September 10, 1917 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



37 



margin. Sawmills report tlie cutting of about 900,000 feet of doawood 

 yearly ; but factories — chiefly shuttle factories — -use 7,518,000 feet. 



The difference in persimmon, compared in the same way, is about; nci 

 per cent, between the sawmill report of lumber cut and the use reported 

 . b.v factories. 



The ditference is about 40 per cent when the factory use and the saw- 

 mill output of Osage orange are considered. 



Exact figures for .southern red cedar are not obtainable, since sawmill 

 statistics do not give this wood separately but lump it in with all the 

 other cedars. "It is linown. however, that a large quantity of southern 

 red cedar goes to pencil factories without passing through sawmills. 

 Pencil makers take between 25.000,000 and .'50,000.000 feet a year. 

 and very little of it Is ever inside a sawmill, hut the factory works it 

 from log to pencils, or one factory makes the slats and another finishes 

 the pencils. 



Agitators as Military Prisoners 



Kleven members of the I. ^^'. W.. who were arrested while organizing 

 strikes among lumbermen and other workmen in Washington and Idaho, 

 are held as military prisoners by tbc I'Vderal authorities. The arrest 

 of these men nipped in the hud tbc threatened strike. Habeas corpus 

 proceedings have been commenced by friends of the prisoners who seek 

 the release of the agitators. 



Economizing Matches 



A match is a small article. h\it war economy has struck it. In England 

 a man may no longer use as many matches as he is willing to buy. 

 The distribution is regulated, and trade papers over there have published 

 the discovery that a person does not really need many matches, and 

 the suggestion has been made that people once got along without matches 

 .■md c:iii dii it again if necessary. 



"Clipped" from Chicago Tribune— B.L.T.S Column 



The W.ii; i.v Illixoi.s 

 ( Erom the rarlinvillo Enquirer.) 

 II. t'ope of East St. Louis is here buying up walnut logs from those who 

 have any to sell and shipping them to East St. Louis to be made into gun 

 stocks and other useful articles af household use. 



Lumberman in Controversy on Prohibition 



The following rather startling correspondence is the outgrowth of the 

 suggestion recently made by liquor interests that part of the revenue 

 lost by the National Government thnmgb the passage of prohibition laws 

 be mailc up liy imposing a tax of ~>0 cents per M on lumber, a move that 

 would "aft'ect practically all of the prohibition states and the probiliitionists 

 who have been so active against the liquor trade." 



This suggestion was contained in a letter to a memlier of the (ium Lum- 

 ber Manufacturers' .\ssociation. written liy the Charles Boldt Company, 

 manufacturer of bottles and supplies for the liquor trade, with head- 

 quarters at Cincinnati, with the cxjiressed conviction that there were 

 good chances that the suggesti(m might be adopted. This letter was 

 sent to all meyibers of the association by its secretary and in due cimrse. 

 under date of August IG, it was answered as follows by W. II. Itussc. 

 president of Uusse & Burgess. Inc.. of Memphis : 



While we doubt that lumber manufacturers as a whole have been in 

 favor of prohibition, yet the whisky business with its affiliations has 

 always done .lust what you want to do — punish the otbfr man for not 

 believing in your line of trade. I'rohibition has been lu-ought about by 

 the whisky interests themselves because they obeyed no law and recognized 

 no authority. Eor this reason the vast majority of the people in this 

 country have felt that it was time to call a halt. \Miile the writer has 

 never been i prohibitionist nor in favor of prohibition laws, he has come 

 to the conclusion that it is time the whisky element should he taught that. 

 when it comes to law or whisky, law is preferable to even the man who 

 takes his daily toddy. 



Then followed a further interchange of letters between Kusse & Burgess, 

 Inc., and the Charles Boldt Company, but the real animus is disclosed 

 in the following letter, written by .loseph Ilebar, president of the National 

 Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association of ,\merica and inspired by the let- 

 ter of Mr. Itusse to the Charles lioldt Company under date of .\ugust IG, 

 as already quoted : 



I am in receipt from the Charles lioldt Company of a letter addressed 

 by you to them of .Vugust Hi. I iiresume they sent it to us just to let us 

 see what von were like. 



It is refreshing to see the hardwood lumber people rising in the might 

 of their virtue and reading letters of submission to law to other people. 



When my grandfather died he was the owner of :21,ii()0 acres of timber 

 land in AVest Virginia. The virtuous lumber people of this country did not 

 hesitate to buy the timber off these lands when many of them knew per- 

 fectlv well that it was stolen. «1ien some of them were threatened for 

 buying this stolen property, they were careful to obliterate any identifica- 

 tion markings. 



I have never had a very exalte<l idea of lumber people since but per- 

 haps 1 am wrong in judging all lumber people by the thieves who robbed 

 my grandfather's estate. In like manner you are equally wrong in dis- 

 cussing the distilling interests of the country, concerning whom ycai evi- 

 dently know nothing, by some of the rotten saloons you have had in 

 Memphis. 



The liquor business is very much like the lumber Imsiness. It is exactly 

 what the people engaged in' it make it. Memphis for some years has en- 

 joyed the highest rate for homicides of any city in the United .States. 

 Whether this is due to disreputable lumber people in Memphis who patronize 

 disreputable saloons or whether it was due to disreputable liquor dealers 

 who were willing to sell disreputable lumbermen, I have no means of- 

 knowing. 



