12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



considerable development, and of many progressive people, to suppose 

 that the picture represents a typical home of that country. It is 

 rather an extraordinary and unusual layout, one of the poorest in 

 surroundings and richest in population. It is a tjrpe occasionally 

 met with in the remote mountains, removed from highways and buried 

 in the wilderness. Civilization's hand has not yet been laid very 

 heavily upon some of those sequestered corners of the wild and free 

 mountain fastnesses. Appearances indicate that domestic industry 

 is somewhat neglected. Probably there is not a scrap of sawed lum- 

 ber in that cabin or in its surroundings. The broadax, frow, and 

 mallet, aided by a chopping axe and perhaps a crosscut saw, were 

 the tools which wrought the woodwork of that house and fence. Hap- 

 piness and shiftlessness reign there supreme. Wliat do those contented 

 people care for business depression, national politics, or international 

 war? What does intervention in Mexico mean for them? 



In spite of unfavorable surroundings, those people are not stupid, 

 dull, or criminal. The traveler in those remote retreats is often sur- 

 prised to hear words which became obsolete in the English language 

 one or two hundred years ago. The ancestors of people like those in 

 the picture brought the words from England before the days of 

 Bishop Asbury. They settled in these mountains, drove the Indians 

 out, and there they have lived, secluded from the rest of the world, 

 ever since. Some of the culture brought with them has remained 

 with their descendants as a sort of tradition. A century and a half 

 of isolation narrowed their view of the world, but it intensified their 

 character. They are descended from the best stock of Europe, and 

 they show it in spite of the adverse conditions under which they have 

 live<l so long. 



The cavalry under General Averell in the Civil war was largely 

 made up of men from this region, and it became .iustly famous for 

 rapidity of movement among the mountains and tireless perseverance. 

 When the Confederates burned Chanibersburg, Pa., these were the men 

 sent in pursuit, and though they rode their horses to death, they over- 

 took McCausland 's army after chasing it through three states, and 

 cut it to pieces at Moorefield. Later, when Burnsides was besieged 

 at Knoxville, Tenn., and it was believed that the only way to save 

 him was to cut the enemy 's line of communications, it was Averell 's 

 cavalry that was sent on the forlorn hope. Never was a feat more 

 courageously performed. Starting from the Maryland border on the 

 upper Potomac river, the cavalry rode four hundred miles, crossing the 

 whole range of the Appalachian mountains in dead of winter with 

 cold so intense that cattle froze to death in the fields, and struck the 

 railroad at Salem, Va., burnt bridges and tore up sixteen miles of 

 track, and escaped across the mountains in spite of four armies 

 maneuvered to effect its capture. Knoxville 's siege was raised. 



Off the subject, perhaps; but the picture of the vincouth mountain 

 cabin and its family of twenty-two very naturally serves as a reminder 

 of the historical associations centering round these people and their 

 English, Scotch and German ancestors. 



The Value of Confidence 



A CONCRETE EXAMPLE of the value of confidence as a means 

 of stimulating business has been furnished in the last few 

 months on the island of Cj-prus in the Mediterranean sea. That 

 island was famous for its copper mines in ancient times. In fact, 

 our word copper is derived from the ancient name of that island, as 

 is likewise the word cypress, applied to a tree. 



The non-progressive Turks came into ])Ossession of the island more 

 than four hundred years ago, and during the whole period of their 

 ownership, the copper mines remained idle. Men who would have 

 developed them were afraid to make the necessary investment, because 

 no investment was safe where the Turks were in control. 



A few days after Turkey joined in the present war. Great Britain 

 took formal possession of Cyprus and announced that the occupation 

 was to be permanent. Results followed almost immediately. A few 

 days ago a consular report announced that an American company was 

 landing machinery on the island preparatory to developing the copper 

 resources. 



Confidence did it. Nobody had any confidence in the Turks, and 

 investors kept clear of the island during four hundred years; but 



within four months after the British annexed the island, arrange- 

 ments have been perfected and mining machinery is on the ground. 

 It is because experience has always shown that investments are safe 

 where the British are in control, and experience had also shown that 

 no investment was safe where the Turks were in power. 



This might be taken as a text for a sermon on the value of confi- 

 dence in general on business. There is about as much money in this 

 country at one time as at another; as many natural resources; as 

 much labor; but the amount of confidence varies enormously at dif- 

 ferent times. When it is plentiful, business booms; when it is slack, 

 capital holds back, just as copper miners kept away from Cyprus 

 whOe the proximity of the Turk made the future uncertain. Banish 

 business uncertainty from this country, as Great Britain bounced 

 the Turk out of Cyprus, and capital will immediately come out of its 

 hiding, and the wheels of industry will begin to turn immediately. 

 But how is it to be done? The American people seem to fear that 

 there is a "Turk" (a sort of phantom Turk under no particular 

 name) prowling around somewhere, and they hesitate to take chances. 



Looks for Peace in Chicago Strike 



IT IS ANNOUNCED that on Monday, March 22, an important step 

 was taken toward peace in the building industry in Chicago. 

 The Lumber Wagon Drivers' Union signed a truce with the em- 

 ployers, members of the Lumbermen's Association of Chicago, thus 

 eliminating 1,000 union teamsters as a possible factor in the threat- 

 ened tie-up. Officials of the painters' district council, whose con- 

 tracts expire April 1, state that the strike will be necessary to gain 

 their demands from contractors aUied with the Construction Em- 

 ployers' Association. They say they expect 11,000 men to walk out 

 April 1 where employers refuse to sign an agreement ratified last 

 week. The big contractors insist the mandate of the association and 

 of the building trades council shall be obeyed, and that the three 

 year no-strike agreement shall be accepted by the painters. 



So far no progress seems to be made toward a settlenfent of the 

 differences between 16,000 carpenters on structural work and their 

 employers, members of the Carpenter Contractors' Association. 

 Negotiations have not been renewed since the union by an almost 

 unanimous vote rejected the employers' terms of a three-year peace 

 without increase in pay under the uniform agreement for arbitration 

 of all differences. The union is renewing its demand for seventy 

 cents an hour. The men have been getting sixty-five cents. 



Two Methods of Gaining 



GAINS IN LUMBER SELLING may be attained in two ways: 

 by selling more without increase of price, or by selling the same 

 quantity at a better price. Cypress is usually considered the most 

 advertised wood in America, and advertising must be profitable, or 

 the cypress people would not keep at it. The cut of cypress lumber 

 has not increased much in recent years, and the profit which encour- 

 ages the advertisers to keep on advertising must come from increased 

 prices. It is better to realize more money without increasing the 

 sales than to take in the same amount of money by selling more 

 lumber. By so doing, the supply will last longer and bring more 

 money. 



It may not be easy to prove just what effect the vigorous campaign 

 of advertising has had on the sales and prices of cypress, because it 

 cannot be positively affirmed what that wood's status on the market 

 would now be if no advertising had been done; but it is a significant 

 fact that cypress rates higher in millyard value than any other soft- 

 wood in America, and it is worth more in the yard than most hard- 

 woods. It may be that advertising did not give it this value, but it 

 looks very much as if it did. 



It might be sujiposed that extensive advertising would cause a larger 

 output of a wood, but that has not been the result with cypress. 

 Higher value without increased output has been the visible result — 

 more money for the same amount of lumber. In other words, the 

 effect of advertising seems to show itself in price rather than in 

 quantity. 



Most probably a radical change has taken place in the use of this 

 wood, as a result of the wide publicity given it. It is likely that the 



