24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



March 25. 1922 



W. H. Schuette. President 



W. W. Schupner, Secretary 



C. A. Goodman, Vice-President 



before the solution of the problem is found. The questions are: 



"What are the stocks of certain selected commodities produced 

 in each month of the year, by quantity? 



"What are those stocks in suspension at the end of each month, 

 by quantity? 



"What are those stocks which enter into consumption each 

 month, by quantity? 



"What is the average received by the producer for each selected 

 commodity each month? 



"What is the average price paid by the retailer for each of those 

 commodities each months? 



"What is the average paid by the consumer for each of those 

 commodities each month? 



"What is the ratio between expenses and profits in each spread 

 each month? 



"There is at present no answer to any of these questions, except 

 in a very few commodities, which can be relied upon as even ap- 

 proximately correct; and even in those few the answ^ers are open 

 to more or less doubt. Yet every one of these answers is of vital 

 importance to business men who cannot expect stabilization in any 

 material respect until the answers have been secured and their 

 significance understood. 



"Little imagination is needed to know whiit benefits will accrue 

 when the manufacturers of rubber boots can look at a chart which 

 shows them the quantities produced, the prices paid and the quanti- 

 ties consumed each month for a period of years. And what is true 

 of the manufacturers of the rubber boots industry is true of every 

 other industry in the country. 



"It is the only effective guide to balanced production and dis- 

 tribution. It is the only means for accomplishing constant produc- 

 tion and uninterrupted employment. Its results would be felt by 

 every human being in the country from the individual owner of 

 the largest factory down to the humblest workman in the field." 



Congressman Fordney Speaks 



Eepresentative Joseph W. Fordney of Michigan, making a plea 

 for peace and international unity, declared that more money was 

 spent during the war by this government than was expended by 

 the nation throughout its whole history before the declaration of 

 war. 



Dr. Wilson Compton, secretary manager of the association, out- 

 lined the jilan of organization and purpose of the American Lumber 

 Congress, which will meet in Chicago April 6 and 7, in an address 

 before the convention. Dr. Compton said: 



"The American Lumber Congress was organized three years ago 



and was intended to be an instrument for aggressive cooperation 

 among all elements of the lumber industry. It has held to these 

 principles and will continue to make defense against the competi- 

 tion of those who seek to take awa.v from the lumberman the mar- 

 ket to which he is fairly entitled. 



"Perhaps there is an impression among many people that the 

 lumber congress was an effort of the lumber manufacturers to cre- 

 ate an organization for their own ulterior purposes, to utilize the 

 moral standing and prestige of all lumbermen for the purpose of 

 picking out of the fire the chestnuts in which the manufacturers 

 were most interested. That idea is wholly erroneous. So far as 

 the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association is concerned the 

 Lumber Congress is not organized to put a gold wreath around 

 the brow of the Manufacturer, but is an effort to avoid the necessity 

 for manufacturers, the dealers — both wholesalers and retailers — 

 placing a laurel wreath at the foot of the Tombstone. I wish to 

 reassert that the lumber manufacturers have no special interest 

 whatever in the Lumber Congress and so far as I personally am 

 concerned — and I can speak perhaps with greater authority for my 

 own views than those of any others — I believe in the Lumber Con- 

 gress, I believe in the idea, I believe there should be some organ- 

 ized means for joining together for common purposes, in the asser- 

 tion of common interests, of all those in the lumber industry who 

 wish to participate in such a movement. And I believe also that 

 this Lumber Congress should be made available to all lumbermen 

 on equal terms." 



Dr. Compton then specified the method of representation in the 

 American Lumber Congress, pointing out that every organization 

 in the lumber industry, every organization that is state, national, 

 or regional in its scope may, if it pleases, appoint delegates to at- 

 tend and participate in this Lumber Congress. The doors will be 

 open to lumbermen to discuss common problems which will be laid 

 before them, and at the close of these deliberations the congress 

 is to decide for itself whether or not the lumber trade, speaking 

 through its own voice, through its own chosen representatives, be- 

 lieves that the problems confronting it warrant its being made 

 permanent as now contemplated. In pointing out some of the ave- 

 nues of usefulness through which the American Lumber Congress 

 may profitably function. Dr. Compton said: "For instance, those 

 of you who are interested in transportation matters have no doubt 

 seen, when these matters of lumber freight rates are on before 

 the commission, or whatever body it may be, the spectacle of lum- 

 bermen, representing various parts of the industry, unable to com- 

 pose themselves sufficiently to get together on a constructive line 

 of testimony, denying each others associations, while the traffic 



