i6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



July 



lUlS. 



ODO unit of power and wasted ton, wIiito with littlo nioro coHt ut the 

 start, and no more exi>ense for upkoop, hu could have iiirrciised the 

 working capacity of the mill tenfold. 



The old timers, including the mill liuililer!*, lived nnd died in ignor- 

 ance of what they were missing; but all the people who held eijually 

 limited views are not dead yet The development of water power \a 

 now ns for beyond what it was in the days of the jiionecrs as the 

 railroad train is ahead of a pack horse. When even a small stream 

 has suflicient fall, the power which it is capable of yielding is almost 

 beyond belief. A brook which would scarcely produce four horse 

 power under the old method of harnessing, will yield hundreds under 

 modern methods. The old millwright was often satisfied with a head 

 of five or six feet, and if he secured fifteen or twenty he believed that 

 be bad reached the limit of the ])0ssiblc. 



Engineers today build water power plants with heads of hundreds 

 of feet. Some in the West go far above a thousand feet in perpen- 

 dicular fall of water. Of course, the old time mill could not have 

 stood such pressure and impact. A jet of water under a pressure of 

 one thousand feet would go through one of the old mills like a cannon- 

 ball. It would have torn the wheel and walls to splinters in five sec- 

 onds: but the modern engineer builds wheels and other machinery that 

 will stand the high pressures, and thus obtains hundreds of horse 

 power where under the old system five or six would have been the 

 limit. 



The power developed V>y modern high class water plants is dis- 

 tributed by electricity hundreds of miles, if necessary. The old time 

 mill builder knew nothing about electric transmission, and he had no 

 need for more power than he could use on the spot. 



Minimum Purchases as Affecting Lumber Prices 



IT is; -V I'h.VIX FACT thai wlioii luiiibor prices arc low the lumber 

 buyers both in the yards and in the factories are not inclined to buy 

 in large quantities on any one order. Taking the opposite view, it is 

 equally apparent tliat when the buyers are limiting their purchases 

 to meet needs, prices must necessarily continue on an unsatisfactory 

 basis. There is room for consideration as to wliat is the cause and 

 what is the effect, as while this buying policy is ordinarily inaugurated 

 at the beginning of a period of poor demand for factory products, it 

 continues after that demand has picked up noticeably. 



Such is true now. There are numerous logical reasons why a gen- 

 eral advance in lumber prices can be expected, though for the most 

 part buyers are stUI merely meeting their actual needs rather than 

 buying in large quantities in anticif)ation of gi eater cost of raw 

 material. And right there is noted the psychological effect of such 

 action. It would not be fair to say that the sellers of lumber are 

 lacking in moral courage, but they have been depressed so long by 

 poor business and have so long experienced uncertainty as to future 

 developments that they have given too much credence to the buyers' 

 contentions and have not adhered to the dictates of their own judg- 

 ment as closely as circumstances and conditions would warrant. 



As a con.sequence, the buj-er through continuing to purchase in 

 small quantities, continues to depress jirices in the face of an actual 

 improvement in trade, simply because tlie distributor of lumber has 

 listened so long to the bearish doctrines of the buyer that he believes 

 continued small purchases is all the justification necessary for con- 

 tinuing to offer his lumber at the low level which has prevailed. 



There is a refreshing increase in the number of large orders entered 

 by factory consumers, and with general knowledge of this fact, the 

 lumber trade should have sufficient incentive to follow its own judg- 

 ment as to price concessions. That it is beginning to do so is cor- 

 roborated by the more optimistic tone which permeates the lumber 

 centers througb the East and Middle West. 



Praying for Light 



THE NAIL WAS HIT OX THK HEAD by L. C. Boyle in bis 

 brief filed before the Federal Trade Commission in its Chicago 

 conference with lumbermen when he said that the attorney who ad- 

 vises the lumber associations how far they can legally go in forming 

 combinations does not have the last guess as to what the law on the 

 subject is. Some judge on the bench may make a different guess, 



ami the judge's guess goes, ami the luinbcruii'ii may Iiavi' to siifTrr 

 for acting on their lawyer's advice. 



