December 23, 1U15 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



That is one way to obtain ships for carrying lumber. The scheme 

 appears to be practicable. It is neither a subsidy nor does it mean 

 state-owned ships, but only public credit extended at a time of need 

 to stimulate business. Of course, if plans should miscarry, and the 

 exporters should fail to redeem the bonds when they fall due, the 

 state would be called upon to pay. 



The vessels as j)lanned will carry cargoes of two million feet of 

 Pacific Coast softwoods, chiefly Douglas fir and Sitka spruce. It is 

 believed that with the help of the ships thus to be provided, the lum- 

 ber exports from British Columbia will rise from sixty million to 

 two hundred million feet a year. If the latter figures are reached 

 and maintained, there can be no question that the receipts from 

 freight will easily pay the bonds as they fall due; and that can 

 result even if the rates for carriage are much lower than at present. 



A widespread tendency is visible in this movement. Interests 

 which heretofore did not concern themselves with shipbuilding, are 

 turning their thoughts in that direction. They recognize the fact that 

 too few ships are in the commercial carrying business, and that un- 

 usual means must be taken to procure others. The outcome will prob- 

 ably be that large trading interests will build vessels to carry their 

 own commodities to market. This may take the form of the British 

 Columbia scheme where the state su])i)lies the credit and the export 

 interests pay the bills, or the export interests, when strong enough 

 to do so, may supply both credit and money and build the vessels 

 without seeking public aid in any way. 



Why Not Come Under the Wing of Established 



Rules? 



THE ACTION OF TH K NATIONAL VKNKKR AND I'ANEL 

 MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION, in convention at Chi- 

 cago last week, in appointing a special committee for the pur- 

 pose of formulating specific uniform grading and inspection rules, 

 will be greeted by a sigh of relief not only by manufacturers of 

 thin lumber but by manufacturers of built-up stock who are the 

 customers of thin lumber products. There is apparently ample 

 grounds for connecting the manufacture of thin lumber with the 

 manufacture of ordinary lines of solid stock, even though there 

 are so many points in which the two industries are entirely differ- 

 ent. However, even though the grading rules are essentially dif- 

 ferent in all particulars, it would seem that in order to give them 

 the greatest initial effectiveness possible and the maximum of 

 prestige it would be wise to come under the wing of one of the 

 two organizations now operating under established rules for the 

 inspection of solid stock. Would it not be the part of wisdom 

 to merely amalgamate the thin lumber rules as they are finally 

 decided upon with existing rules for thick stock, making the thin 

 lumber specifications but another department of the present grading 

 regulations ? 



Waste of Good Timber 



ELSEWHERE IN THIS ISSUE is shown a photographic repro- 

 duction of the end of a gum log showing a typical gum figure, 

 also a discusion on the subject of figured gum and a description 

 of the waste of gum resulting from the lack of a very modest 

 amount of knowledge necessary to properly select logs to be 

 shipped for the production of figured gum lumber and veneers. 



Without going into the details of the arguments set forth in 

 the article, it is as plain as the dial on an openfaee watch that 

 there is no sense in shipping ordinary logs that do not contain 

 figure when it is specified that the stock will be manufactured 

 into a figured product. While the waste from this misunderstand- 

 ing is not enormous, it is of very considerable proportion, and 

 in addition to effecting actual loss in outlay for logs it occasions 

 dependent loss from the resulting disarrangement of the manu- 

 facturing plant expecting to use the logs shipped as raw material. 



The suggestion urged in the communication contained in the 

 article that there is only one way to tell whether a log contains 

 figured wood, and that is to cut it down and look at the end, is 

 certainly of enough moment to be given serious consideration by 

 those producing saw-logs for the production of figured gum lum- 



ber and veneers. It is apparently but in keeping with true con- 

 servatism to apply proper methods in the classification of gum logs 

 and to disseminate information as widely as possible as to the true 

 way of determining contents of the logs before shipment. At the 

 same time the general adoption of a uniform policj' in this direc- 

 tion would mean more money for log producers, as they would 

 be able to classify their product, sending the figured stuff where 

 it would be appreciated and used by those who make a spe- 

 cialty of handling this type of gum, and sending the plain stock 

 to those who are not specializing in figured 7naterial. 



Why Rob Peter to Pay Paul? 



SEVI;EAL MONTHS AGO IT BECAME EVIDENT to the 

 majority of lumbermen who ordinarily do a considerable 

 amount of their sales work through stock lists, that it was hardly 

 worth while to make the usual expenditure in this direction, and 

 as a natural result the promiscuous and general issuance of stock 

 lists ceased for the time being. It is hard to estimate the proba- 

 ble benefit to the trade at large resulting from the discontinuance 

 of this practice and to determine just how far the advance in 

 good business conditions has been hastened by the absence from 

 the buyer's desk of a thousand and one offerings of stock, which 

 probably multiply five or ten fold, in his mind, the amount of 

 lumber in reality existent. 



Unfortunately the return of better times has convinced most 

 people who formerly discontinued this practice they can get some 

 nice orders by resuming their past efforts, and there is today an 

 increasing number of stock lists which are representative of the usual 

 issuances of this description. 



It would be unfair as well as futile to argue in a general way 

 against publishing itemized statements of stock on hand, as a large 

 proportion of the firms who make this a regular part of their sales 

 work send out bona fide offerings that are sensible in the quanti- 

 ties shown and in the statements made regarding service. If busi- 

 ness can be derived on legitimate offerings of hardwoods or any 

 other lumber along the lines of regular stock list issuances, this 

 business is certainly a legitimate part of what may be expected 

 from any sales work. However, as in the past, there is a strong 

 suspicion that a good many firms with desk room here or there 

 in this or that large center are sending out flattering offerings 

 of high-grade hardwoods (that is, flattering to them), and the 

 continuance of this practice is going to be a retardant factor in 

 future improvement in the hardwood situation. 



In arguing against sending out stock lists, it is this class of 

 lists at which the argument is directed, and it is obvious that the 

 practice as carried on in this way is detrimental not only to 

 the legitimate sellers of their own stock but to the buyers. In 

 the first place the seller suffers because, while he is offering only 

 what he actually owns and thus is helping to create an accurate 

 impression of available stock, the man who lists 100,000 feet 

 of this, 500,000 feet of that and 300,000 feet of the other of some- 

 body else's lumber which he has never seen and could not have a 

 penny's worth of interest in, is merely stirring up the old doubt 

 in the buyers' mind as to just what the stock situation is, after all. 



From the buyers' standpoint it is this very confusion which 

 makes the method of promiscuous listings undesirable. He doesn't 

 know just how he can figure, doesn't know whether he should 

 buy or hold off, doesn't know whether prices are going to hold 

 and firm up or whether they will break in the near future. 



It is perfectly obvious there is no legitimate remedy for this 

 situation, but speaking for the buyer it might be a good idea 

 if when he receives a big bulky list of hardwoods he casually 

 refer to his credit rating book and see just how much of the stock 

 offered the firm whose name is on the list could actually buy, using 

 the full amount of its capital stock. If the buyer would take 

 -the trouble to do this he would not only get better satisfaction 

 because he would not be dealing with people who are not in posi- 

 tion to stand behind the lumber shipped, but he would also be 

 able to get a much more accurate idea of stock and prospective 

 market conditions. 



