JIarch 25, 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



President Receives Wholesalers 



W. H. Schuette of Pittsburgh Is Elected President of National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers Association at Thirtieth Anniversary Meeting in Washington 



{By Staff Correspondent) 



Addresses Viy iiiembtTS of tlie House and the United States 

 Senate, as well as a member of the Cabinet, and a reception by 

 President Harding were a few of the features of the thirtieth an- 

 nual convention of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation held at the New Willard Hotel on March 22 and 23. 



Characterizing the Department of the Interior as "the home 

 making bureau," Secretary of the Interior Fall, speaking on March 

 23, the second day of the convention, stated that the department 

 is ' ' deeply concerned in such utilization 

 and development of the lumber industry as 

 will bring about the production and mainte- 

 nance of the largest number of small 

 homes.' ' 



Secretary Fall emphasized the importance 

 of "carefully considered action along this 

 line," in view of the fact brought out by 

 the recent census that the number of rural 

 homes is rapidly diminishing and the mass 

 of voters who have no "stake in the lands," 

 pay no taxes and shift from job to job — 

 "indifferent to the institutions of the coun- 

 try and to the stability of government'' — is 

 consequently growing. 



He pointed out that there are several 

 measures before Congress which are of pe- 

 culiar interest to the lumber association, be- 

 ing modifications or expansions of existing 

 laws for land reclamation. If approved by 

 Congress they will extend the home making 

 operations of the Interior Department into 

 many states having large areas suitable for 

 agricultural purposes, but as yet unused. 

 The primary purpose of these proposed laws, 

 he said, is to provide ojiportunities for coun- 

 try minded, farm-trained, ex-service men 

 acquire homes on the land. 



Senator Pepper Addresses Banquet 



"The belief of those favoring the four-power treaty is that it 

 is an expression of a new international state of mind," Senator 

 George W. Pepper of Pennsylvania told delegates to the associa- 

 tion, speaking at the annual banquet. He declared that "A nation 

 is people with a will to be one." 



Sectionalism, according to the speaker, may come to the United 

 States, "If we do not make an effort to see things through the eyes 

 of the others." 



"If the Atlantic section," he averred, "and the Pacific section 

 and the Central section, respectively, organize to protect their 

 special interests without regard for interests of other sections, it 

 is reasonably certain that the will to be one will be replaced by the 

 will to be two, or three." 



Col. H. C. Osbourne, of Ottawa, Canada, spoke briefly -of the 

 need of unity between people of the United States and Canada. 



McCreight Urges Kail Wage Cut 



C. V. McCreight, chairman of the legislative committee, in 

 his report outlined the various difficulties facing the lumber indus- 

 try, citing, first of all, the need of further cuts in railroad wages 

 which he declared to be essential before a cut in freight rates 

 could be expected. 



J. W. McCIure, retiring president 



and other citizens to 



"The next prolilem of importance, and, in fact, one that is ob- 

 structing business progress, is the mining situation," reported Mr. 

 McCreight. "Coal miners are refusing to accept a cut to become 

 effective April 1. This, of course, is a waste of effort on their part 

 because costs of mining coal must be reduced. The present wage 

 scale is 87 cents per ton with union operators, and 51 cents per ton 

 at non-union mines, consequently, it is evident that retrenchment 

 is necessary. " 



Mr. McCreight called upon the present 

 administration to live up to its pledge of 

 "less government in business and attend to 

 the business of the government," in urging 

 members of the association to vigorously 

 oppose the Freylinghuysen Bill to stabilize 

 the coal industry. 



"This bill violates the constitutional 

 guarantee against unreasonable search and 

 seizure," said Mr. McCreight. 



' ' It makes possible the publication of pri- 

 vate affairs; it provides for the examination 

 of the correspondence of employees of any 

 person or factory consuming more than 100 

 tons of coal per year; it will entail upon the 

 national Government great expense in the 

 building up of a new bureau, and, by its 

 terms, it is merely the forerunner for regu- 

 latory legislation with reference to the coal 

 business; and it establishes a precedent for 

 similar legislation involving other private 

 business of the United States." 



The legislation committee again went on 

 record as opposed to bonus legislation which 

 it declared to be a "waste of public 

 money," while favoring "laws which will give prompt and ade- 

 i|uate relief to its injured veterans." 



Taylor Hajidles Forestry Question 



Horace F. Taylor presented the views of the association on for- 

 estry legislation. He declared the association approved of "a sound 

 national forestry policy as soon as such a policy can be framed 

 upon lines that are generally accepted as truly economic for the 

 present and for the future lasting benefit of the American people, 

 and at the same time without disregard of the property rights of 

 citizens insured to them by the Constitution-rights which should 

 by no means be looked upon as of material advantage only, but 

 whose fundamental nature has made them intrinsic in the develop- 

 ment of American character." 



Dodd Talks on Distribution 



Any improvement in distributive methods will have as its ulti- 

 mate result the elimination of waste, in the opinion of Alvin E. 

 Dodd, manager of the Domestic Distribution Department of the 

 United States Chamber of Commerce, as expressed before the 

 convention the afternoon of March 23. 



Mr. Dodd explained that his department is making a study of 

 the waste in distribution and in doing so has outlined "seven ques- 

 tions," not unlike the seven deadly sins, which must be answered 



