26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



January 25, 1921 



Chicago Holds Fifty-Second Annual; 

 Secretary Hooper Resigns 



The most prosperous year yet experienced by the Lumbermen's 

 Association of Chicago was terminated by the fifty-second annual 

 meeting and dinner, held at the association's headquarters in the 

 Lumber Exchange building and the Red Boom of the La Salle 

 Hotel, respectively, on Jan. 17. 



The jollity of the celebration was tempered by the resignation 

 of E. E. Hooper, after thirty-two years as secretary of the organi- 

 zation. Mr. Hooper's resignation was accepted with the keenest 

 regret by the members present at the business meeting preceding 

 the dinner. Later at the dinner. Division A, which was the original 

 division of the association, presented the former secretary with a 

 certified check for $2,500, as an evidence of their appreciation of 

 his long and faithful service as well as their respect and affection 

 for him. Mr. Hooper was deeply affected by the kindness, and in 

 his valedictory declared that he still felt young and would be with 

 his friends of the association twenty years longer. 



Mr. Hooper resigned to accept a position from the Lumbermen's 

 Mutual Casualty Company of Chicago, the offices of which adjoin 

 the Lumber Association headquarters. 



The business meeting was presided over by F. J. Heidler, presi- 

 dent. The principal business consisted of the reading of reports by 

 the officers, the election of directors and the standing committees, 

 including the executive committee of the various divisions. 



In a brief annual address President Heidler declared that the 

 lumber business had changed from a position of active prosperity 

 to stagnation, creating a condition in which association work counts 

 more heavily than at any other time. The future success and 

 progress of the Chicago lumber association depends upon the 

 interest and work of the general membership as well as the officers, 

 he sajd. Success cannot continue otherwise. 



The following is the list of directors and committees elected for 

 the ensuing year: 



Board of Directors : Division "A," N. C. Mather ; Division "B," T. F. 

 Scanlon ; Division "C," S. C. Bennett ; Division "D," Frank H. Burnaby ; 

 Division "B," W. L. Godley ; Division "F," J. L. Lane ; Division "G," 

 L. C. Harnlg; Division "H," W. S. Goodwnile ; Division "I," William 

 Nussbaum. 



Committee on Arbitration : V. F. Mashek, J. H. Dion, A. H. Euth, M. G. 

 Truman, S. E. Barwick, R. C. McWhorter. 



Committee on Appeals : J. W. Embree, E. L. Cook, E. J. Lundln, J. M. 

 Schultz, P. S. Fletcher, W. S. Lockwood. 



Executive Committees 



Division "A" : Earl Weinstock, chairman ; Frank S. Collins, S. J. 

 DeVries, Wilson Martin, C. F. Wlehe. 



Division "B" : Wm. L. Schuppert, chairman ; F. I. Abbott, F. H. Deacon, 

 E. C. Schoen, Chas. S. Smith. 



Division "C" : Jos. Gorman, chairman ; J. A. Braun, John S. Hurd, 

 H. L. Sill, H. M. Walker. 



Division "D" : Minor E. Botts, chairman ; Fred H. Burnaby, Geo. D. 

 Griffith, E. A. Thornton, Charles Westcott. 



Division "E" : C. W. Lawrence, chairman ; Minor E. Botts, B. E. Cook, 

 Robert Cousin, W. T. Osgood. 



Division "F" : Leonard Berg, chairman ; V. S. Barnes, N. T. Hand, 

 Walter Robison, A. Wailerstein. 



Division "G" : L. H. Dodd, chairman ; Peter Beck, G. H. Dekker, F. J. 

 Heltmann, H. D. Traeger. 



Division "H" : Frederick Klapproth, chairman ; W. S. GoodwilUe, 

 Wm. F. Kurz. 



Division "I" : W. O. Johnson, chairman ; John Daniels, August Eiszner. 



Chicago Enjoyed Big Year 



The retiring secretary's last annual report showed an activity 

 in the Chicago lumber market through 1920 unsurpassed by any 

 year since 1913. The total receipts of lumber were bigger than in 

 1918 or 1919, said Mr. Hooper, though not as large as 1917. He 

 explained that "the big totals of 1916 and 1917 were probably due 

 in great measure to the European war and the preparations for 

 our own entry into it, and 1920 figures far surpass those of 1915 

 and 1914. Shipments, while not so great as in 1918, were much 

 heavier than in 1919, leaving for local consumption a quantity 

 greatly exceeding that of the two preceding years." 



