HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



that Ihe trust' company holds $175,323.94, all 

 of which is available for buying in the outstand 

 Ing bunds in accordance with the conditions set 

 ton h in the hinds, to the effect that the bond 



holders offering their bonds at the lowest figure 

 shall have the preference in the matter of pur- 

 1 base. The las! auction purchase from the low- 

 est "bidders" was effected in October last, when 

 $35,000 in bonds was bought by the trustees 

 from the Noreross Properties creditors at an 

 average of us rents on the dollar. Proposals 

 to sell the bonds must be mailed to reach the 

 Worcester Trust Company before the close of 

 business on May 1. There is $1,356,000 of the 

 bonds outstanding at the present time and the 

 lumber trade is largely interested in their sale. 



Three important changes are practically cer- 

 tain in the personnel of three Boston concerns. 

 Ihe changes to be decided upon ou or before 

 May 1. Details will probably be published in 

 the next edition Of the HARDWOOD RECORD. 



At the meeting of the 1, umber Trade Club held 

 on Thursday last the most important feature 

 was the strong "community of interest" feeling 

 developed among the hardwood members of the 

 club as a result of a simple and forceful pre- 

 sentation of the evils of unintelligent compe- 

 tition and fhe remedy for the same, by E. D. 

 Walker of John M. Woods & Co.. who is first 

 vice president of the club. Mr. Walker was 



followed by John 1:. Bugl if Holt & Bugbee. 



Francis Page of Parker & I'age, II. II. Wiggin 

 of Lawrence & Wiggin. and Howard C. Morse 

 of the Blacker & Shepard Company, all of whom 

 developed the subjects as set forth by Mr. 

 Walker. Immediately following the club meet 

 ing the members engaged in the hardwood branch 

 of the trade held an informal special meeting 

 to prepare plans for the betterment of conditions 

 in their particular line of the business. Mr. 

 Walker's address, which brought about the dis- 

 cussion of plans for associated effort, is of such 

 general interest in its application to hardwood 

 dealers who are grouped in the large industrial 

 centers of the eastern portion of our country 

 that it is given below- in full. 



Mr. President and gentlemen : Cost is a vital 

 principle of business, as without an intelligent 

 conception of cost business cannot be successful 

 in its fullest sense. This means more than the 

 invoice cost with a haphazard guess on the ex- 

 pense of doing business, because the dozen and 

 one different items of expense in carrying on a 

 yard business are all legitimate items and should 

 always be figured as part of the cost. This we 

 know is not always done. We are all familiar 

 with our own labor account, teaming account. 

 drying account, our office expenses, insurance. 

 cost of repairs, and last, but not always least, 

 bad accounts. All these should be added 10 our 

 invoice cost to determine the point at which 

 profit commences on the sale of the lumber. 

 I suppose each of us has his own pet way of 

 determining what this percentage of cost is. 

 The great trouble has always been in getting it 

 from the consumer. There is to my mind one 

 absolutely safe method to pursue, and that is. 

 use the original invoice only as a matter of 

 bookkeeping: fix in mind the sum of the in- 

 voice cost, plus the proportion of the expense 

 of doing business, regard the result as the actual 

 cost of the stock and sell from that basis only. 

 Then you are safe and your profit is assured. 



Unintelligent competition will always keep us 

 poor, but "we are the doctors." I sometimes 

 think of the hit or miss way in which business 

 has been conducted in the pasl and wonder that 

 any of us live to tell the tale. .Now the reta ! l 

 business is a well defined proposition and should 

 not be confused with that of the whole..! 

 I imagine that while I am talking about unintel- 

 ligent competition there is running through your 

 mind the thought of the lost trade which you 

 can see getting away from you if you d I 



meet the competition of the wholesaler and 

 scalper. Tc the fear of the aforesaid par- 

 ties is a bugal as neither the one nor the 



other is in a position to seriously affect your 

 trade if you have the courage of your convic- 

 tions and stand for your price. We who have 

 been all through ibis stage ami know it to be a 

 fact realize that our worst competitor in the 

 matter of price has been the misguided com- 

 petitive yardman, who. selling at prices so low 

 thai be could not possibly make good on his 

 sales, is continually growling that there is no 

 money in the business. I certainly agree with 

 him in bis conclusion under I hose conditions. 

 and am sure there will be no improvement until 

 he either gets a fair profit over expenses — or 

 lets the other fellow have the business. 



We cannot sell it all. but there is one thing 

 1 hat all of us can do — we can get a good living 

 profit on all that we sell. 



I claim, and with the best of reasons, that 

 the man without the yard is not in position to 

 seriously injure our retail trade, and I am 

 certain he can only in a very limited way offer 

 stock to produce any effect on the market. The 

 loss to us of the trade that such a man com- 

 mands will never be noticed in the year's busi- 

 ness if we are getting our proper profit on what 

 we sell. I think it is the exception to the rule 

 when we find a consumer who does not appre- 

 ciate the advantage of having a full stock of 

 good lumber, carried at no expense to himself. 

 to order from, and he is as a rule willing to pay 

 a fair retail price for such steady and regular 

 advantaged. 



This question of steady supply of hardwoods 

 of regular sizes, widths and grades brings me 

 down to another point on which I am especially 

 interested aud on which I should like to see the 

 yardmen take some concerted action. I have 

 reference to the selection of stock for lengths 

 and widths. Our firm has kept a very close 

 account of the expense of selecting orders of 

 this kind and has demonstrated that it cannot 

 be done with profit without an advance of at 

 least $10 per thousand over the regular price. 