I am always sorrv to see letters of the character you wrote the Charles 

 Boldt Companv because it indicates specific ignorance of a subject con- 

 cerning which men of vour commercial standing ought to be better in- 



fnrmerl Hotels, bakeries, meat markets and stores generally are precisely 

 what tlicir patrons make them. If you have had rotten liquor conilitions iii 

 -ueiiipius. It IS becausi' you have had rotten and disreputable people in 

 your community who sustained them. Reputable peopb' do not patronize 

 a disreputable dram shop; consequently your house cleaning should begin 

 at liome. I think it is a good axiom in this countrv for men to look well 

 at their own door step before they start in to clean up their neighbor's 



-Vs I have no personal acquaintance with you and write to von only at 

 the suggestion of the Charles Boldt Companv. von will nnderstaiid that I 

 am addressing you as one of a class and not as an individual. It is 

 marvelous bow many reformers we have in various lines of business none 

 ot whom seem to realize that stealing an unmarked log is wrong but many 

 ot whom have a rare faculty for pursuing the demon rum. 



u ith kindest regards and no ill feelings, etc., 



To this letter .Mr. Busse. writing as president of Itusse & Burgess, Inc.. 

 has sent the following reply : 



Your letter of the 21st has been received and read with a grrnt deal 

 of interest. 



There is one clause in your letter that covers the entire situation and 

 that sums up the whole controversy in a nut shell. You say : 



"The liquor business is very much like the lumber business. It is 

 exactly what the people engaged in it make it." 



The people epgaged in the liquor business have made it so obnoxious 

 that the whole country will soon do away with it entirely. Further com- 

 ment is unnecessary. 



Xo answer to this last communication has been received from Mr. Debar 

 up to this writing. 



Hardwood ^ews iSJotes 



■< MISCELLANEOUS >.- 



The Xorthwesti'rii Cabiio't I'niiipauy has liei'O im iirporated at Jli-nomo- 

 nie. Wis., by William .\. .lolinson, F. L. Ilinman and Frank Dassow. The 

 capital is iflO.OOO. 



-Vmong other recent incorporations are the following : Bay State Counter 

 Company, Portland, Me., capital .$10,000; the Eeileral Box Company. San 

 Diego, Cal.. capitalized at .f25,000 ; the Glenn Lumber Comiiany. Logan.s- 

 port. La., with a capitalization of .$10,000; the Cotton States Wagon Com- 

 pany. Cliarlottc, N. C. with .$50,000 capital: the Eastman. Gardiner Hard 

 wood Company, Clinton. Iowa, capital .$25,000; the Hamburg Lumber Com- 

 pany. Little Itock, Ark., authorized capital $25,000 : the Loomis Wheel & 

 Body Works ("ompany, Dallas. Tex.. .$7,500. and the Liberty Wood 

 I'reducts Company. New York, N. Y.. $2,000. 



The Hackworth Carnahan Lumber Company has succi'edcd tbr llack- 

 wi>rth Payne Tie Company at Ellington, Mo. 



.\ fire loss was sustained by the .Moiu-esville Furiiituri' Company. .Moores- 

 ville, N. C. recently. 



.V voluntary iietition in bankruptcy has been filed by the .McNeil Cor- 

 poration. Boston. .Mass. 



'I'he title of the J. M. Wbitson Lumber Company operating at Xa.-liville. 

 Tenn., has been changed to the Wbitson Lumber I'ompany. 



New concerns are entering the shiplmilding field daily, among the most 

 recent being: the International Shipbuilding Company. Portland. Ore., 

 capitalized at .'SlO.Ooo ; the George ,E. Rogers Company. Astoria, Ore., 

 authorized capital .$100,000; North Carolina Sbiiibuildiiig Company or- 

 ganizing at M(U-eliead. X. C. ; the Saginaw Shipbuibling Company, Sagi- 

 naw, Mich.. $:150,00(I capital, and Thomas F. Meeban & Son, Brooklyn, 

 X. Y.. with a capitalization of $2:10.000. 



The Piggott Handle Company. Piggott. .Vrk., lias filed a notice of 

 dissolution. 



David Lee, lioliert York, E. Tj. Boyle, .\. B. Knipmeyer and George Ilarsli 

 have filed application for charlf-r for the Lee Furniture Manufacturing i'om- 

 pany at Memphis. Tenn. Caiiital $10,000. 



=-< CHICAGO >■ 



V. K. (Jary of the t'reusliaw-Gary I^umUer Company. Meiui)his. Teuu., 

 was in t'hicago recently en route to .spenfi some time with bis family wbo 

 liave been summering at LntUngton, Mich. 



F. V. I'ish, secretary of the Nati(tnul Hardwood Lumber Association, 

 was in Washington with onr lumlK-r committees tbc latter part of August. 

 and visited some of the i-astern mr-mbci-ship while near salt water. 



M. .r. Quinlan of the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber t'nmpany, SuiM'rton. 

 Wis., was in town a few days of last week, returning north in time lor 

 the holiday on Monday. 



A meeting of the creditors of The Fiedler (.'imipany, city, has been 

 called. 



At Moline, 111., the John Deere I'low Company has Imm-ii incnrpurated 

 at $10,000. 



An invohiutary petition in bankruptcy has been tib'd by thr i-'rcrdmau 

 Furniture Cumiiauy. (..'liicago. 



The capital stock of the Strombeck-Recker Manula'turing t'ompuuy. 

 Moline, 111., has been increased from $10,000 to .f25.000. 



John M. I'ritchard. secretary of the flum Lumljcr Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation, was in Chicago last week in attendance at the retailers' confer- 

 ence at South Shore Country CUib and was received like an ohl friend. 



C. B. Allen of the Allen-Eaton Panel Company. Memphis. Tenn., was 

 in town last week and has his plant ready for operation. 



