June 25, 1917 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



31 



Panel Manufacturers Meet 



A Number of Excellent Papers Prepared by Specialists — The Re- 

 organization Work. 



W 



gp^ N JUNE 1 2 AND 1 3. at the Auditorium hotel in 

 Chicago, was held the semi-annual meeting of 

 the National Veneer and Panel Manufacturers 

 Association. F. A. Marshall was chairman and 

 Howard S. Young, secretary. 



The plan for reorganizing the association came up for 

 consideration. At the December meeting a committee 

 had been appointed to take the reorganization in hand, 

 but the report of that committee did not indicate that 

 progress had been wholly satisfactory, whereupon an- 

 other committee was named to report at the next meeting. 

 This committee is expected to secure signatures to the 

 proposed plea for reorganization. The members of the 

 new committee are: E. E. Hemingway, Mattoon, Wis.; 

 H. B. Sale, Fort Wayne, Ind. ; B. W. Lord, Chicago, and 

 E. V. Knight, New Albany, Ind. 



The report of Treasurer E. H. Defebaugh showed the 

 cash on hand last December and receipts since total 

 $1,863.58; disbursements, $1,389.13; cash on hand, 

 $474.45; accounts receivable, $537.50. 



Trade Acceptances 



Close attention was paid to an address on "Trade 

 Acceptances," by Clark Washburn of the Federal Re- 

 serve Bank of Chicago. This new kind of commercial 

 paper has met the approval of financiers and is gaining a 

 foothold in the country's business transactions. The 

 paper is much like a draft, but it has certain points of 

 difference. The seller draws an order on the buyer for 

 the amount of the purchase, payable at a specified future 

 date, and the buyer accepts the order, and it then be- 

 comes negotiable. Banks will discount it, and both the 

 buyer and the seller become responsible for its pay- 

 ment. In that respect it is the same as a promissory 

 note. It differs, however, from a promissory note in that 

 the acceptance represents actual merchandise, some- 

 thing in existence that may be sold and turned into 

 money; but a promissory note may represent something 

 dead and gone. A draft or a promissory note might be 

 regarded by a bank as a deferred or overdue obligation; 

 but a trade acceptance is not so regarded by a bank. A 

 trade acceptance should run longer than thirty days, 

 otherwise it is not worth while. The rate of discount 

 charged by a bank depends upon time and place. It is 

 not fixed by any rule or custom. The legal and approved 

 form of a trade acceptance has been determined by a 

 ruling of the Federal Reserve Bank board at Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



Questions asked by manufacturers for the purpose of 

 bringing out certain points more freely showed that much 

 interest was taken in the matter. 



Work of Associations 



A carefully arranged paper had been prepared by 

 R. S. Kellogg, secretary of the National Lumber Manu- 

 facturers' Association, on the value and scope of associa- 

 tion work; but Mr. Kellogg had been called out of the city 

 and the paper was read by Secretary Young. 



Mr. Kellogg insists that an association's activities are 

 naturally divided into two parts, primary and secondary. 

 TTie primary activities include standardization, statistics, 

 traffic and legislation; and the secondary activities include 

 publicity, research, insurance, credits and co-operation. 

 These various parts are expected to work in harmony 

 and without conflict. 



Methods Followed by Elxporters 



J. H. Faunce of Philadelphia, whose business is a 

 freight contractor for export shipment, addressed the 

 association on the subject of exporting. 



He restricted his remarks to an account of how ship- 

 ments are made, particularly to the proper preparation 

 of the documents to conform to the various and com- 

 plicated rules and regulations governing shipments to 

 foreign countries. So many matters have to be strictly 

 watched, so many minute details must be observed, that 

 a person without experience would become hopelessly 

 involved in details, if left to his own resources. 



It is customary for the shipper to sell according to a 

 document known as c. i. f. That means that he pays 

 cost, insurance and freight, and delivers the article in the 

 foreign port at his own expense. It is different from 

 railroad shipments, for the railroad must pay for the 

 goods, if lost, but a vessel in foreign trade does not 

 assume that risk. The seller pays freight and insurance, 

 and includes them in the price quoted to the buyer. 



A paper dealing with the history of veneer making was 

 read by John C. McCauslan, of the Henry Disston ^ 

 Sons saw works, Philadelphia. A complete summary of 

 this paper appears elsewhere in this issue. 



Hand Labor eind Machines 



Machines have not yet relieved hand labor of its 

 burden to the extent that they ought to is the opinion of 

 William B. Axford, an efficiency engineer, Madison, 

 N. J. He read a paper comparing machinery and human 

 hands in factory work, particularly in the veneer mill. 

 He said that no two veneer mills are built and equipped 

 alike, there being no fixed standard. For that reason 

 each mill must figure out for itself how it can best sub- 

 stitute machines for hand labor. There are nearly always 

 ways for doing this, but often the change is small and the 

 owner is apt to think it is scarcely worth bothering with, 



