36 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



This information may be along the lino of improved economic meth- 

 ods of manufacture, better methods of marlteting, information as to sup- 

 ply of stoclv and market demand and in hundreds of ways too numerous 

 to mention. Part of this information may be furnished by the president, 

 the secretary, or some committee, but each individual member should be 

 ready and willing to do his individual part. 



Economic methods of manufacture would be dilficult and possibly 

 tiresome to discuss at this tim? as this is one of the many elements 

 about which the most valuable information is often oI>tained through the 

 means of an exchange of individual experience, and exchange often times 

 not made duiing the sessions of an association meeting or through any 

 regularly appointed committee but more often through the discussion 

 among small gatherings of two, three, five or more members that you 

 often see during association meetings. These talks may take place at 

 luncheon, between sessions or on the way to or from association meetings. 

 The manufacturer is indeed a dull one who will attend many associa- 

 tion meetings and return home without having received or imparted some 

 useful information pertaining to a better or more economical method of 

 manufacture. 



We must all admit and do admit that an article must be well man- 

 ufactured and economically manufactured in order to yield the most 

 profit, but it is equally true that an article may be well and economically 

 made and yet yield little if any profit through ignorance or careless 

 methods of marketing. I have made the statement and can prove it by 

 each and every manufacturer attending this meeting that many manufac- 

 turers will study and work lo the limit of their ability, they will pay 

 large salaries to competent woods and mill superintendents, they will 

 urge them to secure more and better work from the laborers under them, 

 they will spend thousands of dollars even hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars for railroads, steam loaders, steam skidders, sawmills and im- 

 proved machinery to save a possible fifteen to fifty cents per thousand 

 on their logging bills, ten to twenty-five cents per thousand on their 

 sawing bills and possibly a few cents per thousand on their yarding and 

 handling bills, and then deliberately sacrifice from one to five dollars 

 per thousand in mark.'ting their product without knowing that they 

 have done so. Two, three, five or even ten thousand dollars may uot 

 seem to them or may not be. too mu<h lo pay a manufacturing superin- 

 tendent for looking after their business until it is just half done, which 

 is to get their product ready to market and then turn it over to a sixty 

 to seventy-five dollar a month clerk to finish, which is to sell It, Or he 

 may take this duty upon himself as a sort of a side line to which he 

 devotes a few days of serious thought once or twice a year. 



In this item of marketing his product the association can render a ser- 

 vice to the manufacturer that he cannot perform himself, a service that 

 he will not get from sixty to seventy-five dollar a month clerks, a ser- 

 vice he cannot purchase even through the means of high salaried sales 

 managers. This service need not be rendered by the association through 

 any unlawful combination to limit production, an unlawful agreement as 

 to prices or by any other unlawful means, but by supplying the manu- 

 facturer with information as to supply and demsmd and general market 

 conditions, information that it is absolutely impossible for him to se- 

 cure for himself, information that cannot be supplied through any other 

 source. 



Members of the Michigan Hardwood ^lanufacturers* Association take 

 great pride in the fact that it is recognized as a successful association, 

 that it is accredited with rendering much valuable service to its members, 

 and I believe that if the members wwe asked to name the specific 

 service that has been of most value to them they wotild without ex- 

 ception say that it was accurate and reliable information as to supply 

 and demand and general market conditions of their product. It is essen- 

 tial that each individual member contribute his share to this fund of in- 

 formation and then that the information be put in the right form and 

 proper deductions made so as to be readily understood by the manufac- 

 turer and act as a guide to him in manufacturing his own i)rodi.ct. not 

 through any combination or agreement but through a positive knowledge 

 of actual conditions. 



This association was organized six years ago in about the same 

 manner and for about the same avowed purposes as most other associa- 

 tions except that the organizers had one particular definite idea in mind. 

 The Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers saw their supply of Michigan 

 hard maple timber diminishing rapidly and the maple lumber selling at 

 ridiculously low prices and many of them thought that the market was 

 being manipulated to their disadvantage and loss. With this idea upper- 

 most in their miuds they immediately put forth efforts to get definite, ac- 

 curate and reliable information as to the amount fx-oduced, how the 

 suppi*' compared with the demand, the amount of stock on hand, the 

 amount sold and the amount unsold. While it was expected that this 

 information would come through the organization it must of necessit.v 

 come primarily from the individual manufacturer. 



RIank forms were immediately sent to practically every manufacturer 

 in Michigan with a request to make prompt and accurate reports and a 

 very thorough explanation as to the object to be attained. Reports 

 were obtained from nearly all <'t the manufacturers giving all the infor- 

 mation in detail not onl.v as to maple but all of the other northern 

 hardwoods also. These reports were carefully compiled and sent to each 

 manufacturer reporting and the information given appealed to the man- 

 ufacturer so strongly that it was the means of securing many members 

 that we had not been able to reach by any other metliod. It gave the 



manufacturer information he had never had before, information he 

 could not secure of himself alone, information he could obtain through no 

 other source than the association. 



