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The Lumhermans Round Table 



MAKING A LUMBER SALESMAN 

 "The trouble with most of our salesmen," said a well-known 

 hardwood man, "is that they are salesmen first and lumbermen 

 afterward. If they could only get the inside angle on the proposi- 

 tion and see the business as we see it, their work would be about 

 one hundred per cent better. The trouble is that most of them 

 never get down to the brass-tacks, jiraetical question of what 

 lumber to sell, and what stock can be made most profitable. Simph- 

 getting the order for anything on the stock-list, is as far as their 

 ideas go." 



This complaint, which seems to be founded on fact, suggests that 

 the plan of the Carnegie Steel Company might be adopted by 

 lumbermen to good advantage. This company brings its men to the 

 mills at relatively brief intervals, has them study the processes 

 of manufacture — and pass an examination on it — and produces 

 technically trained men instead of merely salesmen. The result is 

 that the sales are made right. The lumber salesmen would neeil 

 to study things other than manufacturing details, but the idea is 

 the same. 



THE TRAFFIC MAN AN ASSET 

 A recent hearing of the Interstate Commerce Commission, involv- 

 ing advances on hardwood lumber rates recently imposed by a 

 southern carrier, demonstrated a fact which has been commented on 

 before — that the traffic man is a fixture in the lumber business 

 because he has proved his value. 



The representative of the railroad at this hearing happened to be 

 a particularly shrewd, intelligent chap — brilliant, in fact — and he 

 was able to trap the lumbermen who went on the witness stand 

 into saying the wrong thing, or to show inconsistencies in their 

 testimony, growing out of their ignorance of general rate condi- 

 tions. 



The traffic manager of one of the lumber companies, however, was 

 more than a match for his adversar}'; and instead of allowing the 

 railroad man to catch him napping, he actually scored several 

 points by injecting a fact or two the representative of the carrier 

 had himself overlooked. 



The situation was not difficult to understand — the man had made 

 a business of traffic matters, and he had mastered his subject. It 

 is no wonder that the average lumberman appears to disadvantage 

 when he goes on the stand, because he hasn't had time to make a 

 business of traffic topics. 



MEETING PANEL COMPETITION 



Manufacturers of furniture which is made with solid tops in- 

 stead of glued-up stock have begun to realize that one of the chief 

 reasons why the trade prefers the veneered article is because 

 of the regularity of figure and general uniformity of appearance 

 which that character of furniture has when the face veneers have 

 been matched up with even ordinary skill. Anybody with an eye 

 for beauty can appreciate this, while there is something much more 

 subtle in the satisfaction which comes from owning a piece which 

 is "solid," instead of mereh- veneered. 



This being the ease, the wise maker of solid-topped goods is pay- 

 ing more attention to getting his lumber matched up. The matter 

 of matching is difficult, of course, because the manufacturer has not 

 the advantage which is experienced in the case of veneers, where 

 the cuttings from the same flitch have been kept together; but still 

 he can make a better showing if he tries than if he disregards the 

 proposition. 



This condition suggests that it would be worth the while of the 

 manufacturer of dimension stock to keep together the product 

 of the log as far as possible. If the dimension mill is run in 

 connection with the sawmill, it ought to be practicable to keep 

 the stuff running uniformly fairly well. This is done in the 

 mahogany business, but running a mahogany dimension mill is 

 easier from this standpoint because each log produces so much more 

 lumber than one grown on domestic soil. 



— SB- 



CHANGES IN FLOORING TRADE 



A well-known hardwood flooring man predicted recently that one 

 of these days tonguc-and-groove flooring will be passe, taboo, and a 

 lot of other undesirable things. He declared that his experience 

 with that class of stock shows that it cannot be depended on to lie 

 straight, no matter how carefully it was dried originally, how much 

 pains were taken to lay it properly, nor how well it was taken care 

 of after it was put down. 



"Take a look at this floor," he said, glancing at the hardwood 

 that covered his private office. "That stock was picked out by my- 

 self, and as it was intended to be a kind of sample-room, it was put 

 down as well as any that was ever laid. Sight along it and you 

 will see the ridges where thq pieces join. Why it has taken on 

 even enough additional moisture to swell out of its proper shape is 

 beyond me, as every possible precaution to prevent this was used. 

 "On the other hand, there is some straight-edged flooring laid 

 down in another room of my offices, and it is as flat and beautiful 

 today as it was when it was first laid. The proof of the pudding is 

 in the eating, and after experiencing just what happens to the 

 different kinds of flooring I have come to the conclusion that the 

 days of the tongue-aud groove variety are numbered." 

 KEEP YOUR OWN ACCOUNTS 

 A veneer man who is regarded as one of the authorities in the 

 trade recently read a little lecture to some of his friends on the 

 fallacies of using figures quoted by other people as the correct data 

 for one's own work. 



' ' My conditions are different from yours, and yours from the 

 next man," he began. "For instance, I cannot cut rotary gum 

 veneers as cheaply as the man who has a mill right at the edge of 

 the forests where the gum trees grow. That makes a difference in 

 cost at once, of course, and I would be foolish to assume that be- 

 cause his cost of manufacture is a certain figure, mine is likely to 

 be that also. 



"Again, if I am operating four veneer saws and another manu- 

 facturer is running only one, the chances favor my cost of pro- 

 duction being less. The greater the volume, usually the lower the 

 cost, and that is as true of the veneer business as it is of others. 

 ' ' The whole situation proves that the man who wants to know 

 how much it costs him to make veneers must get down to the work 

 of figuring on his own mill. He can 't stop when he finds out how 

 much it costs somebody else, because he is working under an en- 

 tirely difl'erent set of circumstances. 



SIZE VERSUS PROSPERITY 

 ' ' You 're carrying a lot of lumber in stock and have a larger yard 

 than you did three years ago," remarked a friend to a hardwood 

 lumber manufacturer recently; "I hope you are making money in 

 proportion to your increased operations." 



"On the contrary," returned the lumberman, smiling a rather 

 wry smile, "I'm making a good deal less." 



Asked for an explanation, he pointed out that more yard room 

 and more lumber mean a greater capital investment, and require 

 more money with which to carry on the business. 



"When I had a small yard," he said, "I was often pressed for 

 room, and exerted myself mightily to move lumber in order to make 

 a place for carloads that were on the way. The result was that I 

 did a relatively big business with a relatively small capital invest- 

 ment. My turn-over, as the dry goods people say, was exceedingly 

 rapid for a sawmill and wholesale operator. 



"When I got more yard room, I found that I wasn't compelled to 

 move the stock, having plenty of room, and it seems as if uncon- 

 sciously I have permitted my lumber to accumulate until I have on 

 hand a lot more than I would like to carry. 



"Necessity is not only the mother of invention, but of sales; 

 and my change of status has resulted in my sales, compared with 

 the amount of lumber on hand, being a good deal smaller than they 

 were when I was working with less room than I have now." 



