March 25, 1921 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



55 



J. X. Penrod of the Penrod Walnut & Veneer Company, Kansas City, Mo. : 

 Frank Purcell of the Frank Purcell Walnut Lumber Company, Kansas City, 

 Kans. : W. W. Knight of the Lona-Knight Lumber Company, Indianapolis, 

 Ind. ; R. J. Wiggs of the Green River Lumber Company, Memphis, Tenn. : 

 A. C. Wells of the J. W. Wells Lumber Company, Menominee, Mich. ; M. 

 J. Fox of the Von Platen-Fox Company, Iron Mountain, Mich. ; Walter N. 

 Kelley, Detroit, Mich. : H. Brooks .Sale of Hoffman Bros. Company, Fort 

 Wayne, Ind. 



J. A. Bolser of the J. W. Darling Lumber Company, Cincinnati, O., 

 stopped over in Chicago March 11 while enroute to his headquarters in 

 Cincinnati, after a trip to the west coast. 



BUFFALO 



Lewis A. Kelsey, a North Tonawanda hardwood lumberman, who died 

 suddenly on February 23, made bequests of $1,000 each to the Y. M. C. A. 

 and the Y. W. C. A. of his town and also gave $2,000 to the Congregational 

 Church of Stone Church, the hamlet where be was reared In Genesee 

 County, N. Y. After giving his interest in the hardwood business to his 

 oldest son, C. Everett Kelsey, who was the only one associated with him 

 in it. he bequeathed the residue to the widow^ and it is finally to be divided 

 between the three remaining children. 



PITTSBURGH 



R. E. McCall from his ofl5ces in the Bakewell Building, reports it 

 possible to get a little commercial business in hardwood provided you 

 hustle hard for it. The general market, however, is indifferent and sales 

 are made usually only at a very high cost of getting the business. 



Representatives of the chief users of wood in Pennsylvania will attend 

 a big conference April 13 and 14 at Harrisburg. at the request of 

 Governor William C. Sproul. Delegates will include men from wood- 

 working establishments, dealers in telephone and telegraph poles, wagon 

 makers, paper manufacturers and furniture and barrel factories. 



February building showed a total of $760,000 or 50 per cent gain over 

 the total for January, 1921. The big factor that was missing in the 

 February total was residence building. 



The McKay Carriage Company, of Grove City, Pa., which has turned 

 its attention the past few years to manufacturing truck bodies, is doing 

 a splendid business this year, according to R. W. McKay, its president, 

 who has directed the affairs of the company for twenty-five years. 



The Ricks-McCreight Lumber Company reports hardwood business very 

 slow and sees no probable improvement in general demand until wages 



in the building trades are settled. Just now orders are very few and are 

 for l>roken lots so that the wholesaler's profits are unsatisfactory. 



The Satler-Hamilton Lumber Company makes the same general report 

 of very poor business and little prospect of an Improvement until wage 

 scales are adjusted. 



E. H. Schrelner Lumber Company does not see any improvement in the 

 situation this month. In fact, general conditions are worse than they 

 were in February. 



BOSTON 



The strike of the Boston building trades unions continues in force. It 

 has been on for two months and during that time has and does now tie 

 up all construction and repair work In this city and its suburbs and In 

 some of the adjacent towns and cities. The union men want $1.50 an hour 

 and the building employers want to cut the ffl an hour rate that existed 

 prior to this strike to $.00 cents an hour. All efforts to settle the strike 

 have so far proved futile and no hope for its settlement before April at 

 least is held. The strike has practically destroyed the interior trim trade 

 in hardwoods here, so that business in that line, which constitutes about 

 12 to 20 per cent of the hardwoods business here, is not expected to revive 

 much before the late summer or fall. 



Exports of hardwoods from the port of Boston for the month of January, 

 1921, statistics of which have just been made available, from the office of 

 the collector of the port, were as follows : hardwood boards, 45,000 feet, 

 valued at $4,297 : wooden chairs, $10,225 : wooden office furniture. $978 ; 

 other wooden furniture, $6,352 ; cooperage shocks, $145 : staves, 31,834 

 pieces, $8,612 : woodenware, $14,177 : other manufactures of wood, 

 $111,507; total. $156,293. 



BALTIMORE 



The plant of the Marvil Packing Company at Sharptown, Md., has closed 

 down until April owing to the scarcity of gum timber, caused by the high 

 tides overflowing the gum swamps of the Carolinas, where the timber for 

 the company's operations is obtained. Two large timber barges left for the 

 swamps last Wednesday. The Marvel Company had used a mule In the 

 swamps for not less than 18 years to draw cars loaded with gum logs. It 

 was taught to walk on a board only twelve inches wide and often as narrow 

 as six inches, in the. center of the car tracks, drawing cars of logs sometimes 

 as far as two miles. The mule was rough shod, so as not to slip, and was 

 never hurt. The animal died last week. 



The South Hill Manufacturing Company, whose plant at Eastern avenue 



