HARDWOOD RECORD 



11. A. Long of KuiiKii!! City iitnrtlol tin" oudionop with n fon ifiil 

 i-xprciwion n» to the link of projior n'cult!! from coiivontioim. Mo 

 saiJ the rhi«>f iliflUully is thnt of lark of ooinciitrution on tho 

 part of thoKO iittoiidiiiB. niul their uiiwilliinjiiefm to iinrtioi|>nte 

 notively in the xe-wion!!. He .le|>loro.l the neee»!iity of nieetinR in 

 iinrongeninl imrroun.linn^, nnil HUggeitleil that the next »eHnion lie 

 held in a more plenKnnt |«lnie. His views were couiurred iu by 

 all those in attemlauce. 



Mr. Lonj; niiiiiitaine.1 lliiil if the liunlH'rmen showed the sjime 



indifferonee in the ndministrntiou of their business as they diil 



attendance at convention sessions their respertive interests 



^'>tlld not Inst long. 



It was then announced by Mr. Klindes tlwif lie wo\ild endeavor 



leciire a nieeliii(> room in the HIn.kst hotel. 



WEDNESDAY MOENINO SESSION 



There was a general subject assigned for discussion in the third 

 session which oj.ened Wednesday morning. This came under the 

 general head "The Merchandizing of Lumber," and the dif 

 ferent phases were assigned to e.xperts in their respective lines. 

 These embraced: Merchandizing lunil>er from the standpoint of 

 the lumber sales manager; from the standpoint of a yard whole- 

 saler ami city retailer; from the stanilpoint of the country retailer; 

 from the standpoint of the architect; from the standpoint of the 

 engineer; from the standpoint of the building contractor; from the 

 stand|>oint of the scientist; from the standpoint of the advertis 

 ing agent; from the standpoint of the as.sociation, and from the 

 standpoint of the fire prevention expert. 



The.se subjects were taken care of respectively by M. B. Nelson, 

 general sales manager, Long-Bell Lumber Company, Kansas City, 

 Mo.; Julius Seidel, president, Julius Seidel Lumber Company, 

 St. Louis, Mo.; John B. Barry, president, Hawkeye Lumber & Coal 

 Company, Cedar Rapids, la.; Irving K. Pond, director of the 

 American Institute of Architects, Chicago; Dr. Herman von 

 Schrenck, consulting engineer of the National Lumber Manufac- 

 turers' Association, St. Louis; J. Norman Jensen, engineer of the 

 building department of the city of Chicago; Howard F. Weiss, 

 director of the United States Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, 

 Wis.; J. J. Rockwell, Crosl>y Advertising Agency, Chicago. 



With the exception of an extemporaneous talk with which Mr. 

 Seidel prefaced his address, and the extemporaneous talks by 

 Mr. Barr and Mr. Jensen, the addresses were in the form of 

 papers. 



The first paper was delivered as stated by Mr. Nelson and 

 Forester H. S. Graves followed with a short talk in which ho 

 -mphasizcd the necessity for conservation iu private timber. He 



.'lintained that conservation will not be solved aloi.e in public 

 ■■rests, which because of their more or less limited extent will 

 not l>c the jjaraniount factor. He maintained further that the 

 theory that nothing can be done along the lines of conservation 

 until all trees are gone is false, and that it is not sound theory 

 economically or industrially. 



This was simply a short extemporaneous talk by Mr. Graves, 

 who was scheduled to deliver an address before the Chamber of 

 Commerce, and did not have time to deliver his written address, 

 which came later in the afternoon. 



Julius Seidel in prefacing his talk likened convention methods 

 to primaries in that many are prone to criticize conditions, but 

 are not willing to come before conventions and maintain their 

 interests therein, and use their influence to correct the methods 

 which they criticize. He spoke humorously but effectively as an 

 introduction to his address on "The Merchandising of Lumber 

 from the Standpoint of the Yard Wholesaler." 



Mr. Seidel 's talk was followed by a strong address by John W. 

