38 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



October 25, 1921 



■American Walnut 



We manufacture both lumber and veneers 

 from selected logs grown in the famous 

 Iowa walnut district. The result is our 

 product possesses unusual merit, being 

 favored by Nature with a most beautiful 

 grain and color. We will appreciate a list 

 of your needs in both lumber and veneers 

 of walnut. 



DES MOINES SAWMILL CO. 



10th and Murphy Streets Des Moines. Iowa 



Grand Rapids January Show Will Be Huge 



By Staff Correspondent 



Preparations are now being made for the biggest furniture 

 season in January that the Grand Rapids market has ever known. 

 The furniture business, like every other, is comparatively dull and 

 yet the demand for space in the January market has long since 

 exhausted all available space in the six big furniture exposition 

 buildings and announcement has been made that the Gilbert block 

 on Monroe avenue is to be converted into a new exposition build- 

 ing to be ready for occupancy not later than December 15 and 

 it is expected that any day will see another announcement to the 

 effect that the McMullen building will be converted to the same 

 purpose, for it is no secret that negotiations are under way with 

 this end in view. 



Meantime Grand Rapids factories are still running to capacity 

 and are securing just about enough orders from the men on the 

 road to enable them to continue at top speed. But in order to do 

 this, the salesmen are actually working for the first time in more 

 than two years. The question of whether or not they can con- 

 tinue to secure enough business to keep the factories running at 

 capacity is raised by Martin J. Dregge, president of the Grand 

 Rapids Furniture Manufacturers' Association, in an announce- 

 ment to the effect that he looks for a reduction in the production 

 of furniture in the near future. In his published statement, Mr. 

 Dregge said this: 



"Unless the furniture business picks up there will be less factory 

 employment in Grand Rapids in the late fall and winter than there 

 is at the present time. The only reason employment conditions 

 have been so favorable here that the furniture manufacturers of 

 Grand Rapids were the first in the country to realize the necessity 

 of selling on a cost basis in order to keep the industry mpving. 



By so doing they have been able to continue operations and so keep 

 their employes at the benches. 



No Profit Being Made 



"Not a cent of profit has been made by the furniture manufac- 

 turers of Grand Rapids since they began at the start of the na- 

 tional business depression to sell on a cost basis. Furniture deal- 

 ers all over the country jumped to it when -we offered them an 

 opportunity to buy at cost but most of them have now so thor- 

 oughly stocked themselves that it is unlikely they can continue to 

 supply the orders to keep Grand Rapids factories going at their 

 present rate. If they cannot, there will be nothing left for us to 

 do but to curtail our production and that means the shutting 

 down in whole or in part of our factories." 



Mr. Dregge is president and general manager of the Luce Fur- 

 niture Company and one of the owners of the Grand Rapids Furni- 

 ture shops and of the Stone-Hoult Furniture Company, three con- 

 cerns which did perhaps the largest business at the mid-summer 

 exposition. 



This road business has been rather fair for most of the Grand 

 Rapids manufacturers and yet the salesmen themselves say they 

 are forced to "sell" every order they take. In the east, particularly, 

 the salesmen report that the retail business, while pretty fair, is 

 all forced, that dealers are putting on sales to bring business to 

 their stores and that should some of these sales fail there would 

 naturally be an immediate stoppage of orders to the furniture 

 manufacturers. That has not yet come and it may not come unless 

 the threatened railroad strike should produce a further paralysis 

 {Continued un page 40) 



