HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



during the yeai' there should come up in your 

 business such points, a letter addressed to the 

 secretary's office will be given immediate alien 

 Lion in *as complete a manner as possible. 

 Respectfully submitted, 



. J. V. lln.i., Chief Inspector. 



President Wilms : Gentlemen, you have heard 

 the officers' reports for the past year. What is 

 your pleasure? 



On motion of R. H. Vansant the chair 

 was instructed to appoint a committee of 

 five to review the addresses and reports of 

 the officers and make a report thereon. The 

 president appointed as such committee A. 

 J. Gahagan, Frank F. Fee, W. C. Dewey, 

 W. H. Dawkins and W. W. Dings. 

 Discussion on Grading Rules. 



As chairman of the executive grading 

 committee R. H. Vansant made a formal 

 report covering the recommendations that 

 had been authorized by his committee. The 

 report so far as complete, covered general 

 instructions on the subject of inspection 

 and an attempt at clarifying the descrip- 

 tions of poplar grades. After the reading 

 of the report a general informal discussion 

 ensued and special reference was made to 

 the term "well manufactured." On this 

 subject J. W. Taylor said: 



We are not specific enough in our definitions. 

 I bump into these words quite frequently and 

 then wonder why the other fellow is so stupid. 

 When the other fellow pulls the book on inl- 

 and shows me why he is doing a certain thing 

 in a certain way I am at fault. I think the 

 rules should be lined up. I want to support 

 what the majority decides upon. Personally I 

 do not know what the word "judgment" means 

 in lumber or what the term "well" defines as 

 applied to quality of manufacture. 



Mr. Vansant: "Well" is not as strong a term 

 as "perfect." 



Mr. Taylor: I would say "not allowing over 

 one-eighth inch variation from standard widths." 

 There are many ways to confine I lie definition so 

 it will be understood. I have sawyers who do 

 not know what "well" means and sometimes 

 I think they do not know what "lumber" means. 



The argument resulted in the committer's 

 conclusion to omit the word "well" with 

 the bald statement that lumber shall be 

 manufactured of practically uniform thick- 

 ness. The committee also on the basis of 

 the arguments presented, was induced to 

 change its base of standard thicknesses to 

 read :: s , '_•, %, %, 1 inch and in successive 



quarter inches up to and including 4 inches 

 in thickness. 



Dr. Herman von Schrenk asked t 



enlightened on what constituted "equiva- 

 lent defects." Mr. Vansant stated that in 

 the past it had been determined by the 

 actual waste in cutting but that it was 

 now desired to change the rules so thai the 

 equivalent of standard defects should be 

 the actual damage to the lumber. 



The convention then adjourned until 

 afternoon. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The afternoon session was not called to 

 order until 4 o'clock, the delay being 

 caused by important committee work. The 

 program for the afternoon included ad 

 dresses on important topics. President 

 Wilms first introduced .1. C. Clair, industrial 

 commissioner of the Illinois Central, who 

 delivered an address on the Cooperation of 

 the Railroads and Lumber Interests in the 

 South and the Developments Resulting There- 



W. I. BARR, GREENFIELD, OHIO VICE PRES- 

 IDENT. 



W. M. McCOEMICK, PHILADELPHIA, PENN- 

 SYLVANIA VICE PRESIDENT. 



from. Mr. Clair's most interesting address 

 follows: 



J. C. Clair's Address. 



Mb. President and Gentlemen — I appreciate 



h. honor and happy privilege of being with you 



today and addressing such a brilliant body of 



representative business men. The subject as 



gig I me is a very important one and covers 



1 broad field — "Co-operation of Railroads and 

 Lumber Interests in the South and Developments 

 Resulting Therefrom." I will not undertake to 

 ci ver the whole field, but will make a few 

 suggestions pertinent to the great Illinois Cen- 

 tral railroad system and roads tributary thereto. 

