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The Lumbermen s Round Table 



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ONE-FACE GOOD LUMBER 



It has been a uotieeable fact tliat iiiauj' limilieiirn'M liavo taken 

 advantage of the ability of consumers to use lumber with refer- 

 ence to one side only, and have been specializing in the sale of 

 oue-faco firsts and seconds. There seems to be no possible ob- 

 jection against this description, and on the other hand, many argu- 

 ments in favor of selling it on that basis. 



In the case of a table-top, or furniture case-work, or interior 

 finish, or any number of commodities that might be mentioned, 

 only one side is e.xposed. The consumer does not care what is on 

 the worse side, so long as the material which is exposed is clear. 

 Consequently there is neither rhyme nor reason in his paying for 

 lumber that is clear on both sides, when but one face is to be seen 

 in actual use. 



The description of the lumber as one-face firsts and seconds is 

 different from the term select, even where a definite select grade is 

 provided for in the rules. A select board is good on one side, of 

 course, but the usual provision is that the worse side shall not be 

 below a No. 1 common. In the special grade referred to, the other 

 side may be anything whatever, and as nobody cares how many 

 defects it carries this seems an equitable arrangement. 



Certainly the plan is a good one for the consumer, who gets 

 what is to all intents and purposes good lumber for less than firsts 

 and seconds prices, and for the lumberman, who can select his 

 common stock so as to make good lumber out of it, as far as one 

 face only is concerned. And, be it noted, this selection means 

 service to the consumer, for which the latter should certainly be 

 willing to pay. 



IT ALL DEPENDS 

 The present popularity of mahogany, and the fact that poplar, 

 in point of price, is far below the place it occupied in the heydey 

 of the panel poplar craze, makes the following stor3', told by a 

 man who knows, seem almost beyond the limit of credibility; but 

 it happened, nevertheless, and only goes to show that everything 

 is relative, and that there are few hard and fast, unchangeable 

 standards by which to measure quality. 



"During the time when wide poplar was sky-hooting," said this 

 lumberman, "we were selling a good deal of our stock abroad. 

 There was quite a scarcity of panel stock, as everj'body recalls, and 

 at one time poplar was selling on the other side around the $100- 

 mark. I have in my files a letter from our Liverpool representa- 

 tive stating that owing to the high price and scarcity of panel 

 poplar, some manufacturers in England were 'substituting' ma- 

 hogany for it. 



' ' Our friends in the mahogany trade may think that this is a 

 case of stretching the long bow, but it actually happened. The 

 substitution of mahogany for poplar was not of course an index 

 of their relative intrinsic values; and yet people are too likely to 

 judge values by price, rather than by an examination of the wood 

 itself. ' ' 



TEACHING THE YOUNG IDEA 



Speaking of mahogany reminds one that those engaged in its 

 manufacture and sale have played their cards intelligently, and 

 have carefully cultivated the demand until it is a steady, depend- 

 able thing; and now mahogany is a staple which could hardly be 

 dislodged from a permanent position of popularity by any im- 

 aginable means. 



One of the methods recently used by a large concern in that 

 field is suggestive of the careful thought given to the entire sub- 

 ject of stimulating the demand. The company has been sending 

 to manual training schools supplies of mahogany at a figure below 

 the market, in order to get the boys to working in that wood. The 

 advantage of winning friends for their product among the young- 

 sters now growing up is undoubted; while on the other hand, it 

 must be remembered that in many cases furniture which the 



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school-boys make goes liomo, to be used and admired by the family. 

 If many pieces are of maliogany, it is almost certain that the sug- 

 gestion to buy other pieces made of that material will be pre- 

 sented so strongly as to have a decided effect on consumption. 



Most lumbermen have taken demand as a matter of course. The 

 mahogany people have consciously fostered theirs. There's usually 

 a reason for a big success of that kind. 



DISCOVERING THE TRADE JOURNAL 

 One good result flowing from the co-operative work done by 

 lumber associations along the lines of educating the public to the 

 value of their special commodities, is that the trade journal has 

 been re-discovered in the process of studj-ing mediums and dis- 

 cussing methods of getting results. 



Associations which have worked up interesting and worth while 

 things to say, have found that their publication in the trade jour- 

 nals has brought unexpectedly good results, showing that readers 

 of the trade press have only been waiting for an opportunity to 

 respond. 



This has encouraged individual manufacturers, who formerly be- 

 lieved in the "standing card" and yet grumbled good-naturedly 

 now and then because they didn't get results, to take more pains 

 with their copy. Such effort almost invariably produces a very 

 desirable efi'ect, either increasing sales or making sales easier to 

 accomplish than previously. 



On the outside, advertising agencies, which were once content 

 to announce that they handled publicity in "newspapers, maga- 

 zines, street cars and outdoors," now add "and trade journals," 

 to the list, knowing that people have become interested in that 

 method of getting publicity. 



Those among the lumbermen who have been making proper use 

 of space in the trade journals have known the truth of the situa- 

 tion all along; but others are only now discovering the proposition, 

 and seeing things in their true light. And the discovery will help 

 everybody. 



WALNUT IN THE MUSIC TRADES 

 Indications that black walnut is to resume its ^rightful place 

 among domestic consumers of hardwoods, and to be properly fea- 

 tured in the manufacture of furniture, interior finish and other 

 important lines, have recalled the fact that the music trades have 

 always been strongly in favor of the use of the wood. 



Many piano manufacturers have continued to give prominence to 

 cases made of that kind of material, even though they knew that 

 the pianos would have to make their way by sheer beauty and in 

 spite of lack of accord with their surroundings of house-finishing 

 and furniture. The vogue of early English and mission styles, 

 however, helped the use of dark woods of all kinds, and has made 

 it easier to maintain the use of walnut in that business. 



It is also said that the talking-machine manufacturers are ad- 

 mirers and supporters of walnut, and that they are planning to 

 feature it with mahogany and oak in the production of their cases. 

 If walnut has ever been out of fashion, it seems to be certain that 

 it is coming back with a rush; and it deserves all that may ever be 

 said of it as to quality. 



STUDY THE FACTORY END 

 A hardwood flooring man recently told with great glee of a 

 solicitor for a liability insurance company who opened the inter- 

 view by saying, "What kind of machinery do you use in this 

 plant?" 



"That chap," said the flooring man, "may have thought that 

 he could expose the densest of ignorance without prejudicing his 

 case; but I certainly don't believe in giving business to people 

 who haven't the slightest conception of my requirements." 



This was a good point; yet how many hardwood lumbermen can 

 go into a consuming factory and discuss the peculiar requirements 

 of the manufacturer with the same familiarity they exact of the 



