26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



River, was burned March 10. Loss $2,000, no 

 insurance. The plant was new, having been 

 built last June. 



Messrs. Rowland and Edward Lowe of Grand 

 Rapids have returned from a trip to Jamaica 

 and the Bermudas. 



Arthur Rushforth, a mahogany merchant of 

 Liverpool, England, has been in Grand Rapids 

 for several days. He estimates -that of the 

 African mahogany gotten out for export eighty 

 per cent of it goes to England, also that from 

 eighty to ninety per cent of this amount is 

 sold in America. Mr. Rushforth is interested 

 in a plan whereby the Liverpool auction sales 



may be eliminated and the African wc 1 may 



go direct from forest to factory- He predicts 

 that mahogany will advance and advance 

 sharply in consonance with the upward trend 

 of lumber prices. 



The car situation in Michigan shows no 

 improvement and freight agents expect no 

 change for the better before May. A bill to 

 create a new state railway commission to have 

 general control of demurrage and other matters 

 pertaining to shippers and railroads, prepared 

 by Hal H. Smith, attorney for the Michigan 

 Manufacturers' Association, has been introduced 

 in the legislature. Two important points agreed 

 on are that the state commission shall have 

 power to fix demurrage penalties for failure 

 of the railroads to move cars a given numb' i 

 of miles per day, and another provides for a 

 more free interchange of traffic between the 

 steam and the electric lines. 



An increase of from ten to fifteen per cent 

 in the price of buggies and carriages will be 

 announced soon by the manufacturers of the 

 state, who contend that this step is necessary 

 because of the increase in cost of material. 



The Robbins Table Company of Owosso has 

 plans for adding a two-story brick building, 

 64x90 feet, to its plant this spring. 



Five forestry bills have been introduced at 

 this session of the legislature, and in view of 

 the growing interest in the subject throughout 

 the state it seems likely that one or more 

 of them at least will become law. One bill 

 provides for a state farm forester whose chief 

 duty will lie in assisting farmers and others in 

 the better care of their wood lots. Anothei 

 bill provides for withdrawal from sale of ami 

 cultural college lands in Iosco and Alcona 

 Counties and the forming of a permanent fin- 

 est reserve comprising about 40.000 acres. The 

 state tax land bill proposes to stop the wanton 

 waste of money in the repeated sales of lands 

 delinquent for taxes, fixing a minimum price at 

 which bare lands may be sold at $5 per acre 

 The forest fire and game warden bill extends 

 the duties of the game warden to the protection 

 of forests, cut-over and waste lands from fires. 

 The forest inquiry commission bill provides for 

 the appointment by the governor of a commis- 

 sion of nine citizens to make a careful exami- 

 nation of the entire matter and report to the 

 next legislature. 



E. C. Allen, vice president of the Gibbs, Hall 

 & Allen Company of Grand Rapids, is operating 

 his mill at South Allen siding, between Tustiu 

 and Leroy, and has a cut of 250,000 feet of 

 hardwood. This is one of the oldest mills on 

 the G. R. & I. road. 



N. E. Staples, a lumberman of Cadillac, is 

 adjudicated bankrupt on his voluntary petition 

 and the matter is referred to Kirk E. Wicks of 

 this city, referee in bankruptcy. The schedule 

 filed with the petition showed debts amounting 

 to $11,463, with no assets above exemption. 



The Harrison Wagon Works, one of the larg- 

 est concerns of Grand Rapids, has been com- 

 pelled for financial reasons to close down, and 

 the report of a committee of creditors is to 

 the effect that while all claims will be paid in 

 full the company is entirely without capital to 

 continue the business, its best asset being the 

 large quantity of seasoned lumber on hand. 

 There has been lack of harmony in the man- 



agement and the plant has not been kept up 

 to date. The starting up of an automobile 

 factory as a side industry was also disastrous. 

 Ati inventory shows assets to be $497,200 

 against $446,228 of liabilities. 



The Langeland Manufacturing Company of 

 Muskegon is building a lumber storage shed 

 with capacity for half a million feet. 



The Michigan Door Company, capital $30,000, 

 is being organized to occcupy the plant of the 

 Lansing Veneered Door Company at Lansing. 

 II. H. Lamed is manager. 



Bristol, Va.-Tenn. 

 The Southeastern Car Service Association has 

 just made a ruling that after April 1 the time 

 allowed for the unloading of cars by consignees, 

 after they have been set and due notice of their 

 arrival made, will be reduced from seventy two 

 to forty-eight hours. The ruling comes as a 

 sequel to the investigations of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission into the car service and 

 was inspired by the commission. Nearly all of 

 the roads in the south affiliate with the South- 

 eastern Car Service Association and will adopt 

 and rigidly enforce the new ruling after April 1. 

 The ruling will meet with strenuous objection 

 in some quarters but there is now no doubt but 

 that it will be enforced and the Southeastern 

 Car Service Association will be backed by the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission which believes 

 that the ruling will materially relieve the ear 

 service trouble. 



W. B. Coon, a well-known lumberman of John- 

 son City, has just closed a deal with C. S. 

 Aldrich, S. B. Rhodes, W. A. Dick, J. B. Bum- 

 gartner, G. B. Greely and other Pittsburg capi- 

 talists for a large tract of fine hardwood timber 

 land in Hawkins county. Tennessee. The tract 

 is near Blair's Gap and the purchasers now have 

 representatives there making arrangements for 

 putting in several large sawmills and the de- 

 velopment of the property will be begun as 

 soon as possible. The timber consists largely of 

 oak. poplar and white pine. 



