22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 25, 1918 



The Story of the Meeting 



The National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association held a 

 two days' session in Chi- 

 cago June 20 and 21. It 

 was the twenty-first annual 

 meeting, and the sessions 

 were held in the Congress 

 hotel. President John M. 

 "Woods called the meeting 

 to order and opened the ses- 

 sion at 10 o'clock. The cus- 

 tomary address of welcome 

 by the mayor of Chicago 

 was dispensed with in order 

 to save time, and after sing- 

 ing the national anthem and 

 the Marseillaise, the presi- 



proceeded at once to the delivery of his address, which follows 



very slight abridgment: 



dent 

 with 



President's' Address 



I want to sound a note of warning. Unless It is heeded, the govern- 

 ment ma.y step in and fix the price and inspection on your lumber and 

 mine. I believe, generally spealiing, that the asking price of hardwoods 

 is not out of proportion to the cost of production, but there is in some 

 quarters an impression that it is. Let us all be able, from our records, 

 to show the opposite. "He that raaketh haste to get rich, falleth into a 

 snare." Be wise in time and not kill the goose that lays the golden 

 egg. Be satisfied with a fair and reasonable profit. Don't let the impres- 

 sion obtain that the lumbermen of the nation are making the necessities of 

 the nation their opportunity. The first consideration is win the war. 



Inspection 



Our able inspection rules committee will submit for your consideration 

 rules for the inspection of what is generally known as bill material, such 

 as car stock and material along that line. A number of requests have 

 been made for these rules. In view of the many manufacturers and dealers 

 in this kind of material. I believe the report of the committee should be 

 adopted. We have rules for the inspection of mahogany. There are prob- 

 ably ten who make or handle this material to one who makes or handles 

 mahogany. It must be most gratifying to the present and past inspection 

 rules committees and all our membership that not a single request is 

 legally before us today for any changes in the present rules. I want to 

 publicly thank the rules committee and its able chairman. Large, fair, 

 able men have been in all the past, chairmen of this, the most important 

 committee, but none more able, fair and Just than the present chairman, 

 John W. McClure. 



Our association has justified its existence and demonstrated its useful- 

 ness when it has been able to formulate and put in practical operation, 

 a set of inspection rules tor hardwood lumber satisfactory to the United 

 .States government and its allies, and in safe bounds to ninety-five per 

 cent of the manufacturers, wholesalers and consumers of hardwood lumber. 



I received from T. M. Brown of Louisville, Ky., a circular letter signed by 

 thirty-eight individuals, firms and corporations, all able, representative 

 men in the hardwood industi\\'. V<>v finli (me of them I have the highest 

 personal regard. I read and n inni tli,' rir.iilar, so as to get the full gist 

 of what it means and said t ,^^•■ll in tin utmost good feeling and Chris- 

 tian spirit. What thp man s.iM .ii tlic IjuU that tried to stop an express 

 train: "I admire tli'ir' ..inia;;,., !„,i damn their judgment." 



Mr. Brown asked m. ti> wiir my consent to the use of my name on the 

 circular. To that r. .|"'-i I ^•li.l. im. Neither as president nor as a loyal 

 member of this association lould I t-ndorse anything that I believed was 

 against its best interests. If this petition, under the same conditions and 

 circumstances, were presented to either house of Congress, it would be 

 pigeon-holed and never see the light of day. Or, if presented to any legis- 

 lative body that I have been a member of, or know anything about, the 

 answer to it would be "Leave to withdraw." 



The speaker of the national House of Representatives said this on the 

 last day nf last month. ■Vou cannot change the rules to conform to any 



particular r,i - m-. ih.- speaker and all members of the house together, 



want to (111 i ! ) ,1 uut to have some kind of a standard on which to 



go." This a ., i,,ii.,,i la a standard in its constitution, by-laws and book 

 of rules. W ),. ], iia.i 1, solutions were written, evidently one thing was 

 forgotten. In .Massa. Imsitts, national inspection is a state law, and the 

 national inspector is a swfirn state officer. Every buyer of lumber can 

 have our inspci'tion if lif rcqiKsts it, and our courts have all decided that 

 lumber is what tin- ii.-|M.(,,i n.aK,.^ il, and nnl wbal ttir s.-II.t .-alls it; 

 and the seller ran .ml . ■ .li. . i ■ i- a -m . mmi a n.l i|iialii y .m ilir in^ia dor's 



certificate. No fivr m' : ■. hdimIk.I inm, ran di-rlnilLji' llir in-] tor. 



The governor of the i ..niiiion\Ma lih i- tl nl\' nmn wlio can. s<i as far as 



ere adopted here, they 



Full Discussion Desirable 



Your president has neither the desire nor inclination to prevent the 

 fullest discussion of these resolutions or any other matter relevant to the 

 association, but it appears to the chair that beyond a full and free dis- 

 cussion of this matter of the resolutions we cannot legally go. It has been 

 suggested that a committee be appointed to consider this matter in all 

 its hearing, and make a report as our by-laws provide, to the next annual 

 meeting. I shall not enter into a discussion of the merits or demerits of 

 the resolutions, leaving that part to our membership. It goes without 

 saying that a unification of all the hardwood interests, and one set of 

 inspection rules for all, is a most desirable thing to have. 