 Barry, who took particular exception to present methods of adver- 

 tising lumber, stating that the one and only requirement is of the 

 wood itself and as a whole to advertise against the substitutes 

 rather than that the now competitive advertising of the various 

 woods be maintained. In speaking of tho retailer Mr. Barry said 

 that he is the result of the natural division in business and of 



the natural grouping of factors for sales. The retailer conu-x, 

 according to the H|H>nker, from the following out of logical mer- 

 cliandi/.ing niethoils. He is not here because the manufacturer 

 createil him intentionally, but because he could not ilo without him. 



.Mr. Karry asked what is going to be done about substitutoB and 

 nnalyzcil present advertising results. He told of the power of the 

 retailers for the working of good or ill to manufacturers, nnil 

 touched upon the misdirection of energy in competition and com 

 petitive nilvertising. He urged the adoption of advertising to 

 create confidence in wood. 



The speaker then went on to describe some methods as adopted 

 by tho liackers of various substitutes, suidi as steel |iosts. He 

 instanced one denier in steel posts who in order to nmrket his 

 goiiils makes appointments with certain dealers who are asked to 

 invite to luncheon a certain number of possible customers. After 

 luncheon these |ie<iple are shown moving pictures illustrating the 

 )irocess of manufacturing the posts, the whole being supplemented 

 by cleverly worded sales talk. In this one instance this man has 

 not missed a single day since the first of the year in making such 

 an appointment and the sales of each day run from one to five 

 cars of steel posts. He stated that manufacturers of substitutes 

 stan<l behind their goods and push sales personally rather than 

 simply endeavoring to reach the public through the medium of 

 various middlemen. He averred that inasmuch as the battle lines 

 have already been drawn by the substitute manufacturers, the 

 war will have to l>c fought out along the lines laid out by them. 



Adjournment for lunrh.'on followed Mr. H.irry's talk. 

 WEDNESDAY ATTEENOON SESSION 



The afternoon session was opened by the address of Mr. P<md. 



The various written addresses under the general heail of "Mer- 

 chandizing of Lumber" appear under that heading in another 

 j)art of this issue and the issue of May 25. The address of Mr. 

 Jensen was the only other which was not presented in written 

 form, he simply telling what he knew regarding the requirements 

 as seen from the viewpoint of the city buihling engineer. 



According to Mr. Jensen his duties are to approve designs of all 

 buildings submitted to tho department, his work being confined 

 as far as timber is concerned, to structural stuff. In starting his 

 talk he said that he was going to speak frankly and tell the 

 situation exactly as he viewed it. Following out this suggestion 

 he spoke of discouragement he had encountered in the construc- 

 tion of grand stands made of wood, which in many cases hail 

 rotted out within one year after installation. Proper preservation 

 it seems would have taken care of this condition. 



The speaker then went on into a discussion of the semi-technical 

 features of his work. All warehouse and light manufacturing 

 buildings must have published on placards safe live loads specified 

 by ordinance. This has to be determined beforehand and is based 

 on the ordinance covering the point of stress for different timbers. 

 In yellow pine the stress is 13,000 pounds per square inch of cross 

 section. 



In speaking of the size of timbers, ;Mr. Jensen said that this 

 was a verj' important feature which is not given due consideration 

 by manufacturers of structural timbers. lie said that in cutting 

 and dressing, these timbers are sometimes reduced to below the 

 specified sizes, which causes a great deal of inconvenience on the 

 part of architects and contractors in buildings where certain tim- 

 bers have been specified, as the stresses are figured on the basis 

 of the exact dimension. He suggested taking this up in the asso- 

 ciation. 



As to the question of fire, Mr. Jensen said that mill constructed 

 buildings which, specifically, are all buildings in which the smallest 

 dimensions of beams is 72 square inches in cross section, and of 

 posts is 100 square inches in cross section, stand up well under 

 fire tests, especially when sprinkled. In speaking of reinforced 

 concrete construction, Mr. Jensen said that it is necessary to pro- 

 vide, in designing this class of structure, one-half inch extra thick- 

 ness for flooring slabs, and 1% inches in posts and beams to take 

 care of fire damage, this being a decided factor in favor of wooden 

 construction. 



