30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



of our socialist leaders have entered the army as volunteers, and you 

 might have heard of the deplorable death of the most famous Dr. 

 Frank on the battlefield. All socialists have proven that they stand 

 in full force behind the emperor who is now loved more by his people 

 than ever before, because he has shown that he wanted peace, but 

 was compelled to enter the war. It will be proven that all our ad- 

 versaries have conspired against Germany more than ten years. 



Nature itself is with us, as there never before has been such a 

 splendid crop, and we now have food stuff products here in our conn- 

 try to last us more than eighteen months without being compeUed 

 to import a single bushel. Also, our cattle are in fine shape and we 

 get plenty of other products fjom Holland and- other neutral states. 

 The prices of meat have gone down from ten to thirty per cent 

 since the beginning of the w.ir, also the prices on eggs and butter 

 which clearly shows that there arc ample supplies. Our big factories 

 and steel works are all running although with diminished forces. 

 We have now fast trains running through the entire empire on their 

 regular schedule. There is no sign of the war within the boundaries 

 of Germany now, with the exception of the wounded soldiers who pass 

 through enroute to the hospitals, and the large number of prisoners 

 who are now employed cultivatuig the soil. 



We do not need to import a minimition ; on the contrary we can 

 supply the whole world with this product. In fact, our factories 

 have supplied previously ' our adversaries with a great number of 



guns, rifles, etv. It is the general opinion that Germany can stand 

 this situation longer than any of her adversaries, as we have now 

 occupied large foreign territories viz: entire Belgium, northern part 

 of France and part of the Baltic provinces of Kussia. This gives 

 us all the supply of lumber, corn, etc., we possibly might want. The 

 German industry is not dependent so much on the export business, 

 while on the other hand the outer world is much interested in our 

 products, for instance, the chemical products, dyes, etc. Many indus- 

 tries in the United States, England, Italy, etc., have come to a 

 standstill on account of their not being able to get the chemical prod- 

 ucts from Germany. Both France and England are now in a very 

 bad financial state. France has tried in vain to place a loan in 

 America and England, while Germany has shown itself vable to ob- 

 tain all the money it needs within its own boundaries. In spite of 

 the war loan etc., money can be Vjorrowed here at the rate of three 

 and one-half to four per cent. 



We might add that the Auslrians have succeeded in crushing 

 Servia, while near Lemberg, on the Russian frontier, the Russians 

 have been beaten twice. One part of the Austrian army had to 

 fight against a far superior force and there the battle has come 

 to a standstill. This army is reinforced now. Altogether we all 

 know that we must win and therefore we will win, and all reports 

 saying that the general opinion is not bent upon this purpose and 

 that we have weakened are utterly false. 



^ ro7Si>5^s^;A:;MAo^ffi.Am^^^ 



Why Smith Stays on the Road 



For some time there has been a suspicion, which has been crystal- 

 lized in occasional complaints, that too many lumber salesmen are 

 on the road. Now it is the buyer who complains, because too much 

 of his valuable time is taken up by the knights of the grip; and 

 then the manufacturer or wholesaler, looking over the expense 

 accounts of his salesmen, and figuring selling costs on a footage 

 basis, begins to scratch his bald spot and wonder whether, after all, 

 it pays to contribute so largely to the revenues of the railroads and 

 the hotels of the country. 



There are some concerns, especially in the hardwood business, 

 which have no selling organizations to speak of. Most of their 

 production is disposed of by mail, and they are among those who 

 believe that salesmen are "lingering superfluous" on the business 

 stage, and could be dispensed with just as well as not, if everybody 

 had a mind to take this step. And yet the salseman is still here. 



As a matter of fact, the lumber salesman is a good deal like the 

 retail yard man: he represents an expense, but it is an expense that 

 can't be avoided. The hardwood people who try to sell all their 

 lumber to the factories direct, without the interposition of salesmen, 

 come to the end of their rope in a good many cases, just as do those 

 who try to run a mail order lumber business which doesn't take the 

 yard man in the retail centers into account. There has got to be a 

 middleman — in the ease of factory business the salesman, and in the 

 case of building stock, the retailer. 



The necessity of having salesmen to look after the business of 

 consuming manufacturers is being effectively demonstrated just at 

 present, when there is a lull in business caused by the new conditions 

 brought into being by the European war. The houses with salesmen 

 on the road are getting some business ; not as much as usual, to be 

 sure, but still some; while those who have no road men are on starva- 

 tion rations, and are finding that the mail is very slim and scanty, 

 and that orders are as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. 



All of which goes to show that the salesman can do things which 

 can 't be accomplished in any other way. 



Take the tyjiical ease of the furniture manufacturer who is won- 

 dering whether he is going to be able to move the finished goods he 

 has piled up in his warehouse, and whether the retailers are going to 

 cancel the orders they gave him before the war broke out. His 

 frame of mind is unfavorable to anybody who has goods to sell. He 

 is uncertain, moody, uncomfortable mentally and perhaps physically, 



because, when one feels out of joint with the world, digestion fails 

 to wait on appetite. The mental outlook has a good deal to do with 

 the flow of the gastric juices, and the man who is not on good terms 

 with his stomach is a hard nut for the salesman to crack. 



Assume that this consumer gets a letter or two or three from hard- 

 wood concerns, all wanting to sell him the best lumber in the coun- 

 try at the lowest prices ever quoted on such unusually high-grade 

 stock. Of course, he sits down and starts a letter to each of them, 

 stating briefly, but succinctly, ' ' You may sliip me at once, ' ' etc. 

 Yes, he docs, not. As a matter of fact, the chances are that the 

 letters go into the waste-basket, along with the circular from the 

 bond house which he used to patronize occasionally, and the form 

 letter from the glue concern which has a new blend to offer at three 

 cents a ])ound less than it is worth. He is simply on the bear side of 

 the market — and he is likely to stay there until somebody turns the 

 war clouds inside out and shows him that they possess, really and 

 truly, silver linings. 



But just then there is a cheerful voice in the outer office, and the 

 bookkeeper pokes his head in and says, "Mr. Smith of the Bungtown 

 Lumber Company wants to see you. ' ' 



Now Smith is an old friend. He has been dropping around and 

 selling ears of the Bungtown company's hardwood lumber for a good 

 many years, and the kicks have been no more numerous or severe on 

 his lumber than on that coming from elsewhere, so, other things being 

 equal, the furniture man would just as soon give Smith an order as 

 the next man. Now, of course, he would no more buy hardwood 

 lumber than he would fly ; but there is no reason why he shouldn 't 

 pass the time of day with Smith. 

 In comes Smith. 



There is a smile on his face, and the smoke from a panatela is 

 wreathing his head like an aureole. As they shake hands and he sits 

 down, his hand mechanically goes to his upper left hand vest pocket, 

 and another panatela comes forth, which the lumber buyer as 

 mechanically takes, dehorns and lights. (All this goes into the 

 expense account, and thence into the overhead expense charge; but 

 why should the buyer worry? Answer: he doesn't.) 



Smith doesn't immediately get out his order book an<l ask his 

 friend the furniture man to present him with his autograph ; which, 

 by the way, is the action which has been required of him by the sales 

 letters which have just been dimiped by the office boy. He is too 



