R D Vv O O D RECORD 



35 



First. — The necessity of consolidation of industrial interests in large 

 enough aggregations to bring about necessary curtailment of production, 

 legislate Talues. and stop the waste of capital, raw material, and natural 

 resources, or enter into trade agreements for the same purpose. 



Second. — To allow this wasteful competition to result in the survival 

 of the fittest. 



The first situation, by reason of statutory laws, both federal and state, 

 would be illegal and could only be accomplished, if at all. with the greatest 

 danger, and consequently we are confronted by the second proposition 

 only. 



In our own business (the lumber industry), we have seen resultant 

 waste of our forests by this condition, and I might say in passing, that the 

 same situation is true as to the coal measures, and we believe that this 

 applies not only to these two industries, but to all other large industries, 

 generally, have recognized that by reason of these laws and having these 

 cycles of activity and depression, the situation is unhealthy and a menace, 

 not only to our individual properties but to each and every inhabitant of 

 the country at large, through the great economic loss created by these 

 conlitions. 



That these laws will eventually have to be repealed or modified, we 

 know, but the great question is, when? Some means must be provided so 

 that business may go ahead and we cannot wait until the people, through 

 their own experience, will demand a change in these laws. We. as business 

 men, in company with the representatives of other industries and 

 industrial workers, must organize and co-operate together to educate the 

 people and their representatives in Congress to the fact that in order to 

 relieve our condition and prevent waste, we must be permitted to enter 

 into reasonable trade agreements under proper and reasonable regulation. 

 Such regulation should be bad from a non-partisan civil service body or 

 commission, composed of men of successful business experience, and not 

 of professional office-seekers, and until such changes come over the body 

 politic, we must continue as we are, wasting our resources and creating 

 economic waste, hastening the time when higher prices must result by 

 ■reason of this waste, and if we organize the representative commercial and 

 industrial bodies of the country and proceed to educate the public, we may 

 yet live to see the day when such constructive economic principles prevail 

 in the direction of our governmental policies. 



I would therefore urge upon this body that steps be taken by it for some 

 regular organization which" can take up the question with other similar 

 organizations, to the end that we may have proper representation before 

 the various House and Senate committees in Washington and in our 

 various states, and properly present the needs of business to the 

 representatives of the people. 



The advertising committee through its chairman, A. T. Gerrans, 

 then presented the following report: 



Report of Advertising Committee 



Tour committee desires to make a brief report of its work during the 

 past year. 



Pursuant to the wishes of the National association delegates of the 

 convention held in Chicago last May, your president, Mr. Griggs, named 

 J. E. Rhodes, G. E. W. Luehrmann and myself as the committee on 

 advertising and we were instructed to look into the proposition and be 

 prepared to make recommendations at the earliest possible moment. 

 After due efforts had been made to collect the paid for arguments of the 

 substitutes for wood, we decided to make a report. 



This report or brief was issued under date of June 30. although it was 

 about twenty days later when the pamphlets were actually mailed. Xour 

 committee, in the interim occupied by the members of the various 

 associations in studying our report and recommendations, continued their 

 research work and the farther we dug the more necessity we saw for 

 digging. We discovered that in our opinion, there was practically a well 

 defined attack upon the lumber trade in general, which if not organized by 

 and directed by the cement, steel and roofing interests, then these 

 interests were peculiarly unfortunate in that the footprints in the mud all 

 led direct to their doorsteps and if circumstantial evidence was of any value 

 it convicted them in our minds of deliberately and with malice afore- 

 thought of trying to build up their business by pulling down ours. We 

 conceived it our duty, having once put our shoulders to the wheel, to 

 get out the second pamphlet, containing ten solid pages of "knocks on 

 wood" in which we also placed illustrations representing what, in our 

 opinion, were the causes of the decline in the demand for forest products 

 and also what relative proportions one to another they bore — also we 

 endeavored to show what in our opinion were the remedies to be applied. 



This second pamphlet was issued to the members on or about October 1. 

 About this time some of the associations began taking action and your 

 president called upon your committee to be prepared to present the result 

 of their investigations to a meeting of the board of governors which was 

 held on January 4, 1912, at the La Salle hotel, Chicago. Our statements 

 were received and discussed for several hours and a resolution accepting 

 the recommendations of the committee and instructing said committee to 

 proceed with the campaign as soon as $100,000 had been actually 

 subscribed, was unanimously passed. At that time it was calculated 

 that the favorable action of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of 

 the irnited States and of the Yellow Pine Manufacturers' Association 

 would obtain the minimum of $100,000 and your committee felt very 



much gratified when both associations voted in favor of the movement 

 and agreed to furnish their portion of the necessary fund. 



