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HARDWOOD RECORD 



of which will have an important bearing on business conditions of 

 the country. 



There is everywhere evident an increased confidence on the part 

 of investors and business men generally, all of which will go a long 

 ways toward getting business out of the rut, and instilling into the 

 whole country a deeper and more lasting confidence in the actual 

 possibility of getting back to the old scale of prosperity with 

 which the, country was favored before the panic of 1907. The 

 question is only one of getting the public mind so trained as to 

 see the necessity for concerted thinking of a progressive nature, 

 and this seems about to be accomplished. 



Looking Ahead 



An article of unusual merit, entitled ' ' Some Unsolved Problems 

 of Science," appears in a recent issue of Harper's Magazine. The 

 author, an eminent scientist endowed with an imagination of a prac- 

 tical trend, reviews the question as to whether or not modern society 

 has justified the two thousand years of struggle and toil of the 

 formative period and the infinite time before that leading up to the 

 very beginning of life. He contends that it does not. 



To descend to the prosaic, the same question might be applied in 

 an infinitely more restricted sense to the lumber business, of course, 

 considering it in no degree as a science, but as a commonplace in- 

 dustry which ranks third in relative importance in the country. 



Probably a little over a century would cover the period during 

 which the manufacture of lumber in the United States has been of 

 notable proportions, but when we consider the enormous amount of 

 time, energy and money in the aggregate which has been expended in 

 perfecting methods of economy in lumbering and the enormous amount 

 of effort required to denude the already cut-over area of the country 

 of its wooded growth, it is fair to assume that the lumber industry 

 must have brought an abundance of happiness and worldy goods to 

 a great number of people to have justified that effort. It is certainly 

 true that the industry has been merely a tree-cutting campaign, 

 characterized rather by the strenuosity of the axe man than by any 

 intelligent effort to scientifically utilize one of the most valuable and 

 abundant of the splendid natural resources with which this country 

 was endowed. 



It seems necessary to look to the future for the answer. Not until 

 the millenium in the lumber business is attained, when the industry 

 is so perfected in organization and methods from the stump to the 

 shipping platform of the wood- working factory and the carpenter's 

 bench, that the last penny is gotten out of the tree with the greatest 

 benefit to all, will the lumber business justify its existence. With 

 that state will come a delicate balance between supply and demand; 

 the guarantee of a permanent supply of raw material, thus making 

 lumber and re-manufacturing establishments of such a stable nature 

 as to demand perfectioQ in organization, and commensurate values 

 will be maintained between the raw material and finished product. 

 The marketing of goods will not be attended by throat-cutting 

 methods, resulting in the sale of a vast commodity at less than cost, 

 but will be characterized by such a degree of efficiency as to give 

 the purchaser his goods at a minimum of cost and at the same time 

 insure the seller universally a fair return on his investment. In 

 other words, the industry will have really become a science. 



To the practical lumberman this condition may seem too ideal to 

 merit a second thought, but does he ever stop to consider the degree 

 of scientific development which characterizes other vast industries, 

 and which has been attained in as short, or shorter a lifetime? Will 

 any fair-minded man, after considering the complete lack of har- 

 mony in the lumber business and the probable reasons for it and the 

 many failures and their causes, deny that a vast change in methods 

 must be accomplished before the trade as a unit justifies itself? 



Business and Politics 



Before the advent of the third party in the political race, business 

 men in general would not admit of the possibility of coming 

 elections seriously disturbing the business equilibrium of the 

 country, and even with the so-called Progressive party in the field. 



they are loath to admit that politics in 1912 will be anywhere 

 near the serious detriment it has been in the past. The waning 

 influence of national politics in general business affairs is seen in 

 the public utterances of men of prominence as well as in the 

 expressed opinion of the rank and file of business men throughout 

 the country. 



However, the continued progress of business throughout the 

 campaign is contingent upon the satisfactory settlement of the 

 third party movement. The nature of this political enterprise is 

 so serious that there seems a possibility of the development of 

 new conditions which might alter the situation materially, but 

 under any conditions it seems almost certain the effect on business 

 will not be nearly as serious as it would have been a decade ago. 

 Business is recognizing that it is its own mainstay, and that 

 politics should not be allowed to exact the influence it formerly 

 did. 



It has been hoped by business men that the party differences 

 might be settled and the campaign reduced to a contest between the 

 two principal political parties of the country, but even with the 

 introduetion of a third party there seems to be no more reason for 

 alarm, though there is no recent parallel for comparison. 



Underlying conditions are excellent; the crop outlook is good, and 

 the railroads have passed their period of retrenchment, and are 

 again in the market. In many industrial lines the factories and 

 mills are working at full capacity, and withal these influences le-act 

 favorably upon each other. 



There has, of course, been a noticeable retarding of business, 

 particularly since the beginning of June, on account of the activity 

 of the political conventions, but this mark at no time has 

 approached the significance that had been predicted in some 

 quarters. If business generally continues on a proportionate basis 

 of activity throughout the remainder of the campaign, it will 

 establish a new era of independence from political influences. 

 There is every reason to believe that it will, and it is certainly the 

 earnest hope of every business man in the country that business 

 will have recognized its own strength, and will have assumed an 

 independent attitude toward the political situation. 



The Efficacy of Small Savings 



Just as the diligent use of the small savings bank by the child 

 has often laid the foundation for a bank deposit of much more 

 notable importance in later years, so will the saving of small costs 

 and losses in any line of business very materially affect the dobit 

 and credit side of the books at the end of the year. 



A recent bulletin of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 of the United States suggests thu advisability of closer attention 

 to this question, citing one specific cause for a considerable 

 degrading of lumber, namely, loss in grade of lumber through 

 damage from being laid in the cars without strips at the bottom. 

 It certainly seems to be a simple proposition to place a few strips 

 across the bottom of a car to raise the bottom tier of boards above 

 the cinders and such other refuse as might damage it during its 

 occupancy of the car. This is only one of many instances of a 

 similar nature through which are lost daily a great many dollars 

 in grade which, by the use of a little diligent observation, might 

 easily be saved. 



Perhaps no other industry is so prone to carelessness in smaller 

 details of operation as is the lumber business. This, of course, is 

 necessarily so on account of the nature of the goods handled, but 

 the stock has become of such value as to warrant very careful 

 treatment from the sawmill to the consuming factory. The millman 

 should be amply satisfied with the percentage of low-grade with 

 which Nature provides him in the ordinary run of the log, without 

 soliciting a further percentage by allowing his men to carelessly 

 handle his stock in any one of the numerous operations through 

 which it passes. 



It would be difficult at the end of a week, perhaps, to count in 

 figures exactly how much was saved by being careful, but there is 

 no question that in the course of a year the good effects of closo 



