24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



accomplish or fail to accomplish. If Woodrow Wilson should be 

 elected, in which he seems to have a call in the betting, the country 

 will be in fairly safe and sane hands. If Theodore Eoosevelt should 

 be the choice of the people and the tenents of the new progressive 

 party be carried out, and there is little reason to believe that they 

 will not be, there is no particular danger to the business world of 

 such an ending of the three-cornered political fight. 



It is fair to presume that the average business man from now 

 until election is going to interest himself more in his business than 

 in politics. He will go to the polls quietly and voice his prefer- 

 ence, and in the event that it does not correspond with that of the 

 majority, he still will be fairly well satisfied with the result. It 

 now looks as though current politics had ceased to be an important 

 retardant to business prosperity. 



Fire Losses in City and Country 



A tabulation has been made of the statistics on fire losses in the 

 United States as between the cities and the country for 1911 and 

 previous years. Last year's record shows a per capita loss of $2.62 

 for cities of 20,000 population and over, an increase of 23 cents 

 over the per capita loss for 1910. -In the group of eleven cities 

 having a population of 400,000 and over, St. Louis had the largest 

 per capita loss, with Boston second and Chicago next with a loss 

 of $2.59 per capita. Baltimore makes the best sliowing, with 

 Cleveland next. The average per capita loss of this group of the 

 eleven larger cities is $2.27, which is 13 cents higher than in 1910. 



A comparison of the fire loss in the fities and the country shows 

 that the proportion of losses on property supposed to be under first- 

 class fire protection, and much of alleged fireproof character, has 

 greatly increased, while the losses ou property witli little or no fire 

 protection and quite largely of wood construction has fallen off. 

 Fire underwriters attempt to explain this fact by saying the supe- 

 rior fire protection of the cities is offset by the multiplicity of 

 municipal hazards which are absent in the country, together with 

 the fact that a conflagration once started makes a larger showing 

 on the loss ratio. 



Say what you please, the statistics quoted make a mighty good 

 argument for an increased use of wood in structural work. 



Building Operations 



As recounted in the news columns of this issue, it will be noted 

 that building operations of the chief commercial cities of the coun- 

 try for the first seven months of the year exhibit a net increase 

 over the extraordinary buihling of 1911 of nine per cent. July of 

 this year also stands out with an increase of the same percentage 

 over July of a year ago. This is an extraordinary showing, when it 

 is recalled that monumental building operations rarely take place 

 save in periods when there is little profit in general industrial 

 enterprises. At such times money seeks investment in real estate 

 improvements. Hence there was nothing remarkable in the large 

 building developments of 1911, but in the face of a general return 

 of normal business conditions it is extraordinary that the bulk of 

 these operations not only continues but show an increase. There is 

 every promise that building operations will continue to show an 

 increase in percentage for the remainder of 1912 over 1911, and 

 it would not be surprising, with the present start, if the net increase 

 would approximate twenty per cent. 



Longevity of Wood 



Many remarkable stories have been told about the enduring 

 qualities of wood, but it has remained for Professor Petrie and 

 his associates to make the most wonderful demonstration in this 

 respect that has ever been recorded. This coterie of scientists has 

 had on exhibition in England during the past month specimens of 

 wood from buildings excavated in Egypt that are more ancient 

 than any others yet discovered. The remains of these wooden 

 buildings indicate that timber was once more abundant in the Nile 

 river valley than has been supposed. A cofiin with the bottom 



made from a plank marked with the, house-builder 's tool upon it 

 is referred io King Menes' time, about 4,000 B. C. Wooden bed- 

 steads of that time and their carved feet testify of a prehistoric 

 civilization. Some of these, too short for lying at full length, are 

 e\idei^tly such as Jacob had thousands of years later, when he 

 "gathered up his feet into his bed" to die. A curiosity, a thou- 

 sand years older than the oldest pyramid, is a sort of a foot rest 

 in the form of a wooden block topped with a bar and made into 

 the sh.ipe of a sole on which to place the foot while fastening the 

 sandal. 



Surely the general public and even lumbermen do not appreciate 

 the longevity of wood when it is so disposed as to not be subject 

 to alternate dryness and dampness. Lhideniably wood will outlast 

 cement, steel and iron a hundred times over, if it is properly placed 

 in structural or other uses. 



Impending Car Shortage 



H.\RrnvooD Kecoru is not inclined to cry '-wolf'' unless there is 

 good reason for the message. If any one can read and analyze the 

 crop report contained in this issue, taking into consideration as 

 well the depleted situation that surrounds the rolling stock of 

 the majority of American railroads, it will require but little logic 

 to demonstrate that there is certainly good reason to assume that 

 there will be an unheard-of car shortage during the next few 

 months, and notably while crops are moving. Non-perishable 

 freight like lumber is always forced to take a back seat in periods 

 of ear stringency. 



Hence, if ever good advice was offered by a lumber journal it is 

 the injunction that the time to buy lumber for those who eontem- 

 jdate that necessity is now. Buj'ers will find the market in an 

 easier situation at the present time than later in the year, and, 

 besides that, they will be assured of stocks on hand when the 

 urgent necessity of the fall trade renders such holdings imperative 

 to the satisfactory conduct of lumber manufacturing enterprises. 



Southern Operators Exonerated 



The action of the grand jury wliich tried the officers of the 

 Galloway Lumber Company who were held on a serious charge in 

 connection with the outrage at Grabow, La., on July 7, is highly 

 gratifying, and a pretty concrete evidence of the general feeling 

 regarding the rioting at that place. The action of the jury com- 

 pletely exonerated the officers from all liability. It will be recalled 

 that a number of members of the timber workers' union attemiited 

 to intimidate employes of the Galloway company on that date, 

 and that as a result of retaliation on the part of the Galloway 

 men, several people were killed and a large number injured. The 

 judge decided that the lumbermen merely acted in defense of their 

 lives, and that no blame whatever could be attached to them. 



Ou till' other hand, a large number of the disturbers, those act- 

 ually participating in the rioting and those supposed to have excited 

 it, are in jail on charges ranging from highway robbery to murder, 

 and some ou both charges. There are twenty-three agitators in 

 jirison, among whom is A. L. Emerson who is president of the 

 to-called Brotherhood of Timber Workers. 



The most gratifying phase of the situation is that the unpopular 

 methods of Emerson and his followers have met with a very cold 

 response on the part of the sawmill and W'oods employes in that 

 territory. The Timber Workers' Brotherhood has received but few 

 new members, and mills in the affected territory are, for the most 

 jiart, running full time with a full quota of help. The promptness 

 with which the authorities acted in arresting and indicting such 

 a large number of the disturbers not only had the good moral 

 effect in revealing the weaknesses and the injustice of Emerson 's 

 rause, but it has demonstrated to the minds of the saner element 

 among the mill workers that such an organization as Emerson rep- 

 resented could not possibly be of any benefit to them, but if 

 allowed to grow, would very likely cause them endless and inces- 

 ^'.•int trouble. 