As soon as the president received the news of the favorable action of 

 the last named associations, he notified the committee to go ahead and 

 on March 4 the committee was called together in Chicago and there were 

 present Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Luehrmann and myself— Geo. S. Long of Tacoma, 

 was unable to be with us and neither was Capt. J. B. White, he having 

 just sailed for Europe. At this meeting we contracted with the Crosby 

 Chicago Advertising Agency to do what might be called our expert work : 

 having gone thus far. we spent several hours discussing the rapidity 

 with which the money would pour into the secretary's office in St. Louis. 

 We finally decided to await the report from the secretary before actually 

 spending the money and shortly after that date your president notified 

 us that the manager's oflice was to be returned to Chicago in order that 

 the manager might be able to take up the advertising work together with 

 his other duties. What has been done since that time will be explained 

 to you by the manager. 



The committee wishes to thank a great many members of the affilLited 

 associations for the kind and often strenuous and nearly always 

 victorious efforts to help us get favorable action. The gospel of" wood vs. 

 wood substitutes has found just as strong advocates amongst the members 

 as are on this committee. We also desire to thank the lumber press 

 individually and collectively for the uniform cordiality with which this 

 great movement has been received by them and also for the spontaneous 

 efforts to help throw light upon the subject of their editorials. Their 

 continued good oflices will be appreciated and we would ask everyone 

 interested in the lumber business to make suggestions calculated to help 

 tne cause — and above all will not every one of those present today 

 constitute himself a committee of one to see that the members of his 

 association send in their money— no one can pay for space in the papers. 

 . rent, printing, etc., without money, and to be absolutely candid with you, 

 we are proud of your moral support, proud of your verbal support, "but 

 .vour monetary support is what we are after. We know and you snow 

 that nothing can be done without the money and we therefore ask you 

 in all earnestness to "come across and do it now." 



E. S. Kellogg made an interesting and somewhat revolutionary 

 speeeh on the subject of lumber prices. The gist of the argument 

 presented by Mr. Kellogg was that it was better to waste timber 

 than to waste money, and that although a lumber trust does not 

 exist, it should exist in order to accomplish the best results for 

 one of the nation's chief public utilities. This paper will be 

 printed in full in an early issue of Hardwood Eecord. 



The report of Treasurer J. A. Freeman was presented, which 

 showed expenditures in the past year of $20,470 and a balance on 

 hand of $3,875. 



Horton Corwin, Jr., of Edenton, N. C, president of the ^'orth 

 Carolina Pine Association, made a brief address on the subject of 

 "Co-operation." Mr. Corwin suffered from a severe cold, and 

 hence made only a brief summary of the value of co-operation as 

 applied to the lumber industry. 



On invitation, Bruce Odell, chairman of the trade relations com- 

 mittee of the Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, 

 made an address on the subject of the elements that make a 

 successful association. Mr. Odeil's forceful paper is herewith 

 reproduced in full: 



Elements That Make a Successful Association 

 While it is the intent of this article to deal primarily with lumber 

 association work, the same rules and principles that apply to lumber 

 associations apply equally to all trade associations. The function of 

 any and all trade associations is to be of benefit or render a valuable 

 service to the association members individually and collectively and the 

 success of any association is measured by the value of the service 

 rendered to its members. This matter of service is the foundation, tl\e 

 very life of any association, and without some valuable service rendered 

 no association can exist very long. It is sometimes difficult to say just 

 what that service is and to measure the value of the service in dollars 

 and cents, as a matter of fact a service may be rendered that cannot be 

 measured with a money standard of value and yet be of great value to 

 the membership. 



Granted that valuable service is the object of all trade associations 

 the query naturally follows by what means can that service be reddered. 

 In my opinion the very best means is by giving information that the 

 individual member may not have acquired or have the facilities for 

 acquiring. You will all grant that the life of any manufacturer is 

 far to short for him to obtain a thorough knowledge of his business 

 from his own individual experience. Experience is a good teacher but 

 a mighty slow and expensive one and if one depends on his own experience 

 exclusively he many times has only failure from which to benefit. There 

 should exist in every association, and does exist in every really successful 

 association, a feeling of mutual benefit, a feeling in each member that 

 makes him willing to give the other members the benefit of his knowledge 

 and experience. 



