44 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November 10, 1918 



believes concentrating on the one standard plain casket will permit the 

 making of at least COO caskets a month, and possibly SOO. 



=< LOUISVILLE y. 



Conditions have shown a material improvement within the past ten 

 days, due largely to the waning of the influenza epidemic, which has 

 enabled many of the mills that were down, or staggering along on one 

 wheel, to get back to something like a normal production. In eastern 

 Kentucky conditions are not improving as rapidly as in the city, or in the 

 South, but the present cold snap is aiding materially. Permits are now 

 coming through in less than a week after application Is made In many 

 Instances, whereas it had been taking from two to three weeks. The crop 

 movement in the South is reducing the car supply materially, but where 

 permits are secured shipments are getting out without much dilBculty. 



Much interest Is being shown by lumbermen of the Falls cities, and 

 especially by members of the Louisville Hardwood Club, In arranging for 

 the joint convention called to merge the American Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association and the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the 

 United States, which will be held in Louisville on December 17 and 18, at 

 the Seelbach Hotel. At this time It is expected that more than 300 hard- 

 wood manufacturers will be present. The sessions will be held In the big 

 auditorium on the tenth floor of the Seelbach. Members of the Louis- 

 ville Hardwood Club at their next meeting will discuss plans for enter- 

 taining the visitors, and will endeavor to take good care of the crowd. 

 No conventions are booked for the dates set, and Louisville hotels can 

 easily accommodate twice the number that is expected to be present. 



For the past few months the Louisville Veneer Mills has been manu- 

 facturing Its entire output of veneers for the government, as a matter of 

 aiding in finishing the war, and again as it represented the best busi- 

 ness obtatnable under existing conditions. Much of this material ha» 

 been going Into aeroplane construction, cabinets, desks and other govern- 

 ment requirements. The plant has been kept good and busy. 



The demand for poplar has been so active during the past few months 

 that the Norman Lumber Company has had about all the business that It 

 could handle, and has been meeting with an enormous demand for box 

 shooks, which have taken up a large amount of low grade poplar. 



Things have been fairly active with the Louisville Point Lumber Com- 

 pany, which has been suffering more from shortage of labor than shortage 

 of business or permits. H. O. Van Tyle, sales-manager for the company 

 reports that he has been meeting with an excellent demand for poplar, 

 thick oak and ash, and has also cut and sold some excellent walnut for 

 government use. Mr. Van Tyle also reported getting a permit for a ship- 

 ment of lumber within five days of making application, which is about as 

 good a showing as reported by anyone in this district. 



C. R. Mengel of the C. C. Mengel & Bro. Company, mahogany importers 

 and manufacturers, was recently named a member of a special committee 

 of the Louisville Board of Trade for the purpose of checking up figures and 

 reports of the Louisville Street Railway Company, which voluntarily sub- 

 mitted the report in order to obtain the board's backing prior to appeal- 

 ing to the city council for permission to increase fares to six cents. 



J. G. Gallagher, 445 West JeSEerson street, Louisville, will shortly sell at 

 public auction the fine woodworking plant of the Jacobson Furniture 

 Company at New Albany, Ind. This plant is equipped with fifty-five fine 

 woodworking machines, all in excellent condition, and Including jointers, 

 Sanders, cut-off saws, rip saws, planers, etc. The old Jacobson company 

 never recovered from the cyclone which wrecked the plant nearly two 

 years ago. 



The Louisville branch of the National Casket Company has been work- 

 ing double shifts during the past few days in efforts to get out coffins, 

 which have been In such demand due to the ravages of influenza, that all 

 surplus stocks have been exhausted, and it has been Impossible to supply 

 the wide area supplied from Louisville with dispatch. The Falls City 

 Casket Company and one or two smaller concerns have also been working 

 to capacity. 



Manager G. A. Christen, formerly secretary-treasurer of the Smith 

 Cooperage Company, but for the past two years owner of the Kentucky 

 Lumber & MUlwork Company, has received some excellent sash and door 

 as well as other millwork contracts on Y. W. C. A. hostess buildings at 

 Camp Taylor. 



The Alfred Struck Company, Louisville, has been advertising tor 100 

 carpenters and a number of laborers to handle additional construction 

 work at Camp Taylor. The company also has a lot of work to complete 

 on the West Point division of Camp Knox, upon which It has been work- 

 ing for several months. 



Work on the new Federal powder plant at Louisville has been held up 

 for the present while awaiting completion of the Nashville job, and due 

 to the fact that with peace so near it may not become necessary to con- 

 struct this plant at the present time. Again labor is very scarce, and 

 until Camp Knox at Stithton is completed it would be a severe drain on 

 man power to handle two big jobs at one time. Although there are 12,000 

 men employed at Stithton the house of John Griffith's Sons, Chicago, is 

 advertising for 6,000 laborers and 4,000 carpenters to hurry up construc- 

 tion, with hopes of completing the work by December 1. However, the 

 roads are In bad condition, and have been so muddy that trucks couldn't 

 haul lumber In late October and early November, and It hardly appears 



likely that the work can be completed this year. 



