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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



December 25, 1921 



Perry's Address Is Feature of Plywood Meeting 



The feature of the quarterly meeting of the Plywood Manufac- 

 turers* Association, held in Chicago at the Auditorium Hotel, 

 December 14, was the address delivered by TTiomas D. Perry, 

 president of the organization. Mr. Perry had the following to 

 say: 



"To Plywood Manufacturers' Association: 



"Your president has attended two recent meetings of the Na- 

 tional Council of Furniture Associations, at which several topics 

 of interest to our members were under discussion. The September 

 meeting at Hot Springs gave opportunity to explain at some length 

 the status of our association glue development, in which a keen 

 interest was evidenced. At this meeting attention was given to 

 the designations or descriptions of different grades or construc- 

 tions of furniture. Your president took the position that in the 

 group entitled 'Genuine,' and indicated to include both solid 

 and veneered woods, it would be advisable to make a two-line 

 descriptive title, i.e., ( Soiki & p/wulii ) * ^^ ^^'* *^^* ^*^"^ descrip- 

 tions would seldom be read or remembered, but that the w^ord 

 Genuine needed something to clarify and strengthen it. 

 Plywood Designation 



"The same topic was under discussion at a meeting held in 

 Cleveland by the Associated Advertising Clubs, at which the con- 

 clusion reached indicated the use of the word 'Built-up,* for one 

 of the grades. It was impossible to attend this meeting, but our 

 preference for the word 'Plywood' was made clear to their secre- 

 tary. 



"At the New York Council meeting in December still further 

 consideration was given to the grade designation and an oppor- 

 tunity v^^as given our association to again register its opinion for 

 the use of the term 'Plywood,' because of its correctness, its 

 general use and the difficulty and confusion attending the use of 

 such terms as 'veneered,' 'built-up,* 'compound-wood,' 'multiple 

 ply,* etc. 



"Our Association must vigorously maintain its position on this 

 subject, so that a proper conception may be developed in the minds 

 of the public that plywood means several sheets of thin wood glued 

 together, to enhance the beauty and increase the strength. 

 Plywood Price Deflation 



*'At the Council meeting at Hot Springs, Cost Counsel W. H. 

 Coye exhibited charts showing the price range of component 

 materials entering into case goods, dining tables and chairs. Ply- 

 wood was given a line in the two first charts, which nearly cor- 

 responded to the lumber line. In September the lumber line 

 showed greater reductions than the plywood line but the last four 

 months have given the lumber line an upward tendency while the 

 plyw^ood has continued its downward course. 



Business Prospects Brighter 



"The relentless process of price deflation has borne rather 

 heavily on plywood manufacturers, and little interest is evidenced 

 by them in the new tax legislation and the raising of the corpora- 

 tion income tax from 10 per cent to 12^/2 per cent. On every 

 hand is a revelation that costs must get down to normal, but no 

 one has discovered any sure guide to the location of normalcy. 

 The market on ^Me" 5-pIy figured tops (l.G.S.) averages around 

 25 cents and on I/4" 3-ply birch panels (I.C.S.) around 9 cents, 

 but the variations in vigorous competition have run 33 per cent 

 under and the quality grades are securing 20 per cent more than 

 the average. With unstable raw material prices and under-produc- 

 tion, it is w^ell nigh impossible to state whether the above averages 

 will enable the manufacturer to get out whole or not. Many 

 shrewd buyers are stocking up heavily on lumber, veneers and 

 plywood, and the two former items have taken a distinct upward 

 turn. 



'*This is not a time to cast aside costing methods as useless, but 

 to keep them in running order so that they may completely func- 



tion again as the volume of production begins to stabilize the 

 overheads. 



"Foresight, judgment and nerve will carry us through this 

 period and the worst is apparently behind us. 



Finances 



"Association finances are decidedly encouraging and the Com- 

 missioner and Treasurer have successfully conspired to keep a 

 good balance on hand, nearly $7,000. There are a few outstand- 

 ing obligations, on our major programs, but these are being paid 

 as they become due. 



Employed Officers 



"The Central Bureau has been incorporated and our contract 

 modified accordingly. It makes no diflference in our relations with 

 our Commissioner. Cost Engineer Potter's time has been spent 

 largely in the field of furniture manufacturing, preparing articles 

 for publication. 



Committees 



"The reports submitted by the different committees indicate 

 faithful work and are worth careful consideration. The Traffic 

 Committee has made excellent progress in the hearing before 

 the Interstate Commerce Comnriission examiner at Louisville on 

 Docket No. 8131. The Glue situation is assuming more definite 

 shape, and the committee report indicates that experience is shap- 

 ing a successful and satisfactory policy for a good glue at a reason- 

 able price. Conditions have not been favorable for making prog- 

 ress in the matter of Grading Rules. The Publicity or Trade Pro- 

 motion Committee has had a difficult problem in the failure of 

 the National Veneer & Panel Manufacturers' Association to meet 

 its half of the assessment as agreed upon at their June meeting. 

 Some means must be devised to 'put over* the publicity program 

 which has been so admirably started, and to which our Plywood 

 members have definitely pledged their assessments. 

 Costing Principles 



"Cost Engineer Potter has now finished the five sections of his 

 'Costing Principles,* to be revised and bound in a single book at 

 some future date. The completion of this work put us in a posi- 

 tion to advocate its effective use in fields where it will be beneficial 

 to the Plywood industry as a whole. There are three distinct 

 opportunities now apparent: First, the Plywood Manufacturer 

 w^ho is still guessing at his costs. It is a fact that only about one 

 Plywood member in eight really knows his costs accurately. 

 Second, the Veneer Producer who knows even less of his actual 

 costs than the plywood man. Mr. Potter's outlines include the 

 principles of costing for Rotary, Sawn and Sliced Veneers. When 

 veneer makers begin to realize and use even rudimentary costs, 

 there will come a stabilization of prices that will benefit all. Third, 

 the Furniture Manufacturer. Rare indeed is the maker of furni- 

 ture who apportions to his Plywood assembling department the 

 proper overhead burdens that make his internal cost really com- 

 parable with that of the outside plywood specialist. 



"Our cost engineer's work has been thorough and has received 

 commendation wherever it has been studied. Our job is to capi- 

 talize this investment in a large way. We should begin to do this 

 in our own organization by putting the principles and practices 

 v^hich have been set forth in the cost manual into actual practice 

 in as many of our member plants as possible. We should also 

 wage a vigorous campaign for accurate and uniform costing, not 

 only on the part of those who supply us with raw material, but 

 on the part of those who use our product as well. Unless w^e do 

 this, and educate woodworkers along these lines, we are failing 

 to earn a suitable revenue from our investment. 



"The task is no small problem and is w^orthy of our mettle, but 

 ways and means must be devised for such a campaign. The three 

 projects can be carried along simultaneously and the quality of 

 {Continued on page 4G) 



