24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



any "soft snap" in the consuming trade, or any rich relatives 

 owning the Harvester company or the Pullman company, or any 

 of the big wood-working plants, but it simply indicated that he was 

 a live wire who was right up on his toes, looking after every 

 opportunity to give his customer something just a little better 

 than he was getting for a little less money, providing the customer 

 would allow him to use his own judgment in furnishing the stuff. 



It is a " eineh ' ' no man could refuse such a proposition. As an 

 instance: This young man went to a certain consuming factory 

 using oak, the thief requisite of which was strength. According 

 to the ordinary terms in a rule-book, this consumer had to buy and 

 pa}' for a regular run of No. 1 common stock in order to get the 

 cut which he needed. Of course, worm holes would aifect his grade, 

 and hence a great deal of stock, otherwise in every way adapted to 

 his line of work, would be ruled out and he would have to pay 

 the regular price for a much higher grade of stock than he 

 required, probably getting a great many defects in the stuff that he 

 did buy, which would have to be cut out as waste. The hustling 

 wholesaler put the proposition before the consumer to furnish him 

 with stuff guaranteed to cut one hundred per cent to the good, at 

 two or three dollars less price than he was paying. The wholesaler 

 was "wise" to the fact that he could get the wormy kind of oak at 

 a low figure; he could sort it out so that he would give his customer 

 only such stock as it would cut absolutely to meet his requirements, 

 and at the same time would give him the essential qualities in the 

 lumber which he desired. 



As a result of the transaction, the customer is buying his lumber 

 for three dollars less, and further he is working it up with a much 

 less percentage of waste. The wholesaler is realizing a handsome 

 profit and the niillman is enabled to dispose of a big chunk of his 

 wormy oak at a very satisfactory figure, whereas before he couldn 't 

 move it. 



This certainly isn't doping the grades; the consumer doesn't 

 order one thing and pay for another — he pays exact value for his 

 lumber. It has the old grade-mixing habit beaten a mile. 



Plan of National Association of Commerce 



Mention has been made at different times of the formation of 

 the National Association of Commerce, which is the result of con- 

 siderable agitation culminating in a call from President Taft to 

 representatives of trade bodies from practically all the states and 

 territories. The body was organized in Washington last April, and 

 now has a membership of one hundred organizations composed of 

 one hundred thousand individuals. There are seventy-five applica- 

 tions pending, and there is every reason to believe that the 

 association will be of distinct service to the government in its 

 trade extension work. 



One of the inviolable rules that has been adopted is that partisan 

 politics will be excluded absolutely from the association. With this 

 in view members of Congress are debarred from membership. 



Permanent offices have been opened in Washington, and so far 

 two monthly meetings of the executives have been held, one in 

 Chicago and the other in Washington. The third will be held 

 shortly in Hotel Champlain in New York, and the first full meeting 

 of the Chamber will be held next January. 



It is the aim of the association to deal only with national 

 questions of importahce to the commerce of the country, and an 

 exhaustive analysis will be made of each question proposed to the 

 directors before it is submitted to the full body of the association. 

 An opinion of all members will be obtained on any legislative 

 proposition, and the chamber will not be committed by the board 

 or by any committee for or against such action. 



It is proposed to carry out the following purposes: 



To encourage and promote through the members the organization 

 of associations of business men in all parts of the country. 



To study the work of existing organizations and their value to 

 their respective trade and communities. 



To advocate the standardization of association methods and 

 effort, and to urge the general adoption of these standards where 

 possible. 



To study the work performed by our government 's bureau in any 

 way relating to the commerce of the country, and to encourage 

 methods for their further development, and to utilize their data. 



To analyze all statistics with regard to production and distri- 

 bution of all goods at home and abroad, and to watch for any 

 influence tending to retard commercial development, and to become 

 the source of information with regard to new opportunities for 

 trade extension. 



The fundamental purpose of the organization is to enable the 

 business element of the country to get into close touch, and counsel 

 with the government with a view of having representation of the 

 business side of the country to counsel and .advise as to any acts 

 bearing upon business adopted by the government. 



The association will have innumerable committees and will be 

 of an extremely broad scope covering every phase of the business 

 in all parts of the country. Its possible usefulness is practically 

 unlimited as to domestic and foreign commerce relations, and it 

 can be of infinite value in the compilation of statistics. 



An Appeal Well Founded 



Apparently the officers of the Nichols lic Cox Lumber Company, 

 Grand Eapids, Mich., have excellent grounds for an appeal from the 

 recent decision of the United States district court, which on June 

 21 moved that they were guilty of technically soliciting and 

 accepting a rebate. Apparently the action of the court was more 

 or less arbitrary against the defendants, who claim that they were 

 not given sufficient opportunity to present the full evidence in their 

 own behalf. The evidence which they wished particularly to bring 

 before the court was tending to prove that the act of which they 

 had been found guilty was entirely an error and was not in accord- 

 ance with their regular method of doing business. While the 

 concern, in the eyes of the court, might be technically guilty of the 

 offense of soliciting and accepting a rebate, under such conditions 

 it would seem that their conviction of the charge would be entirely 

 lacking in justice. 



Trade Methods Here and Abroad 



If figures indicate anything, it would seem that the American 

 business man saves an immense amount of time over his Conti- 

 nental and English cousins in the transaction of his business. Sta- 

 tistics from the telephone companies show that there were 

 14,500,000,000 conversations over the 'phones in the United States 

 in 1911. This represents sixty-six per cent of the world's com- 

 munications by telephone. In the first part of 1911 there were 

 over seven-and-a-half million telephones in use in the United 

 States, aggregating 67.4 per cent of the total number in the 

 world. This represents a telephone mileage of 29,962,107 miles 

 throughout the world, of which the United States has 16,754,000. 



All this would indicate that the American business man considers 

 his time of paramount importance and transacts a great deal of Bis 

 business over the wire, even calling up long distance rather than 

 making a trip or relying upon the slower transmission of mes- 

 sages by mail. Of course, there are more 'phones in this country 

 because of the greater area and the population, but even at that 

 the number is not in direct proportion. 



The increased use of the telephone is becoming more apparent in 

 the lumber business constantly, and nowadays one very often hears 

 of some big deal being closed over long distance wire. In fact, the 

 long distance telephone calls of certain concerns form an important 

 part of the monthh' expenses, but in proportion to the business 

 realized, they actually represent a small cost. 



Government Approves Land for Reserve 



The National Forest Eeservation Commission approved 55,000 

 acres of land in the Smoky mountains of Tennessee and North 

 Carolina, and 24,900 acres in Virginia for purchase for the reserva- 

 tion. The commission met on June 29. The sum of approximately 

 two million dollars was expended during the fiscal year ending 

 June 30, 1912, for the acquisition of lands under the Weeks' law. 



