January 2!>. lUli) 



I.AMi. CIIICACO 



rn.I.ANIiY, LEXINGTON, 



DAWKINS, ASHLAND, KY. 



bog bousrs, and mill cnnstnictrd bulldtngs. ArrnugpiiioiitH arc being made 

 for pvrninni'nt lumber oxblblts In npvornl largo clllpn. 



BocU In connection nltb the exblbtts, ami Indopendent of tliem, the trade 

 cxteDKlon department will be represented nt twentj-slx convention nnd 

 association meetlD|;!i during tbc winter. Tbpso will establlKb n basis of 

 direct contoct nltb dealers, manufacturers, nnd tbc wood consuming public. 



A line of activity wblcb Is working out very successfully Is the organl- 

 xatlon of city groups of lumbermen to co-o|>ernlc with existing city orgunl- 

 latloDS In promoting their local lumber trade. .Meetings with the local 

 men have been held In ten different cities, and the necessity of concerted 

 action pointed out. If a reasonable demand for lumber Is to be maintained, 

 and tbc Inroads of tbc substitute materials ofTsct. One of the develop- 

 ments In tbls line hns be^n the estiibllsbment of closer co-operntlon between 

 local dealers and iircbltecis, engineers. ;ind builders In various cities. It 

 bas been found that arrhlteets and engineers welcome such eo operation, 

 nnd arc very glod to have Infornmtlon presented In regard to the possi- 

 bilities of using wood in construction. 



Anotber result of trade extension activity by city dealers Is local news- 

 paper advertising. The money spent In tbls way Is for tbc direct beneflt of 

 tbc local trade, nnd since tbe merits of nearly nil other building materials 

 are presented to the consumer In his local papers. It Is absolutely necessnry 

 that lumber be advertised In the snme way. .\nother result of this activity 

 Is that the newspapers give more spocc to news Items regarding the use of 

 Inmbcr and conditions of the trade, and In some cases a lumber column 

 bas become a regular newspaper feature. 



Industrial Preparedness 



James A. Emery, counsel for the National .Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, addressed the meeting on the subject of business jjreparcdness, 

 in substance as follows : 



I urn sure that we realized tbe community of Interest that Is peculiar 

 to our day among all sections of this great country ; nay, more, bow many 

 of tbc Interests within It are watching the sunrise of nn Internntlon.il day? 

 I am sure that no man who sits within tbc sound of my voice nnd who 

 passed through tbe depressing spring of 1914 but remembers that tbe first 

 guns of tbe Kuropcan war seemed to strike the final Idow at our staggering 

 business, and our first tbougbt was that It deprived us of many things 

 upon wblcb we were dependent in Europe ; and Indeed of some things as to 

 which our dependence bas been greatly driven home to us. We have 

 awakened to tbe fact, for Instance, that we bnd made ourselves utterly 

 dependent upon Germany for our supply of dye-stuffs, and that Instead 

 of undertaking to create and encourage a domestic Industry, we bad been 

 satisfied to buy In n cheap market and permit the German man\ifacturer 

 to delltterately undersell, and thus destroy every effort upon tbe part of 

 the .\merlcan manufacturers to create an .\nierlcan dye stuff Industry. 



And what Is true Internationally bas been peculiarly true nationally, 

 that it Is not possible for any part of this country to be permanently 

 prosperous cither at tbc expense of any other part of it, or without every 

 other part of It Indirectly sharing In this prosperity. 



Let the great banks that are tbe centers of our sources of credit be 

 suddenly agitated by some wind of a 'it threotens 



them, and Immediately every little bank .ind lirendtb 



of the land Is frightened and retains wltl..: ... .jrccs. Let a 



great drought sadly lessen our crops, and the consuming capacity of tbc 

 American farmer, and directly and Indirectly every channel of business 

 feels It. Let general business depression lessen construction, let It decrease 

 tbe demand for building supplies and materinis, and Immediately down 

 through one floor after another of tbe business structure these conditions 

 filter until they reach you gentlemen, who sell so many of your supplies 

 for Interior fittings. 



And so we are oil bound together. We have all shared in this remark- 



able prosperity that bos lo surprisingly fallen upon us since the outbreak 

 of this European war; and In this hour and In tbls day we find ournelvc* 

 suddenly confronted with a wide-reaching campoign for military prepared- 

 ness. Many organizations, many patriotic men, seek to arouse within us 

 a reallzatbm of the neoesslty for adequate national defense; and on the 

 other hand we are confronted with an almost equally wide spread campaign 

 that Insists that preparation for military defense Invltci military 

 aggression. 



But, whether or not we arc In danger of military attack from abroad, 

 this Is written upon tbe skies of tbe future In letters which be who runs 

 may read, (bat the conclusion of this horrible struggle on the other aide of 

 the water will be followed by a commercial competition probably vaster 

 In its proportions and severer In its intensity than any we have ever 

 experienced. Let us realize that If there is to be a struggle after this war 

 for markets In which we find ourselves standing solidly and alone, it will 

 be won by the nation whose economic efflcicocy has advanced It lo the 

 market ploces. 



What was tbc precursor of this gigantic conflict? It was on economic 

 situation that will exist after tbls war. and that will Impel the nations 

 of Europe to on accelerated activity as It forced them year after year into 

 the anticipations of his struggle for many decades before the hour in 

 which It broke. 



We hove been a fortunote people. When tbls greot war broke out we 

 were exporting but about five per cent of all we produced ; but Europe was 

 under the continuous necessity of finding a mnrket for Ms surplus product, 

 and today oil of its peoples are being left without employment. 



Now suddenly we find ourselves faced with this great struggle, wblcb 

 has shut off sixty-five millions of the German people from the markets In 

 which they were most efllclent competitors : and the other notions, their 

 antagonists In this great war arc so busy defending their national being, 

 that they can only turn to us for the means of defense, and they arc 

 substantially unable to find time to sell more than a small portion of their 

 wares In the normal markets of mankind. 



War raosrEniTY 



Military demands greatly Increased our exports. The war demand lifted 

 us out of the slough of despond up to the very heights of prosperity so 

 great that we are now weaving bright dreams of world commerce for the 

 future. Now must It not Inevitably follow that as much of this business 

 has been gained without competitive conditions, it means that It must 

 cense when competitive conditions renew themselves? First, because the 

 demand for many of these things will cense with the end of the war ; 

 .secondly, because when many of these nations arc again working under 

 normal conditions, we will find if we measure the future by the pnst. It 

 will be economlenlly Impossible to compete with them, either becnuse of their 

 superiority In efllclency nnd production, or because of their possession of 

 cheap raw moterlols, obtained at a lower labor cost, or because they possess 

 facilities and means of distribution and of access to markets that we did 

 n<.t have, and cannot presently possess ourselves of. 

 .\ Poor Showiso 



Now while we were enjoying tbls war business, notice what happened 

 to our normal markets. We have not done a larger business with South 

 .Vmerlca In comparison with -our European competitors, nnd yet South 

 America Is a large market which imports about ?1.3O0,OO0,O0O worth of 

 various products. Some of the South American countries under normal 

 conditions arc good spenders. The little country of Argentina, with a 

 population of 7,000,000 buys from us os much as China with her popula- 

 tion of 500,000,000. Yet if we take o particular month for comparison, say 

 one of the last months for wblcb we find any figures, we find that in 

 October, 1915, we sold $2,000,000 worth less goods to Argentina, Chile 

 and Brazil than we sold them In October, 191."$ before the war. We sold 

 $3,500,000 less worth of our goods to Japan In October, 1915, than we 



