January 25, 1916 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



have been eliminated. X ask you, gentlemen, is it even remotely posslblo 

 for the Congress of the United States to handle these questions of tariff 

 on this merchandise in anything Illse the way that tariffs have been 

 made heretofore? 



The only solution for it, the only salvation for our business, will be In 

 a permanent, non-poiitical, sciontiflc tariff commission (applause) ; a 

 commission whose duty it will be in part to investigate tacts — not theories 

 or ideas. 



The Congress that is now sitting in Washington will be called upon 

 to take definite action on the most momentous questions that have con- 

 fronted this country since the Civil war ; not only will there be great 

 questions, but there are a great many of thorn. They are entitled to. 

 are deserving of, and in sore need of the counsel and support of the busi- 

 ness men of this country. Through this national chamber of commerce 

 we are endeavoring to support them in that way ; and in this work an 

 invitation Is extended to this organization to co-operate. As I said l>e- 

 fore, we have some 150 national trade organizations affiliated, and the 

 chamber never expresses an opinion on any question until it has been 

 referred to all of them. You have through this chamber an opportunity 

 to express your needs and be assvired of a respectful hearing. 



On behalf of the national chamber I extend an invitation to afliiiatc 

 with ns. It is a time when you can lend your support to this move- 

 ment when it is needed; and a time when it will be appreciated. 



Immediately after the tallj by Mr. Prentiss, a general <liseussion 

 of the hardwood business in particular and business in general was in- 

 dulged in by the delegates, who were led in the talking by W. E. 

 DeLaney of Lexington, Ky., general manager of the Kentucky Lum- 

 ber Company. The discussion was open to all and practically every- 

 one present took a liand in it. The exchange of ideas, opinion and 

 prophesies took up some little time and were of much benefit to all 

 concerned in.ismuch as the discussion tended to give all a good idea 

 of business conditions in many quarters which they would otherwise 

 have been unable to get in I ouch with. The various siiliiects touched 

 upon follow : 



Discussion of Business Conditions 



I am supposed to say something about conditions. Very little can be 

 said about the past year — it is over, and not of any interest to us — a 

 rather bad year, as we all know. The last month or two was quite good, 

 but hardly took us to the lobster stage, the boys not buying them — yet 

 they may later on. 



What we are interested in now is the conditions for this year. Being 

 an Irishman, I am naturally an optimist. I believe that we will have a 

 good year, despite the tact that some have cold feet, because every man 

 did not spend his Christmas holidays sending in orders to the mills, but 

 preferred instead to enjoy a little Christmas time with his family and 

 children. They have always had that happen in the past, and I see no 

 reason wliy we would not have expected it this year. 



I base my opinion on this year's being a good year on several reasons. 

 Taking the steel industry, orders are booked for the first halt of the 

 year, and some for the latter half, while some it is difficult to get at 

 any price. I road a letter the other day from some engineer saying 

 that there was a call for some structural steel, and he couldn't get 

 anybody to make a price on it. tliey were not interested in it ; and I 

 would not lie surprised to see some building constructed with mill con 

 struction instead of steel simply on account of the price. 



There is a vast amount of money in this country. One of our speakers 

 has given some figures as to the exports of this country, and they were 

 amazing figures. When there is lots of money in the country some of it 

 must be spent ; so I cannot help but believe that with this vast amount 

 of money to be spent, at least a small portion of it will be spent in 

 lunilx'r. 



Tlu' railroads have done very little building for several years, buying 

 nothing except for absolute needs. There is certainly a demand for 

 railroad construction material at the present time, and I think that we 

 all, or at least those of us that get out any car material, know that to he 

 the fact. 



Goods that are exported from this country — some of them at least — 

 are crated in lumber, -\mmunition boxes in London, as I was recently 

 informed, are being manufactured out of No. 1 common, 10 inches and 

 up wide, out of most beautiful wood. Red gum, which we know is a 

 beautiful wood, is being used for ammunition boxes. 



I do not believe that buildings, dwellings, have kept pace with the 

 increase in population in the past few years. tJp to 1907 it was the 

 other way : but I think now that we have gotten up and gone beyond that : 

 and I cannot help but believe that the building trade this year will be 

 better than it has been for a number of years. 



There is another demand for lumber that I think perhaps a great 

 many of us overlook, namely, the local demand of the South. That de- 

 mand fell off because they had no money to buy with ; but cotton is 

 better now : they have money, and the consumption of lumber in the 

 South is increasing wonderfully every year. 



Despite the fact that the public have had lumber dead and buried 

 several times in the last few years, and the claim the substitutes for 

 lumber would put it out of business ; despite the fact that the lumber- 

 men have not awakened to their duty of properly advertising lumber — 



which I think we will agree is certainly essential— I do not believe that 

 we will ever see the time when there will not be at least a reasonable 

 demand for lumber. No one rides a bicycle today, yet manufacturers 

 of bicycles will produce a larger number of them this year than ever 

 before. Those are the good features. There are some bad ones. 



