34 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 10, 1917 



PITTSBURGH >.. 



$4,051,000 in the corresponding period of 1916. Not much hope is held 

 out that June will exceed the record of a year ago, for building then was 

 on an unusually active scale. The carpenters' strike is still on here, 

 though some of the men have returned to work. Dwelling-house construc- 

 tion is not so active as that in the extension of factories, quite a number 

 of which are enlarging, 



< 



The Frampton-Foster Lumber Comjiany has buyers in hardwood dis- 

 tricts of Tennessee, Arkansas and other southern states looking out for 

 small lots of hardwood lumber or tracts of hardwood timber which can be 

 bought. The company is not quoting except to old customers. 



The Standard Car Construction Company, one of the big buyers of 

 hardwood in this district, let contract last week to M'cClintic-Marshall Con- 

 struction Company of Pittsburgh, tor shop 200x122 at Masury, Pa. The 

 Greenville Car Company, Greenville, Pa., another big buyer of lumber, 

 secured the contract last week for 1,500 cars for the Union Railroad 

 Company. 



J. N. WooUett, president of the Aberdeen Lumber Company, returned a 

 few days ago from a long trip through the Southwest. He found many 

 mills shut down because of no cars and shortage of labor. Mr. Woollett 

 predicts a bigger car shortage this fall than this country has ever seen 

 and says that deliveries of hardwood from the Southwest will be hard in 

 proportion. 



The United Lumber Company sold to the Schofield Lumber Company of 

 Philadelphia mills and lumber valued at $75,000 in the Somerset, Pa., 

 region last month. The Schofield concern has also bought other virgin 

 tracts of hardwood nearby to cut off soon. 



The American Manganese Company is planting 12,000 rapid hardwood 

 growers at Dunbar, Pa., to make mine and pit timber in the near future. 

 The conservation of hardwood timber of all kinds in the coke region is 

 receiving much attention this year. 



The Fairchance Lumber Company, with mills at Falrchance, Pa., has 

 opened offices in the new Union Arcade building in this city, and is 

 making a specialty of furnishing knock down houses particularly for 

 mining companies. 



Building permits in Pittsburgh last month amounted to $1,433,4.32, as 

 compared with $1,094,109 in April of this year and $1,120,675 in May of 

 last year. 



The American Lumber and Manufacturing Company finds more business 

 than it can get shipped on time. Its salesmen now have Instructions to 

 submit every order received to the officials of the company for approval 

 before it is finally placed on the books. 



The Universal Lumber Company reports the best business in its history 

 in May when its sales amounted to about seventy-five cars. Wm. Lichen- 

 stuhl of this company is going South this week on a honeymoon trip which 

 will include a careful survey at hardwood manufacturing [Hiints. 



=-< BOSTON >•- 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Wholesale Lumber Association, Inc. 

 held at Boston, May 24. the president of that organization, together with 

 M. E. Philbrick, president of the Lumber Trade Club of Boston, W. A. 

 Fuller, president of the Massachusetts Lumber Dealers' Association, F. B. 

 Cutler and Wm. E. Litchfield of Boston, were designated a special com- 

 mittee of the trade of the state to influence lumbermen to become active 

 agents tor the liberty loan. This committee has proceeded with the work 

 along intensive lines and shows evidence of a great degree oi success 

 throughout the trade of the state. An amendment to the by-laws was 

 adopted providing for associate or non-resident membership which is con- 

 sidered an important step In centralizing the Influence of the wholesale 

 trade of all New England. Gardner L Jones and J. J. Tully, who are 

 representing this association on the ITold and Diversion case, were In- 

 structed to continue their efforts to retain transit privileges for this section 

 of the country with reasonable charges therefor, and it is their intention 

 to make a strong presentation of the needs of the wholesale lumber trade 

 here at both the Chicago and Washington hearings In June. 



The new mill at Anson, Me., owned by Everett Preble, has recently been 

 destroyed by fire. 



Proceedings against the Buttrick Lumber Company of Waltham, Mass., 

 have been instituted alleging bankruptcy. The company had recently been 

 placed in the hands of a receiver and a compromise offer is to be made 

 to the creditors who comprise a large number of the wholesale and mill 

 trade. 



=-< COLUMBUS >- 



The club rooms of the Cnlumbus Lumbermen's Club were formally opened 

 June 2 by a housewarming, which brought about seventy-five lumbermen 

 together. The rooms are located on the top floor of the Joyce building and 

 have been especially fitted up tor the use of the lumbermen. It is planned 

 to serve noon luncheons, which will bring the members of the trade 

 together. At the business meeting a committee consisting of John R. 

 Gobey, Edward C. Callanan, W. L. Whitacre and Seymour H. Brown was 

 named to solicit members among the lumbermen not already identified with 

 the club. According to the constitution there are active and associate 

 members. Active members consist of firms In the wholesale and retail 

 trad« or traveling men, who make their headquarters at Columbus. Other 

 lumbermen are Included in the associate membership list. 



Frame consti'uction promises to receive a great impetus as the result of 

 the campaign of the housing committee of the Cleveland Chamber of 

 Commerce to improve housing conditions, which are admitted to be serious. 