W. It. White of Trigg & White, local timber 

 land dealers, has just returned from a trip to 

 Georgia and reports the consummation of a deal 

 for 30,000 acres of Georgia timber land. Mr. 

 White states that owing to the fact that some 

 details of the deal have not been closed he is 

 unable to make public the identity of the pur- 

 chasers but states that the deal will mean 

 immense lumber development in Georgia. 



John W. Coles, a well-known lumberman of 

 Philadelphia and always a welcome visitor 

 among the local coterie of hardwood dealers, 

 was in the city last week and made numerous 

 purchases of hardwood stock. 



Sam R. Sells of the Sells Lumber & Manu- 

 facturing Company was up from Johnson City 

 on business this week. Mr. Sells reports that 

 his company has just completed a large planing 

 mill at" Carnegie, one mile east of Johnson City, 

 which will soon be put into operation on a large 

 scale. 



J. A. Wilkinson will start his new band mill 

 in this city on the Southern railway in a few 

 weeks. The new mill will be operated in con- 

 junction with his other lumber mills and will 

 have a daily capacity of 50,000 feet. He will at 

 once begin the erection of large and modern dry 

 kilns. The timber for the new* mill will be 

 brought to Bristol over the X. & W. and V. i; 

 S. W. from Mr. Wilkinson's southwest Virginia 

 timber land. 



The organization of the H. M. Hoskins Lum- 

 ber Company was completed here last week. 

 This new company has already begun business 

 with headquarters in the First National Bank 

 building, and is headed by Horace M. Hoskins. 

 illy general sales manager for J. A. Wilkin- 

 son. Mr. Hoskins is a lumberman of ripe expe- 

 rience and mature judgment. He is well ac- 

 quainted with the domestic and foreign trade. 

 The new company will do a hardwood business 

 exclusively and has already purchased two 



tracts of timber on the Norfolk & Western, in 

 Washington county, Virginia, which it will begin 

 developing as soon as mills can be erected. The 

 company's business will be largely foreign, and 

 European customers are now being supplied. An 

 application for a charter of incorporation in 

 Virginia will be made in a few days. 



J. M. McRea, president of the Laurel Fork 

 Lumber Company of Mount Sterling. X. C, was 

 in the city last week. Mr. McRea reports that 

 bis company as well as other lumber concerns in 

 that section have recently suffered heavy losses 

 from floods, but otherwise business is good and 

 conditions are propitious. 



A. Arnold, a Bristol lumberman, left this week 

 for Sarasota. Fla., where he goes to inspect 

 a large boundary of timber with a view of 

 taking up an option he holds. 



Will Roller and J. X. Haws have returned 

 from South Carolina, where they have become 

 interested in the Cypress Lumber Company, a 

 concern recently organized in that state to do a 

 general lumber manufacturing business, with 

 a capital stock of $200,000. 



J. A. Magargal, representing the J. W. 

 Iiifendifer Lumber Company of Philadelphia, 

 was buying hardwoods in Bristol this week. He 

 went from here to Damascus, Va., to look over 

 his company's extensive lumber interests in that 

 section and hurry forward orders. 



Dwight D. Ilartlove of Baltimore, representing 

 W. ti. Price, was in the city last week. 



J. A. Crocker, representing J. Gibson Mcllvain 

 & Co. of Philadelphia, was a visitor among local 

 lumbermen last week. 



George E. Davis of George E. Davis & Co. 

 has returned from a trip to Philadelphia. 



G. L. Wood, Asheville, N. ('.. general manager 

 of the R. E. Wood Lumber Company, is spending 

 some days here on important legal business. 



Among the recent visitors in the city were : 

 Paul W. Fleck, Paul W. Fleck Lumber Company, 

 Philadelphia : William S. Whiting. Whiting 

 Manufacturing Company, Abingdon : C. H. Hett, 

 Kingsport Lumber Company. Johnson City, 

 Tenn. ; W. Dixon Smith, exporter, Parkersburg, 

 W. Va. ; J. A. Riley, manufacturer. Elk Park, 

 N. C. ; C. W. Decker, Philadelphia : Sam C. 

 Rambo. manufacturer, Johnson county. Tennes- 

 see ; W. W. Hurt, Abingdon : II. II. Ely. repre- 

 senting R. M. Smith Lumber Company. Parkers- 

 burg, W. Va. : F. O. Clapp, representing the 

 Atlantic Lumber Company, Boston. 





Cincinnati. 



Since William A. Bennett, who was recently 

 elected president of the Chamber of Commerce 

 on the Red ticket, has taken charge of affairs 

 things have changed materially in the business 

 chamber. Heretofore general business was con- 

 ducted by former presidents, but they lacked 

 ginger in their speeches and the members' at- 

 tention was given during the time that they 

 spoke, but soon after it was allowed to escape 

 their minds. It is different with Bennett ; he 

 insists that all members pay strict attention 

 to things that are said from the bench and. 

 more, asks the members to offer suggestions if 

 they will benefit the general trade interest. 

 Members seem to take more interest in things 

 Mr. Bennett says than any other president. He 

 has also shown his active spirit by inducing 

 many business men to join the organization. 

 In William A. Bennett and Thomas J. Moffett 

 Cincinnati has two very energetic business 

 men. Mr. Moffett is the chief promoter of the 

 new belt line system and gives much of his 

 attention to that project, while Mr. Bennett 

 devotes a great portion of his time to the 

 general interest of the Chamber of Commerce. 



The second flood in 1907 has visited Cincin- 

 nati. Although the water did not go as high 

 as in January, it was high enough to do con- 

 siderable damage. Many of the lumber firms 

 situated in the West End have a small portion 

 of their yards in water, and one of two firms 

 were compelled to reach their offices with the 



