May lU. J'JIT 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



abutments that assisted the Tallahatchie on its roving tour and got 

 all over this land. There was a lot of water — sure thing! And the 

 picture printed on another page is a true photograph of practically 

 all of the logging country in Mississippi, Arkansas and even along 

 the Mississippi where the levees broke loose, and as it contributes so 

 largely to the high cost of living and present price of gum and oak, it 

 will be brought to your mind when they tell you that they haven't any 

 flying machines and can't get logs out, and have to shut down the 

 mills. Tlieu you will understand that the.y are telling the truth. No 

 matter where they write from, so long as it is in the Mississippi valley. 

 Of a Sunday Morn 



Ordinarily when you visit a sawmill shut down especially on a 

 Sunday, you feel very peaceful, like going to church. When I arrived 

 in Charleston I found that the folks were visiting church (I suppose 

 this was a belated call, being two weeks after Easter, but I suppose it 

 served all right as an irregular attendance, even if he was two weeks 

 late). It was a sunny day and what pleased me then and since is that 

 it started to sop up the rivers and the overflow, because spring was 

 about a month late and the budding trees soaked up a lot of water. 

 The big mill of the Lamb-Fish Lumber Company was dead still all 

 right, but it had run for about nine months, two shifts, and needed 

 some repairs, but was quiet too long to suit General Manager Burke, 

 and therefore he joined me in the hope that the retreat of the high 

 water would soon give them all the logs they wanted. We looked 

 out over the yard and there were 22,000,000 feet, of gum and oak 

 largely. There were also a few piles of surplus logs around there, 

 some to go to the box factory and most of it to the sawmill. 

 Dolly Some Animal 



There was an electric dolly sleeping away the Sunday, and I was 



reminded that that is really a new feature in handling lumber. It 's 

 economical, it was made by my old friend the Covel Manufacturing 

 Company of Benton Harbor, Mich., and has been used in some of the 

 plants on the Coast but never in the south-country before. Its appear- 

 ance at Charleston was responsible for cutting off live mules and eight 

 men from the payroll, and was operated bj' one man. It ran right 

 over the top of a pile of lumber and delivered it to the sorting tables, 

 to the yard, or from the yard to the car. It wiU handle 100,000 feet 

 a day if you work it regularly. It isn't very hard on the alleyways 

 either. It fits in pretty well when they start to move all the negroes 

 to the North, and you find it hard to make up a good yard crew, keep 

 them on the job and handle liunber for twenty-five cents a thousand. 

 A cut of this machine accompanies this story. 



Between the ninth and eleventh hole I had a little talk with L. P. 

 DuBose, the sales manager, who admitted that his order pile was so 

 overflowing that the stock was not even normal, considering the fact 

 that the}- had been running night and day, ears were scarce and people 

 wanted to buv everything he had for immediate delivery. I talked 

 with Walter Burke about the high price of living and he said : "If 

 anybody doubts that it costs more to fire your engines and keep the 

 logs at the mill, if you wUl just take the increased price of coal (which 

 amounts to about sixty per cent on fifteen carloads a month) and you 

 take the increased cost of feed for cattle, the advanced prices of 

 men, and their cost to keep, you wiU be persuaded that these increases 

 in cost don't fly to the North only, but the Southland has troubles 

 of its own. If anybody can figure it out that southern manufac- 

 turers are paying less than thirty-three per cent more to get logs on 

 the deck of the mill, we would like to get acquainted with them. We 

 need a few pointers. " E. H. Defebaugh. 



^ TOJ^^WKgt^^roig^CMIiTOty'^^ 



Queries on questions arisini; on any points inrolying the law as it is applied to lumhering and allied industries will he given proper expert 

 attention througli this department if submitled to Hardwood Recced. There trill be no charge for such service, but Hardwood Record 

 ••eserves the right to publish questions and answers tcithout designating names or location of inquiries unless specifically requested not to do so. 



Invalid Contract with Favored Shipper 



An agreement by a railway company to lease a tract of land adja 

 cent to its right-of-way to a manufacturing company for twenty years, 

 without payment of any rental, although the land was worth $300 

 a year, the principal consideration for the lease being the manufac- 

 turing company 's agreement to ship all of its freight possible over 

 the particular railroad, is invalid as giving the compan.v an advan- 

 tage over other shippers in violation of the Interstate Commerce act. 

 (United States circuit court of appeals, fifth circuit; Central of 

 Georgia Eailway Company vs. Blount, 238 Federal Eeporter, 292.) 



Contributory Negligence of Machinery Operator 

 A hood on a planing machine in a lumber mill was intended for 

 the sole purpose of catching flying particles of wood. A piece had 

 been broken from it in such a way that there was an aperture in it. 

 Plaintiff, an operator of the machine and an experienced workman, 

 put his hand into the aperture to remove a piece of board which had 

 become caught. His dangling sleeve caught on a revolving set screw, 

 resulting in injury to his hand. Held, that plaintiff's own gross care- 

 lessness, and not any negligence of the employer in permitting the hood 

 to remain unrepaired, was the direct cause of the accident, and that 

 therefore plaintiff is not entitled to recover damages. (Louisiana 

 supreme court, Tarver vs. Natalbany Lumber Company, 74 Southern 

 Reporter, 111.) 



Judicial Control Over Freight Rates 

 Lumber manufacturers who are largely dependent upon a given 

 railroad as a means of transporting necessary logs have such interest 

 in rates fixed by the Interstate Conmierce Commission for the carriage 

 of such freight as to be entitled to enjoin enforcement of the com- 

 mission's order if it can be shown to be unjust. But if there is 

 ample evidence to sustain the reasonableness of an order of the com- 

 mission increasing a rate, the courts are powerless to disturb it. In 



fixing a rate, the welfare of shippers is to be considered, but a rea- 

 sonable rate will not be overthrown merely because its establishment 

 over a pre-existing lower rate may result injuriously to shippers. 

 (United States district court, eastern district of Tennessee; McLean 

 Lumber Company vs. United States; 237 Federal Eeporter, 460.) 



Conclusiveness of Note Given in Settlement 



When one who is indebted on account of lumber delivered gives a 

 note for the amount claimed by the seller to be due, after considerable 

 negotiations concerning the correctness of the seller 's bill, the giving 

 of the note, if not properly treated as an admission of the correctness 

 of the amount claimed, at least places the burden on the buyer to 

 show that he did not receive all the lumber charged to him. Under 

 such a settlement, the buyer is not entitled to afterwards claim that 

 the note was given a verbal understanding that the seller would ad- 

 just a claim for shortage in delivery of lumber when the buyer should 

 be read.v to pay the note. (California district court of appeal. Con- 

 solidated Lumber Co. vs. Frew, 162 Pacific Reporter, 430.) 



Mississippi Child Labor Law 



The Mississippi statute which limits the age of children who may 

 be employed in operating dangerous machinery does not apply to a 

 minor employed to sweep shavings, etc., out of planing mill. (Missis- 

 sippi supreme court, Bledsoe vs. Bostic Lumber & Manufacturing 

 Company, 73- Southern Reporter, 881.) 



Buyer's Duty to Accept Delivery 



Where a contract for manufacture of timber products required the 

 seller to complete delivery within one year, there was a reciprocal duty 

 on the part of the buyer to accept deliveries as rapidl,y as tendered. 

 (Arkansas supreme court, C. E. Ferguson Sawmill Company vs. 

 Ehynes, 191 Southwestern Reporter, 920.) 