W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company, after a shut down at several 

 of its southern mills on account of influenza, is again operating at almost 

 its entire chain of mills. What little pine production this company has 

 had has been disposed of with ease for government use. 



The W. R. Willett Lumber Company reports that in spite of numerous 

 drawbacks October proved a very good month, and business was so good 

 that the company has been short on a number of Items as a result, but Is 

 managing to secure stocks to fill all orders. 



The Asher Stave & Lumber Company, at Pinevllle, Ky., has been Incor- 

 porated by C. Nichols. W. L. Asher and Miss Margaret Asher, with a cap- 

 ital of $25,000, and plans immediate developments of timber holdings. 



The Livermore Timber Company, at Livermore, Ky., has filed amended 

 articles of incorporation increasing its capital from $5,000 to $20,000. 



The Jcffersonville branch of the American Car & Foundry Company, 

 which up to the present time has built only passenger cars for several 

 years back, has recently taken on a large government contract for manu- 

 facturing gondolas for delivery in knock-down form in France. These cars 

 will have steel bottoms and sides will be of oak and pine. 



The Appalachian Logging Congress, to have been held In Lexington, Ky., 

 in the middle of October, was indefinitely postponed by President Edwin 

 A. Gasklll, when it was learned that the state board of health was not 

 permitting any conventions to be held. Mr. Gasklll is with the Turkey 

 Foot Lumber Company, which controls about 30,000 acres of timber. Oil 

 drilling is being conducted on several company tracts at this time. 



TEXAS 



> 



The first effect of the government retrenchment in barge building was 

 felt In Texas during the past week when the Neches Shipbuilding Com- 

 pany of Beaumont had its contract for four 3500-ton barges cancelled and 

 the three yards at Houston have had seventeen contracts for 2500-ton 

 barges cancelled. The Beaumont yard was constructed for this purpose 

 and the cancellation of the contract will nioan the dissolution of the com- 

 pany. J. J. Schulthelser is general manager and Ben S. Woodhead, a 

 prominent lumberman, vice-president. 



The Beaumont Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, headed by J. W. 

 Link, a former Orange lumberman, has completed the first of the twelve 

 marine railways authorized by the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The 

 railway will be used largely to dry dock the Ferris type ships brought 

 to Beaumont to have their machinery installed and will be available for 

 general repair work when not so used. Mr. Link announced that the big 

 8000-ton dry dock will be ready for operation by March 1. 



The shipbuilding firm of McBride & Law is figuring on the construc- 

 tion of a dry dock at Port Arthur, twenty miles south of Beaumont, for 

 the purpose of doing general repair work. 



An effort is being made to have the government locate one or more of 

 Its soldier colonization schemes on the cut-over land of east Texas. C. E. 

 Walden, vice-president of the Sabine Tram Company, is taking an active 

 Interest in the proposition and already nearly half a million acres have 

 been gotten together for that purpose. 



J. M. Dullahan. formerly chief accountant for the Lutcher & Moore 

 Lumber Company of Orange has moved to Galveston where he will become 

 assistant general manager of the National Shipbuilding Company of Texas. 



Wm. Dixon, vice-president of the Payton Lumber Company of St. Louis, 

 has been spending several days in east Texas picking up loose lumber. 



=■< WISCONSIN y. 



The proposed establishment of a factory In Milwaukee or immediate 

 vicinity for the manufacture of aircraft for the government is still in 

 suspense. Woodworking interests, particularly the makers of veneers and 

 other hardwood materials, have been anxiously awaiting definite word 

 concerning the project. It is stated that the delay Is due largely to the 

 rapid changes and developments in the government aircraft program In 

 recent weeks. However, hope Is still held out that Milwaukee may become 

 a seat of aircraft construction activities. 



Articles of incorporation have been filed In behalf of the Hurlbutt- 

 TiUman Lumber Company, Parrish, Wis. The capital stock Is $75,000 and 

 the Incorporators are Floyd J. Hurlbutt, Alfred Hurlbutt and Florence 

 Tillman. The concern will engage in logging and lumbering operations 

 near Antigo. 



An estimated loss of $10,000 or more was caused by fire of unknown 

 origin which destroyed the machine, repair and blacksmith shop and 

 roundhouse of the Foster-Latimer Lumber Company at Mellen, Wis., on 

 October 31. The structures will be rebuilt at once in order to keep the 

 saw and planing mills in continuous operation to fill direct and Indirect 

 government requirements. 



The Oshkosh Trunk Company, Oshkosh, Wis., has passed Into the owner- 

 ship of L. C. Sunstein, vice-president of the Belber Trunk & Bag Company, 

 Philadelphia. The plant was established In 1902 by the late Col. S. W. 

 Hollister, Oshkosh. For the last three years it has been under the general 

 management of J. H. Bartlett, who Is retained by the new owners In the 

 same capacity. 



W. W. Brown, formerly lumber expert for the Hamilton Manufacturing 

 Company, Two Rivers, Wis., manufacturing printing office furniture and 

 fixtures, has entered the government aircraft service In a similar capacity 

 and has opened headquarters in Oshkosh, Wis. 



