16 



HARDWOOD RECOKU 



June 10. 1918 



the country out of Chicago. Here's the written quotation of one 

 of them — $3 lower than your figure. I guess you know him, too." 



Lumberman: "Gosh, that man must be crazy. He hasn't more 

 than three or four cars of that stock and he surely has plenty of 

 money to carry it with. The convention trip must have cost him 

 more than he expected, or else he just naturally hates to go back 

 home without any orders in his pocket. ' ' 



Buyer: "That may be true; nevertheless, that's what I can buy 

 the stuff for." 



Lumberman (who has backbone as well as vision): "You say 

 you have already had sixteen calls from men from my part of the 

 country today? I guess I will have to think this over a little bit, 

 but I assure you that I cannot afford to sell that lumber at that 

 price." 



Lumberman (to himself a little later in the hotel): "I never 

 paid much attention to this psychology stuff, but I guess it's work- 

 ing on all cylinders aroqnd these parts right now. Here we dump 

 three or four hundred lumbermen in the middle of the same terri- 

 tory all at once and every man has the same desire of lining up a 

 few orders before he goes home. The buyer who does not wait for 

 the pickings sure doesn't earn his money. My lumber is good 

 property and is worth every cent of the price I ask. I think I 

 will wait for the convention salesmen to get through distributing 

 their presents and by then maybe the excitement will be over and 

 I can get a fair price for my stock. I hope some of the other fel- 

 lows will think a bit before they get too far from home. I wonder 

 what time that train goes back South." 



Trade Acceptance a National Issue 



NOT ONLY IS THE PEESENT ACTIVITY in favor of trade 

 acceptance as a means of commercial settlement an indication 

 of the excellence of that method of handling business but the very 

 nature of those documents leaves no room for doubt with any fair- 

 minded individual as to the desirability of their being used na- 

 tionally. Trade acceptances are not an innovation but have long 

 been the established form of settlement in European commercial 

 circles. They have been in existence in this country for some 

 years past, but their use has never been so practicable as at present 

 in the absence of the proper financial system for handling them. 



Any present-day business man who opposes the trade acceptance 

 condemns his own business methods and classifies himself as against 

 not only progress in commercial practice but as against the best 

 interests of the country. It is perfectly obvious that idle money 

 is a direct burden on the national structure. It is accurately esti- 

 mated that the idle money resulting from open accounts runs far 

 into the billions of dollars. As the trade acceptance among its 

 other accomplishments would entirely eliminate this drag, opposi- 

 tion to this form of settlement is reactionary and eventually will 

 be proven futile. 



It is probably the usual human inertness rather than direct op- 

 position that is holding the trade acceptance back as always there 

 must be some who point the way and others who follow, but any 

 man who is not among the active leaders for the general use of 

 trade acceptances can perform just as important a part in bringing 

 about this desirable custom by stepping in line quickly rather than 

 waiting to be forced in by general custom. 



Fuller Information Desirable 



BOY SCOUTS HAVE BEEN APPEALED TO by the govern- 

 ment to join in the search for walnut trees. More are needed 

 than are in sight, and the need is great. No one supposed that the 

 walnut timber of the country was plentiful, and the acute shortage, 

 after four years of extraordinary demand, does not come as a sur- 

 prise. 



Suppose an extraordinary demand should arise for ash, or birch, 

 or maple, or elm, of certain grades. Could the demand be satis- 

 fied? We have had general estimates of the quantity of timber 

 of these species in the country, but no one claims that these esti- 

 mates are more than general guesses, supplemented by a few cruises 



here and there. Should the call come, as the war goes on, for large 

 quantities of certain grades of any of these woods, what would 

 be the answer? 



This is not a foolish question. Such a contingency might very 

 well arrive. It came to the southern pine people in the demand 

 for ship timbers of large size. They supposed they had enough, 

 but they found out that they were short in the particular grade 

 wanted. Then they began to search the pine forests, only to dis- 

 cover that they could not find enough of the large timbers. A rush 

 order from the Pacific coast filled the gap with Douglas fir. 



A similar situation arose when the call came for spruce for air- 

 planes. High grades only would suffice, and one of the liveliest 

 searches in the history of the lumber business began. Supplies 

 have been found, but strenuous effort was necessary. 



The demands for other woods for war purposes have thus far 

 been met; but who can tell how long the supply will hold out? 

 The stock of locust for treenails is almost as short as walnut for 

 gunstocks and propellers. It is the part of wisdom to begin to look 

 about and to look ahead to see whether some other essential wood 

 is not in danger of depletion. It should be borne in mind that in 

 many instances none but extra high grades will do; and a great 

 deal of the run of the mill must pass down the grading chains in 

 order to secure what is demanded. For that reason, it is mislead- 

 ing to conclude that a certain grade is abundant because the 

 quantity of standing timber of that species seems large. 



It is known that very serious thought is being given to this 

 feature of the problem by persons connected with the government. 

 The question is: How much lumber of certain grades can be cut 

 of certain species? In trying to answer that question, the fact 

 soon becomes apparent that statistics are vague. Two or three 

 censuses of standing timber in the country have been made, such 

 as they were; but exact details are lacking. No one appears to 

 have definite, practical knowledge of how much of particular grades 

 of ash, oak, birch, beech, chestnut, elm, poplar, Cottonwood, or of 

 other needed woods can be cut in this country or in particular sec- 

 tions. 



Most holders of timber know about what they have; but this in- 

 formation is too scattered to be made immediately available to the 

 government. It will take time to get it together, merely for totals; 

 and after that it vidll be necessary to work out schedules to show 

 liow much of the various grades can be cut. It is not so much a 

 knowledge of totals as of particular grades that is wanted in this 

 emergency. 



It has long been customary with some persons to ridicule statis- 

 tics and to ask what is the use of collecting figures on this, that, 

 and the other matter. The present emergency is the best answer. 

 How much would it be worth to the government today to know 

 that there will be enough wood of needed grades to meet our war 

 needs, and where this material is, and what regions can furnish it 

 in the shortest time? The war has opened the eyes of the American 

 people to a good many things not clearly seen before, and one of 

 them is the value of adequate and correct information concerning 

 our material resources. 



Red gum has always properly belonged in the cabinet world, yet 

 it has taken considerable dressing up and parading to get it there. 

 Having arrived, however, it is now one of the active leaders of 

 the procession, and promises to stay in the game. 



One of the noticeable features in the efforts to promote yellow 

 pine for interior finish is to finish in what is termed weathered oak, 

 Flemish oak, etc. Without posing as a knocker one might rise to 

 remark, "why not use oak itself and get the real thing instead of 

 the imitation?" 



One of the serious handicaps to our export trade to many of the 

 Latin-American countries is high duties and irksome customs regu- 

 lations. Gradually these are being improved somewhat but there 

 is still room for much improvement, which will do more than any- 

 thing else to encourage a larger trade. 



i 



