January 'jr,. i:il(j 



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Annual Rotary Gum Association 



Approximately eighty per cent of the entire production of rotary 

 cut gum veneers -svas rfepresented at the first annual meeting of the 

 Commercial Rotary Gum Association, which was held at the Hotel 

 Chisea, Memphis, on January 11. 



What this compact organization has accomplished in one single 

 year of existence has proved of incalculable benefit and value to the 

 members; and the enthusiasm and lively interest displayed must surely 

 result in raising the membership list of the association to represent 

 nearly one hundred per cent of the industry during the year of 3916. 



The new officers of the organization who were elected to hold office 

 during the ensuing term are: 



PnEsiUEN-T, Ralph L. Jurden, Penrod-Jurden & McCowan, Memphis, Tcnn. 



Vice-President, D. Van Brlggle, Helena Veneer Company, Helena, Ark. 



Secretary-Treasdrer, Robert C. Stimson, Stlmson Veneer & Lumber 

 Company, srcmphis, Teun. 



Directors — G. W. Sparks, Waetjen-Ingram 

 Veceer Company, Des .\rc, Ark. ; E. D. Beals. 

 Hardwood Products Company, Neenah, Wis. ; 

 B. W. Lord, Chicago Veneer Company, Dan- 

 ville, Ky. 



President's Address 



In his annual address President Jurden 

 presented a summary of the history of the 

 Commercial Eotary Gum Association, which has 

 resulted from a temporary organization tliat 

 was formed in an effort to bind together the 

 gum veneer manufacturers. 



Out of this temporary organization has 

 grown the Commercial Rotary Gum Associa- 

 tion, and any reputable manufacturer of com- 

 mercial rotary gum veneer is eligible to mem- 

 bership. The term ' ' commercial ' ' is used to 

 define the product of the mills from box shooks 

 and similar low-grade stock does not, except 

 in extreme cases, go into competition with the 

 class of veneers manufactured by the members 

 of the association. 



After touching upon other various phases of 

 the birth of the association, the president out- 

 lined to the members the working of the asso- R. L 

 ciation during the year of 1915 in the follow- 

 ing manner: 



The first important work to be taken up was the inspection rules, and 

 after much hard work on the part of the inspection rules committee a 

 set of rules for the inspection of rotary gum veneer was adopted and 

 published in booklet form, and I think three or four hundred copies fur- 

 nished to each member for general trade distribution. The result has 

 been that from some sources — 1. e., from jobbers and veneer buyers — a 

 considerable amount of criticism, and as one gum veneer buyer expressed 

 it to one of our members, it appeared that the gum manufacturers were 

 trying to force down the throats of the consumers grades of veneer that 

 were not merchantable, and that the consumer could not use, etc. On the 

 other hand, some of the members have expressed themselves as feeling 

 the rules too severe on the manufacturer of veneers, and more favorable 

 to the buyer or consumer than to the manufacturer. This is a very 

 natural consequence, and one fully to be expected, as it is a most diffi- 

 cult proposition to adopt a set of rules covering any commodity that will 

 please each producer and each consumer. 



Relative to our membership, starting last February with ten or eleven 

 members, we have today a membership of twenty-one concerns actively 

 engaged in the manufacture of commercial rotary gum veneer. There 

 are probably not to exceed four to six veneer manufacturers who produce 

 any gum veneers to speak of who are not members of this organization. 

 I do not know of any accurate figures available, but I believe I am per- 

 fectly safe in saying that fully eighty percent of the annual product of 

 commercial rotary gum veneer is manufactured by the members of this 

 organization. Certainly we want the other four or six to come in and 

 afliliate with us. and we are making every effort to secure their applica- 

 tions and secure their co-operation, but we should not forget that with 

 a membership representing eighty percent of the production, we are 

 strong enough to go on and accomplish great results for this industry, 

 but I want to say here that it is absolutely essential that the officers 

 and directors and committees have the full co-operation of the membership, 

 and that no real results can come to ns, no matter what effort is put 



.IDRDEN, MEMPHIS, TENN. 

