16 



HAKDWOOD RECORD 



Opening for Woodworking Machinery 



MANUFACTURERS OF -WOODWORKING MACHINERY in 

 the United States ought to be able to read the signs of the 

 times. They aUeady have prettj complete control of the market 

 on this side of the sea, but there is a large field elsewhere in which 

 gains in trade are possible. The Russians ai-e large users of such 

 machinery, but they are not extensive manufacturers of it. Hereto- 

 fore they have bought almost exclusively from German manufacturers 

 of such machines. Germany was a near neighbor; the machines were 

 satisfactory; and the Germans pushed their sales successfully. Amer- 

 icans were able to sell some machines in Russia, but no substantial 

 foothold has yet been gained in that country. 



A profound change has occurreil. It is no fault of American manu- 

 facturers that trade between Germany and Russia has come to a 

 standstill; but it would be foolishness not to make the most of op- 

 portunities wliich fortune and misfortune have turned our way. Ir- 

 respective of whether Germany wins or loses in the war, it is bound 

 to lose much of its maeliinery business in Russia. Years wiU pass 

 before the animosities engendered by the war will die out and trade 

 resume its former channels. Russia is already inviting the 

 United States, in a business way, and our manufacturers and mer- 

 chants should speedily accept the invitation. The route from San 

 Francisco and Seattle to \Tadivostok, and thence across Siberia to 

 Kuropean Russia, is open. Russia has called our attention to the fact; 

 and the business men of the United States are welcome to all the 

 advantages of that route while Russia 's Baltic ]iorts are closed. 



It is an opportunity which may never come again. Many products 

 of the United States will find markets in Russia, and no line has 

 • a better opportunity than woodworking machinery. The Russians are 

 large users and they are able to buy. No better machines are made 

 than those which Americans have to offer. When they have gained .an 

 entrance they will never lose gimmd. 



The Cover Picture 



THERE ARE FEW LUMBERMEN in the hardwood regions of the 

 United States who are not familiar with scenes very similar to 

 ■ that furnishing the subject of the picture on the front cover of this 

 issue of Hardwood Record. It is not a sawmill or a timber-cutting 

 scene. Nothing in the picture indicates that a samnill exists anywhere 

 in the vicinity; yet it shows a common situation in many country dis- 

 tricts. The fact that it is a common situation makes it interesting. 

 It is not necessary to state the location or give the name of the place. 

 It might be situated almost anywhere east of the Mississippi, north 

 of the Ohio and the Potomac rivers, or it fits conditions very well in 

 many parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and the contig- 

 uous mountain regions, and almost every person acquainted in those 

 parts of the country can recall that he has seen something very like 

 this picture, if not the identical scene represented in this photograph. 

 It is a hardwood tract, and some softwood trees are mixed with 

 the hardwoods. Such trees resemble hemlock, though they are too 

 far away for that point to be definitely determined, and it does not 

 matter much, anyway. It is autumn — after the first severe frosts and 

 before the first heavy snow. That fact is shown by the few adhering 

 bunches of leaves which are seen on the sour apple tree which per- 

 forates the store porch. A snow would have brought the leaves down. 

 The pale shadows falling across the road betray the sun's struggles in 

 shining through haze. 



The architecture and surrounding embellishments are typical of the 

 country. The store's "stair-steps" gable is characteristic. It was 

 built with the idea that it was ornamental. The pile of horse shoe 

 kegs is characteristic also. They are stacked out of doors to economize 

 room inside; and their presence, month in and month out, is a com- 

 mentary on the honesty of the people of that neighborhood. No thief 

 steals them. The picket fence is utilized as a hitching rack for 

 horses and mules; and that, too, is a typical arrangement in country 

 districts. The countrymen who are gathered about the store are 

 posed in slouchy attitudes for a picture. The purpose of the slouch 

 is to convey the impression that he feels perfectly at home in the 

 presence of the photographer who has chanced to pass that way. 