The following are the statistics on receipts and disposition given 

 by the secretary: 



The total receipts of lumber at Chicago for the year 1920 aggregated, 



according to the best data obtainable, 2,412,887,000 feet of lumber, 235,- 

 057,000 shingles by rail and lake. Of the figures given, 34,779,000 feet 

 of lumber were reported from tl. S. Custom House as lake receipts, leaving 

 2,378,108,000 feet of lumber to represent receipts by rail. The total 

 volume of receipts shows an increase in lumber of 375,583,000 feet for 

 the year 1920 and In shingles a decrease of 46,092,000. 



Impossibility of Lumber Price Control Shown by 

 R. B. Goodman 



"Short of a nation-wide conspiracy in restraint of trade, which 

 is inconceivable, the production of lumber is freely competitive 

 with respect to the operators in each producing region as well as 

 by virtue of the interchangeable use of the products from various 

 regions," said Robert B. Goodman, chairman of the committee of 

 Economics of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 during the course of an address on "The Price of Lumber," made 

 at Yale University, Jan. 20. 



The address is regarded by Dr. Wilson Compton, secretary- 

 manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, as a 

 "substantial and dignified reply" to the recent report of the Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission, in which the "thinly veiled, but unsub- 

 stantiated suggestion was made that the lumber industry . . . 

 has been able to control the prices of its products. " The delivery of 

 the lecture was peculiarly timely. Dr. Compton said, because of the 

 fact that the Trade Commission had filed its report to Congress 

 only ten days previously. 



Mr. Goodman, who bears the reputation of being one of the 

 most observant critics and best informed spokesmen of the lumber 

 industry on economic subjects, carefully analyzed the various and 

 many economic factors developing the price of lumber. During 

 this effort, he, as a matter of course, demonstrated the virtually 

 insuperable obstacles to such control of prices, distribution, etc., 

 as the industry stands accused of by the Federal investigators. 

 "There are about 150 regional, state and national associations 

 representing the manufacture and sale of forest products," he 

 said. "Yet our industry has no common mind or ideal or purpose. 

 It is merely a convenient classification of a bewildering variety 

 of trades, professions, labors, interests and counter interests, con- 

 tinent wide and touching directly or indirectly every human activ- 

 ity and every human want. There are more than thirty-five thou- 

 sand saw mills in the Unitd States, varying from the merest tea- 

 kettle to the million dollar plant. There are fifteen hundred saw 

 mills, having an annual cut of more than five million feet each 

 and the largest aggregate of mills under central control produces 

 not quite four per cent of the industry's products by volume, and 

 hardly two per cent by value. Forester Greeley, in a recent report 

 to the Senate, said: 'The number of saw mills operating as inde- 

 pendent units is still very large. Furthermore, as far as present 

 indications go, the entrance of new organizations of large size 

 into the lumber industry in the West has not tended to restrict 

 competition. Newcomers, usually well organized, efficient and 

 well financed, have indeed in several instances introduced a new 

 competitive element where they located.' 



The cost of carrying timber or the pressure to liquidate, the isolated 

 and dependent character of the industrial employment. In many regions 

 the seasonable character of the operation, often force the operator during 

 periods of business stagnation to continue production at an actual loss. 

 The scarcity of woods and mill labor, the difficulty in procuring cars for 

 shipment of lumber In time of prosperity, and the fact that the process 

 of blocking up timber In a new operation, building logging railroad and 

 mill and developing an organization, requires several years* time, are 

 some of the more outstanding reasons why our Industry reacts slowly to 

 Increased demands. Almost the entire burden of prompt adjustment to 

 market conditions falls upon the reserve stocks In the hands oj the larger 

 manufacturers, wholesalers and retail dealers. 



The psychology of lumber prices, and the important bearing of 

 mental reactions on the whole fabric of consumption, conservation, 

 etc., was discussed by Mr. Goodman, under the concluding sub- 

 head of his address, "The Effect of Lumber Prices." He said: 



Price reactions are psychological. Economic laws work their effects 



through the reasoning powers of the producer and the consumer, the 



(Continued on page 28) 



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