JlNE 10, 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



ernment contractors in offering fabulous wages to workmen, Secre- 

 tary Pritchard was instructed to draft resolutions protesting against 

 the action of government contractors in using tlio sanction of the 

 government in inserting advertisements in the daily papers offer- 

 ing such high wages as to attract labor from one section to another, 

 with consequent detriment to the lumber industry and to all other 

 industries. Secretary Pritchard, in drafting these resolutions, will 

 keep iu mind that it is the sense of the association that labor should 

 be treated fairly and that nothing be said that will make it appear 

 that there is any desire on the part of members of the association 



to prevent workingmeu from selling their chief commodity— labor — 

 at the highest market price obtainable. 



President Jurden, in connection with the discussion regarding 

 e.vportation of wliito oak, said that the war trade board had been 

 advised that there is a great deal of low grade white oak available 

 for use in Canada and this country not suitable for exportation 

 overseas and that, in order that lumber manufacturers may profit- 

 ably operate on this wood, it is necessary that an outlet be had 

 for the lower grades. 



The meeting then adjourned. 



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•5^ Dimension Manufacturers Organize ^ 



Immediately following adjournnii'Mt of the semi iiiuuial of the 

 American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association at Memphis, Tenn., 

 Saturday, May 25, dimension manufacturers from Tennessee, 

 Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas nu-t and formally organized a 

 dimension department of tliat lunly, with eleven members as 

 follows: 



I. I. (iunn, Beans Creek, Tcnn. ; U. T. Bvigs, Memphis ; West-Bass 

 Lumber Company, CoffcevlIIe, Miss., by J. H. West : John V. Wright, 

 Bolivar. Tenn. ; Thomas J. Turner, Grenada, Miss. ; J. .\. Harrison, Jones- 

 boro, Ark. ; John L. Mllner, Grenada, Miss. ; E. D. Biggs, Talco, Tex. ; 

 Lynch Lumber Company, Jonesboro, Ark., hy B. G. Lynch ; "Hickory" 

 Jones Company. Lufkln. Tex., by Arthur (Hickory) Jones; R. L. Muse 

 Lumber Company, Walnut Ridge. Ark., by R. li. Muse. 



These gentlemen chose the following governing committee: R. L. 

 Muse, chairman; Arthur (Hickory) Jones of Texas, representing 

 hickory; T. J. Turner of Arkansas, representing ash; J. V. Wright 

 of Tennessee, representing oak, and J. H. West of Mississippi, repre- 

 senting the other woods from which dimension stock is manufac- 

 tured. 



These gentlemen held a brief conference during which they dis- 

 cussed ways and means of increasing the membership of this depart- 

 ment. It is the idea of the governing committee and those who 

 have identified themselves with this department to bring iu just 

 as many dimension manufacturers as possible. A committee on 

 membership will be appointed in the immediate future and other 

 committees will likewise be named to take up other work that must 

 be done if the department is to be put on an effective basis. 



The gentlemen who have already joined the department will pay 

 an initiation fee of $25 and they will likewise pay the assessment 

 of 3 cents on their cut, log scale measure, to help defray the general 

 expenses of the association. The governing committee of the 

 department, however, will determine the extent of the assessment, 

 if any, to be levied on the cut of members of this department for 

 the purpose of advertising and trade extension work in behalf of 

 dimension stock. This assessment will be determined in due course. 

 C. L. Harrison of Cape Girardeau, Mo., chairman of the advertising 

 committee of the association, urged that the governing committee 

 fix a liberal assessment so that advertising and trade extension 

 work in behalf of their output might be carried along on a proper 

 scale. 



R. L. Muse, as chairman of the governing committee for this 

 department, becomes automatically a member of the advertising 



' committee. Members of the association who are now producing 

 dimension stock in considerable volume will, since this department 

 has been organized, autoraaticary become members thereof. 



The department has already actively begun work for the govern- 



- ment. It has undertaken, at the request of the ordnance depart- 



■■ ment, to ascertain, as fully as possible, the amount of spoke billets 

 and rim strips available in the South for the manufacture of 

 artillery wheels. In securing this information it will seek the 



' cooperation of every dimension manufacturer in the territory cov- 

 ered by the association. 



This makes the fourth department within the association, the 

 others being the oak, gum and rotary veneer. 



The new departnicnt will have the active aid of the association 

 and the feeling among those who have joined the department 

 already is that the hardwood dimension business will shortly bo on 

 as uniform and as substantial basis as that of other hardwood 

 products'. Efforts heretofore to organize the dimension industry 

 have not been particularly succesi8''ul, but, with the backing of such 

 an active, aggressive and efficient organization as the American 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, members of the department 

 feel that the outlook is quite attractive. 



Agree on Price for Requisitioned Lumber 



Although the matter affects largely yellow pine, it is of interest 

 to the entire trade to state that, after months of effort, representa- 

 tives of the Baltimore yardmen, together with those in other cities 

 of the East, have at last succeeded in reaching an agreement with 

 the government in regard to the prices which shall be allowed for 

 stocks commandeered by the military and other authorities for war 

 and related uses. Ever since last December the negotiations have 

 continued, and several times they seemed to bo just on the verge 

 of a satisfactory outcome when something occurred to delay or 

 prevent a settlement. The question at issue was in the main one 

 as to the overhead charges, on which point the ideas of officials 

 at Washington and the yardmen differed widely, so widely, in 

 fact, that the allowance made on some of the stocks requisitioned 

 was about ten dollars under the price which the yardmen declared 

 it would cost them to replace the lumber so withdrawn. Govern- 

 ment auditors made two investigations here, but each time their 

 findings were contested by the yardmen as giving no consideration 

 to various important items of expense. Under the agreement now 

 reached, the government will allow on all lumber requisitioned 

 the government mill base plus freight and plus allowance for over- 

 head, and a profit subject to agreement by the Baltimore district. 

 This aggregate price is about the same as for Philadelphia and 

 lower than for New York and Boston. Replacement of stocks with 

 similar lumber is also provided for. Under the new arrangement 

 the Baltimore yardmen have withdrawn from the National Lumber 

 Emergency Bureau at Washington and have established here what 

 is known as the Baltimore Retail Lumber Emergency Bureau, with 

 headquarters in the National Marine Bank building, Baltimore. 

 Ridgeway Merryman, a former president of the Baltimore Lumber 

 Exchange, is in charge. The delegation which worked diligently 

 to bring about this result was headed by Pembroke M. Womble. 



The yellow pine folks have found that in dry kiln work it pays 

 to separate the select lumber from the common, to sort for lengths 

 and where practical to separate sap from heart to get the best re- 

 sults. Would something of this same kind in modified form not be 

 found advantageous in hardwood also? 



One of the results of the comparatively wide-spread use of spray- 

 ing machines for varnish is that now some of the leading varnish 

 concerns make a varnish especially thin for use in spraying ma- 

 chines w'ithout further treatment or thinning down. 



