52 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



February 25, ig'21 



Massachusetts Wholesalers Meet 



Till' Massachusetts WliulcsaK' LuiiibiT Association held its annual meet- 

 ing and banquet at Young's Hotel In Boston on Monday evening. Feb. 7. 

 The following officers were elected : President, Charles P. Woodworth 

 of the Woodstock- Lumber Compan.v ; vice-i'rcsident, Vernon M. Hawkins 

 of W. K. Chester & Co. ; treasurer, Edward Carleton Hammond : seeretarj', 

 Arthur M. Moore (re-elected) ; delegate to Chambers of Commerce of the 

 United States; H. W. McDonough ; delegates to the Massachusetts Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, Horace M. Bickford, William E. Lltchfleld and Wendell 

 M. Weston ; directors. Charles P. Woodworth, Vernon H. Hawkins, E. C. 

 Hammond. Gardiner I. Jones. Wendell M. Weston. Clifton F. Leatherbee. 

 Harry C. Philbrick, Don F. Cutler. Frank Schumaker, Wells Blanchard 

 and William Bacon. Harris A. Reynolds, secretary of the Massachusetts 

 Forestry Association, was the chief speaker. He told of his experiences 

 and observations during a tour of the national forest reservations. Secre- 

 tary Schupner of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association 

 .spoke of the lumber outlook. He said he looked for a steady improvement 

 in trade, though with an "up and down period" for a couple of months. 

 He said it was a hopeful sign that mills now are in such position they 

 don't have to operate tor a loss. He told of knowing of one hardwood 

 mill that can sell for $30 log run at the mill and make money provided it 

 can operate at the rate of 2,000,000 feet a month. He said that a short 

 time ago this price would have been ,$L'0 out of the way. The retiring presi- 

 dent of the association, Gardiner L Jones, presided at the banquet till 

 the election of officers, when he resigned the chair to his successor. He is 

 head of the Jones Hardwood Company of Boston, with extensive eonncc- 

 tiims in the South and West. The new president is a spruce dealer. 



Knoxville Club Is Thriving 



Under the recently elected president, J. M. Logan, of the J. M. Logan 

 Lumber Company of Knoxville and Cincinnati, the Lumbermen's Club 

 continues to thrive and increase in membership. 



A plan put into effect by President Logan of having one special speaker 

 from the club membership, and one from outside the club membership at 

 each meeting is proving highly interesting and beneficial. 



Malcolm Miller, with Walter McCabe, the hardwood wholesaler, was the 

 club speaker for the meeting of Feb. 18, and he made a most interesting 

 talk about a recent "swing around the circle," including Cincinnati, New 

 York, Baltimore. Washington and West Virginia mills. His talk was 

 pessimistic as to lumbermen receiving any advanced prices during 1921. 

 though he thought business would increase with the year. He had visited 

 wbol'esalers. wood manufacturing plants, exporters, railroad buyers and 

 mills, hence had a fairly composite view of the present situation in the 

 points visited. He said that producers quoted a wide variety of prices, 

 there being differences of as much as sixty per cent on standard items. 



A committee was appointed to protest against the proposed severance 

 tax law, passed on second reading by the Tennessee legislature, which will 

 take.it up at its adjourned session on March 7. This law provides for a 

 two per cent tax on the value of logs when cut, and the same tax <in.all 

 things taken from earth or streams, except farm products and tish. 



Loggers Prepare to Attend Congress 



T. Sunderland, secretary of the Appalachian Logging Congress, which 

 has its permanent headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn., in the Business Men's 

 Club, next to the headquarters of the Lumbermen's Club, states that a 

 large number of acceptances have already come in from members for the 

 spring meeting to be held in Cincinnati. April 28. 29 and 30. F. li. Nor- 

 cross, president of the club, at Norma, Tenn., manager of the plant of 

 the New River Lumber Company and chairman of the executive board ; 

 M. W. Stark of the American Column & Lumber Company. Columbus. O., 

 especially are shelling the woods for additional members and for a big 

 attendance at the Cincinnati meeting. W. C. Champion, the Cincinnati 

 representative of the Clyde Iron Works, is chairman of the entertain- 

 ment committee, and is already getting his plans in shape. Chairman 

 and members of other committees are taking the greatest interest in their 

 work, and the congress is flourishing. The Lumbermen's Club of Cincin- 

 nati, through Secretary E. J. Thoman. has addressed a letter to all mem- 

 bers of the congress urging their attendance at the Cincinnati session. 



State Timber Reproduction Urged 



The JIaryland Forestry Association at its annual meeting, held in the 

 Academy of Sciences in Baltimore. Feb. 8, applauded a declaration by 

 W. McCulloh Brown, president, to the effect that as there is small chance 

 of hardwood timber stands in Western Maryland developing to maturity 

 under private ownership, the state should take over at least 200.000 acres 

 of land not adapted to agriculture in that section for production of timber 

 as a state resource. This could be accomplished by a bond issue or a series 

 of appropriations, Mr. Brown suggested. 



W. B. Greeley, chief forester of the United States Forestry Service, was 

 the principal speaker of the evening. 



F. W. Besley, the Maryland forester, declared the state could save not 

 less than $100,000 a year by preventing forest fires. 



