February 25, 1919 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



On February 7 at Pliiladelphia the Eastern Lumber Salesmen's 

 Association held its first stated meeting under the new schedule. 

 Vice-President H. C. Magruder was in the chair. Three new mem- 

 bers were elected, J. C. Tenant and .J. J. Eumbarger of the Babcock 

 Lumber Company, and S. B. Dill, Haddon Heights, N. J. It was 

 announced that the directors had opened wider the membership to 

 make principals eligible, provided they actually go out and sell 

 lumber. 



Several excellent papers were read before the convention, and 

 summaries of some of them appear below. 



B. C. Fitzgerald of the Goodyear Lumber Company handled the 

 subject of the relation of the salesman to the retailer, speaking 

 from experience and observation. He insisted that the retailer can 

 either make a salesman a success or a fizzle, and then went on as 

 follows: 



He can make a salesman a recognized leader in his profession with 

 a large clientele and one whose services are sought from year to year by 

 competitors, or he can malie him a mediocre, plodding-along, unwelcome 

 visitor, who manages to get just enough orders to hold his position, pro- 

 viding he lieeps his expense account down. Vei'y often a retailer will be 

 in a quandary as to what stock he should purchase for a particular pur- 

 pose and along comes a salesman with no regard for his own future and, 

 with the retailer showing some interest in a certain line of stock, books 

 his order for something which the salesman knows will not be satisfac- 

 tory, but he has made a sale and goes away glorying in the tact that he 

 has another order to send in to the house that night. The salesman has 

 made a sale and possibly scored a hit with the sales manager for the time 

 being for moving that special bunch of stock at a nice price, but later 

 on the sales manager will undoubtedly want to know why they are not 

 getting some more orders from that particular retailer. 



Some salesmen do not seem to realize that every time they lose a retailer 

 as a customer they are cutting off part of their own support and are 

 jeopardizing their future welfare. They believe in the theory that they 

 can always pick up a new one to replace the one they lost ; but that is 

 an erroneous idea, and, furthermore, it would be far better to retain the 

 old customer and also acquire the new one. 



The consideration which a retailer gives a salesman is based first upon 

 his manner of introduction and his own personality, and secondly upon the 

 concern that he represents, and the salesman when in the office of the 

 retailer must at all times take a secondary position to other matters 

 acclaiming the attention of the buyer at that time, and consider himself 

 in the position of the small boy at the table when the minister is taking 

 dinner with the family — he must be seen and not heard. Undue familiarity 

 on the part of a salesman is resented by most buyers, and, while they do 

 not always show it, will in itself detract from the respect that the sales- 

 man would otherwise command, and the moment that the salesman's 

 remarks or actions encroach upon the dignity of the buyer the salesman 

 greatly reduces his possible percentage of successful attainment with that 

 particular retailer. 



A few retailers believe in placing their orders by mail with houses, 

 sometimes questionable, who flood them with circulars rather than alloting 

 them to the different salesmen who solicit their bu.siness. Those retailers 

 all have wonderful stories to tell of how they bought a carload very 

 cheaply, but usually after it arrives they begin to realize that the fellow 

 sending out the circular does not give them any more than what they 

 pay for. 



Outlook for Particular Woods 



G. B. Woodhall of the Chicago Lumber & Coal Company addressed 

 the meeting upon the outlook of the yellow pine situation in 1919, 

 and E. C. Strong of the Forest Lumber Company enlarged upon the 

 present situation of hardwood and hemlock. He suggested that if 

 the majority of retailers knew the exact condition of hemlock 

 stocks there would be an unprecedented scramble to buy at once. 

 The high cost of manufacturing hemlock and putting it on the 

 cars, $23 or more in some of the territory, gives a hint of what may 

 happen in the near future. 



