

HARDWOOD RECORD 



?5b 



which he had collected to show the cost of lumber. The purpose 

 in presenting the figures was to show that facts are available td 

 prove beyond doubt that prices charged private buyers are 

 reasonable. 



Victor M. Scaulon of Mississippi, L. C. Boyle of Kansas City, 

 T. J. Bradley of Brook Hazel, Miss., and others took part in the 

 debate. A conclusion was finally reached when a resolution was 

 passed to appoint the whole board of directors as a committee to 

 .■CI til Washington in Juno when the proposal to fi.x prices for private 

 -iimers will come up for action. 



i v\o United States army officers addressed the meeting on the 



subject of lumber supplies and oars for transportation. The belief 

 was expressed that cars for moving lumber will be available in 

 fairly adequate numbers, and that embargoes will not be so vexa- 

 tious as ill the past. .\ man will be placed in Xew Orleans and 

 another iu Jucksonville whose special duty it will be to hear com- 

 plaints on the car situation and provide relief as promptly as pos- 

 sible. It was believed by the speakers that it will not be long 

 before a lumberman who .ships his lumber to the government can 

 get his money in twenty days. 



The meeting adjourned Wednesday evening, ^lay 22, after a 

 three days. 



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•J^ Memphis Adopts ^eiv Sales Terms ^ 



' ;mber will, in future, be sold for cash or its nearest equivalent 

 M -mbers of the Lumbermen's Club of Memphis as a result of the 

 11 of that organization, at its last regular semi-monthly meet- 

 in adopting by unanimous vote the following report of the law 

 insurance committee covering the trade acceptance and uniform 

 ■^ of sale for lumber: 

 reconimciiU the adoption of the following terms by the membership 

 Lumbermen's Club of Memphis and that, so far as possible, the 

 " rshlp be requested Individually to use these terms: 

 - . per ci'Ut disiouut allowed if eighty per cent of the net amount 

 iiiitted on receipt of invoice, balance on receipt and inspection; or 

 lance for net amount due sixty days from date of invoice; no dis- 

 ' allowed on freight whether or not prepaid ; prices based on present 

 IIS rate of freight; any increase therein and federal war tax to be 

 •y purchaser. 

 w . also recommend that the Lumbermen's Club of Memphis take this 

 iii.ittir up with other lumbermen's clubs, and with the American Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' .\ssociatlon. Southern Pine .Association, Hardwood Manu- 

 facturers' AssocUition and National Hardwood Lumber Association, and 

 ask tbelr coiiperation In making these terms universal. 



The committee, in prefacing its report, said that it had found, 

 upon investigation, that practically all matcrals "classed as con- 

 struction materials," except lumber, are being sold for cash and 

 that it had likewise found a tendency on the part of lumbermen to 

 place the lumber industry on the same basis of settlement as steel, 

 lime, iron, cement, etc., "for the reason that in the manufacture 

 and sale of lumber a large percentage of its value is represented 

 in a cash outlay: First, in the cost of stumpage; second, in the cost 

 of cutting down, hauling and delivering the timber at the mill; 

 third, in the cost of manufacture of the lumber and placing it on 

 the yards, and, fourth, in loading it on cars." It further declared 

 that "each of these items requires a cash outlay and there is no 

 good reason why lumber should not be sold for cash." Continuing 

 it said: 



For the past ten years buyers have dictated both terms and prices, but 

 the time has now come when the lumberman should make his own terms 

 as well as prices ; and these terms should be the terms adopted by the 

 lumbermen generally, so far as possible. We find that quite a number 

 of members of the Lumbermen's Club of Memphis have already adopted 

 practically cash terms, and, while at first most of the buyers raised some 

 question and objection about the date from which the discount should be 

 allowed, and some buyers objected to the terms, as a whole the terms have 

 been accepted with very little objection. And we believe that, as they 

 generally come Into use, the objection to fixed terms of payment will become 

 less and less until they are finally accepted without objection or protest. 

 '^' I. S. B. Anderson of the Anderson-Tully Company spoke 

 u'ly in favor of adopting the recommendations of the com- 

 .', saying that, if the Lumbermen 's Club of Memphis blazed 

 iiic waj', other similar organizations would follow and that the 

 time would be materially hastened when the trade acceptance and 

 uniform terms of sale would be adopted by the entire hardwood 

 trade of the country. 



The club is very much interested in the trade acceptance and 

 desires further information in regard to its use, its functions and 

 its advantages. It therefore instructed the secretary to arrange 

 with the National Trade Acceptance Association to send a speaker 



to Memphis, to address members of this body, if possible, at the 

 next regular meeting, June 1. 



The house committee reported that the employment bureau main- 

 tained under its auspices had found positions with lumber firms 

 for fifty-five persons during April. This represented a material 

 decrease from the record for March, but it was explained that this 

 was due to lack of applicants and not to any falling off in the 

 number of positions to be filled or in the demand for help. The 

 committee also reported that eight cars of lumber had been sold 

 during April through the exchange maintained in the rooms of tip 

 club in the Chamber of Commerce building. 



J. D. Allen, Jr., was elected director from the Lumbermen's Chi I' 

 in the Chamber of Commerce, Memphis, for the ensuing' year. 



President McSwcyn appointed a large delegation to attend tlh 

 waterways convention at St. Louis, May 14-1.5, and in urging thu 

 appointees to go, he declared that the question of developing and 

 using the inland waterways of the country was one of the most 

 pressing matters before the lumber industry of the country because 

 of the handicap under which the railroads are laboring as a result 

 of insufficient cars and motive power. 



Six new members were elected as follows: J. C. Steele, I. M. 

 Darnell & Sons Company, Memphis; W. A. Milton Smith and 

 William N. Coulsqn, Coulson Lumber Company, Memphis; J. C. 

 Johnstone, Thane Lumber Company, Arkansas City, Ark.; Maurice 

 Welsh, Welsh Lumber Company, Memphis, and S. L. Harlow, Dudley 

 Lumber Company, Inc., Memphis. Three applications for member- 

 ship were- filed with the proper committee. The membership is 

 now nearing 200. 



Dues of active members were, by unanimous vote, increased to 

 $20 per annum and those of associate to $12.50. 



Members of the club were invited by John M. Pritchard to attend 

 the luncheon of the American Hardwood Manufacturers at the 

 Hotel Chisea next Saturday, May 25, on the occasion of the semi- 

 annual of that body. The club accepted, this invitation and for 

 this reason deferred its next meeting until June 1. 



Treenail Cost Advances 



The cost of locust suitable for treenails has advanced, as was to 

 have been expected. There was little demand for this material 

 before the war, and now the demand is so far ahead of the supply 

 that live oak and some other woods are being substituted for it. 

 Locust that sold for posts before the war at an equivalent of five 

 dollars a cord, now sells at from five to fifteen dollars, the advance 

 in the higher figure being 300 per cent. Only large and cleat 

 locust trunks are suitable for tree nails, and some locust still goes 

 to posts at the old price. It may be expected that the present 

 demand wll nearly deplete the available treenail stock of this wood 

 in the country; for the price is sufficient to bring trees out of 

 remote places. The range where locust grows is rather small, lying 

 chiefly among the mountain ranges south of Pennsylvania and 

 north of Georgia. 