 Every effort is being made to bring out capital and arouse interest in the 

 erection of dwellings of all kinds, in order that the housing facilities may 

 keep pace with the phenomenal growth'of the city. Southern negroes are 

 among the incoming laboring classes which find it difficult to secure 

 quarters. Similar conditions hold throughout the industrial cities of 

 northern Ohio. 



The H. Leet Lumber Company, Portsmouth, has increased its capital 

 stock from $110,000 to $170,000. The Increase is to take care of the firm's 

 rapidly growing business. . It recently made a $25,000 addition to its plant 

 here and the company now maintains a buying agenc.v in the South, with 

 prosperous branches at Peebles, Sciotoville and Wheelersburg. 



The Western Lumber Company, Columbus, has increased its capital 

 stock from $75,000 to $150,000. 



Ash & Wiley of Bryan, Ohio, have been succeeded by O. H. Wiley. 



A meeting of the thirty-two district chairmen of the Ohio Builders' 

 Supply Association is scheduled to be held in Columbus, June 20, in order 

 to discuss plans for the coming summer's work. Practically all of the 

 districts in the Buckeye state have been organized by H. S. Gaines, 

 assistant to the president of the organization, and all are now ready to 

 go ahead with their summer campaign. 



The Mansfield Builders' Exchange of Mansfield, Ohio, was organized here 

 May 28 at a meeting which was attended by fifty-two material dealers, 

 lumbermen and members of other building trades. H. S. Gaines, assistant 

 to the president of the Ohio Builders' Supply .Association, was present to 

 aid in the organization. •Officers elected were J. C. Kemble, president ; 

 V. R. Brown, vice-president ; V. D'. Wolf, secretary, and Clarence Small, 

 treasurer. The board of directors consists of the officers and W. Lee Cotter, 

 F. C. Small, R. M. Schell and August Kallmertein. 



H. D. Brasher of the IT. D. Brasher Lumber Company has closed a deal 

 for the purchase of considerable timberland and a planing mill at Acker- 

 man, Miss., which is now being organized under .the name of the Choctaw 

 Lumber Company. Interested in the company are E. G. Dillow and H. B. 

 Walker, who arc connected with the Brasher company, and George W. 

 I.,uke of Ackerman, who will be local manager of the concern. Extensive 

 plans for development of the property are now being outlined. 



R. W. Horton of the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company reports a strong 

 demand for hardwoods with prices advancing every few days. Buying is 

 about equally distributed between retailers and factories. Shipments are 

 coming in better, especially from certain mills. Premiums are offered for 

 immediate shipment. 



=■< BALTIMORE >-= 



The report of the foreign traile in lumber and logs for Baltimore shows 

 no change from the conditions that have prevailed for some time. The 

 narrowing tendency in the shipments has not yet been arrested, and the 

 volume of Itusiness is being reduced more and more, with a prospect that 

 eventually the shipments will be confined to only a tew items. One of 

 the striking feathrcs of the statement for the month is the complete 

 absence of oak boards, together with oak l'>gs. while tlie forwardings of 

 white pine, along with poplar, were small. WU other boards" also took 

 a slump, amounting to not more than 6,000 feet, with "all other manu- 

 factures of wood" likewise held down to insignificant proportions. The one 

 division that shows a very considerable gain as compared with the same 

 month of last .year is spruce, of which wood 752,000 feet was shipped 

 against only 235,000 feet a year ago. Of course, it is generally known 

 that spruce finds use in large quantities for the construction of aeroplanes, 

 so that the demand keeps up regardless of the price. The total declared 

 value of the exports for .Vpril was not quite $2,000 less than for the same 

 month of Kllfi, but when due allowance is made for the fact that the 

 single item of spruce makes up two-thirds of the entire shipments, it can 

 readily be seen to what extent the war has worked to curtail the foreign 

 business. 



Messrs. N'elson C. Brown. John R. Walker. Roger E. Simmons and A. II. 

 Oxholm, the four commissioners named to visit Europe and study lumber 

 trade conditions there with a view of stimulating exports from the United 

 States, especially after the war, are expected to visit Baltimore, though 

 the date of their arrival here has not yet been decided. Harvey M. 

 Dickson, secretary of the National Lumber Exporters' Association, recently 

 had a talk with some of them in Washington, when he was at the capita! 

 to attend the railroad rate hearing, and obtained a promise that they would 

 come, probably some time near the end of their itinerary through the 

 United States, and just before their departure for Europe. A program for 

 the formal reception of the visitors will be arranged and members of the 

 trade here will prepare to give them all the assistance tbey can in the way 

 of information and suggestions. 



The Weyerhaeuser Timber Company of Taooma. Wash., has purchased 

 some fifty acres of the old Quarantine grounds, just outside of the city, 

 on the .Vnne Arundel side of the Patapsco river, and intends to establish 

 there a large distributing yard for l*acific coast woods. The company 

 regards the conditions as favorable to a far greater business in western 

 woods In the East than has been made heretofore, and after an Inspection 

 of various sites in other cities, decided to locate in Baltimore. Extensive 

 stocks will be carried here for shipment to all parts of the country east 



