HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



was read from GlITord Plnchot, chief forester 

 <.f the Vnited States, in which he expressed his 

 desire to spealc Ijefore the club on January 25, 

 and the club has arranf^ed to hold its next 

 resular meetinj; of that date. The demurrage 

 pro|>osltlon in relation to the stand talien by 

 the Louisviiie & Nashville and the Southern 

 railroads was finally referred to the river and 

 rail committee. 



A letter from John M. Woods of Boston, 

 prominent in the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Assoi'latlon, was read. In wl»ich lie aslied the 

 club to support him for president next June, but 

 before action on this was talten William A. 

 Bennett presented a resolution asking that the 

 secretary write Mr. Woods asking him how he 

 stood on the 190,j rules. This suggestion was 

 adopted. President Thomas J. MoBFelt. who is 

 recovering from an attack of quinsy, was unable 

 to preside at the meeting and Vico-President 

 George Littleford of the Llttleford Lumber Com- 

 pany occupied the chair. A secret discussion 

 among the lumber dealers on the question of 

 how they fared on the year's business resulted 

 in them unanimously agreeing it was the tiest 

 year of their career. 



Another motion for the removal of William 

 H. Stewart as receiver for the Enterprise Lum- 

 ber Company was filed in the Common I'leas 

 Court this week by Attorney G. S. Hawke. The 

 action was brought on in behalf of J. A. Rast, 

 an Alabama creditor, who alleges that the com- 

 pany did not legally authorize the answer filed 

 and therefore the court was without jurisdic- 

 tion ; that sulficient ground was not presented 

 for a receiver : that the signature of William S. 

 Meyers, treasurer of the company, to the answer 

 filed "was secured by false representations" ; 

 that the receiver named is a stockholder and 

 creditor of the lumber company, and has pre- 

 ferred himself as a creditor. The application is 

 almost identical of that filed some time ago by 

 the Griffith Lumber Company, another creditor, 

 but they withdrew later at the request of that 

 concern. 



Shortly after the filing of the motion for the 

 removal of the receiver the attorney and the 

 Enterprise Lumber Company filed an amended 

 petition on behalf of William H. and Gregory 

 Stewart, in which they set out that the liabili- 

 ties amount approximately ?190,000, while the 

 assets are largely in excess of this amount, but 

 the pressure of the creditors and the inability to 

 meet their claims threaten solvency on the com- 

 pany. Appended to the amended petition is an 

 Inventory which values the assets, exclusive of 

 the good will, at $280,383.39, and a schedule 

 of the liabilities, which place them at $195,- 

 494.44. William S. Meyers, treasurer of the 

 concern, withdrew in that capacity and also 

 as bookkeeper some time ago, but still retained 

 bis holdings in the concern. President James 

 Meyers, who disappeared some months ago, is 

 still missing, although William Meyers says he 

 is In communication with him, but he will not 

 return to Cincinnati. 



Evansville. 



Bedna Young and Frank Cutslnger of the firm 

 of Young & Cutslnger spent a few days the past 

 week at the Jasper plant of the firm looking 

 over the prospects for the new year. They re- 

 port a good volume of business, both at their 

 Evansville and Jasper plants the past year, and 

 say the present outlook for business is as good 

 as could be expected. 



The Uenry Maley Lumber Company has Just 

 started up its new mill. This company is the 

 first to locate on the Illinois Central tracks, they 

 being located near tlie fair grounds. They now 

 have one of the finest and best equipped mills 

 In this section and are starting up with a large 

 stock of logs on hand. 



Claude Maley and Dan Wertz of the firm of 

 Maley & Wertz, have spent the past week at the 

 mills of the firm at Edlnburg, Grammer and 

 Vincennes, Ind. 



The World Furniture Company, ETansvllle's 

 new furniture factory, started up on full time 

 the first of the year with bright prospects. 



A rather curious instance of the enduring qual- 

 ities of Indiana white oak has been brought to 

 light here recently by Daniel J. Ernst, Jr., a 

 lumberman of this city. He is at work unearth- 

 ing what is estimated to be about one million 

 feet of white oak timber which has been buried 

 for over fifty years in the old Erie canal bed 

 which ran through this section. He finds the 

 wood in perfect condition after having been cov- 

 ered for over half a century with water and 

 earth. 



Thompson, Thayer & McCowen have closed 

 their mill down while they make some extensive 

 repairs but expect to get started again in a 

 few days. 



St. Louis. 



An agreeable surprise was given J. B. Kessler. 

 secretary of the Lumber Dealers' Association of 

 St. Louis and also of the Lumbermen's Club, on 

 the day before Christmas. He was visited by a 

 committee composed of H. W. Ballman, J. A. 

 Rebels and J. W. Putnam, and presented with 

 fifty $10 gold pieces. Mr. Kessler was equal to 

 the emergency, however, and responded to the 

 presentation speech in a fitting manner. 



Theodore Plummer of the Plummer Lumber 

 Company spent the Christmas holidays in St. 

 Louis with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore 

 Plummer. He will leave shortly for Texas to 

 engage in farming. 



The annu.Tl stockholders' meeting of the Mas- 

 sengale Lumber Company was held last week. 

 The following directors were re-elected : John 

 E. Massengale, J. Ray Massengale and W. U. 

 Richardson. The board of directors later met 

 and the following officers were re-elected : John 

 E. Massengale, president ; J. Ray Massengale, 

 secretary and treasurer, and W.- H. Richardson, 

 vice-president. 



