flaMwooil RocoM 



rubliched In the Interest of HBrdwood Lumber. American Hardwood Forests. Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Floorlna 

 Hardwood Interior Finish, Wood Chemicals. Saw Miil and Woodworking MachinerT. 



Vol. XXIV. 



CHICAGO. JULY 25, 1907. 



No. 7. 



Published on the 10th and 25th of each month by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



HENRY H. GIBSON. Ediior. EDGAR H. DEFEBAUGH. Man.gcr. 



7th Floor. Ellsworth BIdg.. 355 Dearborn St.. Chicago. III.. U.S.A. 



Telephone Harrison 4960 



Eeslern Office ; 319 Land Title Building. Philadelphia. Jacob Hollzman, Represenlalive. 



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Advertising copy must be received five da.ys in aLdv&.nce of 

 publication da.te. Advertlslr\g rates on application. 



Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. 



The first annual meeting of this association will be held 

 at Cadillac, Mich., on Wednesday, July 31. This is a very 

 important meeting and a full attendance of the hardwood 

 manufacturers of Michigan is solicited. 



WM. H. WHITE, President. 



BRUCE ODELL, Secretary. 



General Market Conditions. 



The general market conditions of the country are somewhat un- 

 certain and hard to analyze. Buying is in very fair volume all 

 over the country, and stocks are remarkably short. At the same 

 time there is a feeling that trade is soon going to encounter a con- 

 siderable falling off. There are no apparent grounds for this senti- 

 ment, but still it prevails. 



The most notable feature of the last month is the slowness of 

 collections. Practically everyone is complaining about slow pay- 

 ments. The banks have ample funds for all legitimate purposes, and 

 are loaning them with reasonable freedom, at comparatively mod- 

 erate rates. There is this in the situation that it would be well 

 for the conservative man to think about: The monthly building 

 reports issued by one or two trade journals would carry the convic- 

 tion that building operations are progressing in practically the same 

 volume that they (Jid a year ago. One paper's report, covering the 

 operations of June, indicates a falling off of only about one-half 

 per cent in the total of a year ago. Several of the worthy con- 

 temporaries of the Habdwood Eecord insist that these figures are 

 faulty and that business in building operations is in excess of a 

 year ago. It is true that they are holding up very well, but when 

 they are analyzed it will be found that the consumption of lumber 

 in structural work is based on business placed from six months to 

 c:; a year ago. There certainly is not in sight nearly as much building 

 p"< as a year ago, and it is quite possible that the present number of 

 I new structures under contract will fall off more and more as the 

 1— t year progresses. It is undeniable that the high prices prevailing 

 fm for not only lumber but all other building materials, and for labor, 

 *~1 have put speculative building practically out of existence for some 

 ^ time to come. A conservative prophecy would be that the building 



trade can bank on a fair volume of lumber consumption in struc- 

 tural work for some months, and then witness a material decline. 



As an evidence of this fact there is scarcely a building and loan 

 association in Chicago that is not loaded down with money which 

 it i.s unable to loan for new structures. The one hundred and sixty- 

 seven cooperative concerns of this kind in Cook county have assets 

 of over $13,000,000 on hand and no one seems to want to borrow 

 it. As the Eecord goes to press there is a meeting of building 

 and loan associations of the United States taking place, comprising 

 more than six hundred delegates, and the chief object of the meeting 

 is to devise means for loaning building association money with safety. 



The H.tEDWOOD Record is not a pessimistic journal and at all 

 times attempts to give a conservative refiection of conditions, lean- 

 ing toward the optimistic. It is well-known that the yellow pine 

 market is far from being in good shape and prices on other build- 

 ing woods have eased off materially. Hardwoods of all classes today 

 and for some time to come will be in far better condition than any 

 of the building woods, owing to the fact that stocks are so remark- 

 ably short, and that another period of car famine is close at hand. 

 The hardwood trade will probably work through the season in fair 

 volume at about current prices, owing to these conditions, but 

 neither seller nor buyer should look for fancy prices or boom demand 

 for some time to come. 



The Never-Cnding Inspection Question. 



The Hardwood Record is in receipt of the following pertinent, 

 forceful and convincing letter from E. W. McCullough, secretary of 

 the Xational Wagon Manufacturers ' Assoeiatioh of the United States 

 of America: 



.\s na interested reader of your popular .iournal. I have noted 

 with more than passing interest the discussion tliat has gone on 

 from time to time regarding grading and inspection rules, and have 

 oliserved the conftict there seems to be between the rules of the 

 Gevorr.l hardwood associations, and it occurred to me that this 

 controversy might very largely be avoided if instead of the seller 

 tatting this whole matter into his own hands and laying down his 

 own rules — some of them i-athei- arbitrary — be would discuss the 

 question with the consumer and agree with him on a basis that 

 would be mutually satisfactory. 



I tiud concerning our own line, the manufacture of which con- 

 sumes a vast amount of hardwood lumber, that the rules published 

 by the several associations are not any of them complete, nor are 

 they satisfactory to the consumer, and while he may submit to 

 them under present conditions, which are abnormal, you will find 

 it to be the case, when the present demand ceases to be what it is 

 now. and the new sawmill and other machinery go into operation 

 , so that the supply is at least equal to the demand, that the rules 

 these various associations have been attempting to establish will 

 amount to little where the.v contlict with what is right and proper 

 in the requirements of the consumer, as competition will render 

 them inoperative. 



I am a firm believer in associations for the betterment of condi- 

 tions, but believe their work must be done on the broadest possible 

 basis, consulting and conferring with the consumer as to their 

 mutual interests, and, by concessions where necessary, arrive at a 

 mutually satisfactory understanding. Then the seller, in disposing 

 of his material under such rules, knows exactly what he must 

 furnish, and the buyer, because of his agreeing to the rules, can 

 expect no more than they give him : but if either of the parties in 

 Interest Insist on exacting from the other more than they should 

 have, or Ignore the requirements of the other, the situation on this 

 inspection question remains just as unsettled as it has ever been, 

 notwithstanding these rules which the pr^Sucers are attempting 

 to put in force and which it may be possible for them to enforce 

 under present conditions. . 



It should also be remembered that the greater portion of rough _ 

 lumber and dimension stock is the raw material for some other 

 manufacturer and that cny attempt to enforce arbitrary conditions 