Puggan Made Assistant to Schupner 

 L. N. Duggan has been engaged as assistant to Secretary W. W. 

 Schupner of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association, New 

 York. Mr. Duggan is 27 years of age and has had considerable experience 

 with other organizations, which fit him to assume his duties as assistant 

 to the secretary of the National association, especially in connection with 

 matters pertaining to the credit department, which has grown to he the 



most valuable feature of membership in the National Wholesale I^umlier 

 Dealers' Association. Mr. Duggan was formerly with the Itetail Credit 

 Company, a national mercantile agency, whose home office is in .\tlanta. 

 He has also been located in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Memphis. Balti- 

 more and Albany. In addition to this varied experieu<'e he lias seen con- 

 siderable service overseas, handling work of an executive nature, which 

 will enable him to undertake his association duties on a most efficient 

 basis. 



Memphis Club Opposes Severance Tax 



The LuinberMH'u's Club of Memphis at its regular senii-iiionthly meeting 

 at the Hotel Gayoso. Feb. 19. went on record as opposing the Severance 

 Tax bill, now pending before the legislature of Tennessee. This pro- 

 vides for the imposition of a severance tax of two per cent on the value 

 of all timl>er at the time the removal is made, and gives the authorities 

 of the state, in charge of the collection of this tax. the right to investigate 

 the books, records and files of every one in Tennessee engaged in the 

 lumber industry. 



This taxin.g bill, which is in the nature of a licensing measure, con- 

 tains many objectionable features. It developed, during the discussion, 

 that the principle of forest conservation, which is the basic idea in legis- 

 lation of this kind, is entirely absent from the present measure. It was 

 pointed out by S. B. Anderson, president of the Anderson-Tully Company, 

 that there w-ould not be the slightest objection to a tax on timber as it is 

 removed if this were the only tax to be imposed, but that the double sys- 

 tem of taxation^ — taxes every year on the standing timl'er and then a sever- 

 ance tax at the time of cutting — was wrong in principle and defeated the 

 forest conservation purpose. 



The law and insurance committee, which brought the subject to the 

 attention of the club, was authorized to continue to handle the matter 

 and to employ counsel, if necessary, to fight the bill as it now stands. 

 Members of the club, too, were requested to write letters to the Memphis 

 and Shelb.v county delegation to the present legislature voicing their 

 opposition to the bill and stating, in plain language, just why they object. 

 . It is quite apparent that the club will, in further handling of this sub- 

 ject, work for the defeat of the present measure by offering a bill that 

 will effect real forest conservation and that will remove present objec- 

 tionable features. 



J. H. nines, president of the club, made the statement that it would 

 be a serious handicap to Tennessee lumbermen if they had to pay this 

 severance tax while other lumbermen, operating in other states, did not 

 have to pay a similar one. He pointed out that they all sold in a com- 

 mon market, and that the fellow who paid the tax was at just Hint much 

 disadvantage compared with the man who did not. 



"Indications point to increased building activity in tlic iieai' future." 

 said Col. S. B. Anderson, in 'a brief talk on the hardwood liiinbcr outlook. 

 "Homes cannot be built without the use of hardwood flooring, and these 

 homes must be furnished, when they are built, largely with furniture 

 made of oak and gum. Flooring manufacturers will increase their activ- 

 ities when this building really starts, and they will furnish orders for low 

 gi-ade oak when they do start their plants on fuller time. 1 know that it 

 is rather hard to endure present conditions in the hardwood industry, but 

 really there is no reason for so much pessimism or for so much long- 

 facedness among the lumbermen. Other lines are improving, and this 

 improvement is bound to be reflected in the lumber industry in the near 

 future." 



Gordon Reynolds of the Reynolds Lumber Company. New .Mliany. (Ja., 

 expressed surprise over the low prices at which lumber is being sold in 

 the Memphis territory, and told members of the club that they ought to 

 "stiffen their backbone" a bit. He reported considerable improvement in 

 the southeastern states, and said that prices on certain kinds of lumber 

 handled by his firm were $3 to $4 per thousand higher than 00 days ago. 

 He also note'd that a number of consuming plants were starting up opera- 

 tions in Chattanooga, Atlanta and other southeastern centers. 



Action on the Metric Standard bill now pending before Congress was 

 deferred until the next meeting. 



Four new members were elected : T. J. Morris fnil Shelby Preston. 

 Anderson-Tully Company. Memphis; J. T. Sullivan. Phil A. R.van Lumber 

 Company, Lufkin, Tex., and A. B. Speight, Brown Brothers Lumber Com- 

 pany, Memphis. 



There were 90 members and visitors present. .\. J. Kerns won first 

 attendance prize of $!:i. and the second, amounting to .f3. went to C. A. 

 Lacy. 



Evansville Club Meets March 8 



The next regular meeting of the Evansville Lumbermen's Club will be 

 held Tuesday night, March 8, at the New Vendome Hotel, and several 

 important business matters will be taken up after a business men's 

 luncheon has been served under the direction of William S. Partington, 

 the secretary and treasurer of the club. Louis A. Holtman of the mem- 

 bership committee has announced that he will have several new applica- 

 tions for membership. Gus Bauman of the entertainment committee says 

 that plans will be started within a short time for the regular summer 

 outing of the club, which will be held some time during the month of 

 June on the Ohio river. John C. Keller, traffic manager of the club, says 

 he probably will have some important matters to bring up before the 

 March meeting of the clnb. 