 I had no idea of this extra expense until I 

 determined to my complete satisfaction that it 

 was there. I should therefore like to see some 

 uniform price advance among the dealers for 

 stock selected for lengths and widths. This will 

 work no harm on Ihe customer, and to prove 



this I have consulted several ;; 1 woodworkers 



and millmen and learned that they have to 

 figure from ""Mi to 50 per cent waste on ran- 

 dom stock used for general cabinet work. It 

 we do this selecting to save the consumer the 

 waste, the glueing and the labor, he certainly 

 should pay for it and not the lumber dealer. 

 We bad a practical demonstration of this mat- 

 ter of the consumer's opinion as to the advan- 

 tage of his buying selected stock in our yard 

 this morning. One of our best customers came 

 to the yard for an order of about two or three 

 hundred feet. He wanted to use it all one 

 width and 14 feet long. To lay out this order 

 necessitated quite a little labor. We therefore 

 quoted him in two ways, the regular price for 

 stock as it ran on the pile, or $10 advance on 

 that price for selecting ihe lumber suited to his 

 requirements of width and length, lie ordered 

 the selected width and length and I have no 

 doubt he saved money in doing so. I feel sure 

 that if we stand together on this one point we 

 shall all get a proper return for selecting orders 

 of this kind; otherwise the customer should take 

 (he stock as we have to buy it — which would 

 be still better for our business 



In conclusion: Don't try t" do it all. because 

 the other fellow is bound to live. With common- 

 sense methods there is room feet everybody and 

 with a good profit for all. 



The venerable Albert T. Stearns, founder and 

 head of the A. T. Stearns Lumber Company, aud 

 president of the Cypres- Lumber Company, died 

 in this city on April 9. Mr, Stearns was born 

 in 1821 and for many years has been known as 



II"' father of the cypress industry in the Cast. 

 Many veins ag,, he became interested in cypress 

 lumber, and almosl by his undivided efforts was 



tin- w 1 exploited and made an extensive 



feature in the boil. ling 1 wooden gutter trade 



"i New England. Mr. Stearns has 1 n an in- 



defatlgable worker up to the very time of bis 

 death, and leaves a reputation of the highest 

 standard for probity and business acumen. He 

 is survived Icy three sons, Frederick, Alfred and 

 Waldo (I. Steams and by a daughter who is 

 the wife of Frederick Mosely, the sons and 

 son-in-law all being interested in his various 

 lumber enterprises, which, among oilier Ihings, 

 include a large manufacturing plant at Nepon- 

 set. a suburb of Boston, and extensive cypress 

 timber holdings and a sawmill plant at Apa- 

 lachicola, Fla. The memory of Mr. Stearns 

 will be revered by all who ever knew him. 



New York. 



The schedules in bankruptcy of John I.auzer, 

 hardwood trim manufacturer in the Borough of 

 the Bronx, filed recently, show liabilities of 

 $46,912 and assets $59,310. 



L. A. Kelsey, well-known hardwood lumber- 

 man of North Touawanda. N". Y., and principal 

 in the Kelsey Dennis Lumber Company of that 

 city, was a visitor in town last week. Mr. 

 Kelsey's son, Everett Kelsey. who is also a 

 member of the above company, was united in 

 marriage. April 8, at Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss 

 Elizabeth Farmer of that city. Mr. Kelsey is 

 one of the most promising young business men 

 in the Tonawanda lumber trade. 



W. E. Kelley & Co. of Chicago have issued 

 an announcement to the eastern trade that 

 II. F. McClennen of this city is now associated 

 with them and will have charge of their east- 

 ern office, 45 Broadway. This new connection 

 in no way affects Mr. McClennen's partnership 

 in the well-known firm of Marsh & McClennen 

 of the same address. 



O. O. Agler of Upham & Agler. Chicago, made 

 a flying trip to the metropolis lasi week on 

 business. 



W. E. Marsh of Marsh & McClennen. 4.". Broad- 

 way, left for the seat of their California sugar 

 pine operations on April 12, aud will be gone 

 for two months. 



F. W. Barth, Jr., head of the huge German 

 lumber house of F. W. Barth & Co., Bremen. 

 Germany, with branch houses in Dusseldorf, 

 Emden and Hamburg, arrived in this city April 

 11. He intends spending several weeks at yel- 

 low pine and hardwood mill points arranging 

 for future supplies. His firm is one of the 

 oldest and most respected in the Germany trade 

 and handles large amounts id' American lumber 

 annually. 



Vicegerent F. E. I.ongwell of Hoboken, V. J., 

 held a line concatenation al Ihe Vend. one Hotel 

 this city, on April 12. followed by a vaudeville 

 entertainment ami course supper. 



William Scott do Camp, an extensive holder 

 of timber lands in Herkimer .-in. I Lewis counties 

 in the Adirondacks and a large lumber manu- 

 facturer in that territory, died at his resld 

 in this city. April i'.. in the fifty-eighth year < ■ f 

 his age. 



II. M. Bickford of the II. M. Blckford Com- 

 pany. a prominent Boston hardwood li; 

 spent several days recently visiting the local 

 trade. 



R. I', r.aer ..f u. P. Baer .v < '". of Baltimore, 

 Md.. was in the city last week i some 



Important business. 



Robert Patterson of the Patterson Lumber 

 Company, Philadelphia, with mills at Suther- 

 land. N. C, was a \ isit o- lore lasi week and 

 reports the hardwood situation as 

 satisfacl 



The semi annual meeting of the New York 

 Lumber Trade Association was held al 18 F.ncad- 

 nay April 12. at which tlm were 



, ml i and a gen- 



presented. The affairs 



