May 25, 1917 



Impressions in the Hardwood Trade 



Derby Day 



It was Derby day; there was a large audience; Churchill Downs 

 was crowded with people. We sat back in the clubhouse and while in 

 conversation with Smith Milton, president of the Louisville Hardwood 

 Club, I was struck with the fact that the American people not- 

 withstanding the serious war conditions and the possible hereafter, 

 still looked with interest to see the result of the horseman's effort to 

 win an American Derby. And with Omar Kiayyam winning the 1917 

 Derby at Louisville, we were reminded of other war conditions inspir- 

 ing the character for which this Derby winner was named instead of 

 plain John Smith, who twelve months ago did the trick. 



The motley throng which was aujdous to invest in Paris mutuel tick- 

 ets in order to win a bet on tlie Derby included a member of President 

 Wilson's cabinet, who will counsel the recommendation of the purchase 

 of three billion feet of lumber, W. E. DeLaney of the Kentucky Lum- 

 ber Company, Lexington, Ky., and, by the way, over one bUlion feet 

 of that lumber will be hardwoods, when they complete those 500 boats 

 that Commodore Goethals will build. 



DeLaney had all the dope from Lexington, but we noticed that 

 either Doster of Atkins saw fame or Frank Fish of Chicago furnished 

 him the money to get to Lexington on the special train. 



Right in the center of the betting shed Bill Wilmot of the Lidger- 

 wood diplomacy was a bit backward about visiting the Paris mutuel 

 machines, but he was there in all his glory. 



One of the longest men of the 25,000 present was Charlie Barnaby 

 of Greencastle, Ind. That native son of Indiana seems to have as keen 

 an interest in Kentucky horse races as in the white oak that comes 

 from the mountains. 



W. B. Burke of Charleston, Miss., and the Mrs., who had been 

 spending a week at French Lick, came down for the day. The Mrs. 

 and Judge Charlie Price occupied the most prominent place near the 

 barrier. 



Doster, who was flitting around looking for special information, 

 asked Burke if he would like to split a ticket with him on the fourth 

 race. Somebody said, "Why, Lewis, that race was run thirty min- 

 utes ago. ' ' At that moment he decided he better keep a little closer 

 to Vice-President N. A. Gladding, giving him his first lesson in how 

 to lose a two-doUar bill at the race track. Their emblem AAA is right 

 at home on the grounds because the race horse that is ' ' always ahead ' ' 

 generally wins the money. 



Eddie Vestal of Knoxville, Teau., who had been in attendance at 

 the hardwood manufacturers' inspection meeting at Cincinnati, was 

 interested in seeing the horses run, although he spent only a few 

 hours at LouisvUle. Eddie had just as much fun mixing with the 

 fifteen manufacturers down at the yard of Mowbray & Robinson at 

 Cincinnati the day before determining what certain grades were. That 

 reminds me, if there is any bunch of lumbermen, including the boys 

 that inspect stock every day, that can agree on any one grade the same 

 day, it would be kind of refreshing. In fact, it would save a lot of 

 argument; the schools that have been in effect the last two or three 

 years have had good influence. It has made the man who gets out the 

 logs, saws the lumber, has to pay notes at the bank, etc., take a little 

 more interest in the manipulation of the log in order to meet the new 

 condition in the lumber trade. 



Graham Brown of the W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company does 

 not come to the track very often, although he lives in Louisville; he 

 said one of those true things he puts over once in a while the other day. 

 ' ' You know when you win this money you think it is worth ten times 

 as much as the ordinary dollar, but by the time the races are over it 

 has already disappeared and takes a piece tally to discover where it 

 has gone to." That brings out the observation to those of us who 

 have occasionally seen the ponies run and noticed the people that follow 

 them are happy, chipper and wearing new straw hats and good clothes 

 today, but next week have lost their hats and clotlies both and have 

 faces on them as long as the moral law. 



