.Tuuf 10. 1915 



CIIAS. II ISARNAHY, GREENCASTLE, 

 DIRECTOR 



IND., 



EDWARD I'.UCKLEY, MANISTEE, MICH.. 

 DIRECTOR 



any two lices of endeavor problems that were identical ; yet in the main 

 they are quite similar. They generally cover credits, transportation, 

 trade abuses, and standardization of methods of doing business. 



The Pubposb in View 



Your organization, as I understand it, has had as one of Its basic prob- 

 lems the standardization of grade rules for your product. I am sure 

 there Is not a lumberman or lumber buyer in this country but what will 

 say that this movement has been of untold benefit to both the producers 

 and the consumers. 



Now I am here today to urge you to carry this work of co-operation to 

 a further degree; to urge not only the value of co-operation among our- 

 selves, but of co-operation with those to whom you sell your product. 

 Some of the greatest e.xamples of the abolition of trade abuses can be 

 shown as the result of co-operation between buyer and seller. 



We have within the furniture industry from ten to twelve different 

 organizations, taking in practically every line of furniture under its vari- 

 ous classifications, such as case goods, chairs, upholstered goods, extension 

 tallies, library and parlor tables, parlor frames, etc. Most of these organi- 

 zations have been in existence for years. These associations have done 

 splendiil work. They have succeeded iu standardizing methods to a re- 

 markable degree, but they found that many of their problems could not 

 he satisfactorily handled because they had no means of co-operation with 

 the other lines whose interests were identical with their own. The 

 inevitable happened. These men who realized so fully the value of co- 

 operation were not going to stop short of getting the maximum good 

 from that work. So about a year ago they formed the Federation of 

 Furniture Manufacturers — an association of associations — taking in prac- 

 tically every line rhat can be classed as household furniture. This or- 

 ganization I have the honor to be president of, and it is in that capacity 

 that I appear before you today. 



Plain Talk Needed 



In endeavoring to make clear to you the situation as I see it and to 

 impress upon you the value of a greater degree of co-operation than has 

 heretofore existed with at least one branch of your customers, I may 

 feel called upon to say some things that some of you will not like. I am 

 going to say to you frankly that the furniture manufacturers of this 

 country feel that you have in the past laid down the rules governing the 

 sale of your product in rather an arbitrary manner. They feel that 

 their interests, which are really identical with your own, were not given 

 the proper consideration. 



Now, do not misunderstand me. I do not say that you intended to act 

 in an unfair manner, but the failure to meet their ideas, or to give what 

 they thought to be proper consideration to them, probably due entirely to 

 the lack of a clearing house for exchanging views, gave rise to the feeling 

 that existed. Furthermore, they feel that your standardization of grades 

 has not gone far enough, that you yourselves do not do all that could be 

 done to make your grades standard. 



With this feeling existing, it was no wonder that one of the first prob- 

 lems to be taken up by the Federation was the problem of lumber grading 

 rules. We felt that conditions were not as they should be and we decided 

 that the way to correct those conditions was to go to the lumber manu- 

 facturers, through their organizations, and to lay our case before them. 

 I asked your president, Mr. Babcock, if your executive committee would be 

 willing to discuss this Question with a committee from our organization, 

 and to this suggestion he readily assented. As a result, a number of 

 conferences have been held and I have no doubt but what we will come to 

 an agreement upon all points in question. 



W. E. CIIAMHEIIM.N, BUFF.\LO, N. Y., 

 DlRElTOR 



Committee Conferences 



I do not want to argue our case before this convention while we still 

 have the negotiations on with a committee representing this organization, 

 but I am sure it will not be improper, at this time, for me to state our 

 po.;ition. 



Our committee went before your organization to ask, first, for some 

 changes in the grading rules ; to make your standard grades better ap- 

 plicable to our requirements. It seems to me that this is a question upon 

 which we should have little difficulty In getting together. Your interest 

 in arranging your grades must be to make them so that they will be best 

 suited to your customers' requirements. The less the waste in working, 

 the more the consumer can afford to pay. To make a buyer take In a 

 certain grade, stock which he cannot economically use, benefits no one. 

 Supply and demand, together with the cost of production, regulate the 

 value of your product as well as ours, and you gain nothing in the end 

 by crowding down a grade. Possibly there is a temporary gain, but your 

 competitor soon discovers that he can sell the grade a little cheaper be- 

 cause it is a little lower, and supply and demand again regulate the price. 



We ask nothing that will have a tendency to lower your price ; but 

 most of all what we want is stability to the rules, letting the prices take 

 care of the increasing cost of production. We want stability so that our 

 factory experiences ou cutting waste will be of value to us and not make 

 it necessary for us to abandon valuable data every little while because 

 the rules are changed. 



The Mixed Grades Question 



I said that the furniture men feel that you do not do all that you can 

 to make your own rules standard. In making this statement, I am not 

 referring to the work of your organization unless it is not doing all that 

 could be done to abolish certain practices that prevail in the lumber 

 business. Your book of rules specifies, for instance, what shall constitute 

 the different grades, but you will agree with me that large quantities 

 are shipped every day that do not conform to those specifications. I 

 know that it does not carry a national certificate unless it does conform, 

 but nevertheless, the manipulation of grades is one of the curses in your 

 business, and it is in the interest of every manufacturer and jobber, who 

 wants to do business upon a right basis, to bend every effort to eradicate 

 this practice. 



In making the statement that there is a large amount of manipulation 

 in grades going on in the lumber business, I am presenting no indictment 

 that you haven't heard many times before from members of your own 

 fraternity, for I have seen statements of this kind published in your own 

 magazines. I am not here to say to what extent this practice prevails, 

 but I am here to say that you should lend every assistance to any plan 

 that will do away with it. 



I am not blaming the lumbermen any more than I blame the buyer for 

 this practice, for it has been made necessary to a very large degree by 

 the ignorance of the buyer ; that ignorance which generally means that 

 the buyer does not know what grade of lumber he really needs, has made 

 it necessary for the seller to mix the grades in order to get the business. 



Such practices, gentlemen, make a place for the unscrupulous man, 

 and that land of a man is bad for any business. This practice should 

 be frowned upon, first, because it is not an honest one, and second, be- 

 cause it is not in keeping with the general business standards of today. 

 We must all realize that there has been a great change in the moral 

 standards of doing business. Methods that were countenanced in our 

 business a few years ago are frowned upon today. It is the same in 

 your business and in every other line, and it is our duty to carry that 

 standard still higher. 



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