October 25, 1918 



The Lumhermans Round Table 



Are You Proud of Your Letters? 



Many lumber concerns are doing more of their selling by mail 

 than ever before. With salesmen who formerly maintained the 

 point of contact with customers gone to war, and with stocks being 

 disposed of largely by means of correspondence, the need for better 

 letters and a closer study of letter writing seems to be almost 

 self-evident. 



The formal, routine, stereotyped letter is obsolete. The com- 

 munication whicli gets attention, and which is really effective in 

 bringing the customer to the point where he is walling to dictate 

 a favorable reply, is one into which the writer has put real meat, 

 and which sounds as his conversation would have sounded had lie 

 been present jjcrsonally to offer the stock which he is presenting 

 by mail. 



Knowing something about the linos of the concern to which the 

 letter is being written, and something about its special require- 

 ments, will help to make the letter productive, inasmuch as it will 

 be more specialized in character than otherwise. Looking over 

 the record of past transactions before writing a sales letter will 

 enable the lumberman, even if he is not familiar with the account, 

 to write the kind of letter that will pull a favorable reply in a 

 large number of cases. 



The chances are that if the hardwood man who is handling the 

 sales letters for his concern were to look over the carbon copies of 

 those that he signed today, and to study them from the standpoint 

 of constructive criticism, he would find them rather colorless — as 

 though the writer had endeavored to put as little personality into 

 them as possible. Yet a touch of personal and individual feeling 

 here and there will put the spark of life into any letter — and that 

 is the quality that makes for results. 



Half an hour or so spent in studying better letter-writing methods 

 would enable many a lumberman to improve this department of his 

 business very materially. 



Co-operation That Counts 



It was recently reported that the lumbermen of one of the 

 eastern cities were going to work more closely in harmony here- 

 after in that they would co-operate by making surplus stocks avail- 

 able to each other in filling orders. This is "old stuff" to those 

 who are familiar with the methods which h^ve been employed in 

 many of the important hardwood markets of the Ohio valley and 

 Central South. The local lumber clubs of those cities have done no 

 more valuable work than in increasing co-operation of this char- 

 acter. 



If a hardwood man needs a few thousand feet of a certain item 

 in order to make up a car, he doesn 't hesitate to call up a competitor 

 and ask him for the stock. The latter sells it at a sufficiently close 

 price to let the other fellow make something, while at the same 

 time scoring a reasonable profit himself. The customer gets quicker 

 action than would otherwise be the case, the car is shipped with 

 a full load instead of a minimum load, and everybody benefits. 



One result of this friendly effort to make all of the local stocks 

 serve as a reserve 'supply for everybody doing business in the 

 market is to increase the utility of that market from the stand- 

 point of the consumer. The latter gets to appreciate the fact that 

 certain towns can always deliver the goods, no matter how unusual 

 or hard to locate the lumber may be. It is impossible for any com- 

 pany, no matter how large, always to have a complete stock of 

 every hardwood item, and that is why co-operation of a very real 

 and helpful character can be extended by all of those actually 

 carrying stocks and having a local supply of hardwood lumber 

 on their yards. 



Using the Waterways 



Efforts are to be made to establish a barge line service on the 

 Ohio river, under government auspices. If this is brought about, 

 all of the efforts which have been made to make the stream naviga- 



ble all the year 'round will have been justified. It has been the 

 custom in many quarters constantly to refer to waterways improve- 

 ments as pork-barrel expenditures, but lumbermen, who know to 

 what good purposes such transportation facilities may be put, will 

 be inclined to differ with critics of this temper. 



The Ohio river used to have many a floating sawmill that worked 

 up and down the stream, getting enough logs right along its banks 

 to enable it to keep its saws busy. Those days have long passed, 

 but still the river is an important carrier of logs in raft and lum- 

 ber by boat. With cheap rates for barge transportation, there 

 is no reason why lumber traffic on the river should not greatly 

 increase, helping the maker and seller of lumber and at the same 

 time relieving the burden of the railroads. 



The latter consideration is one that no doubt is being considered 

 seriously by the federal authorities in charge of the administration 

 of the railroads. One of the benefits of the change of organization 

 is that the railroad competition which made it difdcult for water 

 lines to exist will no longer be in evidence in the event that barge 

 lines such as those contemplated are put into operation. 



The Lumber Inspector 



News that one of the leading eastern markets has decided to 

 increase the rate at which inspectors are paid reminds the reader 

 that here is one factor in the business who is not always appre- 

 ciated at his true value. 



In many a big consuming factory about the only one who knows 

 anything about lumber is the inspector. The stock is unloaded 

 from the car by men who are totally unfamiliar with its kind, 

 texture or measurement, and the qualified inspector is one of the 

 company 's greatest assets. The same is true in large measure in 

 many lumber yards, especially those rehandling mixed ears of hard- 

 woods, where the skill of the inspector is needed to enable the stock 

 to be managed and assorted to the best advantage. 



Inspection is the knottiest feature of the hardwood business, as 

 it is of all other branches of the industr.y, and the man who knows 

 how to handle this detail is not only valuable to his employer, but 

 has almost unlimited capacity for advancement. The most suc- 

 cessful lumbermen, it can be ventured, are those who have handled 

 a rule and tally-book on a lumber pile themselves, and who know 

 lumber because they got acquainted with it in the beginning in this 

 practical way. 



July Wood Exports and Imports 



The Department of Commerce has published figures showing July 

 exports and imports of various forest products from and into the 

 United States. The items which follow are from that report: 



EXPOUT.S. 



July. 1!I17 July, 1918 



KiHiml logs $ 51,717 .$ 35,608 



S(|iiare timl)pr 237,021 179,077 



Kailro.nd ties 223.707 183,428 



Lumber 1,684,658 4,565,918 



Doors, sash and blinds 13,614 16,577 



Wooden furniture 233,900 257,064 



Handles 60,413 115,252 



r.arrels 36,975 92,517 



Shooks 117,159 608.469 



Staves 295,863 309,397 



Total all exports $3,838,831 $7,783,305 



The imports of forest products into the United States during 

 July, 1917 and 1918, are given in the figures which follow: 



Spanish cedar $ 67,657 $ 101.308 



Mahogany 181.787 173,142 



All other round logs 86,037 56,319 



Pulpwood 1,025,183 2,150,283 



Furniture 35,752 4,372 



Total imports of all forest products $10,135,428 ,f 10,566,847 



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