 Progress is the watchword of the twentieth 

 century, and I do not know of any trade or in- 

 dustry that means so much to commercial and 

 Industrial development as does the lumber busi- 

 ness. Without transportation, however, all com- 

 mercial life would come to a standstill. It. there- 

 stands to reason that the railroads and the 

 lumbermen should co-operate for the mutual 

 interests of both, and what applies to the lum- 

 bermen is correspondingly significant with refer- 



to all trades and industries generally. 



The Illinois Central railroad is a producing rail- 

 road, when you take into consideration the 

 great commodities that are handled and loaded 

 upon its tracks, including lumber, cotton, coal, 

 live stock, fruits and vegetables and general 

 merchandise. I think. If you will allow me 

 in make the remark, it is the prominent rail- 

 road Of the world as a self-producing system of 

 traffic, handling locally about 8G per cent of 

 the traffic that goes over the system. There 



S: LIEHERMAN, NASHVILLE. TENNESSEE 

 VICE PRESIDENT. 



was loaded on the Illinois Central and the 

 Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads with the 

 year ending June SO. 1906, 1,049,717 cars. That 

 is not counting the traffic delivered from eon 

 necting lines. Of that most remarkable tonnage 

 1 am pleased to advise you that lumber com- 

 prised 73,071 cars loaded on the Illinois Central 

 and V:i/oo vv. Mississippi Valley railroads for 

 the year 1906, or about 14% per cent of the 

 traffic handled for t lie whole system. It, there- 

 fore, is most essential to the railroads as 

 well as to the public at large to take into con- 

 sideration the great importance of the organiza- 

 tion you gentlemen represent. And I want 

 to say that the Illinois Central recognizes the 

 members of your association among its best and 

 most substantial patrons. In the line of indus 

 trial development I might cite for your infor- 

 mation that in the state of Mississippi alone 

 are located upwards of 5U0 sawmills and wood- 

 working plants, which demonstrates another 

 great important feature of the lumber inter- 

 ests. 



I want to say a few words, gentlemen, in re- 

 gard to the great timber acreage of the delta 

 country from lssl iq) to the present time. Of 

 the 756,000 aires of timber land owned by the 

 Louisville, New Orleans & Texas railroad in 

 issi there was turned over to t lie Yazoo & 

 Mississippi Valley railroad in 1892 600,000 

 acres. The Louisville. New Orleans & Texas 

 sold 156,000 acres in eleven years. The Illinois 

 Central, through its land department, in thir- 

 teen years disposed- of the 600,000 acres, the 

 last sale having been made jn November, 1905. 

 Our company disposed of about four times as 

 much as the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas 

 in the same time. There is a reason for it. The 

 first thing the company did was to reduce the 

 profits, for what purpose? To not only have 

 the advantage of disposing of the property to 

 men who would develop it and give us the 

 traffic but also to interest and assist agriculture 

 and the general development of the great delta 

 country. The Illinois Central sold that prop- 

 erty to 6,000 purchasers. The largest purchaser 

 bought 156,848 acres. The Illinois Central ap- 

 preciated the importance of the general dis 

 tributlon of the land, and 6110,0110 aires means 

 a great deal to any portion of our country 

 in handling lumber or any other commodity. 



There is a great future for your organization, 

 apprehending, and if you will allow me to say, 

 predicting, that with the completion of the 

 Panama canal this great Mississippi valley is 

 going to be the center of the commercial life 

 of the United States. it is well to consider 

 it now. The industrial department of a rail- 

 road looks out for tomorrow as well as to, lay. 

 The operating and traffic departments are busy 

 looking out for the time being, arid they are 

 kept on tlie jump wiili the handling of the great 

 traffic you are giving them and endeavoring 

 to answer the complaints. That, however, is 

 something I will not touch upon, although it is a 

 serious matter for all of us. It is sale to pre 

 diet, however, that the railroads have u ,,i to 

 Increase their mileage as well as their equip- 

 ment, and in turn you people must also do 

 your part in meeting us half way. 



'As I look Into the faces of this audience I 

 see a gentleman who, I trust, appreciative of 

 his modesty, will allow me to make reference 

 to him, to his work, what lie has accomplished 

 and is accomplishing for this great city of 

 Memphis. If there is any one department off 



