i6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 



iui:i 



:irti8t must b« pntiont and not try to recover his camera until tlio 

 next night when tlie coast is clear. 



The niiin who ninkcs illicit whisky i» called n moonsliiner. The 

 niinio implies that the work is done on nuHinlit nights. Doubtless some 

 of it is done at such times, but tho photograph illustrating the front 

 cover of Hakdwood Record was made in full day, about nine o'clock 

 in the morning, and in sunshine as bright as ever shone upon tho 

 mountains of eastern Tennessee. 



The moonshiner is a resourceful individual, lie can make whisky 

 from almost any product of tho vegetable kingdom, except coal. It 

 is popularly supposed that he uses rye exclusively; but it is a fact 

 that he seldom uses that grain. Some moonshiners, if they felt 

 free to talk, would say that they never made a bottle of rye whisky 

 during their whole career of nioonshinery. Some make use of corn; 

 turnips are highly esteemed; but probably more illicit whisky, at 

 least in the South, is made from pumpkins than from any other raw 

 material. That may be disputed, but a famous reformed moonshiner 

 once defied the world to prove the contrary, and, so far as known, the 

 challenge has never been accepted. 



More is heard of southern moonshining than of the same industry 

 in the North. That may be beeause more of it is done in the South, 

 or it may be due to the alleged fact that northern moonshiners are 

 slicker and more skillful in concealing their operations. 



Now and then some venerable and hoary-headed moonshiner among 

 the southern Appalachians becomes reminiscent when among his 

 I>roved friends, and he teUs many experiences which have never been 

 written in books. The old patriarchs of that region agree that the 

 moonshine business never recovered from the blow it received in 

 1S64 when General Lee's army ran short of percussion musket caps. 

 These were made of copper, and the Southern Confederacy's visible 

 supply of copper was exhausted ; and in order that the war might not 

 collapse for the want of musket caps, General Lee ordered that all 

 copper worms and boilers in distilleries be collected and made into 

 the needed gun caps. A clean sweep was made of moonshine establish- 

 ments; because every colonel and major in Lee 'a army knew exactly 

 where all of them were located, and sent soldiers to bring them in. 

 Though fifty years have elapsed since then, the testimony of old men 

 of that region is almost unanimous that moonshine products have 

 never recovered the high level of excellence which they held ' ' bef o ' 

 d' wah." 



Humanizing Your Letters 



IF ANT CONSIDERABLE part of the details of your business is 

 worked out by correspondence through your office, you have 

 experienced the feeling of disappointment which comes from the too 

 formal letter from one whom you had supposed to be a close personal 

 friend. Possibly you have spent a good deal of time with some 

 especially congenial acquaintance, hobnobbed around with him in 

 diflferent places and on different occasions, and wouldn't think of 

 addressing him by anything but his first name, nor of having him 

 address you in any other manner. The same man, however, when he 

 retires to the inner sanctum of his office will frequently freeze up 

 within the hard outer shell of what he seems to consider a necessary 

 business formality, and the next tune you hear from him through 

 the mail your letter will be addressed "dear sir." 



It is difficult to appreciate the line of reasoning which effects this 

 attitude in so many business men. It is hard to swallow the ' ' dear 

 sir" from a man whose idiosyncrasies, whose faults, and whose good 

 points you are thoroughly familiar with. 



Surely we ought not to take ourselves so seriously as to think that 

 a letter of this kind makes any other impression than to inspire a 

 feeling akin to disappointment and doubt as to the genuineness of 

 the friendship. 



Just what is it in business and business association which so quickly 

 congeals the flowing spirit of good fellowship into the coldly formal 

 quoting of formalities as soon as the relations have been removed from 

 the purely personal and been placed in the category of ' ' business 

 transactions f" 



There is no question that the best interest of any business, or in 

 fact of business as a whole, can be advanced by a more sympathetic 



and understnniling way of doing things. Mutual appreciation uf tho 

 feelings and methods of correspondents gives us tho possibility of 

 writing telling personal letters. In fact, it is entirely essential that 

 to get next to tho average man through a letter that letter must be 

 couched in terms which njipcal to his particular personality and 

 methods of reasoning. The "dear sir" smacks too much of the 

 cut-and-dried letter form which is all too commonly used in average 

 correspondence today. The most effective business letters are those 

 which seek to appeal to the recipient specifically, and it stands to 

 reason that the nearer they approach a conversational tone, granting 

 of course that in the essence they carry the business proposition in 

 its right form, the more likely are they to produce the desired results. 



Grades and Prices 



IT IS COMMON SENSE that the mere grading of lumber cannot 

 fix its price, and that matter is becoming understood by both buyer 

 and seller. Some do not yet understand thoroughly, but they will. 

 The grading separates the stock into clas-ses, and the price of ouch 

 class is fixed by supply and demand. The real purpose of grading 

 lumber is to enable the purchaser to select the kind that suits his pur- 

 pose, and to do so without being put to the necessity of examining 

 each stick in order to see for himself that it is the g^ade he wants. 

 The agreement upon and the establishment of grades is intended to- 

 accomplish that end, by giving names to grades, and seeing to it that 

 what the grade calls for is actually in the pile under that name, and 

 that nothing else is there also. 



The manufacturers and consumers of hardwood lumber are getting 

 together in that matter. They arc not talking price. That is left 

 wholly outside of their discussions, because it is now dulj' recognized 

 by both sides that prices will regulate themselves, once the matter 

 is settled just what constitutes tlie different grades. 



The consumers insist strongly that when it is once agreed what shall 

 constitute a given grade, no further change shall be made without 

 mature consideration and mutual agreement. The reason for that 

 insistence is this: Users of lumber learn by trial and experience 

 what grade works most economically into the particular commodities 

 produced by their shops or factories, and that knowledge is gained 

 by careful trial and the collection of data for reference and compari- 

 son. The objection to frequent change in grades is based on the in- 

 convenience and loss consequent upon the necessity of discarding all 

 gast experience and the accumulation of cutting data. 



Conferences between committees of manufacturers and consumers 

 of lumber hav* thrashed these matters out, and it has developed that 

 no serious differences exist between the two parties. They have met 

 in a spirit of compromise and have found it much more effective 

 than an attitude of hostility and combativeness. 



It was stated at the recent hardwood association meeting in Chicago 

 that an early announcement that the committees of manufacturers 

 and consumers had agreed in conference on the grading matter might 

 be expected, and that if the associations would then accept the report 

 of their committees, the unfortunate misunderstanding on the subject 

 of grading rules would be at an end, without the necessity of either 

 side giving up any material part of what it was contending for. 



It will afford another example of tho wisdom of compromise and 

 arbitration, and will prove once more that usually there are so many 

 common grounds on which business men can pool their interests that 

 there is no advantage to be gained by contending over minor questions 

 which have little to do with the main issue — that of putting business 

 on a friendly and profitable basis. 



Sense and Nonsense 



SENSE AND NONSENSE enter into the campaign between wood 

 and its substitutes. It is sensible to push wood into all uses 

 which it is capable of filling; but it is nonsensical to insist that 

 wood must continue in use in all places where it has been used. Wood 

 cannot hold its ground for any particular purpose unless it is either 

 better for that use than any available substitute, or is cheaper. The 

 edict tha! because wood has filled a certain place in the past it must 

 continue to fill it iii the future is foolish, and is bound to loose. Such, 

 a contention is contrary to economic laws. 