The speaker was of the opinion that there should be less appre- 

 hension concerning hardwoods than of any other class, and that 

 one thing is positively certain, and that is that hardwood lumber 

 is not produced ready for market in a rapid manner. He said 



in part: 



Granting that labor was distributed at the present time in an equitable 



way at producing points and that production was progressing at maximum 

 capacity, the stock manufactured and stuck now would not be ready for 

 market before summer and fall, and a lot of it not until some time later, 

 and labor is by no means normal at mill points. Hardwood manufacturers 

 the country over have been badly handicapped for some time, due not 

 only to labor conditions, but by the very severe winter last season, high 

 water this season, the influenza epidemic ; and those mills depending upon 

 the railroads to transport their logs, and they are many, have been badly 

 tied up by car shortages, embargoes, etc., all contributing to curtail pro- 

 duction. There has not been any surplus of dry hardwood lumber tor 

 some time ; many items have been cleaned out entirely, and from the 

 present outlook there isn't any likelihood of there being any very soon. 



Hardwoods Used by the Government 

 It is frequently stated by persons who have not fully informed them- 

 selves, that during the war the government made relatively small use of 

 hardwood. That view will not stand the light of investigation. The navy, 

 marine corps and the shipping board took many millions of feet, and are 

 not through yet. The aircraft departments did likewise, and what they 

 have left does not seem to fit commercial requirements. The army did 

 likewise, although probably not so noticeable on account of its going 

 indirect ; as example, a few million feet alone were used for tent pins. 

 Britain, France and Italy had lumber departments established in this 

 country, and the per cent of hardwood used was heavy. How long do you 

 suppose it is going to take to reproduce this stock, ready tor market, 

 taking into consideration our commercial con.sumption here, say nothing 

 of the prospects of our export trade? Today Britain alone is stripped of 

 .Vmerican hardwoods, outside of some 15,000,000 feet purchased for war 

 purposes, which like ours do not fit their commercial demands. Of course 

 England and Scotland have no supplies of home growth that can contribute 

 to the relief of the shortage, and practically the whole dependence must 

 rest on imports. 



There is a feature that has bettered the hardwood situation materially, 

 that being the fact that low grades have advanced more proportionately 

 than high grades. This creates a more healthy condition for the manu- 

 facturer, for why should he go along producing low grades at a dead loss 

 and gambling on making it up on what higher grades he might get? There 

 were many consumers who were forced to use hardwoods on account of 

 their inability to secure other woods which they had heretofore been 

 remanutacturing. They have now learned the virtues of these hardwood 

 items which they substituted, and I can recall many Instances where they 

 are not going to return. The above will have a tendency to strengthen 

 the manufacturers' situation regarding the low grade problem, which has 

 always been more or less of a nightmare. 



There is not a surplus of labor in this country, and there hasn't been 

 for some time back, due not only to the industrial activity caused by the 

 war, but by the lack of immigration. This will be offset now still by the 

 lack of immigration, by the fact that some half million foreigners returned 

 to their home lands during the past four years, by the fact that some hun- 

 dred thousand more are now awaiting passage back, by a larger standing 

 army, and by the necessity of providing materials not only for our home 

 consumption but likewise for foreign countries and a great deal different 

 basis than prior to 1914. 



Something New in Lumber Export 



What is thought to be the first shipment of American house- 

 building materials ever sent direct to Norway has recently gone 

 forward, and a trade that was started with the help of the Bureau of 

 Foreign and Domestic Commerce now promises to develop into one 

 of important dimensions. The initial shipment consisted of 120,000 

 feet of ye:iow pine and went from Louisiana, being shipped from 

 the port of New Orleans. The lumber was of different dimensions 

 suitable for wooden buildings. A second shipment, not quite so 

 large, went forward a few days later to the same destination, and 

 other orders are expected. In addition, orders have been placed 

 in Louisiana for certain hardwoods for decorative interior finish, 

 among such being oak. A company has been organized to carry 

 stocks of such materials in Christiania, Bergen, and Trondhjem. 

 Norway has always been an exporting country in timber and tim- 

 ber products, and the fact that orders of considerable size have been 

 bought in America is important. If we can export wood to Norway, 

 no reason is apparent why we may not make shipments to any 

 countries in Europe. For that reason, our export lumber trade with 

 Europe will be watched with much interest. 



