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Personal Names as Trade-Mark 



Although a manufacturer or dealer can not acquire a valid trade- 

 mark consisting of his family name, so as to preclude any other 

 person of the same name from using it in the same line of business, 

 the law will protect exclusive use of such a name where it has been 

 30 long used to denote a certain concern's product that a fraud 

 would be perpetrated upon the public by permitting a competitor 

 to adopt the same name, thus creating confusion in the minds of 

 purchasers as to the origin of particular goods. In such a case, 

 the courts will require the newcomer in the field to so qualify use 

 of the personal name as to avoid such confusion. This relief is not 

 granted on the theory of infringement of a trade-mark, but on the 

 ground of unfair competition. (United States Circuit Court of* 

 Appeals, Seventh Circuit; Chickering vs. Chickering & Sons; 215 

 Federal Reporter 490.) 



Valid Kegulation of Payment of Wages 



The United States supreme court lately sustained the validity of 

 the law in force in Virginia which prohibits a manufacturer from 

 issuing orders to employes in payment of wages unless the same 

 are redeemable in cash. (Keokee Consolidated Coal & Coke Com- 

 pany vs. Taylor, 34 Supreme Court Reporter 8-56.) 

 Validity of Oral Agreements 



The law commonly known as the Statute of Frauds, which declares 

 that an agreement not to be performed within a year shall not be 

 enforceable unless evidenced in a writing signed by the person to 

 be bound thereby, does not invalidate a contract for the cutting 

 of timber from a tract of land, no time for completion of the work 

 being named, if the work may be completed within one year, al- 

 though the contractor may have contemplated a longer time when 

 the agreement was entered into. (McClanahan vs. Otto-Marmet 

 Coal & Mining Company, 82 Southeastern Beporter 752.) 

 Bights of Shippers of Lumber 



Plaintiff shipped quantities of ilressed and rough lumber from 

 Savannah to New York by vessel, part of which was delivered, the 

 remainder being held by the steamship company under a claimed lien 

 to cover the excess of the freight cliarges, as claimed by it, above the 

 amount which plaintiff admitted to be due. Plaintiff thereupon 

 bought lumber in the open market to make up the quantity withheld 

 by the steamship company and sued for the value thereof. In affirm- 

 ing judgment in plaintiff's favor, the United States circuit court of 

 appeals, in the case of Vanderbilt vs. Ocean Steamship Company, 

 915 Federal Reporter 886, decided that jilaintiff was entitled to the 

 benefit of a general custom prevailing in the lumber trade to allow 

 shippers a ten per cent deduction for wastage resulting from the 

 dressing of rough lumber. It was therefore held that the steamship 

 company, in refusing to allow this deduction, and in withholding 

 delivery, after proper charges were tendered, became guilty of a 

 conversion of the lumber, and that plaintiff was thereupon entitled 

 to do what he did — purchase lumber in the open market to cover 

 that withheld, and hold the compgny for the cost thereof. The court 

 said : ' ' The act of a carrier in failing to deliver without lawful 

 excuse goods intrusted to his care constitutes both a breach of con- 

 tract and also a conversion; and where property has been wrongfully 

 converted to the use of another, the measure of damages has been 

 usually held to be tlie value of the property at the time of the con- 

 version together with interest from the date of the detention." 



Eecogiiizing the general rule of law that the terms of a written 

 contract cannot be contradicted by a party to such contract, the 

 court said in this case that so far as a bill of lading evidences 

 definite terms it cannot be varied by oral testimony showino- an 

 agreement to the contrary. But the opinion states that the recital 

 as to the quantity of freight received under the biU of lading is 

 not conclusive upon either party. That is, the carrier can show that 

 it did not actually receive the quantity stated in the bill, or the 

 shipper can show that more was received than recited. Thus it was 

 decided that a bill of lading covering lumber may be contradicted 

 as to the quantity received for transportation, although tlie receipt 

 —28— 



specified that the shipment was "said to contain 26,304 superficial 

 feet, more or less," especially since there were other recitals to the 

 effect that the weight was unknown and was "subject to correction." 

 Claims Against Bankrupt Concerns 



When a lumber column manufacturing company became bankrupt 

 it had on hands a number of columns which had been made for 

 plaintiff for a ■ third party in payment for lumber delivered by 

 plaintiff to the third party, and in turn delivered to the bankrupt 

 company. Held, that since at the time the company became bank- 

 rupt there was nothing to show that title to the columns had passed 

 out of the company, plaintiff was not entitled to claim them in the 

 hands of the trustee in bankruptcy. (United States District Court, 

 District of Connecticut; In re Colonial Mill & Lumber Company; 

 215 Federal Reporter 640.) 



Advertising Competing Products 



After a patent expired on a revolving door, a new manufacturer 

 of the same kind of a door became entitled to use in its advertise- 

 ments a cross-section illustration of the door, although the same 

 illustration was previously used by the patentee, in the absence 

 of any showing that any distinctive features not descriptive of the 

 door was imitated. Nor is the new manufacturer guilty of unfair 

 competition in adopting the phrase "always closed" previously 

 used in the patentee's advertisements, since that is merely de- 

 scriptive of all doors of that type. (United States Circuit Court 

 of Appeals, Seventh Circuit; Van Kannel Revolving Door Company 

 vs. American Revolving Door Company; 215 Federal Reporter 582.) 



"Pom" Immortalized 



Just what constitutes the groat immortalization — the appearance of 

 one's name in our widely read columns or the receipt of a personal 

 cablegram from the Kaiser of all Germany — is difficult to determine. 

 Perhaps there is room for more or less prejudice on our part, as we 

 are rather inclined to believe that greater distinction can come from 

 the former than from the latter favor. 



However, in order to be entirely impartial, we are presenting the 

 fae-simile cut (see opposite page) illustrating a recent cablegram 

 received by L. J. Pomeroy direct from his imperial majesty, thus 

 enabling "Pom's" friends to have a fair chance of making their 

 own estimates as to the relative importance of these achievements. 



' ' Pom ' ' was rather inclined to be in doubt himself and hence 

 turned over this cable to Hardwood Record in order that there might 

 be no possibility of his being denied either glory. Having the cable- 

 gram and having long had his eyes on the coveted news pages, he 

 seized this opportunity of getting himself in print, and Hardwood 

 Becord is quite wUling to humor him to the ejitent of announcing his 

 distinction in this manner. 



Retailers Getting Busy 



Manufacturers who are adding American black walnut to their 

 lines have been greatly interested to note the way in which retailers 

 are taking hold of the proposition. The furniture dealers all over 

 the country are appreciating the strong selling points connected with 

 black walnut, which has sentimental associations and a splendid his- 

 tory back of it, while the character and quality of the wood, and the 

 rich and elegant appearance of furniture and other goods which are 

 made of it make it popular even with those who have not been cher- 

 ishing beautiful pieces of furniture handed down by earlier genera- 

 tions. 



"The effect of the advertising of the retailers," said a well- 

 known walnut man recently, ' ' will undoubtedly be stimulating, as the 

 general public will be brought closely in contact with the propo- 

 sition, and the mouth-to-mouth advertising which walnut will get as 

 the result of the sale of furniture at retail and the work which the 

 furniture merchants do in the newspapers and on their own floors, 

 will make it much easier from now on to keep walnut moving. It is 

 already apparent that a record-breaking number of manufacturers of 

 furniture will include walnut in their lines at the Januarv shows." 



