HARDWOOD RECORD 



»9 



groat big winner out of this association. I will 

 read some eorresponrtence which has passed 

 hetween your nitirers and the Canadian Handle 

 Association, showing their .sympathy and atti- 

 tude toward the movement. 



The secretary prefaced his report wiii> the 

 reading of tlie above mentioned letters, announc- 

 ing that the Canadian association would send as 

 delegates to the handle meeting Messrs. Hraddon 

 i»f London an^i Cameron of Stratiiroy. Ontario. 

 He announced that the casl» received up to 

 January 11. I'.IOS. was JiilO : disliursements for 

 postage, printing, traveling expenses, clerical 

 work. etc.. $13r>.12, leaving a balance on hand 

 .lannary 11 of *1.')4.88. Since that date ten 

 new members have lieen received and paid dues. 



Appointment of Committees. 



I'resident I'lendineu appointed or ratilied the 

 following committees, to be continued for tile 

 ensuing year : 



Committee on Market Conditions — Messrs. Mc- 

 Cuiioch. flartwell and I'eters. 



Committee on Constitution and By-T.aws — 

 Messrs. Male. Knsign and Turner. 



Committee on Kesolutions — Messrs. Sperry. 

 Alexander and Clem. 



Committee on Credentials — Messrs. (irifflth. 

 Sperry and McLaughlin. 



Committee on Auditing .\ccoiints — Messrs. 

 Sperry. Uugg and McCulloch. 



Committee on Kntertainment and Program — 

 Messrs. tiibson. Alexander. tJates and Hale. 



Executive Committee — President Ciendinen. 

 Vice Presidents Sperry. Ab'xander and Scott, 

 and F. W. I'eters. 



Mr. Ciendinen : I would sugg^'sr that the 

 above committees get their hea(is together as 

 early as possible, and if they want to bear from 

 anyljody else besides themselves they should no- 

 tify them at an early date so they can collect 

 their thoughts. Has any member any sugges 

 tions to offer as to matters pertaining to tb' 

 meeting this afternoon and evening? 



General Discussion. 



Mncii inieresiing discussion was had relative 

 to accurate ' cost finding systenis. prevailing 

 prices and the present tariff on handles exported 

 to Canada, wbicli was participated in notably 

 by Messrs. ciendinen. Scott. Peters. Hartwell 

 and Gates. Several metluKls of relief were taken 

 up and considered. i>ut no detinite action taken. 



Mr. Andrews; Our congressmen cannot con- 

 trol the tariff matter except through reciprocity. 

 It is the Canadian tariff we are complaining of — 

 but how can they < ut down thi' Can.idian tariff? 

 That's what we are suffering under. With ref- 

 erence to prices, tlte iiickory factories are di- 

 vided into several groups. \Vi' who are handling 

 northern hickory are laboring under different 

 conditions that do not prevail where hickory is 

 more plentiful — among tile factories located in 

 the southern belt. We lind our trouble is scar- 

 city of hickory and the difflcully of getting ri<i 

 of the cheaper grades of red handles and refuse. 

 Too much of our stuff giKs into the wood pile, 

 and then the all rerl bamlles we li:ive very littii' 

 call for. Another thing I would like to suggest. 

 which Is hardly germane In this discussii>n. is 

 the question of prices. We are located in Nor- 

 walk. O., and there are a great many little 

 factories in Indiana and Ohio, The great bulk 

 of them, however, are selling their goods a 

 gr"at deal cheaper than we sell ours. We have 

 lost much trade in various large markets for 

 the past two .years and l»'en foned to seek it 

 elsewhere because nf the competition n{ thes*- 

 small factories not represented here, and It 

 seems difficult to get them In, We would iiki' 

 to have some method devisi'il to reach tliese 

 small manufacturers and get them to sell their 

 stuff on a living basis, 



Mr, Ciendinen: It is true tliat conditions are 

 very different with almost every mnnnfacturer, 

 but it Is self evident that if ipiesiions might be 

 gotten together and i>ropouniled to each and 

 every manufacturer, ami he would give accurati' 

 Information to draw from, it would enable those 



wlio labor under different conditions to get some- 

 where near the point he Is driving at. In this 

 eilucational matter we don't want estimates or 

 guesswork — we want actual cost of our product 

 whenever we can get It, 



Mr, Scott : Some of us |)erliaps don't know 

 how to figure cost, although we think we do. 

 Let us get some Ideas on system and take from 

 the Information we get the best system, and let 

 it be given to each member of the a.ssociation. 

 Perhaps you or I leave out a few things in our 

 general expenses and items und^'r tliat liead. 

 Let us instruct those who may not know. We 

 canntit go ahead this way, because we all figtire 

 different costs in making bandies, but we can 

 all adopt one system of cost Hnding, 



Mr, Peters : .\ny<)ne can go into the handle 

 business new and for a couple of years make 

 iinmey. for the r<ason that it takes alsiut that 

 time to accumulate low grade stock: and tiien 

 they begin to realize that they have not made 

 any money in the handle business, I know tliat 

 th"re will be burned up this season ,several 

 thousand dollars' worth of handles, I would 

 lather burn mine up than put them on the mar- 

 ket and run the market down. 



An Important Motion. 