Claude Sears of the Edw. L. Davis Lumber Company, when a bunch 

 of visitors dropped in on him on Derby day morning, said, "Oh, I am 



—21c— 



too busy to sell you fellows anything, buy any lumber or do anything 

 else; this Derby fever catches the crew and everybody else — aU except 

 the ladies in the ofBce. A lot of plants shut down because it is easier 

 to operate the mill half a day with a fuU crew than a whole day with 

 half a crew." The Davis company was in the gunstock game. 

 DeLaney brought down some information from the mountains that 

 interested all of them. He said, ' ' I believe gum will make good butts 

 for rifles and in noticing the gun carried by the mountaineers I have 

 had it confirmed pretty generally that maple is also a good substitute 

 for walnut; it is illustrated by the fact that practically all the moun- 

 taineers in the Kentucky and Virginia country use maple gunstocks. 



Uncle Sam Wants Boats 



Clarence Mengel, president of the C. C. Mcngel & Bro. Company, 

 when asked about mahogany, said : ' ' Well, we are doing the best we 

 can; prices are high, logs are plentiful enough in Africa and South 

 America, but when the government requisitions one boat and tries to 

 convince you that shortly Uncle Sam wOl need the other boats, there 

 is a little uncertainty about getting logs to your mills in America. 

 After operating camps in these foreign climates for a few years, even 

 a catastrophe like taking your transportation facOities away from 

 you does not disturb you seriously, because it gets to be a habit — you 

 expect it. There is much uncertainty in the mahogany business — the 

 popularity of the wood, however, at this time and its place on the 

 map is quite an inspiration to overcome ditficulties of this character. 



Barry Norman of the Holly Ridge Lumber Company was very keen 

 to know what Uncle Sam 's requirements are when it comes to bolt 

 stock. He said, "In our Louisiana operations we have a true bunch 

 of timber and would take the best care of Uncle Sam's orders if he 

 honored us with a requisition. ' ' 



L. H. Wymond, the Poo-Bah of this company, spent a day or two at 

 the mUls, arriving home in time to get in just under the wire to see 

 the big Kentucky classic. 



Speaking about race horses, it is kind of hard on the Kentucky 

 boys racing running horses to have a trotting horse man from Chicago, 

 New York or everywhere come down with Omar Khayyam and take the 

 honors away from them. However, it would not be an American 

 Derby if Kentucky bred and owned horses always won the stake. 



Prosperous, But More Interest Would Help 



We sat for two or three hours at the weekly dinner of the lumber- 

 men's club under the guardianship of President Smith Milton. The 

 general discussion of economic and war conditions having a bearing on 

 the Louisville hardwood trade was very interesting; the one thought 

 that came out in the discussion was, "What is the matter with the 

 automobile business? Has the admonition of President Wilson to 

 economize had anything to do with decreasing the working force at the 

 Detroit factories?" Some one brought out the fact that the govern- 

 ment, owing to the necessity for building more steel boats, would 

 proliably requisition, if not take over entirely, some of the steel plants 

 that are catering particularly to that automobile trade, and then Tom 

 Christian of New Albany wanted to know if that would not reduce the 

 volume of business in the automobUe trade, which, by the way, has been 

 very large in volume and good in price for a year or more. Christian 

 is sales manager of the McLean interests. Will McLean of that com- 

 pany has been away on a business trip and did not turn up at the 

 'meeting, although it was a good meeting; a lot of youngsters on the 

 job. 



When I only saw half a crew at that dinner, I was reminded of that 

 $10 fine that was slipped in about twelve years ago when this club's 

 constitution was written, requiring payment of $10 by any firm that 

 missed connections and did not come out to the meetings. It is about 

 time that kind of a rule was put back and added to some associations 

 which have a lot of backsliding members who pay their dues but do 

 not do anything to help push the work along. 



Old faitliful Mart Brown of the W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Com- 

 pany was not present, but he had an excuse ; he was down visiting the 

 mills in Arkansas and Alabama. 



