March 10, 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



2i 



-By iy»,. A. Babbitt 



Before I launch another attack on this problem of Dimension 

 Stock, it is mighty pleasant to be able to recall that the first or- 

 ganized support offered to the Standardization program of the Na- 

 tional Association of Wood Turners came from the American Hard- 

 wood Manufacturers' Association. 



When this propaganda first started, we had the cart before the 

 horse. We thought that about all we had to do was to set up an 

 exhibit of the facts in the ease, and that immediately there would 

 be a right reaction on the part of all parties at interest in this 

 matter. We now realize that we were working on the wrong theory, 

 our psychology was wrong. When I addressed this Association the 

 first time, I flattered myself that I had you all thinking, and to 

 some extent thinking my way. The event shows, however, that 

 most of you were not thinking, though you thought j'ou were. Ac- 

 tually, you were rearranging your prejudices against dimension 

 stock to ward off this new attack. Mental checkers, not thinking. 

 Not every lumberman is prejudiced, we will all admit, but outside 

 oneself it is not so easy to pick another. Furthermore, it is per- 

 fectly plain that all wood users are prejudiced. I am in no position 

 to deny the soft impeachment. 



Here are two examples from my correspondence to illustrate to 

 what extent prejudice can eliminate thought and block progress. 

 With suppressed indignation, one of the biggest hardwood lumber- 

 men writes: "Are we correct that this average waste, as figured 

 by Mr. Babbitt, of approximately 60 per cent would be. transferred 

 from the consumer to the manufacturer; granting the tremendous 

 saving in freight and handling is there any other reason why the 

 manufacturer can dispose of this waste to as good advantage as the 

 consumer, who is usually situated to at least dispose of it for fire- 

 wood." Even a furniture manufacturer is hardly justified in pay- 

 ing an average rate of 30 cents per hundred pounds for firewood. 



Another lumberman writes of his experience with one of the 

 largest manufacturers of high-grade furniture: "We offered this 

 party high-grade well-seasoned dimension, as good as could bo made, 

 and precisely filling several of his major requirements. We guaran- 

 teed this stock in every way equal to dimension he was cutting 

 from 'Selects and No. 1 Common.' He admitted his stock cost 

 him $90 per M board feet at the machine. But he would not consider 

 mine at half that price." 



It makes one think of the nigger on the merry-go-round. After 

 he had spent all his money in a wild orgy of circumnavigation, he 

 encountered his wife. Said she, "Nigger, Ise done been watchin' 

 you. Youse gone spen' yo ' money ridin', an' whar has you ben? 

 No whar!" Prejudices naturally make merry-go-rounds of us all. 

 We get motion without progress. But it is a big achievement to 

 make the discovery that a "Merry-go-round" gets one "no whar"! 



As I view this occasion, what we most want is a new viewpoint 

 on the problems of our industry. Accordingly, I have no intention, 

 at this time to go into details of technical or merchandising prob- 

 lems connected with the dimension stock program. My effort will 

 be to give you a vision of this great and revolutionary undertaking 

 as a whole. We have discovered that the technique of producing 

 dimension is more complex and different than the production of 

 commercial lumber. We have discovered that the merchandizing 

 problem of dimension is not a problem for a novice in salesman- 

 ship. The root of all these difficulties however, is in the human 



•4» Address to the American Hardwood Manufacturers' Assodaiion at 

 Louisville, Ky., March 8, 1922. 



*The Chairman of the Committee of Standardization of the Association 

 of Wood Using Industries. 



factor — difficulties which maki all technical problems seem aa 

 A-B-C. 



I referred to the Dimension stock program as a revolutionary 

 undertaking. This is a correct description, as you will agree before 

 I finish. It will help us to break clean and clear of our prejudices 

 to remember that any undertaking which is revolutionary deserves 

 the close and candid attention of any man whose business is to be 

 revolutionized or is liable to be revolutionized. Standardized Di-' 

 mension will revolutionize, is revolutionizing both the soft and! 

 hard wood industries. A later occasion may serve to discuss the' 

 problem of soft woods. Now we must keep our attention on hard-i 

 woods. 



Men, we must do straight, clear thinking here today. Hoary old 

 prejudices of all sorts must step down and out. I have in mind, 

 a few particular prejudices which must go NOW. The word pre-, 

 judice means "to judge before one hears the evidence." Here is' 

 one particular imbecile prejudice. It is the prejudice against di- 

 mension stock because it is a product of conservation. The average 

 maker and user of dimension is prone to regard dimension stock 

 with contempt, and as of small value. This idiotic old prejudice 

 ignores the fact that not one foot of hardwood in a thousand is oil 

 any use to industry until it has first been reduced to dimension. 

 When it is reduced to dimension what earthly difference does it 

 make from what sort of board, log or tree proper dimension came 

 from? , Old Man Prejudice says that it makes all the difference in 

 the world, its market value is only half its utility value! He is a 

 liar. He is an unmitigated ass. He is an economic prostitute. 



Again, there is our strong natural prejudice in favor of thinking 

 and doing things according to our accustomed ways. It's human 

 nature. Psychologists show that the average man is unable to ab- 

 sorb fundamentally new ideas after he has passed his fifteenth 

 birthday. Quite a few are that way, many years prior to their 

 fifteenth birthday. This proves the high economic v:ilue of 

 funerals. Funerals prevent Yesterday from capturing Tomorrow. 

 We know the strength of this prejudice of habit. We insist on 

 doing things in the old way; we resist the moral and economic 

 pressure which seek to compel us to do the same things in a new and 

 better way. In this prejudice there is an element of justifiable 

 fear that we might fail in the new way. 



Not to carry this analysis of prejudice too far, I may mention 

 that we lumbermen undoubtedly are strongly prejudiced by our 

 national foible of unbounded and asinine conceit. The sage of 

 Florida, ex-sage of Nebraska, told us of a mighty host of freemen, 

 uncounted millions in fact, springing to arms between dawn and 

 nightfall. When we actually drew on every resource we had to 

 pull this easy stunt, we found that the war did not last long enough 

 to furnish one modern weapon, not even a handgrenade, to arm 

 this host, which but for our allies, would have been as futile for 

 military purposes as a boy scout outfit. This same Old Man 

 Prejudice has been working overtime to frustrate the Dimension 

 Stock program. Don't accuse me of lecturing, for I emphatically 

 include myself in this indictment. We have underestimated the 

 difficulty of this job. We have called it the proper field of back- 

 woods portable saw mill, with the faulty and often worthless out- 

 put of these mills staring at us reproachfully, in testimony that it 

 takes more technical skill and better manufacturing facilities to 

 make standard dimension than it does to make first class lumber. 

 We have underestimated the difficulty of the marketing problem. 

 Partly due to bad trade conditions, but largely due to stupid, 

 blundering salesmanship, lumbermen who have made standard di- 

 mension this past season have registered about as complete a fail-' 

 ^Continued on page 26) 



