44 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



October 25. 1918 



Allen F. McQuiston, seventy-three years of age. a pioneer lumbenimn of 

 Ft. Wayne, Ind., died recently. He had lived in or near Ft. Wayne all his 

 life. Mr. McQuiston was unmarried, but is survived by three brothers. 



=-< EVANSVILLE >.= 



An organization of buililing eoulractors to he known as the Associated 

 Building Contractors of Indiana was formed at a meeting held recently 

 at Fort Wayne, Ind. C. C. Pierson of Indianapolis was elected president. 

 The principal object of the organization is the protection of the building 

 industry and Improvement of building conditions generally throughout the 

 state. The first convention of the new organization will be helil in Indian- 

 apolis January 7. 1919. 



.\ campaign has been started in the various parts of the state to cut 

 down dead trees and use them in the place of coal during the coming 

 winter. There is enough dead timber in Indiana, it is estimated by tim- 

 bermen, to supply all the people of the state with fuel for a year or so. 

 Coal operators are of the opinion that even should all the mines in the 

 state operate steadily from this time on to next spring there will be a 

 shortage of coal in the state and it behooves the people to burn wood. 



The Jasper Veneer Mills, Jasper, Ind., have taken in a new partner 

 and filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of state. W. F. 

 Beckman, the cashier of the German-American bank at Jasper, is the new 

 member of the Arm. The capital stock of the company has been placed 

 at ?25.000. The other three members of the corporation are John and 

 George Gramelspacher and Joseph F. Friedman. The company will enlarge 

 its plant and be prepared for the rush in business looked for at the close 

 of the world war. 



Miss Henrietta Foster, only daughter of Guild C. Foster, general man- 

 ager of the Evansville Woodstock Company, and Charles Legeman, first 

 lieutenant at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, O., were married at Camp Sher- 

 man on Saturday, October 7. 



Henry W. Williams, aged seventy-six years, a retired manufacturer, died 

 recently at his. home at Seymour, Ind., after a short illness, his death 

 having been due to heart trouble and asthma. Williams was a native of 

 Germany, but had spent most of his life in the United States. In his day 

 he operated large furniture factories at Cross Plains, Aurora and Seymour, 

 Ind. He is survived by one son and two daughters. 



At the last meeting of the Evansville Lumbermen's Club a resolution 

 was passed asking that shipping permit offices be established in Evans- 

 ville. About two weeks before the last meeting of the club John C. Keller, 

 traffic manager, wrote to the Car Service Section of the United States 

 Railroad .Administration asking that one of these offices be established 

 here, and the reply was that it would be impossible to comply with the 

 request of Mr. Keller at this time. Mr. Keller is, however, of the opinion 

 that the officials at Washington will experience a change of heart within 

 a short time and that Evansville will be favored by the location of. one 

 of these offices and it will mean a great deal to the lumber manufacturers 

 and shippers of Evansville and the lower Ohio valley. 



George O. Worland, secretary and treasurer of the Evansville Veneer 

 Company, and president of the Evansville Lumbermen's Club, was elected 

 a director of the Rotary Gum Manufacturers' Association at a recent meet- 

 ing held at Memphis, Tenn., and he was appointed on the war service 

 board to go to Washington, D. C, in a few days to see what can be done 

 in the way of increasing the production of rotary cut lumber in the United 

 States. Mr. Worland states there is a tremendous shortage of rotary cut 

 lumber in the United States at the present time, and that the production 

 must be increased in order to speed up work of winning the war. 



Lumber manufacturers and shippers of Evansville and other cities 

 along the lower Ohio valley are interested in the announcement a few 

 days ago that the annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Improvement Asso- 

 ciation, that was scheduled to be held in Louisville, Ky., October 23 and 

 24, had been postponed because of the epidemic of Spanish influenza at 

 Camp Zachary Taylor at Louisville. One of the important things that 

 was to have come up at the Louisville meeting was the proposition" of the 

 federal government to establish a barge line on the Ohio river that would 

 greatly relieve freight congestion on the railroads of the middle west. 

 The lumber manufacturers of this section are vitally interested in this 

 proposition. It is expected that a later date will be fixed for the Louis- 

 ville meeting, perhaps November or December. 



=■< NASHVILLE >. 



Bright open weather of October is helping the sawmill, hardwood and 

 dimension stock people. For essentials a large volume of trade is going 

 forward. .\t Jacksonville, on Hadley's Bend, the seat of the government 

 powder plant, many homes are being built, and up to the value of about 

 $3,000 building is permitted in the city, where there is a scarcity of homes. 

 Already the prelude to holiday business has started, and the lower grades 

 of lumber for box and shook making are in active request. Those who 

 purchased late in the summer before the freight advanced apparently have 

 exhausted and are ready to purchase again. Dimension stock, railroad 

 material and government requirements are keeping some of the local 

 companies busy. 



The effects on labor of the Spanish influenza iS towns and city are 

 considerable. Nashville has suffered less than most of the southern cities. 

