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INTERIOR TRIM AND FURNITURE 



Mauut'ai'turers who say tliat tliey are "interested" only iu 

 the furniture trade fail to realize that they are parties to de- 

 velopments affei'ting that trade, which may not be directly 

 connei'tod with it. 



The interior tinish business, for instance, impinges on the 

 manufacture of furniture at many angles, and affects it to a 

 material extent. The man who is selling the furniture manu- 

 facturers and is disregarding those making interior trim is 

 •overlooking one of the important features of the situation. 



This condition was shown very strikingly iu a recent instance 

 by the completion of a fifteen-story office building in an Ohio valley 

 city. The building is trimmed in mahogany, the door and window- 

 frames, mouldings, etc., being of that material, while the veneered 

 loors are splendid specimens of this class of millwork, being made 

 with i^-inch figured mahogany faces. 



The "class" of the interior trim is such that many of the 

 several hundred concerns which have moved their offices to the 

 new building have fitted their quarters with mahogany furniture 

 and office equipment exclusively. The amount of business on 

 mahogany furniture handled as the direct result of the use of 

 ■mahogany in the interior trim is far up in the thousands. 



The manufacturer of oak lumber, who wonders why the de- 

 maud isn 't what it ought to be, might talk to the architects who 

 specify the character of the trim to be used and learn something 

 to his advantage. 



SELECTING FIGURED GUM LOGS 



A well-known manufacturer of gum lumber, who has a mill in 

 Mississippi, recently made the statement that figured gum logs 

 ■can be selected without difficulty. This statement is opposed by 

 veneer manufacturers, who point out that while a fresh-cut log 

 will frequently give some indication of figure, this evidence is 

 by no means conclusive. 



"I have bought many million feet of gum logs for manufacture 

 into veneers," said the representative of a large concern specializ- 

 ing in figured gum veneers and panels, "and I have been deceived 

 in many instances. The 'calico' appearance of the butt of a log 

 which has been freshly cut is suggestive of figure, but I have 

 seen too many of them opened only to display a plain instead of 

 a figured surface to feel like relying on it to any great extent." 



THE BASIS FOR INVENTORY VALUES 



In taking an inventory of stoi-k. what should be the basis for 

 fixing the values of the lumber ou hand? 



It would seem that the cost of the lumber would be the fairest 

 way to handle the proposition, and this would work very well in 

 a wholesale yard. However, with the sawmill man, who has only 

 a log-run cost to work on, and can hardly fix the cost of each 

 grade, except arbitrarily, this plan is not exactly ideal. 



Many lumbermen look to the market price as a guide for in- 

 ventory valuations, and fix these $5 below the market, this amount 

 being sufficient to pay the cost of marketing and leave a profit 

 to the seller. This is a good, practical plan, and is sufficient 

 evidence that lumbermen are aware of the danger of taking 

 values at anything like the probabje selling price. 



In i-onnectiou with inventories, one finds the explanation for 

 shrinkages in profits which are puzzling to many lumbermen. 

 The past year was a good example of what is meant. If a lum- 

 berman took stock June .30, after a period during which values 

 in plain oak had risen remarkably, his profits, as a result of 

 this upward swing, would have been unusually large. At the end 

 of 1913, however, with the pendulum swinging in the other direc- 

 tion, the reduction in inventory values would cause a correspond- 

 ing shrinkage in profits which would be rather disappointing. 

 Yet the actual business handled during the final six mouths may 

 have been just as desirable and just as profitable, disregarding 



what may be tcrnu-d the speculiitive features of the market, as 

 that taken care of iu the first hall' of the year. 



A VENEER MANUFACTURING FALLACY 



Not long ago a manufacturer of oak veneers agrci'il to get out 

 some dimension stock for a customer at a price which was not 

 only low, but actually below cost. The consideration involved 

 was placing a large order for log-run stock of a kind on which 

 a reasonable profit could be made. 



The excuse for this sort of business may be, in this case, that 

 the price paid for the log-run material was sufficient to take care 

 of the loss on the dimension stock. But this is merely an ex- 

 cuse, and not a reason. It is just as indefensible to cut a price 

 in the hope of thereby landing an order for goods on which a 

 profit may be made as it is to cut prices on everything. The 

 difference is only in the degree. The reduced quotation makes 

 it harder for everybody else to sell that particular kind of 

 stock at a reasonable margin of profit; and consequently if 

 everybody played that game, the entire market would be de- 

 moralized, and it would be impossible to make mone}' even on 

 the staples, which can be manufactured most easily. 



The only safe way is to know the cost of each item and to 

 charge enough above cost to make a profit on each item. The 

 plan of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and using a below-cost 

 quotation on one class of business to get other business on which 

 a profit may be realized, not only smacks of the corner-grocery 

 style of doing business, but is poor policy from every angle. 



THE CONTAGION OF ENTHUSIASM 



"How are you, Mr. Smith? Fine weather we've been having, 

 isn't it? How's business with you? Only fair? Well, we 

 might be doing more ourselves, but things are coming along 

 pretty nicely after all." 



And the lumber salesman who spoke these words grinned cheer- 

 fully, gave the hand of the consumer he was calling on a hearty 

 clasp, and began to talk as optimistically as if he had just in- 

 herited a million dollars. 



The consumer looked at him and smiled. 



"I'm glad you came," he admitted. "A chap was in here 

 this morning who was talking hard times until he made me feel 

 as if the country was going to the demnition bow-wows. He 

 created a kind of Blue Monday atmosphere, and when he left I 

 was ready to go home and beat my wife. But your line of talk 

 sounds better. What do you think of trade, anyhow?'' 



This particular salesman doesn't try to sell lumber on the 

 strength of "hot air"; he knows that there are always two ways 

 of looking at the same situation, and that it is good business 

 for him and his customers to take a cheerful, silver-lining view 

 of trade conditions, instead of insisting on business being in- 

 tolerably rotten. 



The difference in his favor in this case was exactly two cars 

 of plain oak; and it was sold at a price that a calamity-howler 

 would have branded impossible. A cheerful sentiment is a 

 mighty good business asset, and a salesman simply can 't get 

 along without it. 



PARCEL POST FOR VENEER SAMPLES 



The increased weight limit of the [.anel jiost system has 

 enabled veneer and panel manufacturers to use the new service 

 to a considerable degree. The usual plan, in shipping veneer 

 samples, is to tape and hinge them, so that they can be folded 

 into a compact bundle. Protected by a sheet of %-inch stock 

 on each side, they can be shipped easily and safely, as well as 

 quickly and economically, through the parcel post. A well-known 

 veneer manufacturer said recently that sampling is getting to be 

 one of his best bets, and that the parcel post has enabled him 

 to get out his stock so conveniently that he seldom thinks of using 

 the express companies, except where mucJj larger weights than 

 are provided in the parcel post schedule are involved. 



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