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A well-known eastern lumber jobber, who occasionally has a 

 grouch to dissipate, sends a red-hot letter to Habdwood Eecobd with 

 no string attached to it as far as publication goes. From it is made 

 the following excerpts: 



"Many years' experience in this lumber business has convinced 

 me that there are more dishonest, low-down people receiving lumber 

 than there are who are shipping it. This is a good deal to say, but 

 I have been a pretty fair observer of conditions for a long while. In 

 the larger cities are a great number of concerns to whom you have to 

 pass out graft in order to get their business. It is not the quality 

 of the lumber nor the condition of it, but it is 'how much is our 

 business worth to you'? 



''These observations pertain largely to corporations, because no 

 individual would beneiit by such a proposition unless he had dis- 

 houest receivers in the yard who hold up the shippers. As a general 

 thing the commission man has no interest further than his commis- 

 sion, and I am sorry to say he is more apt to sell one thing and 

 order something else at the mill than he is to do the square thing, 

 but when it comes to the legitimate wholesaler, who buys outright 

 and sells to his customers, and carries their accounts, if he has any 

 sense at all, he can not afford to do anything but the square deal. 



"Don't let anyone for a moment think that the wholesale con- 

 sumers are being abused, because they are not — they are getting all 

 they pay for. When the price of firsts and seconds oak is $.5.5, and 

 they demand it for $48, all they are entitled to is $48 worth of oak, 

 and if they don't get $55 quality they have no reason to complain. 



' ' There may have been a time when people got something for 

 nothing; in fact, all consumers got it, but that time has gone by. 

 The short count of today is owing to competition and more rigid 

 measurement at the mill. I can remember the time when every car 

 would overrun from two hundred to six hundred feet, because the 

 luillman was liberal, and paid no attention to fractions. If a board 

 was 9Vl> inches wide, it was called nine inches. Today a board 9Vo 

 inches wide is called 10 inches at the mill, and sometimes a 9%-inch 

 board is called 10 inches. The measurement is shaved right down 

 to the last hair. 



"Again, if the wholesale manufacturing consumer gets a car that 

 falls short ten feet, according to his maoi's tally, he deliberately 

 docks it, but if it overruns ten feet, a hundred feet or three hundred 

 feet he chuckles to himself aud settles for the amount of his invoice, 

 and says nothing about the overrun. But, he calls the man whose 

 stock runs a little short a thief. On the other hand if it overruns he 

 goes to prayer-meeting aud thanks the Lord tliat he is not like 

 other men. 



' ' When it comes to the ethics of trade, your humble servant can 

 talk by the hour. I have been in stock companies; I have done 

 busmess on my own account ; have worked for others, and have dealt 

 with all kinds and conditions of men, and I am glad to say that most 

 people mean to be honest, and they are so far as they can see, 

 according to circumstances and from their moral viewpoint. One of 

 the best instances to me of a man trying to be right is the one who 

 continues long in business and is fairly prosperous. The unholy 

 rascal does not live long in the lumber business or in any other line 

 of trade. He is found out after a short time and is unable to do 

 business with anyone. We see examples of this sort of men every day. 



"It doesn't pay to waste too much time and sympathy on the 

 average receiver of lumber. A short time ago I had a case of a man 

 who turned down a car of lumber flat, and refused to unload it after 

 causing eight days' demurrage. Why? Because he sent his teamster 

 to unload the car and when the man came to pull a few boards out 

 they did not just suit his taste, and without knowing anything about 

 the general condition of the car, whose lumber it was, or but very lit- 

 tle about lumber, he drove back to the office and told the proprietor 

 it was a wet car and could not be used. I had the invoice returned 

 with a curt letter. After personally examining the car, I went after 

 the man and told him I could not stand for that kind of business ; 

 that it was his duty to unload the stock and lay out such of it I 



had not sold him, and we would remove it or adjust it. By urging 

 he unloaded the car with the result that he accepted the lumber aud 

 said it was all right; placed an order for more, aud apologized. 



' ' Every dollar of my profit in the transaction was consumed in 

 the expense and time that I and my representatives were put 

 through by an ignorant employe. I contend that this sort of a 

 buyer is a menace to the trade. Before he refused the car it should 

 have been his business to give the stock a tliorough examination, and 

 know what it was before making a complaint. What are you going 

 to do with men w'ho take a teamster's representation for the char- 

 acter and quality of a carload of lumber? Such a case as stated is 

 not a isolated one, but it is almost an everyday occurrence. 



' ' I wish you might go at this sort of people with your pen, aud 

 wake up cattle of this kind, by putting it to them straight, and show 

 them the moral obligation to the people of whom they buy lumber.'' 



Tlie above letter is a specimen of a good many received at the 

 office of Hardwood Record w-ith a good deal of regularity, and w'here 

 there is so much smoke there must be some fire. It occurs to the 

 editor that there must be a lack of efficiency in the management of 

 many wood remanufacturing institutions. They trust many important 

 details of their business — the counting of their dollars — to incompe- 

 tent employes, with the result that people with whom they deal are 

 put to needless and extraordinary expense in the sale of lumber, and 

 in making the sales- actually stick. 



One well-known jobber in discussing this question with the editor 

 a short time ago, in a semi-humorous vein, observed: 



"You know I can explain to you why the lumber jobber makes so 

 much money out of his business? It is a perfectly easy exposition 

 in figures. On an average he gets a gross profit of thirty dollars 

 on every car of lumber he sells. It costs him ten dollars to buy this 

 lumber; it costs him ten dollars to sell it, and it costs him ten dollars 

 to settle the kick. This is the reason I am not wearing a new 

 checkered spring suit." 



One Cent Letter Postage 



Hardwood Eecord is deluged with literature from the National 

 One Cenr Letter Postage Association, which seems to be composed 

 of sundry more or less distinguished gentlemen of Cleveland and 

 other towns, and whose work is engineered by George T. Mcintosh. 



As far as this publication is concerned it believes an attempt at 

 one cent letter postage on the part of the postoffice department would 

 be a mistake. The general business public is not finding any fault 

 with paying two cent letter postage, but what it does insist on is much 

 better service. Let's pay even a higher rate of postage, if necessary, 

 but demand better and prompter postal service. 



Danger Ahead 



High prices of hardwood lumber do not necessarily spell increase 

 and permanent prosperity for either the manufacturing or jobbing 

 trade. High prices to those who at present have substantial holdings 

 do mean an increased and immediate profit, but it must be recalled 

 that every time there is a boost in prices, it means an increased 

 seeking for substitutes for wood, which when once installed are very 

 hard to dislodge. 



A letter from a prominent Illinois manufacturer of iron >beds wag. 

 received by Hardwood Eecobd recently. He has formerly beeij a 

 large consumer of low-grade hardwood crating material. He says; 



"We wish to advise that owing to increased price of hardwood crat- 

 ing lumber, w-e will not in the future be interested in this material. 

 We have adopted a new method of packing and have discarded the 

 use of lumber entirely." 



This is not an isolated case, but similar to tho.'e coming to our at- 

 tention almost daily. There is a positive danger in the high values 

 likely to obtain during this current bulge in hardwood values. Prices 

 should not be set at too high a level for the future good of the 

 inrUistry. 