 Some of the mining sections in the Cumberland mountains, it is reported, 

 have suffered severely. 



From Chattanooga comes similar reports. The Tennessee Coffin & 

 Casket Company has been busy training new men for emergency require- 

 ments, orders coming from far and wide. AH three of the establishments 

 at Chattanooga operated by the Loomis & Ilart Company were handi- 

 capped by having some 150 men more or less incapacitated at one time. 

 Casey-Hedges plant at Chattanooga reported about twenty per cent ill. 

 The Lookout Planing Mills reported fifteen per cent of the workmen off 

 duty. 



=^ BEAUMONT y- 



With a dozen lumbermen on the committees and practically all the com- 

 panies doubling their initial subscriptions, Beaumont went over the top 

 in the Fourth Liberty Loan three days before the campaign closed, leaving 

 a comfortable margin above the $2,273,100 asked to help out the drouth 

 stricken district. This was accomplished without asking the banks to 

 subscribe one cent. 



The counter instruction from the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the 

 state council of defense has sent the local contractors up in the air and 

 practi<'ally stopped building operations. The fieet corporation has prac- 

 tically demanded that cities which are given shipbuilding contracts see 

 to it that workmen can secure homes. Residences wore being constructed 

 in Beaumont at the rate of from 125 to 150 a month and still unable to 

 accommodate the increased population when the regulations were put into 

 effect. The local council of defense promptly approved a number of appli- 

 cations Tor residences, but they were turned down by the state council. 

 An appeal will be made to the War Industries Board for a special permit 

 in order that the local situation can be taken care of. 



L. P. Featherstone, president of the Texas Steel Company, has applied 

 to the council of defense for permission to erect 100 residences in the 

 northern end of the city for the accommodation of the steel company 

 employees and shipyard workers. He pointed out that the average man 

 would drop his building plans before he would go up against the trouble 

 and uncertainty of securing a permit under present conditions. By assur- 

 ing the prospective home owner that nothing will hinder his plans, it is 

 expected that a long step will be made toward providing plenty of homes. 



Influenza has become as common as labor and car shortage with the 

 prospects of all three propositions remaining in status quo for some time. 

 Some plants have been seriously crippled through this cause and the 

 executive offices are in the same boat. 



=-< LOUISVILLE y- 



Between the influenza epidemic and the embargo situation the southern.' 

 lumberman is certainly between the devil and the deep blue sea. At present 

 many of the mills are so short of help that they are unable to operate at 

 till, as there are not enough men on hand to man oue side of a double band 

 mill. This condition is especially bad in the lumber and mining regions of 

 eastern Kentucky, as there are very few doctors in the district, no hospitals 

 to speak of, and contagion is spreading rapidly. A number of the big mines 

 are down to fifty per cent production, and some of them had to stop opera- 

 tions entirely. Illness and inability to secure permits have resulted in 

 production being curtailed about fifty per cent. Some mills are not shipping 

 ten per cent of normal movement, and as a result are unable to keep oper- 

 ating under existing conditions. 



Permits have been rolling in better during the past week, but shipments 

 which should have gone out a month ago are just going out, as it took two 

 weeks to find out how to get permits, and those requested by wire two weeks 

 ago are just coming in. The result has been a full month lost out of the 

 year by many of the lumbermen, and this is bound to hurt both small and 

 large concerns. 



Notwithstanding these conditions prices are being well maintained, al- 

 though there are a few items which are a little off in price as well as 

 demand. The curtailment of the transit privilege has aided materially in 

 holding prices in line, but has proven a hard blow for the jobbers. A few 

 of the lumbermen are taking things optimistically and are of the opinion 

 that permits will start moving better before long. However, it Is taking 

 quite some time to get the machinery properly adjusted, and a few are 

 wondering whether it ever will be adjusted to a point where shipments 

 can be made promptly. Cars are plentiful in the South, and as soon as 

 the permit is secured the shipment is made. However, if the lumberman 

 later on has to wait two or three weeks for a permit, and two or three 

 weeks for a car to ship the lumber in, it's going to be indeed a jolly state of 

 affairs. 



Every mill and yard in the Louisville section has been having trouble 

 over the labor situation, due to the fact that government contractors need 

 15,000 men at Camp Knox, Stithton, in erecting the now cantonment, and- 

 thls number is short by from 2,000 to 4,000, most of the time. This camp 

 will cover 3,500 acres, and will house close to 60,000 men. It will be the 

 largest artillery cantonment in the country. About thirty-five per cent of 

 the work has been completed. Lumber construction is being used through- 

 out, and all water and sewer pipe consists of wrapped wooden pipes, 

 consisting of cedar, fir, redwood, cypress, etc. The Illinois Central main 

 line has been moved a half mile to make room for the camp, and the old 

 main line is now a part of twenty-six miles of terminals inside of the 

 camp. Day labor is receiving thirty-five cents an hour, and carpenters 

 are making around $8 a day at this time. Naturally, Louisville is having 

 trouble in holding men. 



