Editors Note 



iirluun Hiilii 



FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THE ADVEET18INO AGENT 



The n.h.Tlising iigont iiiny lu> .l.'finc.l ns llio trnil Mii/.pr for 

 .w husiupj's. Ho is tin- scout that cxplort-s. His duty iH to liolil 

 II ho has nn«l get iiioro. Ho loiutos now liusinoss nixl l.rinj;« tli.' 

 rii.liicors' artii'los to tho attoiition of tho jioople who ought tu 

 :ivo thoiii. JIo maps <-nin|iai|;iis ami looks out for posaibilitios. 

 riio following viows on morrhamlising of lumber from tho staml- 

 .■hit of tho n<lvortisiiig agont woro prosontoil as follows liv 

 .1. Kockwell of tho Croshy A.lvortising Akchov, <"hi<ago. 

 Tho lumlxT imlustry is a big industry. It doos things in a big 

 >.iy. It deals in a big product. It deals in that proiluct in great 

 •lantitios. It always talts in thousands and millions. AlCfoot 2x4. 

 lion a man wants it to hold uji a flower box on his porch or in front 

 T his window, is quite an item to that man, but the lumberman is 



- ' used to Feeing and thinking and talking of 2x4s in millions of feet 

 .at to him one poor, lone, single 2x4 is no more than a toothpic-k. 



The remarkable part of this point of view is that all these millions 



•1.1 billions of feet of lumljor, requiring the activities and the oner- 



. .* iif s<>nu-thing over a million men to make and market, in which 



iidreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of capital are invested. 



■ lis tremendous product which gives foundation to our railroads, spans 

 ■■■IT rivers with bridges, houses the greater proportion of our population, 

 ill of it in existence, and all that ever has existed, and all that ever 

 ■ill exist, has boon or will be produced by little seeds, of which tho 



■ iiy acorn, as big as the end of a man's thumb, is a fairly largo 



- ocimen. 



It is perfectly natural for the mind of the lumberman, whether ho 

 • • a holder of lumber, a maker of lumber, or a seller of lumber in a 

 ..luparatively small retail way, to look at his product in this fashion. 

 !• is a big product — even a little dinky, retail yard in a small country 

 ■'«n requires considerable ground therein for its stock. Every time 



little bit of stock is moved, a wagon or a freight car must be called 

 nto service, and where it is moved in even moderately large quan- 

 ties with rapidity and facility we have to use power of some kind for 

 ii.>ving it. 



ConFoqueutly it is natural, further, that the lumberman should look 

 :i the marketing of his product from this same big standpoint. If 

 ! go around to talk to a retail lumberman about getting a little stock 

 f boards for a window flower box, he has not the slightest interest 

 ■1 me and rather feels that I am a disturbing element and shouldn 't 



■me around bothering him. 



The lumber manufacturer, who happens to be approached by a con- 



- imer with an inquiry as to whore this consumer can get a small 

 -apply of some of the kind of product which the manufacturer makes, 

 i'eels very much bored about it, and the mere buyer is apt to receive a 

 rather cold reception. 



To a philosopher it would seem logical to assume that a man whose 

 • ntire stock in trade had grown from a few tiny seeds would be in- 

 Mned to think that a large volume of business might grow from a 

 ijw tiny seeds of demand. 



Selling Little Thixcs 



I present Exhibit A — just a common, ordinary match such as we 

 light our cigars with from three to twenty times a day and throw 

 away. 



I have not the slightest doubt that the first lumber manufacturer 

 who was approached on the idea of furnishing a little stock of lum- 

 ber for the manufacture of matches was probably inclined to believe 

 that the match man was a dreamer, if not totally crazy. 



I have riot been able to get any definite statistics as to the amount 

 of lumber used in the manufacture of matches today, but we all 

 know that it runs into very respectable quantities. 



To recur to my illustration of my being in the market for lumber 

 T.ir a window flower box, let us suppose that instead of being cold. 



haughly and ropollant, tho luml i r lolailor whimi I approached on ilr 

 subject had boon cordial and inloroHtod, and hud aHke<l mo whether 

 there wore not a number of other liousos in my noighlmrhuod which 

 ought to have window Iwxon, and had nmdc a suggoMion to me that 

 this idea of growing flowers around the house was a flue thing. That 

 I ought to advocate it with my neighborM, so that the whole neighbor- 

 hood might be beautified. Suppose the dealer had gotten mo so in- 

 lercstod along this line that I would have bocomp fired with enthusiasm, 

 as a missioimry, to go out among my neighbors and point with pride 

 to my flower boxes and tell thorn to go and do likewise. Mr. Holnilor 

 might oven have taken a lilllo trouble to advise nu- to be careful to 

 SCO that my boxes when made were properly boreil to give sufficient 

 drainage, and have told mo that if I succeeded in getting my neigh- 

 bors to accept my viewpoint to be sure and tell them that he had the 

 kind of lumber that they needed and that he was a very accommodnl- 

 ing merchant who would take care of their wants. It does not seem 

 such a very far-fetched conclusion that a retail dealer proceeding 

 along these linos, and even going so far as to send out a few circulars 

 or do alittle advertising in his local newspaper on this subject, in the 

 right manner, might very easily dispose of a carload or two of lumber 

 every season, and it would be common lumber, which wouhl be nice 

 for the manufacturer. 



■ The wood paving block, considered as a single unit, is a very small 

 item — it's just a little thing not much larger than a brick — and yet 

 r understand that in one species of lumber alone in this country over 

 a billion feet of material is sold for this use, but how many lumber- 

 men think of the further extension of the paving block idea? Does 

 it ever occur to a retailer to study up on the subject of those blocks 

 for the paving of factories, machine shops and foundries where the 

 value of this product has been definitely and conclusively proven, and 

 argue them into the idea of using paving blocks for that purpose? 

 Does he ever consider advertising to the farmers of his district the 

 extreme value of creosoted wood paving blocks for use in flooring their 

 barns and dairies? Is there any doubt that if the owners of such 

 properties were once acquainted with the eventful economy and dur- 

 ability of wood blocks for such use, with their sanitary character, with 

 the advantageous effect of wood block paving for their animals, that 

 they would not only be willing but glad to utilize this product? 



Is it not worth making an effort to get such a market started ? A 

 few properties paved in any district will act as the little seeds from 

 which the big demand will grow. 



This as I see it is the crux of the question in the marketing of 

 lumber. The great crying need is for the lumber industry — and by 

 the lumber industry I mean not some of its parts but all of its parts 

 — the timber owner, the manufacturer, the wholesaler and the retailer, 

 to plant these seeds in the minds of possible new consumers in order 

 that the use of the product and its market possibilities may grow. 

 Conditions Have Changed 



In the days not very long gone by lumber was an absolute neces- 

 sity. You could not build a bourse, a barn, a factory, a church, a 

 school, a pig-pen, or a corn-crib, without the use of lumber, and you 

 had nothing but lumber to use. That condition is changed; there are 

 other materials which are bidding for the business, successfully bid- 

 ding for it, and in some cases and in some uses they have become the 

 standard, and properly so. They have proven their right to certain 

 functions of use developed by new conditions, and we are glad that 

 they are here. In the days gone by we did not feel the needs that 

 we feel today; we did not have the great centers of civic and in- 

 dustrial life. Our communities were constantly spreading. There 

 was plenty of land — available land. As a merchant's business grew 

 rapidly, he put on an oil to his building and extended it out into the 