The American Tie and Timber Company filed 

 articles of incorporation with a capital stock of 

 $50,000, one-half paid. The stockholders are 

 Adiel S. Dodge, who holds 249 shares ; Joseph 



E. Henderson, who holds 249 shares, and E. C. 

 Dodge, 2 shares. The object of the company is 

 to manufacture and deal in building material. 



Looking over the building permits for 1907 it 

 is found that there have Ijeen almost as many 

 permits taken out as in 1906, but that the 

 volume of money represented is not so large. 

 The official record of building permits issued for 

 the calendar year of 1907, compared with 190tj, 

 showed a decrease in building operations for the 

 year of $8,045,520. The total permits issued 

 aggregated $21,893,167, compared with $29,938,- 

 693 for 190C. Building has kept up in ail 

 sections of the city, especially in the residence 

 districts and in some of the beautiful new 

 subdivisions recently opened up. This building 

 Is in the nature of flats, stores, residences and 

 apartments and Is very much needed. 



E. H. Luehrmann, vice-president of the Charles 



F. Luehrmann Hardwood Lumber Company, says 

 conditions are getting better even this early In 

 the year. Their last year's business was quite 

 satisfactory in every way. 



The Belzonl, Miss., mill of the Thomas & 

 Proetz Lumber Company will start up shortly, It 

 having l>een shut down last month in order to 

 install some new machinery and attend to some 

 repairing. Charles E. Thomas says inquiries 

 have been coming in freely, and more orders 

 have been booked than he expected. 



J. E. Massengale, president of the Massengale 

 Luml)er Company, reports a favorable outlook. 

 He expects business to begin not later than the 

 middle of the month and has made preparations 

 to meet any deinan<l tliat may be made. The 

 company lias a niie a.ssurtment of all kinds of 

 hardwoods on hand. 



W. R. Chlvvis says that In spite of the dull- 

 ness In trade he Is having many calls for various 

 kinds of hardwoods. Walnut, his specialty, Is 

 being called for In fairly good quantity. 



W. W. Dings of the Garetson-Greason Lumber 

 Company is pleased with the situation, although 

 business is quiet Just now. They are doing 

 tlieir share of business, however. 



George E. Hlbbard, vice-president of the Steel 

 & Hlbbard Lumber Company, reports business 

 hos already started up, as he expected it would 

 a short time ago. He says the stilTness in prices 

 is beginning. Inquiries are coming in freely and 

 orders are following quotations made. 



The American Hardwood Lumber Company 

 also sees an Increase in business. Many in- 

 quiries have been received and some good sized 

 orders have been bookeiL 



Shortly after 3 o'clock Sunday morning fir« 

 was discovered in the Manchester road yard of 

 the Banner Lumber Company, located in Maple- 

 wood, a suburb of St. Louis. Before the fire 

 was extingui.slied the yard, containing a stock of 

 lumber valued at $20,000, was destroyed. 



The first regular meeting of the Lumbermen's 

 Club of St. Louis, which was organized by the 

 yellow pine, hardwood and retail dealers of St. 

 Louis a month ago, was held Saturday night^ 

 January 4. It began with an elaborate dinner 

 at G :30. C. C. Jennings was chairman of the 

 entertainment committee. 



The executive committee has selected the first 

 Saturday evening of each month as the regular 

 meeting night, and commission men of good 

 business standing and accredited salesmen of 

 outside lumber companies are eligible to mem- 

 bership. This takes in all classes of the lumber 

 trade and the club now numbers seventy-five 

 members. 



One of the main objects of the club is to keep 

 St. Louis before the outside business world. 

 Membership dues are $3 per month. This will 

 allow the renting of a room in the Wright 

 building in connection with the Retail Dealers' 

 Association and the Lumbermen's Exchange of 

 St. Louis. 



One of the principal and most important mat- 

 ters presented at the meeting was the following 

 resolution otfered by Thomas C. Whitmarsh, gen- 

 et al manager of the W. T. Ferguson Lumber 

 Company. It was referred to the arbitration 

 committee and will be brought up and voted on 

 at the February meeting : 



Whekeas, No principle is better settled than 

 that an order for goods unconditionally given 

 and accepted constitutes a contract, and 



Wheueas, Violations of such contracts have 

 been increasingly frequent in the lumber trade 

 to the detriment of legitimate dealers, both on 

 the part of buyers who arbitrarily cancel their 

 orders when it suits their convenience, refusing 

 to abide by their contracts entered into in good 

 faith ; and, on the other hand, on the part of 

 those who, having accepted orders given in good 

 faith, and feeling secure in their irresponsibility, 

 fail to ship on these orders without excuse other 

 than their disinclination so to do ; now, there- 

 fore, be it 



Hesolvcd, By the Lumbermen's Club of St. 

 Louis, Mo., that It recognize unconditional 

 accepted orders as contracts which cannot be set 

 aside or modified without cause by either party 

 without tlie consent of the other ; that to cancel 

 orders accepted in good faith or to refuse to 

 ship on accepted orders given in good faith 

 according to their terms, is legally and morally 

 wrong, demoralizing to the lumber trade and 

 Injurious to the credit of its members and 

 unjustly visits the effects of dishonest and 

 unfair business methods on legitimate dealers; 

 and that such contracts of sale can be mended 

 or set aside only for legal cause or by the con- 

 sent of both parties thereto, and that, therefore, 

 we urge all parties to such contracts of sale to 

 stand loyally by them and to Insist, by legal 

 process If necessary, upon their fulUllment ; and 

 be it further 



lecsoheil. That we pledge ourselves to recog- 

 nize and observe In our own respective business 

 the validity of such contracts, and to insist on 

 their exemplary observance and fulfillment by 

 Others, except where set aside or modified for 



