i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



woodwork of these structures. Its lasting 

 qualities for this purpose, where it is sub- 

 jected to alternate dry and wet, make it al- 

 most indispensable. The beautiful veining 

 of the wood and rich coloring give it such 

 a decorative character that the ordinary 

 builder of a good house invariably finishes 

 one or more rooms in cypress. 



In tank and vat building it stands preemi- 

 nent as the best material in the world and 

 is generally adopted by railroads and manu- 

 facturing institutions for these purposes. 

 The large proportion of all cypress stumpage 



is now in the hands of operators, and from 

 this time forward the total output will 

 doubtless gradually decline in volume. While 

 prices of the wood have now attained a 

 satisfactory and profitable stage, the increas- 

 ing demand for the material will probably 

 tend to strengthen values materially as the 

 3 i .us go by. New Orleans is the commercial 

 center of i-ypress production for Louisiana, 

 although Memphis, St. Louis. Jacksonville, 

 Louisville, Cincinnati, New York, Philadel- 

 phia and Boston are also large distributing 

 centers. 



Strode's Stuff. 



The World for the Strong Man. 



A very active and competent young man 

 was employed in a certain printing shop 

 where we used to have a lot of work done. 

 This young man received $22.00 a week for 

 his services. The employer, however, did 

 not run a union shop. All his life he fought 

 for the rights of paying men according to 

 what they were worth to him. He built 

 up a great business. When he died. Ins 

 widow was unable to continue the fight, and 

 this young man was active in unionizing the 

 shop. When the young man came to draw 

 his salary on the Saturday night following, 

 he received, instead of $22.00, only $18.00 

 for his week's work, which was the usual 

 union schedule. A number of inferior men 

 had been getting $12.00 and $15.00, but 

 they too received $18.00 under the new ar- 

 rangement. 



That shows the fundamental weakness of 

 the labor union. It would make all men 

 equal by the simple process of running a 

 mower over humanity and cutting off the 

 heads of the tall ones. It will not do; 

 the tall men object; neither is it fair to the 

 small man to put him on an equality with 

 the great man. There are men that an em- 

 ployer would retain at $12.00 or $15.00 a 

 week, which is all they can earn. If he is 

 forced to pay them $18.00, he wants to get 

 rid of them, and will do so at the first op- 

 portunity. True, it is not the small man's 

 fault; he would be worth more money if he 

 could. Every man does his best according 

 to his lights. If a man is slow about his 

 work, it is because he does not realize the 

 necessity for being fast. 



I should dearly love to receive a salary 

 of $20,000.00 or $50,000.00 a year as some 

 men do, if I could earn it and still go my 

 present gait. If I were willing to work 

 hard about sixteen hours a day, every day, 

 and were content to go my way with no 

 time to devote to friends or family, I could 

 earn more than I do, I suppose, but I fail 

 to see the necessity of it. I would rather 

 have my eight hours of good sleep every 

 night; my game of cards with my daughters 

 in the evening; some time to spend with my 

 friends, and to otherwise enjoy myself as I 

 go along. Of course, I should not object to 

 receiving the remuneration of the man who 



works until twelve o'clock at night, and 

 who has no time for anything except that, 

 but I am not going to kick very hard if I 

 don 't get it. 



What I would rather do would be to in- 

 herit a lot of money or something of that 

 sort. The only trouble with inherited 

 money is that it doesn't last. Probably 

 some enterprising young fellow who had 

 laid awake nights studying up a get-rich- 

 quick scheme, while I was sleeping like a 

 little child, would come around and talk all 

 my money away from me. The trouble 

 about money one comes by in an easy man- 

 ner, is that it is more bother to take care of 

 it than to earn it in the first place. As far 

 as saving money is concerned, a man has 

 but a short time to live at best, and we 

 have no proof that it is of value to him 

 in t ho next world. If there was a guaranty 

 u it h every dollar a man laid up that he 

 would live to enjoy it. it would be worth 

 while. But to work hard to lay up money 

 with no guaranty that one will ever live 

 to use it or be able to take it with him 

 when he dies is too risky. I won't do it. 