It is unfortunate that there is h<> muicIi room lor giu^Miig as lo Hli;it 

 the scope, me.'ining nnd intention of the anti-triist laws arc. It 

 would not be so serious if a wrong guess were not so expcn.tive. 

 .luijges are but men. Their interpretation of laws, tlKuigh inteinleil 

 in all honesty, is subject not only to the fallibility of human judg- 

 nu-nt, but also to the vagucne^'s and ol)Scurity of the langiuige in 

 which the laws are written. Two men of equal learning in the law, 

 and of e<|ual mental ability, and of equal integrity, nuiy disagri* as 

 to what a written law means. One of these men nuiy be an attorney 

 advising his clients that it i> lawful to do a certain thing, and they 

 do it; but the other nmn is the judge who gives his guess later, and 

 if he decides ilifferently, the clients are in for punishment. 



It may be asked now, as it was a.-sked in one of Victor Hugo's 

 stories, "who is to judge the judge?" Although the founders of 

 our government i)Ut up all the safeguards that seemed possible, in 

 order to bring justice to the jieople and reduce mistakes to a mini- 

 mum, the end was not wholly attained where laws are written in 

 ambiguous language, as is eviilent in the uncertainties that hang 

 over the anti-trust laws. Business men are afraid of these laws, not 

 for what is understood in them, Imt for what is vague and doubtful, 

 and depends on some judge's guess for interpretation. When Achilles 

 fought his great battle before Troy, as related by Homer, his only 

 prayer was for "light, more light, give light that I may see." That 

 is the prayer of the lumbermen of the United States today, in 

 regard to the laws 'that are breaking the back of business; they 

 want light on the subject so they may go ahead, and not be com- 

 pelled to stand in dread of penalties which depend u]ion someboily's 

 guess as to what a statute nu-ans. 



May Teach Bookkeeping 



THE FEDERAL TK.VDI': i DM MI.-^SIOX is surveying prospective 

 fields for the employment of its labors, if the report is authentic 

 that bookkeeping is to be included in its activities. lu a recent pub- 

 lished interview by one of the commissioners the subject was outlined 

 in substance as follows: 



The commission will prepare an approved form of balance sheet, upon 

 which the business man desiring credit at the biink will sot forth the salient 

 facts with regard to his business. It will further design a form that will 

 accurately and conclsel.v show his assets. It will also devise a system of 

 double-entry boolikteping adapted for different classes of business, and a 

 form and method of cost accoiuitlug for the class of business being done 

 by the man who is willing lo avail blmself of the help the commission 

 hopes to be able to afford. 



The commissioner further said that the small business men of this 

 country are often such poor bookkeejiers that when they apply for 

 loans at the bank they are a])t to queer their chances of getting the 

 money by the bad appearance of their balance sheets. The commis- 

 sioner expressed the hope that the commission would be able to put 

 its expert accountants at the service of manufacturers and merchants 

 who are short in knowledge and experience and in that way helji to 

 strengthen American industries. 



There may be a disposition to look upon this proi)osition as .a 

 joke; but it is meant seriously by at least one member of the com- 

 mission. The intention is doubtless well meant, but it is bound to 

 make a poor impression on the ])uldic. Bookkeejiing is a detail too 

 small for the Federal Trade Commission's activities. At any rate, 

 the general public will consider the commission too large a body to 

 enter into competition with business collfeges and correspondence 

 schools. If the commission really has a new, important idea on the 

 science of accounts, it should give the business men of the country 

 the benefit of that idea; but has it such an idea? What reason is 

 there for supposing that the commission knows more of bookkeeping 

 than is known by experts who h;ive made a life study of that subject? 



The assertion has been made, and not in a fault-finding spirit, that 

 the commission has no clearly defined conception of what its duties 

 are. A proposition to begin by giving lessons in preparing balance 

 sheets for the "small" business man to take to the bank when he 

 wants to borrow monej', wUl doubtless tend to strengthen the belief on 

 the part of the public that the commission is exploring the field in 

 search of something to do and has nothing very large in sight as yet. 