This first report was gotten out in July and another in Oct.. 190C. By 

 .January 1, 1907 we had gotten a more definite idea as to just what 

 form of report would give us the most useful Information and when the 

 January report come out it was eagerly sought, not only by the man- 

 ufacturer but by the wholesaler, the jobber, the retailer and the con- 

 suming manufacturer also, all of whom were supplied with the quarterly 

 reports long enough for them to be convinced that the information was 

 absolutely accurate and reliable. 



A quotation from the secretary's report at the January 1907 meeting of 

 the association will give you some idea of the scope of the report. I 

 quote as follows : 



Enclosed herewith you will find the first annual stock report of the 

 Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association, or perhaps it would be 

 more correct to call it the first end of the year report as it does not 

 show a full year owing to the fact that our qssociation was not organ- 

 ized until July thirteenth, 1906. In many respects, however, it is an 

 annual report and one that contains information that will be of benefit 

 to the manufacturer, the wholesaler, the jobber, and the consumer. You 

 will find on a careful study of the report that it contains more complete 

 and accurate information in regard to the hardwood situation in Michigan 

 than any other report yet furnished the manufacturer. 



More complete because it probabl.v represents eighty to eighty-five per 

 cent of all the hardwood lumber cut in Michigan ; sliows the amount of 

 each kind of hardwood cut during the year 1906 ; the amount of stock 

 on hand January 1, 1907 : the amount of unfilled orders for 1906 stock, 

 and the amount of the 1906 cut remaining at the mill unsold; also the 

 amount of orders booked January 1. 1907. to be furnished from stock 

 to be cut during the year 1907. You will note in the report of the amount 

 of stock on hand and unfilled orders that it shows the different sizes 

 and grades of each kind of hardwood. Information that probably no other 

 i^neral report has contained. 



More accurate because it was made at the end of the year when every 

 manufacturer had a complete inventor.v of his stock aiid could furnish 

 actual figures instead of estimates. Probably more accurate than any 

 other general report for the further reason that it is a report in which 

 •very manufacturef reporting feels that he has a personal interest. 



That feeling of personal interest and that he is an individual part of 

 the association has contributed no small part to our success. As evi- 

 dence of that feeling I cite the fact that most of our quarterly stock 

 reports contain complete reports from every member of the association and 

 that it is very seldom that more than one or two reports are missing. As 

 evidence of the careful accuracy of the reports, the estimate of Jan- 

 uary 1. showing the estimated amount to be cut during the succeeding 

 year, seldom varies more than five per cent from the amount actually 

 cut and sometimes the actual cut is within one or two per cent of the 

 estimated cut. Stock reports, be they ever so accurate, often mean but 

 little unless we have something by which to compare them. For this 

 reason the older our association grows the more valuable are its stock 

 reports. Take for instance extracts from the January 1012 report of 

 our market condition committee in regard to No. ;i common northern 

 liardwood among members of our association. I quote as follows : 



A comparison of the total stock of No. 3 common hardwood on hand is 

 as follows : 



January 1, 1909 — fifty millions, 



1, 1910 — seventy-four millions, 

 1, 1911 — seventy-two millions, 



1, 1012 — forty-four millions, the smallest stock since 1908, 

 and a comparison of the amount of stock unsold shows even more pro- 

 nounced differences. The total amount of unsold stock for the different 

 years being as follows : 



January 1, 1908 — twenty-one millions, 

 1, 1909 — thirty millions. 

 1. 1910 — forty-three millions. 

 1. 1911 — forty-two millions, 



1, 1912 — seventeen millions, the smallest stock of No. 3 com- 

 mon remaining in the hands of manufacturers unsold in the history of 

 the industry except the year 1907. a year that none of us expect to see 

 repeated. 



With the subject shown up in this way by facts and figures in which 

 every member has the fullest confidence, is it necessary to form any 

 combination in restraint of trade or even tell the manufacturer that he 

 can get better prices for his No. 3 common hardwood? The wholesaler 

 and consumer may make the statement that the woods arc full of it 

 and that they can get all they want at the same old price but if the 

 manufacturer has full confidence in the accuracy of the association re- 

 ports, how much is he influenced by the statements of the wholesaler and 

 consumer. As a matter of fact many of the wholesalers and con- 

 sumers have as much confidence in our reports as we ourselves. 



Having these stock reports and market conditions committee reports as 

 a nucleus from which to work, our association has reached out for the 

 other things that may in any way prove of value to its members — cov- 

 ering hemlock lumber, hemlock bark, rules for grading hemlock, uniform 

 sales customs, recommendations to the National Grading Association of 

 desired changes in the rules for grading northern hardwoods, the or- 

 ganization of a Forest Fire Protective Association and many other de- 

 tails too numerous to mention. Our efforts always have been along the 

 line of education and information and to get the members to report and 

 attend meetings. 



The matter of attendance is an important and necessary one, as no 

 member can secure the full benefit of an association without attending 

 the meetings and taking an active part in them. You may have an able 

 president, an efficient secretary and good committees, but the real work 

 of an association must be done by the individual members. The secre- 

 tary may render a very complete detailed report of the meeting but 

 there is something, call it spirit or what you will. In association work 