 ELECTED PRESIDENT 



forth by the officers and directors and committees, unless they are strongly 

 supported by the membership. As has been so aptly said, no chain is 

 stronger than its weakest link, and this expression fittingly implies the 

 relation of each and every member of this association. 



In October, figures for building permits started going up, and in Novem- 

 ber, throughout the country records in many cities were smashed. The 

 lumber and veneer industry, always slow to feel a revival of business after 

 a panic, gradually became aflfectod, and the result today is that nearly 

 all mills are running full time, orders are plentiful, and prices, particu- 

 larly in gum lumber, in the past thirty days have advanced an average of 

 .$3.00 to $5.00 per thousand feet. I am sorry I cannot say so much for 

 veneer, but I do know that prices can and are being obtained today for 

 standard grades of gum veneers that could not be obtained sixty days ago. 

 One very important feature to which I wish to call your attention, °is 

 the gum log situation in what I would term the Memphis territory or the 

 Mississippi valley. Sixty or ninety days ago general business conditions 

 did not seem to warrant the production of large supplies of gum logs, 

 and I he manufacturers who logged their own timber, and the loggers who 

 produced logs for the market, did not perhaps 

 produce more than forty to fifty per cent of a 

 normal fall crop of logs. The result today Is, 

 with this revival of business, the wildest 

 scramble for logs ever known in this section. 

 Weather conditions are here which retard op- 

 eration, and only a small amount of logs are 

 coming out, or can be produced at this time. 

 The result Is that gum logs in this section have 

 advanced at loading points $2.00 to $.3,00 per 

 thousand feet in the last two to four weeks, 

 and unquestionably will reach a still higher 

 level In the next thirty days. 



To you gentlemen who are more fortunately 

 located where weather conditions do not so 

 greatly affect .vour supply, I hope you will take 

 into consideration that logs are worth more 

 today, and that you will get more for your prod- 

 uct. If your logs have cost you only $8.00 or 

 $9.00 per thousand, don't give away the profit 

 on your fortunate purchase, but charge your 

 logs to your mill operation at $12.00, and base 

 your price on your veneers accordingly, and 

 I want to say in conclusion, that if you don't 

 get the price for your gum veneers today, you 

 never will. Conditions are ripe, and business 

 has arrived, and it is up to each and every 

 member to base his prices on his production so 

 that he will participate in this business revival. 

 In his talk to the association, John M. 

 Pritehard, secretary of the Gum Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Associatien, discussed the system which his organiza- 

 tion employs to advance the consuming demand for gum lumber. Mr. 

 Pritehard has probably done more to advance the interests of gum 

 than any other one man, and is largely instrumental in placing the 

 product in the excellent position that it now occupies in the markets of 

 the world. 



J. H. Townshend, secretary and manager of the Southern Hardwood 

 Traffic Association, in his address stated that he felt certain many 

 of the discriminations now existing in veneer rates would be ultimately 

 removed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. 



"It is a very unique situation in the lumber industry, ' ' said E. D. 

 Beals, president of the Hardwood Products Company of Neenah, Wis., 

 and treasurer of the Mississippi Veneer & Lumber Company of Cedars, 

 Miss., "that gum must compete with other woods of low-grade and 

 others of high-grade. The lower grades of gum must stand competi- 

 tion with other woods that are used for cheaper grades of interior 

 trim; and then the rotary and quarter-sliced veneers must stand up 

 against the very highest grades of qther lumber. ' ' 



In his paper on "Uniform Cost Accounting in the Veneer MOls," 

 Benjamin W. Lord, president of the Chicago Veneer Company, Dan- 

 viUe, Ky., presented a great deal of lucid and valuable information 

 upon the fundamental points of cost accounting. He cautioned the 

 members against various abuses by consumers which run up the costs. 

 No definite action was taken at this meeting toward uniting the 

 headquarters of the Commercial Eotary Gum Association with that of 

 the Gum Lumber Manufacturers' Association, although there was 

 considerable discussion regarding the movement. 



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