As to the export business, we cannot hope for much from that source. 

 I understand that England is requiring the ships to place seventy-flve 

 per cent of their tonnage for necessities of life, leaving only twenty-five 

 per cent to transport the war necessities and other commodities ; and 

 that affects not only the shipment of lumber but the commodities that 

 are manufactured from lumber. 



1 believe that the demand for lumber will be good from now on until 

 the war ends, and perhaps a year after the war. I think that lumber 

 being the last thing affected by reason of the war in that it was de- 

 pressed will be the last thing affected when other commodities feel the 

 reaction on the other hand. The period of reconstruction which will 

 necessarily go on in those countries will require lumber. Some of our 

 speakers here have very ably told you what the conditions would be 

 after the war, and that production would have to be more efficient, which 

 is undoubtedly correct. 



.As I see it, one of the most difficult problems will be that of laboi 

 adjustments after the war is over. Those that are manufacturing am 

 munition tor the war have been able to ask such prices on that that 

 they can pay any price that labor may want; but after the war there 

 will be a readjustment of that. It is always a rather difficult matter 

 to pay a man three dollars today and two dollars tomorrow. 



I do not know — perhaps there may be as much waste in other lines 

 of business as there is in ours ; but I have always felt that in our line 

 there was more, and that it was a matter that we might correct. I have 

 felt in the past few years, and I have always felt, that there was more 

 waste in the marketing of lumber than there Is on the manufacturing 

 side. I do not mean to say by that that less intelligence Is displayed 

 in the marketing of lumber than in producing it, but I think that co- 

 operation is of more help and more essential In the selling than in the 

 manufacturing end. I feel that this waste is caused by reason of lack 

 of co-operation. In all other lines of Industry there are some market 

 quotations which arc a guide to the seller ; there are none In lumber. 

 We get our quotations from the hotel lobbies ; one man says he sold a 

 certain grade of lumber for so-and-so and so-and-so. and the next fellow 

 that comes along the next morning will say : "John lied last night. 

 I think he lied at least five dollars," or "he lied two dollars, etc." — a 

 very good source of information. 



About the only way in which you will find out what the market price 

 is, is when in selling lumber at a certain price you have an unusual de- 

 mand for some particular grade, and all at once you wake up to the fact 

 that you are getting too many orders, the price must be too low ; then 

 you boost the price a dollar, and if more orders keep coming in, you 

 boost it another dollar; and by the time you have sold all your stock 

 the market is sold out. and in order to stimulate it you say, "I will 

 boost the market, I will quote it up four or five dollars so I can say, 

 'John, I beat you four dollars.' " That doesn't benefit the situation at 

 all ; It hurts lumber. If you have not got it, say so. 



We have no information as to stocks on hand, which is certainly abso- 

 lutely necessary to intelligently market lumber. 



The question of thickness in my mind is an important factor. You 

 walk out over your yard and see that you have very few piles of 5/4" 

 luuil)er and you conclude that you had better get out some 5/4", while 

 lirobably every other fellow in the country has his yard full of 5/4" 

 lumber. We do not know what the amount of stacks on hand is. We 

 may have a stock of five quarter, and all at once there comes a demand 

 for it. but it has gradually got out of the market and you cannot buy it 

 except at a greatly increased price. There is no economy in that. If 

 a man cannot get the lumber that he needs, he is going to get a substi- 

 tute instead. 



Now as to terms in the lumber business, most of us have a rubber 

 stamp, 60-2-10. and we let one man have ninety days, and let another 

 one pay when he pleases — which they do. When it is a seller's market, 

 we stiffen up on the terms, and when it is a buyer's market, we let the 

 terms go. 



The same is true of grades. When the price goes up the grade goes 

 down, when the price goes down the grade goes up. 



I do not mean to say that co-operation would cure all of these evils ; 

 but I do say that the terms and the grade should be standard, there 

 should be no deviation. Let us take care of the market conditions in 

 the matter of price. I do not mean to say that co-operation would cure 

 all the evils of the world, but it certainly has a tendency to standardize 

 our business and better enable us to meet conditions as they arise. 



The idea of some people as to co-operation is. that it means to give 

 out no information, but get all you can. That may be a sharp, but It 

 certainly is not a smart practice. 



The worst competition comes from those that are uninformed, not from 

 those that are informed. Therefore you are helping your own busi- 

 ness by assisting in informing the fellow that is not informed. 



While statistics are valuable, as we all agree, to insure that they are 

 so in our case it is absolutely necessary for those who have the Informa- 

 tion to give it before statistics can be furnished. 



We have spent in the last fourteen years perhaps half a million dollars 

 in the work of this association. There Is nothing wrong with this 



