempt to dominate 

 specific methods or rules of in- 

 spection, but to urge a unification 

 of current regulations of this 

 sort. It is further urged that the 

 idea that supply and demand 

 regidate the price for lundjer in 

 the present situation of trade 

 conditions is erroneous. What 

 one gets for his lumber is simply 

 what his misinformed competitor 

 who guesses at timber supply, dry 

 lumber supply, cost of production 

 and market conditions lets him 

 get for it. The unintelligent com- 

 petitor regulates what shall be 

 received for lumber products. 



As so far outlined, the general 

 aim of the association is a policy 

 of education and interchange of 

 information. 



L. W. Crow of Mears-SIayton 

 Lumber Company, 1237 Belmont 

 avenue, Chicago, 111., is the tem- 

 porary secretary of the organiza- 

 tion, and to him should be addressed applications for membership. 



A meeting of the officers and directors of the organization will be 

 held within a few days to outline definite plans of work, and a gen- 

 eral meeting of the association will be called for not later than May 1. 



The Key -Stone 



^T^HERE is a structure which every 

 "*■ institution builds for itself. It is 

 called character, and every act is a 

 stone in this structure. 



An institution, in order to have a 

 good character, must think honesty, 

 act honesty, breathe honesty. The 

 people soon determine between the 

 genuine and the counterfeit. They 

 know the ring of the true metal and 

 the base. 



— L. M. Jones 



The association through its credit bureau has established a wonder- 

 fully comprehensive and accurate trade report system, and has saved 

 and is constantly saving its members thousands of dollars. 



In its collection department it is doing famous work, and in its 

 railroad claim department, it is doing equally efficient service for its 

 members. 



These items are but a few of the specific and praiseworthy results 

 being accomplished by this splendidly organized and conducted insti- 

 tution. 



In commenting on this association, extraordinary credit must be 

 given to the painstaking, systematic, faithful and energetic work 

 which has been carried on under the direction of the association's 

 olBcers and board of trustees by Secretary Eugene F. Perry. He is a 

 most capable man in his lino of work and no other lumber association 

 secretary has ever accomplished more for the good of the trade than 

 has been done by him. 



Attack on the Forest 

 Service 



It will be noted in the report 

 of the meeting of the National 

 Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation that Gifford Pinchot called 

 the attention of the members to 

 two amendments that had just 

 passed the Senate, one providing 

 that all land upon which there is 

 growing less than four thousand 

 feet of merchantable timber 

 should be excluded from the na- 

 tional forests, and the second that 

 the Forest Service should be 

 prohibited from interfering with 

 mining claimants on government 

 reservations that did not include 

 merchantable timber. 



Mr. Pinchot made a vigorous 

 address in which he said that the 

 first amendment would practically 

 destroy the usefulness of the 

 Forest Service in handling the 

 government's property, and the 

 second would open the forests to 

 fraudulent mining claimants. The 

 association put in a vigorous pro- 

 test to the president and to Con- 

 gress, as a result of which both 

 amendments were defeated. 



Thus it has transpired that 

 another attack of the enemies of the Forest Service has come to naught. 



Important Lumber Association Conference 



The nineteenth annual meeting of the National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association, held at Washington, D. C, last week, was one 

 of the most important meetings held by lumbermen in a long time. 

 The accomplishments of this organization are both worthy and specific 

 in results. During the last few years of its existence, it has accom- 

 plished more for the betterment of trade conditions, notably in the 

 East, than was ever deemed possible. From chaotic conditions of 

 trade relations, with constant arguments and rows involved, it has 

 succeeded in placating every element of the manufacturing, whole- 

 saling and consuming trade into a universal understanding of the 

 just relations between all elements of the industry. Today every 

 member of the association is working in perfect harmony with the 

 retail trade and with the wholesale consumers in the territory covered 

 by the organization. Tiierc is peace and liarmony from start to finish. 



The Mahogany Position 



A prominent English timber merchant, when interviewed by the 

 British Timber Trade Journal, said that the mahogany market was 

 never in a better or sounder condition than at present and that it wiU 

 continue so. He argued that the producers have come to realize their 

 real position, that they cannot contiuue doing business at a loss, 

 which he claims has been done in the past. The gentleman states 

 that- some of the jirudcnt shippers have reduced their output as much 

 as fifty per cent, which action was necessary to enable them to show 

 a profit on their production. As an instance of the inadvisability of 

 a large production and little or no profit, he cited a case as it exists 

 today in the mahogany business, claiming that this branch of the 

 lumber trade requires more money to handle than any other. Greater 

 risks have to be faced, as operators are dependent upon nature for 

 getting their wood out. There is always the fear of insufiicient rain 

 or of too much rain, with consequent loss. In the first case an 

 enormous loss is entailed. There are now in the creeks at Belize 

 millions of feet of mahogany which cannot be gotten out until next 

 year. The owners will have to bear a loss of approximately thirty 



