HARDWOOD RECORD 



1/ 



Therefore, this jirocess of working up the board to the finest point 

 on the refining mill with a minimum of cost is jjroving to be the 

 salvation of those who are using it. Possibly it is not exactly the 

 salvation, but at any rate, it is making a good many dollars where 

 dollars were not available before. It is a suggestion that could 

 very well be taken under consideration by progressive hardwood men 

 wherever they are located. 



The Harmony Meeting in Retrospect 



THE RAILROADS INVOLVED in the harmony meeting held at 

 Menjpliis a couple of weeks ago have not yet taken definite action 

 toward the appointment of their committee to meet with the committee 

 of lumbermen, but conununications from their oflices indicate that they 

 have been making proper efforts toward this end, and that they will 

 be in position to make an announcement in the near future. 



Witli this committee definitely decided upon the possibility opened 

 by the harmony meeting will be given prominence, and the more one 

 thinks of the proceedings during that memorable session and the 

 spirit which seemed to prompt everyone, the more apparent it becomes 

 that some positive and portentious result will come. Surely it is 

 more logical to endeavor to work out the problems confronting the 

 shippers jointly with the carriers than it is to submit every slight 

 controversy to litigation. If the average business man permitted 

 every dispute, regardless of what it involved, to go to the courts or 

 some tribunal that is analagous to the courts, it would soon become 

 impossible to conduct liis business. 



The tendency has been in that direction in connection with traffic 

 matters, and this move, representing the suggestions of some of the 

 most prominent and successful operators in the South, is the most 

 advanced thought that has been put into effect for a long while. Not 

 only will the shippers be given intelligent consideration and a con- 

 sideration based on the actual facts which they have endeavored to 

 advance as representing their side of their respective cases, but they 

 will also be saved tremendous amounts in litigation of all kinds in 

 which southern roads and southern shippers are involved. 



The lumber trade in taking the initiative in this instance shows 

 itself as among the most intelligent and progressive element in the 

 American business world. It cannot be hoped that results will come 

 immediately, but as soon as proper committees have been selected 

 and duly appointed, it will not be long before the full possibilities 

 of the now famous harmony meeting will be apparent. 



Give Your Salesmen Authority 



THE BIG QUESTION before our business houses in these strenu- 

 ous days is that of saving unnecessary expense. There is prob- 

 ably no one item that amounts to more in expense account than do 

 sales, involving the salaries of competent men and constantly increas- 

 ing traveling cost. In the face of this condition there still are con- 

 cerns who send out salesmen in whom they do not have suflScient 

 confidence to repose complete authority to consunmiate a deal, and 

 hence orders for lumber as sent in are subject to the approval or 

 revision of the head oflSce. 



In the first place this is poor business from the viewpoint of 

 selling, as it weakens that salesman's position in the mind of the 

 buyer whose order has been revised or not accepted by the general 

 sales head, and in the second place it means that the expense of 

 making that sale has been practically wasted. 



It seems there are sufiieient live salesmen available to make pos- 

 sible a proper selection of men suflBciently well-versed in the details 

 and problems of the hardwood business to make it feasible to give 

 them entire authority to complete a transaction in a way that would 

 make it binding not only upon the buyer, but upon the head office, 

 or, if it is possible, to try out a man in the home territory where 

 the sales manager is always easily reached, in order that it may be 

 seen whether or not he is worthy of being given complete authority 

 in this direction. If it is found that he is not fully competent, he 

 should not be assigned a territory where he will not be able to keep 

 in close touch with the head office. If he does demonstrate that he 

 has good judgment and discretion, he should be given the trust in full 

 and should not be sent to work feeling that he hasn't the complete 



confidence of his own ofSee, and under a handicap that will neces- 

 sarily arise when it becomes known by the buyers that they are not 

 dealing with a man who will consummate the deal, but with an order 

 taker, who in their eyes appears to be but a minor employe of the 

 company. 



In all transactions it is certainly the part of best business to make 

 the intermediary, who represents the organization in his transactions 

 with his customers, appear in the very best light. To limit his 

 authority does not give the right impression among the buying 

 tra<U'. This suggestion shouhl fit in certain cases and is particularly 

 pertinent under existing conditions. Not only would a policy shaped 

 along these lines actually save money, but in the end it would create 

 a more stable relation between the manufacturer and the purchaser 

 of lumber or veneer products, whichever might be involved. 



Erroneous Belief Regarding Lumber 



A RELIEF PREVAILS quite generally that grades of lumber and 

 sawed timber, equal to the best of former years, are no longer 

 obtainable. At the recent Forest Products Federation meeting in 

 Chicago, direct reference was made to that belief prevailing in some 

 quarters. As a case to the point the statement was made that some 

 of the architects in eastern cities no longer specify wooden frame 

 timbers because they do not believe that first-class timbers are now 

 procurable. 



All weU-infonned lumbermen know better. The most that can be 

 truthfully asserted is that high-grade lumber is proportionately less 

 plentiful than formerly. In a given lot of mill run stock, there is 

 usually more of low and medium grades and less of high grades than 

 in the days when timber was so plentiful that saw mOls cut the best 

 trees and left the poorer ones in the woods. 



Grades as high as ever can still be had of every commercial Amer- 

 ican wood. The falling off in highest grades has been as marked in 

 the case of white pine as in any other; yet much of the very best of 

 this wood is still in the market. At the Forest Products Exposition 

 in Chicago a year ago some white pine as perfect as was ever lum- 

 bered in New England or on the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was on 

 exhibition. 



A little reasoning should convince anyone that it is impossible that 

 all the highest grades of any wood should be exhausted in advance 

 of the lower grades, so long as natural forests are lumbered. The 

 operators do not go about the woods picking out all the trees which 

 make first class lumber, and leave the others. They did that, to some 

 extent, formerly, but they do it no longer. There are still as fine 

 trees in the forest as were ever there, and when these go to mills they 

 produce as fine lumber as was cut in any past period. That holds for 

 both hardwoods and softwoods. The places where it does not hold 

 true are the second growth forests which have not yet attained the 

 age which is essential to the production of the best lumber. But in 

 primeval forests there are old trees and young in mixture, and the 

 large, perfect trunks will continue to be cut until long after the day 

 of any man now living. Of course, in cutting the best, under present 

 lumbering methods, the poorer qualities are taken also, and if a 

 builder insists on paying low prices, the chances are that he will not 

 be able to get much of the best stock, and may be led to believe that 

 the best is not procurable. 



The belief that the highest grades are gone forever is encouraged 

 by dealers in substitutes. It is to their interest to spread the er- 

 roneous information that places formerly filled by the best lumber 

 must now be filled by something else. The situation referred to in 

 eastern cities is to the point. The steel interests first convinced archi- 

 tects and contractors that suitable beams of timber for heavy frames 

 were not to be had, and then sold the steel beams as substitutes; yet, 

 there is not now and never has been any scarcity of timber suitable 

 for the heaviest mill construction work. 



The lumbermen owe it to themselves to expose the false pretenses 

 under which substitutes are being foisted on markets which of right 

 belong to lumber. The dealers have been much concerned with the 

 problem of selling their low grades, but in their eagerness to push 

 that part of their stock, they have overlooked the fact that the best 

 stock likewise needs pushing in certain quarters. 