Such is the visible situation. The photograph does not show every- 

 thing. There may not be much that is artistic in the scene. It is 

 extremely commonplace and prosaic; yet it is part of America's rural 

 life. Such places are becoming social and intellectual centers more 

 speedily than one might suppose. The extension of the rural mail 

 routes, with the parcel post added, is rapidly bringing changes for 

 the better in places like this. They used to be loafing headquarters 

 for idlers who gathered there to swap yarns with kindred spirits, 

 with no profit to anybody. That custom is changing. Instead of the 

 arrival of mail once or twice a week as formerly, it now comes every 

 day. People who formerly never saw a daily paper, are now sub- 

 scribers, and the papers reach them only a few hours after they are 

 in the hands of city subscribers. The farmers are now reading agricul- 

 tural journals, and their farms show the result; and the women folks 

 and the children have their papers also, and better conditions rapidly 

 multiply in the rural districts, and the isolation of the people is disap- 

 pearing. 



Ramshackle, unpainted shanties, like those in the picture, may begin 

 counting their numbered days. They will disappear in the march of 

 better things. The surrounding farmers who drop in there for their 

 daily papers, left by the rural mail carrier, will bring an influence to 

 bear on the storekeeper which will induce him to fix up his premises. 

 Ho will be persuaded that the "intellectual center" of the neighbor- 

 hood should put on a better appearance. A hitching rack on the other 

 side of the road will relieve the pressure on the picket fence; two 

 hundred feet of weather boarding and a keg of paint will transform 

 the store front; five hundred feet of good lumber will supply a new 

 porch; and room inside the building will be found for the unsightly 

 kegs of horseshoes. 



Your Friend the Tree 



SENTIMENT IN BUSINESS is not usually given consideration 

 by the "hard-headed" business man. At least he will not admit 

 that sentimental considerations enter into his scheme of reasoning 

 or influence him one iota in the course he pursues to earn a sustenance. 

 At the same time sentiment actually is a power, the force of which 

 while not discernible or at least not measureable, is existent and is 

 felt in business as well as in social and home life. 



Many a lumberman who has, througli diligent application and hard 

 work, earned the privilege of comparative inactivity in the administra- 

 tion of the affairs of his business, loves to get back to the mill, and 

 out among the woods operations; he loves to get into his old clothes, 

 to experience again the " feel " of the axe handle, of the rough 

 board, and to sell the fresh lumber as it comes from the "band." 



However, if you were to ask him just why he enjoys these trips, he 

 would most likely tell you that he likes to keep in touch with the 

 operations; he likes to know what is going on, and how the boys 

 are making out. But if you were to know his innermost thoughts 

 you would find that those little trips are inspired by sentiment. While 

 he has made his "pile" and is living luxuriously among his metro- 

 politan friends, the call of the woods returns to him frecjuently. He 

 feels that he must get out into the open. He loves not only the free, 

 healthy life, but he longs for a sight of his trees. 



He perhaps was born in the woods, or at least near the woods. He 

 was brought up with the trees as neighbors. As he became older and 

 of greater affluence, he acquired those trees as his personal property, 

 and he has always felt for them a sense of almost personal affection. 

 He has held theii' ages and their majestic disdain of the petty troubles 

 of man in deep respect, and ho has ordered their felling perhaps with 

 an unconsciously felt apology to them for something which the de- 

 mands of mankind compels him to do against his will. 



However, when the exigencies of his new existence call him back 

 to the more artificial surroundings into which he has settled in his 

 later years, the commercial appeal becomes uppermost. In his city 

 office the appeal of the dollar is much stronger in his mind than the 

 appeal of the woods. When a period of depression strikes him he 

 is embarrassed temporarily for want of ready cash to maintain the 

 prestige which he has built around his name. His assets are tied 

 up in lumber, the remains of his old friends. Ho finds his market 

 restricted and weakened, and feeling that he m-ust have the cash he 

 gives orders to fell the trees and to meet any price to make sales. 



