

Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1922 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging, Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and 2Sth of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edwin W. Meeker, Vice Pres. and Editor 

 H. F. Ake, Secretary-Treasurer 

 Li.ovi) P. Robertson', Associate Editor 



Seventh Floor, Ellsworth Building 

 537 South Dearborn St., CHICAGO 

 Telephone: HARRISON 8087 



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Vol. LII 



CHICAGO, MARCH 25, 1022 



No. 11 



Review and Outlook 



General Market Conditions 



THl.S MARKET is written from the ''sticks" several Jays ahead 

 of publication. It may be that by the time it reaches the trade 

 a reaction from conditions current the past two or three weeks will 

 develop. Indeed, the very nature of the change which has charac- 

 terized trading over this period is such as to make a swing back 

 quite likely in due time. "Whether it will have started or not by 

 the time this appears is questionable. 



During the two or three weeks preceding this issue trading has 

 tightened up to an extent entirely unanticipated and not alto- 

 gether explainable. To the extent that furniture markets have 

 been of dominant importance during the rehabilitation period, just 

 so are the actions of buyers in the furniture trade of direct 

 moment to the hardwood industry, and it is safe to say that the 

 major attention has focused on the furniture factories since their 

 buying dwindled down to so small a figure. 



Other industries respresenting last hardwood markets will func- 

 tion independently of furniture and in such cases there are ap- 

 parently known factors to reckon with. For instance, in building 

 the development of lumber demand is based entirely on visible 

 evidence of improvement, either permits, contracts or new work 

 actually started. Among the implement folks one has an index in 

 the official data which records definite, though gradual, improve- 

 ment in the agi-icultural fields. With the railroads the' prospect is 

 defined by records of orders placed for renewals or improvements 

 in various departments. 



In furniture, though, it would seem that the limitations of buy- 

 ing change spasmodically. Thus one might well be constrained to 

 wonder whether present wholesale withdrawal from purchases is 

 not the result of concerted effort rather than from actual softening 

 in furniture sales. Quite true, general complaint is heard that 

 retailers are not ordering and thus that the manufacturer cannot 

 safely buy lumber. But this complaint does not seem consistent 

 with the manufacturing record of his own business, which ap- 

 parently reveals two to four months' orders ahead comparing very 

 favorably with normal requirements. Hardwood Record earnestly 

 believes that if the non-buying policy is consistently pursued in 

 the face of a fairly satisfactory furniture business, the ultimate 

 result will be distinctly unfavorable to the buyer. Holders of 

 hardwood are in general gaining strength, and regardless of evi- 

 dence of cut prices confidence is every day becoming more the 

 dominant sentiment of the trade. The season for a natural expan- 

 sion of demand is upon us and it would take very little more en- 



couragement to substantially strengthen the lumbermen's view- 

 point. 



Optimism should not discount the apparently inevitable coal 

 strike. It should be remembered, though, that the effect of this 

 strike cannot be what it would be during a period of prosperous 

 activity. And, too, the visible supply will ward off hardship for 

 a number of weeks. 



In the meantime, though, the favorable factors continue to mul- 

 tiply, and to increase their balance over the retardant influences. 

 For this reason it is impossible to concede that any setbacks can 

 be more than temporary. 



The Handwriting on the Wall 



IN TIMES OF DEPRESSION we should prepare for the future, 

 and by doing so we can cure the depression itself." This 

 assertion was made by Secretary of Commerce Hoover during his 

 address to the Interstate Commerce Commission on the railway rate 

 question on February 2. It is the "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin, " 

 which Congress must heed and for which the business men of the 

 country must become Daniels. 



If heeded it will help forestall another wild period of inflation, 

 with its destructive sequel of depression. But further than this, it 

 will speed the day of recovery from the present depression and 

 bring us to that delectable land for which our President coined the 

 expressive word. Normalcy. The railroads of the country now have 

 the opportunity to build which they will not have when business 

 approaches to anything like normal. When business resumes, Mr. 

 Hoover said, "we shall need all of our capacity for production of 

 consumable goods." Then, if the railroads have not acquired 

 the additional trackage, rolling stock and terminals necessary to 

 the needs of normal business, "we shall not only find it (business) 

 strangled for lack of transportation, but we shall find ourselves 

 plunging into the manufacture of this very railway equipment and 

 construction in competition with consumable goods for materials 

 and labor." And, he explained, "herein lies the basic cause of 

 destructive prices, inflation and booms, with all their waste and 

 overexpansion. ' ' 



None of us wants this. We crave normalcy as the shipwrecked 

 sailor craves the blessed sight of land. We have got, to be plain 

 about it, our belly full of inflation and deflation. 



Mr. Hoover insisted that the railways should "propose a coura- 

 geous program of broad-visioned betterments," and if this can be 

 financed in no other way, "the Government should consider giving 