 Mr. Scott : 1 move that each vice president 

 appoint a <'ommittee to make and formulate and 



P. c. sco'i'T. ST. Loris, vici: puksiuknt 



I'olt IIICKOUY l>i\'ISlo,\. 



givi> to the secretary a .system of cost tinding 

 on dlfferi-nt products, I may figure my cost at 

 so much pi'r dozen, and figure out how much I 

 can sell for, based on that cost — at a reasonable 

 IMdfit, I may be figuring wrong and leaving 

 iHit a few tilings. Now It I have such a sys- 

 tem, or schedule, before me, 1 may say "I for- 

 got that," or "I didn't put this In." and then t 

 will figure clo-ser next time. So I think it would 

 be wise to niaki' up a system based on Items of 

 cost fnrnlsbi'd by everyone, and let these lilaiiks 

 be given each member. We talk about educating 

 ourselves and Ibose who don't know. I say let 

 us do it : 



Mr, Scott's mot Ion received a prompt second, 

 and in the discussion which followed he explained 

 it niori' fully. 



,Mr, Sc-oit : The idea is to assist everybody in 

 finding his own cost — to give hini a system to 

 look at in figuring it, Nolaidy can tell how 

 niiiili anybody's handles are going to cost — llie.v 

 don't want to but the committees In the various 

 trades can belfi us in arriving at lair own. and 

 by a method uniform with the liasis on which 

 others are figuring — pi'rhaps better and more 

 cimi|ilete than Hie one we are using. We are 

 here to hel|i each other and educate each other 

 U]) to thi' handle trade. Let us do It, These 



committees will Iiave ii" are all 



open for something beli"-i u it i-.mm-s .nir way, 

 I know just one little suggestion that I might 

 get from such a system would be a help to me. 

 and I would study It very carefull.v. You roust 

 understand that I do not mean a system to say 

 what your selling price shall be. That Is always 

 for you to say, after you find out what it really 

 costs you to make handles, 



Mr, Scott's motion was enthusiastically carried, 



Reception of Delegates, 

 W, H, Kraddon of ibe Ctilumliia Handle and 

 Lumber Company. Londim. Ontario, and J. W. 

 Cameron of the Canieron-Hunn Manufacturing 

 Company. Ltd., Stratiiroy, Ontario, delegates from 

 the Canadian Handle Association, were tiu'U pre- 

 sented to the association. 



Mr. Cameron's Address. 

 Mr. Cameron : (ientlemen. we came, like most 

 of yourselves, to gather some information, and 

 I will say this : that we are quite willing to 

 give any that we can in return. Wc arc 

 rather a small body over in our country, and 

 while we are ii<»t a very small country we are 

 only a few people. We were very pleased to 

 have this opportunity to come over here. It is 

 the second time I have had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing your association. Of coiirse. unfortunately, 

 we got here a little late, and didn't get in for 

 the commencement of Hie meeting. However, as 

 1 see from the trend of what has been going on, 

 ,voii are evidently endeavoring to gef some in- 

 formation along the lines «)f a system of cost 

 finding. Weil. I think that is all right — the 

 actual cost of the handle, as some have said, 

 will materially differ as circumstances rule. Dif- 

 ferent handles are made under quite different 

 conditions. We arc living way north, but wc 

 get some of our timiier from the South. That, 

 of course, makes a very great differenci' in the 

 cost of our raw uiaterial to what it does your 

 southern niauul'actureis who are right in the 

 district all the time. However, there is the pos- 

 siliiiity of devising a certain system that could 

 be looked over to give infovmatlcui to almost 

 anyone. Without taking up your time just now — 

 possibly a little later on — 1 might just say that 

 from our own business we don't know Just what 

 .von mean liy the ash division. Our business 

 runs largely into ash fork handles. I would like 

 to get In touch with any man here who makes 

 that line of goods. I'roliably your ash men have 

 associations of linir own. Nearly all our 

 factories make thi' different lines. Here you 

 apparently speelalizi' much nioii' than we do. 

 You have a larger market, and unfortunately you 

 try to get ours! (Laughter. I That is what wc 

 don't like about .von I We are perfectly wiiiinK 

 to let .vou come to the line and shake liands 

 across the strip, but wi' prefer you siay at home : 

 of course we can't lielp that, uiuch as we would 

 liki' to, [Laughter. 1 Tliere should always be 

 some friendly rivalry even in business. I want 

 to Just say this I think we have .vou beaten 

 as far as prices are concerned: That Is. there 

 are not a lot of different lists among our asso. 

 ciHIion. We started out with one list. Of 

 course we are comparatively small, but when we 

 make a list, althcuigh we are Just Canadians, wc 

 stay right by It. Kven when we see American 



manufacturers ciuue in tliei nd undersell us. 



we will stay by it. <tf course there may lie 

 a lime when \v will have tn c|ult. but at 

 present we do It. I don't know that I havi' the 

 right to say you gentlemen liavi- four or five or 

 sixteen or twenty different jirlces that .vou sell 

 at. but I think you won't find any fault If 1 

 take that Impression frtun wliat has been said 

 here. I have always iM-lb-ved In this primiple : 

 that it la the profit that swi-elens ialior. Jind I 

 am after that sweeini'ss every tiiui'! Our asso- 

 ciation is '^niall and controllalde. as II were, and 

 while our profits are ciunpaiatively small, we are 

 sallsfii'd. We liavi> actually got Hie "standing 

 pat on price" proposition fixed in Canada, and 

 I would like to see It heri' from a selfish motive, 

 .IS well as any other. We feel if tlie bandi* 



