May 10, 1917 



THREE MILES FROM THE MIDDLE OF TALLAHATCHIE RIVER ON THE LANDS OF THE LAMB-FISH LUMBER COMPANY, CHARLESTON, MISS. 



Memphis, May 4, 1917. — The weather man having overslept this 

 spring, has delayed other things besides the planting of crops. One 

 of them is the receding of the water. Forty days ago the Mississippi 

 river was almost to the point of shutting down mills like May Brothers 

 in south Memphis, and it did close up fifty hardwood mills. This, to- 

 gether with scarcity of cars, made things rather discouraging, although 

 the order file was full and the possibility of getting all the orders 

 wanted at prices advancing day by day was very good. 



This is a peculiar condition and a disturbing one, illustrating what 

 water can do. In visiting the plant of the Lamb-Fish Lumber Com- 

 pany, Charleston, Miss., I found the plant had been shut down for 

 four weeks and while the stock of lumber was large because it had 

 been running full tilt last summer, and there were some logs on the 

 banks and a lot of them in the woods along the railroads, the logging 

 department was practically shut down. This is one reason why many 

 factories have wondered where they were at in getting stock. 



I made it my business to go down into the woods to see whether the 

 facts were any different in Mississippi than they were in Arkansas and 

 any way along the rivers in the Southland. I discovered the Talla- 

 hatchie river, for instance, three miles out of its banks and this prac- 

 tically closed down the Charleston plant. 



Logs Mighty Scarce Around Memphis 



I noticed that .John Dickson 's logging conijiany that supplies most 

 of the logs to the Memphis mills was embarrassed by the fact that 

 they could not get out a full quota of timber on account of high water 

 and that equipment was harder to get to supply the mills. I had the 

 opportunity of having a golf game with Mart Brown, who has mills 

 at Allport, Furth and Brasfield, Ark., and they were all shut down. 

 Why? High water, lack of cars and not being able to get even railroad 

 logs into the plant, therefore. Mart and I -went out and played golf 

 to hold up our chins as well as possible. I tried to make it interesting 

 for Mart, but had it not been for the fact that Roland Darnell is hav- 

 ing trouble of his own down in Mississippi, and playing rather a 



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mixed quality of golf, <\e could not have entertained Brown at all. 

 His mind was on the hope that the receding waters would get more 

 timber on the yards in order to fill the orders on hand and take ad- 

 vantage of the present juicy prices for gum. 



Must Know Costs in Veneer Manufacture 

 I then went out to see Robert Stimson at the Stimson Veneer & 

 Lumber Company, and found they were having the same ditficulty. 

 Plenty of logs down in Mississippi, but the waters were interfering 

 with getting them to the railroad and getting equipment enough to de- 

 liver them to their mill. The veneer plant was running — the sawmill 

 was shut down. There was a good stock of lumber on the yard but it 

 was largely sold and each day indicated orders for veneer and lumber 

 were theirs to take if they could give any kind of deliveries. Robert 

 was very much interested in the problem of getting everything out of 

 the log when you can get them, and his veneer plant indicated a sys- 

 tematic handling of stock that meant better utilization of timber. 

 Still in discussing the question of price of figured logs, he said, ' ' I do 

 not se^ how any one can figure there is any great money in the produc- 

 tion of a veneer plant when you consider the cost of special timber for 

 particular stock, the advanced price of logs, the waste, the handling 

 and assorting of material, preparation of panels, which means a lot 

 of detail and a lot of waste. Tlie man who does not carry the cost 

 sheet right through from the time the log is cut in the woods until 

 it is shipped oflf the platform in lumber, veneers or panels, is in some 

 trouble these days. ' ' Before taking everything into consideration, 

 the present prices are only in line with the cost of delivering goods at 

 a fair profit. The advances in the price of gum of $7 to $9 over pre- 

 vious prices are no more than just, because the cheap gum stumpage 

 of a few years ago is a thing of the past. 



E. Sondheimer Company Helps Cut High Cost of Living 



Half a block away on the Belt line I had the pleasure of being 

 welcomed in the new offices, of the E. Sondheimer Company. Some 

 office! It is attractive without and more than attractive within; the 