 I'm no gambler. If I make a dollar I spend 

 it before I earn another, and thus make sure 

 that I will get the good of it. 



It is customary to judge a man's strength 

 by his ability to accumulate money. This, 

 it seems to me, is very just, for what most 

 men want is mone}', and more of them want 

 to get it simply as a means of showing 

 their strength than for the mere love of the 

 cash itself. However much we may philoso- 

 phize over the fact, one thing is certain, 

 if we are strong enough to get money to- 

 gether, we usually do so. The power to 

 create wealth and the power to keep it are 

 two essentially different things. A man 

 may have one without the other. I have 

 reached a point in my life where my only 

 hope of acquiring great wealth lies in the 

 possibility of running across a gold mine, 

 or of inventing something — something 

 i-vrrybody must have, and which I alone 

 can supply. Thus, if removed from the 

 reach of competition, I am reasonably sure 

 I could build up a good business and make 

 money. 



I do not like to scramble for anything. 

 To scramble is vulgar. Competition is more 



or less of a scramble and therefore vulgar. 

 I do not like it. I would change my busi- 

 ness and start in one in which there is no 

 competition, if I knew how. 



But, as I said, the world is for the 

 strong man, and I give it as my opinion 

 that they earn all they get out of it. John 

 D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie can, 

 with the good digestion, which I understand 

 they enjoy, consume as much as the poor 

 man; and in the end that is all they get out 

 of it. They must endure an awful lot of 

 trouble and do twice as much work as the 

 poor man. What's the use? 



Before the Time of Indiana. 



When Julius Cresar was a young man he 

 made up his mind to be the greatest man in 

 the world. So he borrowed money of his 

 father-in-law and paid it to his creditors in 

 order that -he might be allowed to leave 

 Borne. He went over into Gaul, leaving his 

 wife and family among a pretty tough 

 bunch, and spent ten or a dozen years sub- 

 duing the country, having epileptic fits, 

 writing history, etc. Then he divided all 

 Gaul into three parts, and finally crossed the 

 Kubicon, making Pompey, who had been the 

 greatest man up to that time, look like 

 thirty cents. What was his reward? Just 

 when he had all his competitors killed off 

 and was ready to settle down to the serious 

 business of being the greatest man in the 

 world, he was assassinated. So he said 

 "et tu, Brute!" folded his cloak about him, 

 and fell dead at the foot of Pompey 's 

 statue. What a sad ending for a great 

 manl All the ten hard years in Gaul were 

 wasted. He might bettor have stayed at 

 home in peace and comfort. 



When man was in his primitive state, the 

 strong dominated all competition with a 

 club, and levied tribute. They do the same 

 today, although their methods are much im- 

 proved. I do not deny or dispute the fact. 

 I merely say that it seems scarcely worth 

 the trouble, as they get but little more out 

 of life than anybody else. It sounds very 

 well to say that all men are born free and 

 equal, but it isn't so. They are unequal 

 and in spite of labor unions, trusts and 

 lumber associations, which are all devices 

 to aid the weak, the strong man will not be 

 denied. 



i : rji ili'l not organize a si eel I rust. 



II. ,lidn't rare a thing about it. He could 

 Tiort and beat the world in open competi- 

 tion. But the hundreds of little fellows, 

 who were being pressed to the wall by his 

 competition, did care. The steel trust won't 

 lust, however. Carnegie knew it couldn't, 

 and when he was offered twice or thrice 

 what his plant was worth, he took it. He 

 wanted to retire anyhow, and be a philan- 

 thropist. Whon the steel trust goes to 

 pieces he can buy his property back at his 

 own price, as Schwab did in the ship-build- 

 ing trust. If he doesn't, some other strong 

 man will get it. Trusts are but devices of 

 the little to unite and stifle competition 

 which otherwise will stifle them; but they 



