32 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



part of June ana will take offices in the new 

 Stahlman skyscraper, Nashville's largest and 

 handsomest building. 



Several of the most prominent lumber firms 

 in this city have manifested a keen interest 

 in the trial of two men in the criminal 

 court of Davidson county on the charge of 

 committing acts of vandalism on Cumberland 

 river, consisting of the theft of rope with 

 which rafts were tied and the cutting loose of 

 rafts, causing lumbermen much damage and 

 loss. For years Nashville lumbermen have 

 been held up by a gang of river pirates who 

 charged them with catching lumber that had 

 "broken loose." for bankage. etc.. and they 

 have found it cheaper to pay than to refuse. 

 Catching the offenders, however, has been the 

 difficult part. Recently they got the "dead 

 wood" on one defendant, J. D. Miller, and 

 several of the local companies combined in a 

 prosecution, chief among them being John B. 

 Ransom & Co.. Lieberman. Loveman & 

 O'Brien. Davidson-Benedict Company. Prewitt, 

 Spurr Manufacturing Company and the South- 

 ern Lumber and Box Company. Miller re- 

 ceived a sentence of three years in the peni- 

 tentiary and three sentences of three months 

 each on the county road. Miller and his ac- 

 complice were charged with having cut loose 

 five rafts containing some 1.800 valuable logs. 



Walter E. Knox, general manager of the 

 Nashville Terminal Company, announces that 

 he has secured for Nashville another big lum- 

 ber concern, one that will handle 1.000 cars 

 of lumber annually. The plant is now nego- 

 tiating for a site on the lines of the terminal 

 company and the matter will be closed up in 

 a few days. A specialty will be made of han- 

 dling hardwood. The company will have 

 plenty of capital back of it. 



The properties of the Powell Lumber and 

 Mining Company at Crossville, Tenn.. have 

 been sold to H. M. Alexander of the Coleman 

 Lumber and Mining Company with headquar- 

 ters at Williamsport. Pa. The purchase price 

 was $77,000. The purchasing company now 

 owns about 12.000 acres of timber land in 

 Cumberland county and estimates the timber 

 on it at about 60.000.000 feet. Quite a boom 

 is reported in the lumber business at Cross- 

 ville. 



The Journey & McCombs Slat Factory, de- 

 stroyed by fire recently, is again in operation. 

 The new factory is much larger than its pred- 

 ecessor. 



The Davidson-Benedict Company has decided 

 to move its plant at Cedar Hill. Tenn.. on the 

 Washington estate, to a point near Monterey, 

 where the company also has large undevel- 

 oped holdings. 



J. H. Baskette. former general manager of 

 the Prewitt-Spurr Manufacturing Company, is 

 winding up his Nashville interests preparatory 

 to his depai-ture to take charge of a big wood- 

 enware factory at Helena. Ark. 



Lieberman. Loveman & O'Brien have re- 

 cently added a cross-tie department to their 

 business and are cutting a good supply of 

 them at their Nashville mill. Love. Boyd cS: 

 Co. continue to do a big business in this line. 

 This firm is probably the pioneer in that busi- 

 ness in Nashville. They have recently sold to 

 the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company 

 several hundred thousand ties at this point. 



Much activity is reported in the counties 

 bordering on the Tennessee river in this state. 

 In Wayne, Hardin. Perry and Decatur a num- 

 ber of important land and timber sales are 

 reported and St. Louis and Chicago tie con- 

 cerns have made heavy purchases in that sec- 

 tion. 



The Jones & Woodfolk Lumber Company 

 is a new concern organized at Lexington, 

 Tenn., by Chicago. Louisville and Lexington 

 capital. Will J. Jones of Chicago was made 

 president; J. A. Woodfolk of Louisville, vice 



president, and Thomas E. Graper of Lexington 

 general manager. 



A big timber deal is reported from Sparta, 

 Tenn., on the McMinnville branch of the N. C. 

 & St. 1j. The consideration for the timber 

 properties in the Second and Tenth districts 

 of White county is said to be $45,000. The 

 property was bought from J. W. McClure, 

 agent for the Eastland heirs, by J. T. Ander- 

 son. O. H. Anderson. John M. Welch. J. A. 

 Wilson and J. R. Tubb. 



W. B. Bynum and Guy Alexander of Glea- 

 son, Tenn.. have purchased a large tract of 

 oak timber in northern Alabama and will erect 

 two or three stave mills there in the near 

 future. 



Memphis. 



Recent heavy rains throughout this terri- 

 tory have further interfered with logging and 

 milling operations. There is a pronounced 

 scarcity of timber and this is proving a se- 

 rious handicap. The past five days have been 

 clear, but the ground is so wet that very lit- 

 tle progress is being made in the woods and 

 it may be some days before much can be 

 accomplished in getting out timber. Most of 

 tlie smaller mills are out of business altogether, 

 while some of the larger have been forced to 

 suspend operations for the time being. 



The Darnell-Love Lumber Company has filed 

 application for an amendment to its charter 

 to increase the capital stock from $25,000 to 

 $250,000. R. J. Darnell. A. M. Love. R. J. 

 Wiggs and other officials signed the applica- 

 tion. The company was established five years 

 ago at Leland. Miss. It has been operating a 

 big band mill at that place and is now in- 

 stalling another one there. This, together 

 with large purchases of timber lands and the 

 building of a standard guage railroad, is the 

 reason for the increase in capitalization. The 

 Darnell-Love Lumber Company is affiliated 

 with R. J. Darnell. Inc., Mr. Darnell being 

 president of both corporations. 



