42 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



>Jovember 



10. 1921 



Rail Settlement Encourages Grand Rapids 



By Our Staff C orresportdent 



Two events of recent date have served to give to the furniture 

 industry in Grand Rapids a new impetus and to mark a hopeful 

 course for the future. First was the calling off of the railroad 

 strike and second was the announcement that Grand Rapids a 

 year from now is to have another fine new hotel backed by the 

 furniture men and to cater particularly to the furniture men dur- 

 ing their semi-annual visits to the Grand Rapids market. 



With the railroad strike staring the industry in the face nobody 

 had much of any courage to go ahead with anything and all had 

 an idea that perhaps the tie-up of all sorts of industry would put 

 the furniture business completely out of the running for an in- 

 definite period. Immediately the strike was called off, however, 

 orders began to come in again w^ith the result that at the present 

 time there seems every indication that the Grand Rapids factories 

 at least, and this probably applies to the entire industry, will be 

 able to run to nearly if not quite full capacity from now^ until 

 the January market opens. At that time, of course, it is expected 

 there will be sufficiently generous ordering to make certain of 

 continued operation until the spring months when it is confidently 

 hoped and expected conditions will have become more nearly 

 normal and business will assume its accustomed course. 



The first half of October were indeed gloomy weeks for the 

 industry. All factories in Grand Rapids w^ere running but it was 

 a sort of hand-to-mouth existence. Prices which had been placed 

 at rock bottom levels in July had kept the wheels turning, without 

 profit to speak of if any at all, and dealers were forcing their sales 

 at all points in order to move what they had ordered. The threat- 

 ened railroad strike, which would have tied up industry and have 

 thrown out of employment millions of working men everywhere, 

 was not conducive to further ordering. The result was that when a 

 salesman got an order on the road it w^as always one that he had 

 earned his money getting and he was not at all sure but that more 

 mature consideration on the part of the dealer might result in a 

 cancellation reaching the office ahead of the order. 



But immediately the announcement was made that the strike 

 had been called off, orders instead of cancellations began to ar- 

 rive, orders which had not been solicited and other orders which 

 had been tentatively given. The result w^as a new hope in the 

 furniture industry and the apparent assurance that the factories 

 would find plenty to do through the holidays and until the January 

 market brought in the usual orders. 



New Hotel Will Aid Market 



Immediately, too, came the announcement that a new hotel is 

 to be erected in the downtown district to cater particularly to the 

 furniture men. At the head of the hotel organization is C. S. 

 Dexter of the Grand Rapids Chair company and L. D. Eldredge 

 of Hubbard, Eldredge & Miller of Rochester, N. Y. The hotel 

 calls for 300 rooms and is to be elaborately equipped throughout. 

 For several seasons one of the greatest problems the furniture 

 market has had to face has been the lack of hotel facilities. The 

 Grand Rapids Market association has been forced to maintain a 

 room-finding desk in the Pantlind and buyers have been assigned to 

 rooms in private houses because of the inability of the hotels to 

 care for the rush. This has been unsatisfactory and has kept a 

 large number of buyers out of the market. In the last two seasons 

 arrangements had been made with the Pantlind to care for the 

 buyers only and salesmen and out-of-town manufacturers have been 

 forced to shift for themselves. Many salesmen have consequently 

 disliked coming to market and have gotten away as quickly as 

 possible. But the new hotel is designed especially for furniture 

 men and vt'ill probably be filled with the salesmen, leaving the 

 Pantlind entirely free for the buyers. The plan calls for the com- 

 pletion of the new structure by January I, 192 3. 



The threatened strike of coal miners does not worry furniture 



manufacturers in the least. In the first place they have sufficient 

 supplies of coal on hand to carry them through the next four 

 months at any rate and since they can keep running very largely 

 on their own refuse, they see no danger of a forced shut-down 

 from this cause. 



Conditions Unusually Hopeful 



Altogether the furniture industry so far as Grand Rapids is 

 concerned is today in a more hopeful situation than at any time 

 in the last 14 months. Dealers are now, according to the reports 

 of salesmen returning and according to statements made by buyers 

 in the market, doing a better business than at any time since the 

 slump of August, 1920. Moreover, their goods are being moved 

 more easily than formerly and some of the buyers in the market 

 are insisting upon quick delivery of their orders. Some even 

 complain that they are unable to get their merchandise as quickly 

 as they would like so that everybody seems happier than for a 

 long time. 



Two other factors enter into the situation on the right side of 

 the ledger also. One of these is the announcement by the South- 

 ern Pacific of a tremendous cut in freight rates. This will open 

 up a lot of territory which has been all but closed because of the 

 excessive charges for hauling. It is taken for granted, too, that 

 this reduction is but the forerunner of other reductions by other 

 roads soon to be announced. 



The other factor is the new business that has been placed upon 

 the books in the last year. For a considerable time the big 

 dealers who had been overloaded during the period when every- 

 body was scrambling for orders w^ere out of the market until they 

 could dispose of what they had in their bulging warehouses. The 

 manufacturers were therefore forced to seek an outlet for their 

 goods elsewhere and they found that outlet in the smaller towns 

 and among the smaller dealers who had been passed up in the 

 big rush. Now the big fellows are back in the market again and 

 the result is a very considerably increased field for operation. 

 Therefore business is looking up again and furniture seems to be 

 staging a very considerable come-back in the last two or three 

 w^eeks. 



Interesting Designs Promised 



Designs i^ the January market will prove most interesting. The 

 new designs which Grand Rapids manufacturers and the larger 

 ones all over the country brought out in July will in January 

 have spread to nearly all the other lines. The makers of the 

 lower grades of furniture will by that time be showing the designs 

 of July with such modifications as may be necessary to get the 

 price down to their levels. Meantime the Grai:d Rapids manu- 

 facturers will have discovered definitely what of their designs sold 

 and what were "duds," so that some of their July designs will 

 have disappeared and other new ones will make their appearance 

 both for the purpose of replacing the duds and also for the pur- 

 pose of keeping well out in front of the makers of cheaper grades 

 of furniture who will have copied the July showings. 



Just what the new designs will be the manufacturers are at 

 this time keeping very much to themselves, but it is a certainty 

 that there will be some more sensational showings such as char- 

 acterized the July market. Whether these new showings will run 

 to the flamboyant extremes of some of the good sellers of July or 

 whether those flashes-in-the-pan will have outlived thier useful- 

 ness remains yet to be seen. It is altogether likely, however, that 

 so far as makers of high grade furniture are concerned there will 

 be somewhat of a return to the more staid and correct designs 

 and quite certainly a sufficient price upon them to make the manu- 

 facture of furniture profitable once more, a thing which was not 

 the case in July. In July, furniture was manufactured to sell and 



tContiniiiil till /fiif/r Tt'.', t 



