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Lumher Merchandizing Ideas 



About sixty men prominently and directly connected with the manu- 

 facture an<l merchandizing of lumber met at the Hotel LaSalle, Chi- 

 cago, on Thursday, December 17, for a preliminary conference, the 

 purpose of which was the launching, along concrete and definitely 

 specified lines, of a campaign to meet the issue presented by the en- 

 croachments of so-called substitutes of wood in many lines. The pur- 

 pose of the meeting was fully realized, and such a movement lias been 

 started on a basis which practically insures accomplifhment with the 

 complete moral and financial support of every one interested. 



On motion J. K. Rhodes. Chicago, secretary and manager of the N;i 

 tional Lumber Manufacturers' Association, was elected chairman, and 

 Adolph Pfund of Milwaukee, Wis., secretary of the Wisconsin Retail 

 Lumber Dealers' Association, was elected secretary. 



The theme of the meeting was clearly set forth in a very able in- 

 troductory address by Mr. Rhodes, topics to come up for consideration 

 being: 



Building codes. 



Comnarison of cost of lumher and competitive niaterliils. 

 Invcstisation as to the comparative vahic of frame construction and 

 competitive construction for fire resistance, and the creation of a fair im- 

 pression of tbe public's mind on this question. 



Investigation as to expenditure and methods of advertising competitive 

 materials. 



Determination of such places and conditions under which luml)er as .i 

 <onstruition material is not desirable. 



Definite plan.s for limiting the activity of the enemies of wooden shingles, 

 showing exactl.v where the wooden shingle can be used safely and where it 

 should not be used. 



Educational campaien tending to give the general public definite infor- 

 mation as to the utility of wood. 



The formation of a committee to draw up a definite plan of advertising 

 to put the movement on a broad basis. 



Tbe establishment of a definite means of raising funds by assessment 

 of associations accorditg to size. 



Dr. Herman Von Sehrenek of St. Louis, consulting engineer of the 

 National Lumber Manufacturers' Afsoeiation, said that the ques- 

 tion of -jpeciflc fitness is now uppermost. He said that lumber 

 is sold too much as a raw material and is not refined to a 

 sufBcient degree to make it a commodity marketable along the lines 

 of modern merchandising. He maintained that the only successful 

 way of promoting the utilization of wood is honest statements show- 

 ing just where it should be used and just where it should not be used. 

 He cited as an illustiation supporting this contention the action of 

 salesmen at the cement shows. These men are busily engaged in ex- 

 —28— 



plaining the .ause of failures in concrete construction. They do not 

 attempt to deny that failures exist, but attempt to show with scien- 

 tific data they have at hand just why these failures occur and how 

 they are traced to defective workmanship. 



He cited three defects which admittedly stand against wood con- 

 struction, namely, that it is not strong enough for ceitain uses, that 

 it eventually decays and that it burns, maintaining that the biggest 

 problem is to establish the proper utilization of wood so that it will 

 not be put to uses which lead up to these results. He said that the 

 future use of wood depends upon its strength, or rather upon putting 

 it on such a basis that definite fjuantities of wood can be assigned to 

 a certain task; upon its cost and upon its fire resistance. He pre- 

 sented charts which he had presented Viefore a recent meeting of the 

 Western Society of Engineers in Chicago showing that for certain 

 purposes wood construction is actually cheaper and just as effective 

 us concrete or steel. Dr. Von Sehrenek cited the action of cypress 

 manufacturers as showing the unwisdom of claiming for wood qual- 

 ities which it does not possess. He said that this association has 

 come out definitely against the use of shingles in congested districts, 

 but on the other hand demands that they should be given a fair trial 

 in districts where congestion does not occur. Fire limits sh.ould be 

 based on scientific knowledge. 



He maintained that a fire resistant wood must be ultimately 

 worked out and said that lumber has a proper function to fulfill, but 

 that the only way to push the markets of lumber to a successful 

 degree is to talk specifically and without excessive claims. He main- 

 tained that lumber has enough good qualities to make extravagant 

 claims and misstatements entirely unnecessary. 



The City Ret-mlei; 

 Julius Seidel of St. Louis said that the great trouVile with lumber- 

 men is that they are paying too much attention to competition for 

 individual orders and are not giving enough thought to broader phases 

 of the business, which will develop more trade for aJJ. He said the 

 trouble is that no one really wants to pay the money. He came out 

 strongly and definitely for what he aptly termed a pure food law for 

 lumber, which according to his explanation means that lumber should 

 be so manufactured and marketed that anybody buying lumber any- 

 where will know that he is getting exactly what he wants and that 

 he is paying a price really commensurate with the value of that par- 

 ticular kind of lumber. He cited specific cases in which certain 

 inferior woods are mixed with superior species, the result being 