This association ot able, experienced men is the avenue by which these 



rcsnii- cai -.cured. The door is open under our constitution tor every 



Iciiiiinciii Ilia iinlaiturer and wholesale dealer in hardwoods. Once in a 

 whil.. «. liiai- tall; that the manufacturer or wholesaler is the whole thing. 

 One is just as important as the other, no more, no less ; both working 

 together in harmony are the whole thing. This association, with a mem- 

 bership probably as large as, or larger than, all other hardwood associa- 

 tions combined, with a definite fixed purpose that it has never shifted or 

 wavered from, knowing no section or class separate from any other section 

 or class, with quick assets abundant to finance all its operations and pay 

 its obligations, and a good balance always in the treasury, is it not a fair 

 infcr.'n.c. with all Iticsc facts and benefits in view, and twenty-one years 

 of sl.a.ly pr..Hth in nninl..rs and influence behind us, we should continue 

 in til.' luliir. a- in tin. past, to manage our own affairs, instead of dele- 

 gating; tlic anlli.irity t.. outsiders of whom we have no voice or vote in 

 their selection? Thi. way is open now, as it always has been. If changes 

 in anything connected with the association are desired by many or few of 

 our members, they have been made through the regular channels and in 

 accordance with our by-laws. Your president most respectfully says, it 

 would have been a courteous thing to do, before sending this petition to 

 every member of our association, to have consulted with its legally con- 

 stituted officers and the chairman of the inspection rules committee. 



Under the authority given last year to the president, he has kept close 

 watch on national legislation, especially in relation to labor legislation, 

 writing to senators and representatives that the lumber industry is essen- 

 tially in all its branches, an outdoor and fair weather business ; that as 

 the farmer can only make hay when the sun shines, jost so the lumberman 

 cannot haul his logs to mill or cars when heavy rains have made it impossi- 

 ble, and the same applies to shipping lumber or yard work ; and it seems 

 a fair proposition if men can be conscripted to be killed, they ought to be 

 conscripted to work. 



Men can legally organize to fix hours and price of labor, but if lumber- 

 men organize to fix the prices on lumber, a heavy fine or term in the 

 penitentiary awaits them. Labor unions when properly managed, are a 

 benefit, but if not, under unscrupulous leaders, they are a grave danger 

 and menace to the business and liberties of the nation. Of some of the 

 labor leaders a former mayor of Boston said, "They are laboring men who 

 never work." Their power largely consists in that they are supposed to 

 have and control votes. 



Taxation 



That the nation is doomed to pay high taxes in the future is inevitable. 

 President Wilson has decided that we need a new revenue bill, and the 

 ways and means committee has started promptly in its preparation. .\11 

 the news from Washington indicates its drive primarily against the big 

 income. It will be useless to object. The only thing we can do is to pay 

 our taxes and be as cheerful about it as possible. Monetary considerations 

 in tine are wholly secondary. Let us win the war by such devices as our 

 authorities decree, and when we have done so, then we can discuss among 

 ourselves the means of carrying the load down the long highway. 



Your president, with the consent of the executive committee, petitioned 

 congress to allow the excess profit and income taxes paid in quarterly 

 installments. This petition was presented in the Senate by Hon. Henry 

 Cabot Lodge, and in the house by Hon. J. W. Fordney. 



I want to call your particular attention to house bill 11599. introduced 

 by Representative McArthur of Oregon. "To prevent interstate commerce 

 in timber upon which labor has been permitted to work more than eight 

 hours and for other purposes." I have had printed 1.000 copies of the 

 bin, so that every member can read its provisions. I believe this associa- 

 tion should pass as emphatic resolutions against it as it is possible to write, 

 and I urge every member to write to his senators and representatives in 

 Congress, protesting against the passage of any such drastic, unnecessary, 

 unpatriotic legislation. 



Titanic as the present struggle in Europe appears, it is doubtful if its 

 decisions prove more momentous in their bearing on the progress of man- 

 kind than did the verdict ot Antietam and of Appomattox. We then 

 decided, comparatively frail and puny as were the instruments with which 

 on both sides we made the test, that this was to be an eternal republic, 

 and that whatever changes we might make in constitutional methods, we 

 were committed to oneness of authoi'ity over the greatest heritage of 

 natural resources on the western hemisphere. 



Time will not suffice to ratnloir th.^ inspiring figures of that struggle. 

 The late William E. ChandhT, f..rnMa' s., i.inry of the Navy, once said that 

 he coidd imagine no futur.' -a\ a ili.insaml years hence — which would 

 not pause to record in its slan.lai.l Insh.i i..s, the Civil War in America, 



