HARDWOOD RECORD 



The view today is broader than that. Those uses have practi- 

 cally passed away, at least as the chief demand upon the products 

 of the forests; and the public has been urged by promoters of sub- 

 stitutes to believe that wood has ceased to be vitally important 

 to .the people. That false doctrine has been preached in season 

 and out, and unfortunately it has won many converts. 



The exposition should counteract that influence. It should show 

 the almost infinite places where wood is serviceable, and particu- 

 larly where it is better than anything else. This can best be done 

 by object lessons, and such lessons will be numerous at the 

 exposition. 



That, however, is not all that is necessary. It is only the first 

 step, and by itself it will not amount to much. The next step, 

 which is of equal or greater importance, is the securing of the 

 largest attendance possible. It is to little purpose to prepare a 

 great show if the people who should be interested in it do not see 

 it. The whole thing is an advertisement, and it should be so 

 considered by every person, company, and corporation that takes 

 part in it; and of course a large part of an advertisement's value 

 depends upon the number of persons and class of persons who see 

 it. Emphasis is properly placed on the fact that class counts for 

 as much as numbers in a case of this kind. The people who see it 

 should be people who are interested in building, manufacturing, or 

 in some other industry where wood is or should be used. The 

 enterprise has now reached the stage where it is up to the exhib- 

 itors themselves to make it a monumental success, or to let it 

 partly or wholly lapse for the want of attendance. Every exhibitor 

 should resolve himself into a committee to get the people out. He 

 should campaign among his customers, friends, and acquaintances, 

 and induce them to attend. If all exhibitors do that, they will, in 

 the aggregate, reach a very large number of people, and the very 

 sort of people whose presence will make the exposition a success. 



Of course, strangers and those not particularly interested in 

 forest products should not be neglected. Among such are many 

 who might be induced to increase their use of wood, if they are 

 made acquainted with its qualities which particularly fit it for 

 their use. But the first and most important thing is to get the 

 people, the right people, to attend the exposition and see for them- 

 selves. The remaining time for this is short, but much can be 

 done if every man interested in it takes hold in dead earnest. 



What Slow Business Means 



THE INEVITABLE KESULT OF LAXITY in any line of bus- 

 iness is the increasing sales cost. This results from a reversion of 

 trade from a seller's market to a buyer's market, and resulting keen 

 price competition between manufacturers and wholesalers in their, 

 respective lines. The logical conclusion is that during such times as 

 now prevail the sales end of the lumber business is deserving of 

 considerably closer study than it receives under more normal condi- 

 tions when stock moves in a satisfactory manner. 



A close analysis of the various conditions presenting themselves at 

 this time will indicate that the man who is getting the most business 

 today is the man who is utilizing every possible means of catching the 

 eye of prospective customers with what he has to offer. In this con- 

 nection it stands to reason that salesmen's calls must necessarily be 

 more frequent because there is a multitude of small orders coming 

 at short intervals rather than large orders coming in intervals of 

 several months as under ordinary circumstances. 



In quite a number of cases where concerns have continued to exert 

 themselves to the utmost to secure more business, they have actually 

 put on more salesmen covering smaller territories, with the idea that 

 they want the traveling men to see the customers more frequently in 

 order to prevent the possibility of getting in "just too late" for the 

 desired order. 



Along this same line of reasoning it is very evident that legitimate 

 letter-writing and other means of keeping stock continuously before 

 the trade would be a decidedly favorable feature of a selling cam- 

 paign under present conditions. Even the most lively salesman must 

 space his calls at intervals of sever.al weeks, and under present con- 

 ditions the buyer will often make up his mind to buy on very short 



notice, and probably under ordinary circumstances would close his 

 order without giving a second thought to the persistent salesman who 

 might have called upon him a week before. Therefore, it is very well 

 worth while to sandwich in between the salesman's calls the right 

 kind of strong personal letters, and it appears to be equally desirable 

 to place stock lists before such customers through the means of the 

 right trade journals. 



It might be argued that the buyer would place the order with the 

 .salesman who happened to be in his office at the time he wanted to 

 place the order. This might hold good in some cases whereas it would 

 not hold good in other instances, that is, if a particular conceru had 

 been getting satisfactory lumber and service from a certain manu- 

 facturer or wholesaler and was desirous of buj'ing another bill of 

 stock, he might place his order elesewhere if that particular sales- 

 man were not on the job at the time and if in addition his house did 

 not back up his call with ' ' reminding ' ' literature calling to that par- 

 ticular buyer's attention the stock v/hich that salesman had offered 

 and described on the occasion of his last call. On the other hand, 

 it is only human that the buyer should repeat an order to a concern 

 which has given him entire satisfaction if he be but reminded that 

 that conceru is still strongly after his business. 



Such reminder could not come more effectively than through a 

 strong personal letter based on information as to what he uses and 

 backed up by conscientious advertising of the right kind in the right 

 medium. 



An Important Barge Line Development 



GHi;.\T I'OSSIBILITIES ARE PKKSEXTED through an inci- 

 dent connected with Tennessee river navigation, which occurred 

 on Monday, April 20. On that date a steamer with three barge-loads 

 of oak, aggregating 700,000 feet, left Decatur, Ala., for Louisville, 

 Kentucky. 



Decatur and coutigiioii.s Icrritory has long felt the keen com- 

 petition of other points as a result of the unjustifiable schedule of 

 rail rates which have discriminated in the most flagrant manner 

 against that territory. This barge lino proposition presents the possi- 

 bility of cutting rail rates to Ohio river crossing points, an average 

 of about six cents a hundred points, making a net reduction of some 

 $2.70 a thousand feet of oak lumber. 



The tremendous possibilities dormant in the proposition are readily 

 seen when it is appreciated that this will open up to the northern 

 Alabama territory and to other points in a position to ship north via 

 Ohio river points and the Tennessee river, all the northern territory 

 in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other places north of the Ohio river. 

 This territory is now practically closed to shippers in the section 

 referred to. 



A more complete d 

 on another page of thi 



of this arrangement is to be found 

 of Hardwood Eecord. 



A Call to Outsiders 



A CIRCULAR LETTER has been issued from the office of J. E. 

 Rhodes, secretary of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation, which has gone to lumbermen throughout the country. It is 

 a call to the man who is outside of the organizations which are 

 affiliated v.ith the National association. He is urged to join, to 

 lend his aid to the cause, to come inside and help fight the battles 

 of the lumbermen, and to share in the good results. The campaign 

 for larger memberships is on. The man outside the camp is wanted 

 inside, and he wants the help which will come to him when he joins 

 forces with others whose interests are identical with his. In the busi- 

 ness world of today the man who undertakes to go it alone must 

 face difficulties which others would help him face if the forces were 

 organized. The politician who elects to stay outside of all parties 

 gets nowhere; it is much the same with the business man. 



Eleven associations are affiliated with the National Lumber Manu- 

 facturers' Association. Every lumberman in the United States can 

 find a place suited to his needs and his tastes in some one of these. 

 In their aggregate tht-y are nation-wide. They need every lumberman 

 and every lumberman needs them. 



