i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



October 10. 1017 



ing short of the fullest possible sympathy and co-operation of em- 

 ployers and operators, and the most cordial participation in the 

 work on the part of salesmen and sales managers throughout the 

 territory which it covers. 



Activities of Steel Furniture Interests 



GRASS IS NOT GBOWING under the hoofs of the horses which 

 the metal furniture manufacturers are riding. They are moving 

 too fast for that, and are too active in their efforts to corral busi- 

 ness. Officials in New York, who probably know what they are 

 talking about, have recently stated their belief that the steel 

 furniture manufacturers have formed a close corporation, intend 

 to double the price of their products, and are preparing to send 

 a lobby to Albany when the next New York legislature meets, and 

 will try to have a law passed requiring that none but steel furni- 

 ture be used in public offices. 



If these efforts are made and if they succeed, it will be a great 

 victory for metal furniture. It will be a victory achieved by 

 means of special laws passed, and not in open competition with 

 wooden furniture. To compel all public offices in the state of 

 New York to install metal furniture would be fine business for 

 the makers of metal furniture. It would not only mean millions 

 of dollars in their pockets and out of the ta.xpayers' pockets, but 

 it would constitute an entering wedge to be driven in every other 

 state. If these manufacturers can announce that New York has 

 thrown wooden furniture out and has put in steel, it will furnish 

 a weighty argument to use before other state legislatures and 

 municipal councils in the campaign to extend the use of metal 

 furniture. 



What do the manufacturers of wooden furniture jiropose to do 

 about it? There is more and better argument in favor of wood 

 than of metal in furniture, but unless those interested in wooden 

 furniture stand together, fight as one, and make their argument 

 where it will do most good, they will be beaten by their rivals who 

 are backing metal furniture. 



Where Prophecy Failed 



THE PROPHETS who said that the war must end in a few 

 months because of financial exhaustion, missed it. Nobody 

 seemed to know what would happen, but economists, financiers, and 

 theorists, thought they knew. They were aware of the fact that 

 all the real money in the world was not enough to pay Great 

 Britain's expenses during three years of the war, to say nothing 

 of the expenses of other nations, and it seemed to be a foregone 

 conclusion that the money must soon be all used up, and for that 

 reason, if for no other, the war must stop; but it ilidn't come to 

 pass according to prediction. Speaking along tliat line, a recent 

 circular letter distributed by the National City Bank of New 

 York said: 



The best guide the people of this country can have as to the effects 

 of the war upon business, and the practicabihty of lepeatedly raising 

 large sums for war loans, is to be found in the experience of the 

 European countries. Few people believed at the outbreak of the con- 

 flict that it could possibly last for so long a period as three years. It 

 was the common view that, if for no other reason, peace would 

 have to come before that length of time from inability of the govern- 

 ments to continue the expenditures. That this was wide of the truth 

 is now evident, and even after three years those most competent to 

 judge feel but little better able to set a date when the end must come 

 through financial exhaustion than they were at the beginning. 



The reason that expenditures can far exceed the cash in siglit 

 is that the same money is spent over and over, and is counted 

 every time. The records of a certain law suit some years ago in a 

 West Virginia court illustrated the situation exactly. A farmer 

 in distributing his estate before his death sold a farm to one 

 of his sons for $2,000 cash, and several witnesses swore that they 

 -saw the monej' paid and they counted, it as it was passed across 

 the table from the son to the father. It was proved, however, that 

 only $100 of actual money changed hands in spite of the fact 

 that witnesses saw and counted $2,000. It was easy. Each time 

 the father received the hundred dollars, he slyly slipped it under 



the table to his son who again paid it across the table in full view 

 of the witnesses. 



That is about the way the countries at war do their financing. 

 The money paid in is at once returned to the people in payment 

 for supplies, and when the next loan is called for, the same money 

 is paid in again, and again it takes the same course. They might 

 continue to go round that circle a long time without "financial 

 exhaustion" sufficiently acute to end the war. This circuit is not 

 quite so short and simple as that by which the $2,000 for the farm 

 was paid with $100; but the plan works in the same way. That is 

 why the government so strongly recommends that people pay 

 for their bonds out of their current earnings — the same money must 

 be kept going round the circuit. 



Government Recognizes Substitutes' Menace 



LUMBERMEN SHOULD HEED THE CAUTION dictated by 

 common sense that they do not let themselves be lulled into 

 a feeling of false security as to the future of lumber markets by 

 the present abnormal return of wood to many uses which have been 

 taken over in past years by wood substitutes. No particular credit 

 is due to the lumber trade for the uae of wood in a good deal of the 

 war work where it is taking the place of substitute materials. The 

 hurry-up nature of building construction incident to the prosecu- 

 tion of the war, and the fact that lumber supplies were sufficient 

 to immediately take care of the government 's demand, were alone 

 responsible for the selection of lumber for these uses. There is 

 no doubt that were sufficient time available for the erection of the 

 many new government buildings, makers of brick, cement and clay 

 products would have had an equal chance with the lumbermen. 



The situation in regard to substitutes is so serious that it has 

 actually been given government recognition. The Forest Service 

 has issued a short analysis of the bearing of substitutes, in which 

 it is stated that the total replacement of lumber in all forms of 

 use is 8,000,000,000 board feet or twenty-one per cent of the lumber 

 consumption of the United States in 1915. It states that the rate 

 of substitution is increjising and now exceeds 500,000,000 board 

 feet a j'ear; that approximately seventy per cent of the lumber cut 

 goes into forms of use where the demand appears to be decreasing, 

 twenty per cent into strongly competitive fields, while in the re- 

 maining ten per cent of wood uses there seems to be an opportunity 

 for a much larger consumption. 



The bulletin frankly states that substitution has been the main 

 cause of fluctuating markets; that the lumbermen have not realized 

 tlie extent to which it has taken place ami have failed to adopt 

 aggressive selling methods, and have been unable to supply con- 

 sumers with reliable information regarding lumber. 



It criticises the complicated system of grades which it says 

 are not intelligible to the average consumer and are also the subject 

 of considerable dispute among lumbermen. The author of the 

 rcjiort maintains that if lumbermen will hold their markets they 

 will have to learn more about the fundamental properties of wood. 

 They must ado|it better manufacturing and soiling methods and 

 should give diligent research in tlic field of l>y-iuoilucts that will 

 enable them to make a profit in spite of the limitations of lumber 

 jirices. 



The moral pointed by the report is that tlic lumber trade is 

 on just as insecure a footing toda.v, in spite of abnormal war needs, 

 as it was before the war started, and that lumbermen as a whole 

 must eventually have a full realization of the serious menace of 

 substitution or the lumber business will receive a setback which will 

 compel its being completely made over. 



The choice is between compulsory substitution of new methods 

 for old, wherein everybody would be hit liard until new methods 

 made themselves felt, or on tlie other hand awakening to the need 

 now, so that new methods can be instituted while the industry is go- 

 ing along in its regular channels. The necessity for turning over 

 a new leaf is still undisputed. To meet this necessity and to de- 

 velop the ten per cent mentioned in the government report, much 

 more hearty and general support of market development work will 

 be required than now given. 