R. J. Darnell. Inc.. is now completing its 

 new double band sawmill and veneer plant in 

 South Memphis. The new machinery will soon 

 be ready for operation. The management ex- 

 pects to have everything running by July 1. 



The Crittenden Railway Company, which be- 

 gan some months ago the building of a stand- 

 ard gauge railroad from Earl to Heth. Ark., 

 has completed the main line as well as the 

 branch to Parkin. Ark., where the Lansing 

 Wheelbarrow Company has extensive milling 

 interests, and everything is now in readiness 

 for the operation of trains. The road fur- 

 nislies a connecting link between the Chicago, 

 Rock Island & Pacific at Heth and the St. 

 Louis. Iron Mountain & Southern at Earl, thus 

 giving lumber interests at the terminals and 

 at intermediate points the use of both roads 

 without having to depend altogether on a sin- 

 gle line. F. E. Stonebraker. general manager 

 for the Lansing Wheelbarrow Company in the 

 South, is president and general manager of 

 this road. 



A number of gentlemen prominently inter- 

 ested in the Lamb-Fish Lumber Company 

 were in Memphis a few days ago, including 

 Col. LaFayette Lamb, president of that cor- 

 poration, who makes his headquarters at Clin- 

 ton. Iowa, and J. M. Studebaker of the 

 Studebaker Wagon Company, South Bend, 

 Ind. Col. Lamb came down on his houseboat 

 and with him were a number of friends. It 

 is understood that while Mr. Studebaker was 

 here he looked over the field very carefully 

 and picked up a good lot of wagon stock. 



There was a called meeting of the Lumber- 

 men's Club at the Hotel Gayoso. May 11, at 

 which the report of the River and Rail Com- 

 mittee, covering the conference recently held 

 here between that committee and high ofB- 

 cials of the railroads entering this city, was 



formally presented. The report was read by 

 A. L. Foster, one of the members of the com- 

 mittee and himself an old railroad man. It 

 stated that the committee had considered 

 means of preventing a recurrence of the un- 

 favorable conditions which have recently pre- 

 vailed rather than present relief, the feel- 

 ing of the members being that relief would 

 come through a reduction in the volume of 

 traffic. It further stated that, in the opinion 

 of the committee, the railroads were doing- 

 all they could, not only for immediate relief, 

 but for the prevention of a recurrence of the 

 trouble. The report contained a lengthy quo- 

 tation from a prominent railroad official, to- 

 the effect that the railroads were in the trans- 

 portation business; that their revenue was de- 

 rived from handling this business and that, 

 since this was the case, they were doing a.U 

 they could to solve the problems confronting- 

 shippers; that the railroads had submitted the 

 various features of the traffic problem to the- 

 most experienced committee of railroad men 

 obtainable; that the recommendations of this 

 committee would be submitted to the Ameri- 

 can Railway Association, which would not 

 adopt them unless they were practical, and 

 that the main question right now is "What 

 can shippers do to help the railroads?" 



The report states that statistics were cited, 

 showing that a large percentage of equipment 

 is being held at important junction points be- 

 cause the delivering lines are unable to effect 

 immediate delivery, receivers being unable to 

 find storage room or being slow in unloading 

 cars after delivery has been effected; that 

 thousands of cars are being held at the va- 

 rious seaports, awaiting the convenience of 

 ocean carriers; that many of the railroads of 

 the smaller class have found it cheaper to 

 borrow cars than to build them, with the re- 

 sult that the stronger lines connecting with 

 the weaker systems have, against their most 

 earnest protest, been deprived of a large por- 

 tion of their equipment. In this connection 

 the committee expresses the belief that the 

 raising of the per diem rate from 25 to 50 

 cents per car will have the effect of making 

 it cheaper for the weaker lines to build their 

 cars than to borrow them and points out that 

 Ihey have already placed orders for enough 

 equipment to materially relieve the situation. 

 At this meeting two important papers on 

 phases of the transportation problem were 

 heard. One was prepared by C. D. Hendrick- 

 son and read by Secretary John W. McCIure. 

 In this the writer made a plea for justice on 

 the part of the public, the legislatures and 

 shippers toward those railroads which are 

 striving honestly to improve the disastrous 

 conditions of the past and to prevent their re- 

 currence in the future. The other was from El- 

 liott Lang, formerly secretary of the National 

 Lumber Exporters' Association and now con- 

 nected with R. J. Darnell, Inc. The main 

 feature of his paper was the necessity for 

 relying on the national laws for the correc- 

 tion of transportation evils, his contention 

 being that the states, which are trying to 

 correct evils by legislation, have no power to 

 enforce their enactments where interstate 

 commerce is concerned. 



Much interest has been lent to the 14-foot 

 channel from the lakes to the gulf by the 

 presence in this city a few days ago of the 

 Inland Waterw.ays Commission, of which 

 Congressman Burton is cliairman. This offi- 

 cial delivered an address in which he ex- 

 pressed the belief that the plan was feasible, 

 but in which he further declared that, be- 

 fore it was realized, it would be necessary to 

 create additional public interest therein. 



It is announced in the press dispatches 

 from Washington that President Roosevelt 

 has accepted an invitation to come down 

 with the commission on its trip to Memphis 



