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Cof^yt iglit, TifE Hardwood Comi'anv, lyji 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and L^gghi^, Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and 2Sth of each Month, fay 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edwin W. Meeker, Vice Prea. and Editor 

 H. F. Ake, Secretary-Treasurer 



Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn St.. CHICAGO 

 Telephone : Harrison -8087 



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Vol. LI 



CHICAGO, JUNE 10, 1921 



No. 4 



4.IHgAR» 



Review and Outlook 



NfcW YORK 

 aoTAMCAL 



General Market Conditions 



Sri'CESSFUL WEATHERING of tlie adversities attending pres- 

 ent busine.ss operation requires a high degree of courage, and 

 it is a glowing tribute to American business institutions that re- 

 sultant havoc has been confined to the insignificant portions so far 

 developed. Courage is essentially the child of faith and faith in 

 turn is evolved from cool judgment and patience. If these attri- 

 butes are sufficiently common in the personnel of the structure of 

 American business, the calm but irresistible course back to normal 

 ]iroportions will be uninterrupted in its main current. The dan- 

 ger lies primarily in the moral effect of such currents and eddies 

 which are the resultant effect of local influences. There is no 

 fundamental reason for judging the course of major events by 

 local disturbances, because the world is voluntarily undergoing a 

 thorough housecleaning and is now in the process of rearranging 

 its furniture. The fact that a leg gets knocked off a kitchen table 

 here and a key knocked out of a piano there doesn't mean that all 

 of the work must stop. The repair of those breakages is merely 

 incidental to the main job. 



More or less discouragement has attended what seems in some 

 sections to be a reversal of former tendency towards improvement. 

 This centers in the main about Chicago so far as the middle west- 

 ern country is concerned and, in a strict analysis, is due entirely 

 to the local situation. A one hundred per cent tie-up in such an 

 ;ill-important industry as building construction can have no other 

 result than complete stoppage of the industries which feed build- 

 ing. Faith in the outcome and a calm reckoning of the effects of 

 the [iresent stoppage, w'ithout minimizing or allowing undue dis- 

 couragement, will bring back a full measure of reward. Any such 

 adverse influences as are felt at present are but eddies in the rising 

 tide, which in its future course must of necessity be deliberate in 

 its progress. The fact that buying power has been curtailed to 

 an extreme point can not be discounted by the mere desire to have 

 it otherwise. Returning prosperity is undubitably allied with 

 developing buying power, which in turn can come only as industry 

 opens up. Industry will open only as real sales are accomplished. 

 Therefore, the most encouraging aspect now discernible is found 

 in the record of retail sales refl.ected both in figures and in bank 

 statements. Frozen finances were largely the result of immovable 

 '""stocks of goods. It is, first, significant that the money situation 

 {yjis now much easier than formerly; and, secondly, significant that 

 ' — retail sales figures show substantial improvement over last year.- 

 O This is the most significant and substantial proof that the faith 



which has manifested itself since the period of improved demand 

 was justified. But progress must be slow. It, however, will be 

 evidenced in increasing volume during the balance of this year 

 with probable respites now and then as arresting influences 

 appear, but it will work steadily and consistently forward until 

 that point is reached where the increasing renewal of production 

 will re-establish a sufficient buying power to again bring back 

 the equilibrium between supply and demand. At present both are 

 near zero and they must develop concurrently. That this is com- 

 ing about is every day more convincingly apparent, as is the fact 

 that the ultimate improvement is certain. 



The psychological turn is being developed and the undercurrent 

 of progress is steadily in the right direction. 



The National Hardwood Lumber Association 



THE SEEING EYE, looking upon the serious deliberations and 

 the funmaking sessions of the twenty-fourth annual conven- 

 tion of the' National Hardwood Lumber Association, which is just 

 now passing into history, suggests many thoughts to the ''think- 

 ing'' eye concerning the hardwood lumber industry. To begin with, 

 this is a he-man 's business. Look about you and you see carved in 

 the faces of these men the evidences of the courage and rough 

 strength demanded of those who would deal successfully with un- 

 softened primitive elements. One can see from these faces and the 

 strong shoulders of the bodies under them that the hardwood lum- 

 bermen as a class work hard and play hard. They have fought 

 flood and fire and brought giant trees crashing down from the 

 majestic postures that they had assumed through many generations 

 of strong growing. Tempests have blown upon these men, the cold 

 has bitten them, or they have been scorched by the ardent rays of 

 the southern sun. 



These lumbermen have followed directly behind the man with 

 the coonskin cap. They have tamed and are taming wildernesses. 

 With fortitude and strength they tear the phalan.xed trees from 

 their primitive retreats and turn them to the uses of civilization. 

 The very nature of the business begets strength. 



But this association, with its continued growth and prosperity, 

 is an evidence that the members of the hardwood lumber industry 

 possess more than mere physical strength to cope with the hardships 

 and problems of logging and lumber manufacturing. They have 

 the aspirations and intelligence of statesmen, for they have builded a 

 "Government" for their industry. They and their predecessors 

 were not content with the original chaos. They aspired to have 



