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Some years ago, wlien the National Veneer and Panel Manufactur- 

 ers' Association was in its infancy, Lewis Doster, secretary at that 

 time of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the United 

 States, made a little speech to a gathering of veneer and panel man- 

 ufacturers at the Grand hotel, Cincinnati, in which he pointed out 

 how they were striving to keep track of both the stock on hand among 

 members of the association and of stock required by users throughout 

 the country, the idea being to keep the producer and consumer in as 

 close touch as possible. 



After the meeting adjourned a prominent veneer and panel manu- 

 facturer, who has since passed away, complimented Mr. Doster on the 

 talk he had made and proceeded to explain to him that wliile the 

 idea was undoubtedly good in the lumber trade, it was not and never 

 could be made applicable to the veneer and panel trade for the simple 

 reason that in the veneer and panel business there was no manufac- 

 turing and carrying of stock ahead of the demand. Practically 

 everything was cut and made up to special order. 



Tliis is recalled now as a preface to the present article to not 

 only adorn the tale, but to help point the tendency in the veneer 

 and panel world, which is now toward standardization and the carry- 

 ing of certain stock on hand ready for prompt shipment. 



Going through various current advertisements of veneer and panel 

 manufacturers found today in Hardwood Record and other trade 

 papers there are to be found such lines and passages as follows: 



"Panels li", -ft;", %", three-ply and five-ply standard sizes." 



' ' Millions of feet on hand at all times. ' ' 



' ' Door stock cut to size or in sheets. ' ' 



"Send for stock list." 



"Three-ply and five-ply carried in stock." 



And now and then a specific listing of veneer stock on hand of 

 various thicknesses. 



In all cases these phrases may be susceptible or different inter- 

 pretations and they may not always mean that certain specific sizes 

 are carried in stock for prompt shipment. Moreover, there are 

 people in the trade who contend just as strongly today as the conten- 

 tion was made some years ago that the panel business is not a 

 business in which one can cut material and carry it in stock against 

 future needs. • 



Yet the fact remains that we are gradually developing standard 

 sizes and the stock carrying habit in both the veneer and the panel 

 trade. It will perhaps be several more years before any great percent- 

 age of the stock made and used is cut in advance of orders and 

 carried ready for prompt shipment, but just the same the tendency is 

 in that direction and the trade is steadily making progress. 



There is much to be urged in favor of the idea, too, that is in 

 favor of carrying it as far as practical. One very strong argument 

 is to be found in the persistent wrangle between panel users and 

 panel manufacturers over the time required to get out and deliver 

 stock. 



The panel manufacturer insists that it takes time to make up panels 

 properly and that after they are made up and glued together they 

 should be carefully piled on cross strips and allowed to dry from a 

 few days to a few weeks, depending upon weather conditions and upon 

 facilities for artificial drying of stock. 



On the other hand, furniture manufacturers now and then claim 

 they have had to take up the manufacture of panels themselvre, not 

 to save money, but to save time and to get quicker action so that 

 they may have their panels when they need them and not have their 

 work delayed by waiting upon some panel manufacturer. Now then, 

 on any and all such panels and built-up i\'ork as can be reduced to 

 standard sizes, the best answer to this is to be found in adopting 

 standard sizes and the panel manufacturer making up such stock and 

 carrying it ready for prompt delivery. 



The tendency among furniture manufacturers has been for some 

 time toward letting the material man carry their stock of raw mate- 

 rial for them. This tendency is very noticeable in the lumb^ trade 



and many of the lumber people serving the furniture trade not only 

 make it a point to get prompt shipment on standard lumber stock 

 but are even prepared to serve the trade promptly with various 

 special dimensions, and often carry in stock dimensions that are 

 used regularly enough to be classed as standard. Of late years the 

 furniture manufacturers have managed to get good enough service in 

 this quick action business from the lumber fraternity that they 

 naturally turn with sometliing of the same idea toward veneer and 

 panel people and seek for prompt action. 



Whether this attitude is fair and just toward the veneer and panel 

 manufacturers is a matter that may be open to argument, but, how- 

 ever that may be, it is a condition that confronts the trade, and the 

 important question of the day is how best to meet it. 



There are enough people in the veneer and panel business anxiously 

 seeking for business and trade openings and striving for the sake of 

 business to humor every whim of the buyer that it puts the man who 

 would fight against these tendencies in a position to lose some of his 

 trade rather than gain his point. 



One thing that even the dissenters from the idea of stock carry- 

 ing in tlie veneer and panel trade must admit is that Standardization 

 is one of the greatest factors in modern progress and in reducing the 

 cost of work. Every branch of industry in the world that can do so 

 is striving to standardize every possible item in its product, not 

 merely to establish local standards, but national and international 

 standards. The veneer and panel industry may not offer so many 

 opportunities for standardization as some other industries, but there 

 are some opportunities even in the veneer and panel industry, and 

 there are many more than have already been developed. What the 

 trade needs is to seek them out and develop every one that has pos- 

 sibilities. The veneer and panel trade can do a lot along this line 

 itself, and once the ball is started rolling properly and begins to 

 attract vpidespread attention, it should be comparatively easy to 

 secure the cooperation of all the important veneer and panel users in 

 this work of setting forth specifically as many standards as possible 

 to the end that the manufacturers may make up and carry in stock 

 material for prompt delivery. 



There is plenty of evidence that some progress is being made, and 

 it is a pretty safe prophecy that more progress wiU be made in the 

 next few years than has been made in the past few. How much 

 progress and how much good both manufacturers and users may 

 derive from it in the next few years will depend materially upon the 

 active interest shown. 



Let us cut out the unbelief, and remember that it is "can," not 

 "can't," that does things, and we wUl see some substantial progress 

 made in the next few years in the matter of standards in the veneer 

 and panel trade that will make practical the carrying of more stock 

 on hand ahead of needs. J. C. T. 



Still Going the Rounds 



The coming timber famine fallacy whifrh somebody started fifteen 

 years ago and backed up with statistics, is still going the rounds. 

 The prophets announced then that ten years would wind up the wood 

 resources of this coimtry, and they proved it by percentages, and 

 cited Germany as a fearful example of timber famine. That was 

 much more than ten years ago, and the famine has not come yet. 

 However, the prophets are stiU predicting, and ten years is still named 

 as the fatal time when the timber famine will arrive, and still Ger- 

 many is pointed out as the victim of the kind of famine that is 

 headed straight in our direction. A recent issue of KaUroad Men 

 says : "In ten years the United States will be drained of all its 

 valuable timber. ' ' It quotes Dean Ferguson as authority, but does 

 not state whether he is one of the old prophets or a new one, but he 

 does not fail to point a warning finger toward Germany. 



It may be asked seriously about how much longer that timber 

 famine story is good for? 



