14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



will, in many cases, cause sucli manutactm-er.s to produce their own 

 raw materials. 



We have fimnd In our own experience that it has paid in most 

 cases to confer with those who are marlielinf; our product to the 

 consumer, and in the instance of the •uniform warrant}" on farm 

 wagons this document, that is of great value to the manufacturer 

 and selling interests as well, was the outcome of this co-operation. 



It is not because our fraternity have had any difficulty with the 

 grading and inspection rules that I write you this, as I know of no 

 cases where we have been compelled to sulimit to them, and do not 

 expect there will be any. hut I l)elieve it would be a source of .satis- 

 faction and profit if such rules might be made mutually agree- 

 able to both buyer and seller, for I believe and linow that suck a 

 thing Is possible, for we have proven it. 



Mr. McCullough is a student of lumber wliich eventually enters into 

 wagon construction ami is also an authority on association affairs, and 

 his communication is well worth the consideration of lumber asso- 

 ciations. There is no one organization, no one group of individuals, 

 no one newspaper that can force all its opinions or all its methods of 

 handling inspection matters upon the totality of the manufacturing, 

 jobbing and wholesale consuming trade of the country. In striving 

 to accomplish ultimate and sweeping success in securing universal in- 

 spection and the universal application of it, there are many other 

 parties in interest than the one primarily promulgating the rules to 

 be considered. The manufacturer must needs be satisfied with the 

 grades of lumber, to the end that his logs can be reduced thereto 

 without an excessive woods and sawmill loss; the jobber must buy 

 lumber of such grades and at such a price that he can secure a 

 generous margin to cover sales expense.s and profit; the consumer must 

 be satisfied with specific grades that will enable him to cut his various 

 sizes of dimension with a moderate amount of waste. This applies to 

 the furniture maker as well as to the wagon manufacturer. 



Until such time, therefore, as the requirements of all parties in 

 interest can be taken into consideration in the formation of inspection 

 rules and until such time as all these parties, after agreeing on a 

 specific set of rules, can be taken into consideration in the interpre- 

 tation and practical application of them — must actual universal in- 

 spection remain a chimerical proposition. 



Problems of Veneer Making. 



A veteran veneer manufacturer once observed to the writer that if 

 a man had any gambling instincts it was not necessary for him to 

 have recourse to the stock market, the poker game or the ponies, 

 because he could get all the "action" he wanted by engaging in the 

 veneer industry. What the man meant was that there is an unvary- 

 ing uncertainty as to the ultimate product of every veneer log that 

 he handles. There is no way of determining the character of the 

 interior of a log save by cutting it up. The log that gives every 

 indication of developing into a lot of handsome veneers may turn 

 out only plain wood or even worthless stock, while the most ordinary 

 looking log will often surprise the owner by developing a quantity 

 of remarkably fine stock. 



Primarily, veneers take the best logs from the best trees of the 

 choicest forests in the land. This means raw material at high cost 

 as compared with the logs used in everyday lumber production. As 

 a great commercial pursuit veneer making is in its infancy. People 

 who have gone into the business have analyzed the proposition with 

 as much care as was possible with the data at hand. Specious esti- 

 mates of cost and resultant product have been made to amateurs in 

 the trade by sundry persons interested in the sale of veneer manu- 

 facturing machinery, and, generally speaking, they have often been 

 misled. It was easy to believe that a thousand foot log scale would 

 produce 20,000 feet of one-twentieth inch veneers, but experience 

 shows that this estimate is practically double the actual quantity 

 that is delivered from the tail end of the factory. These prospec- 

 tive purchasers have been told that in rotary cutting quarter inch 

 stock they could count on four times the inch measure of lumber as 

 produced from the sawmill. Of course they found this estimate 

 faulty also and have awakened to discover that rotary cut quarter 

 inch stock shows on an average only about two and seven-twelfths 

 times as much thin lumber as inch, under onlinary sawing. 



Again, with the uncertainty of what the log will produce the 

 veneer maker is up against an almost impossible problem in determin- 

 ing, in advance, cost. He constantly hopes against hope that his 



logs will turn out good, and makes prices in accordance therewith, 

 with the result that he just as often makes veneers at a loss as he 

 does at a profit. It would seem logical, therefore, that the way to 

 make prices on veneers would be to add a very liberal percentage for 

 the waste incident to logs that do not turn out well, in addition to 

 manufacturing waste, and make this a base of cost rather than a 

 lower one based on the product of logs if all were good. 



In short, when the character of veneers and veneer work is con- 

 sidered, the price of this material is very much below current 

 lumber values. The sooner veneer makers — large and small — awake 

 to the situation, the sooner will the business be put on a profitable 

 basis. The veneer man need not fear that his customers will not 

 pay a just price, for every man who has entered into the utilization 

 of veneers knows he is making so much higher grade product by 

 their aid that he can afford to pay more money for this class of 

 stock. 



The Dead^Head List. 



Through business ethics, business courtesy, tleficiency in good busi- 

 ness principles, or perhaps through all of these causes, the average 

 newspaper and especially the trade newspaper, has on its subscription 

 list an unnecessarily large number of addresses following which is 

 " D. H." This legend means that the paper is furnished without 

 cost. The average publisher's deadhead roster is very long on what 

 he pleases to term his " [irospective advertising list." If he sees 

 the advertisement of a concern in any of his contemporaries the name 

 immediately goes on his list. The result of this prodigality is that 

 the trade press is fast coming into disrepute with the postotfice 

 authorities by reason of its failure to conform to official regulations. 

 The department is entirely justified in its criticism and the sooner 

 the stringent rules enforced by the superintendent of second-class mail 

 matter at the Chicago postoffice become universal the better it will 

 be for the trade press and for the revenues of the department. 



The Hardwood Record recently had a letter in response to a cir- 

 cular soliciting subscriptions, from a small institution in Detroit 

 which manufactures carriage and automobile bodies, saying ' ' We 

 receive nearly all the lumber papers free of charge, as their pub- 

 lishers seem to feel it very important that we should receive their 

 papers. ' ' The Eecord has a very large list of contributors and news 

 and market reporters ; it has a fairly generous exchange list ; it also 

 sends free copies of the publication to advertisers whose sole interest 

 in the paper is to check their advertisements, but including this num- 

 ber of free copies it has less than 4.50 papers going through the mails 

 that are not paid for. 



The publishers are thorough believers in the fact that there is no 

 advertising value in dead-head circulation; that the man who has 

 not interest enough to pay the moderate subscription price for a 

 lumber paper has not interest enough to take it out of its wrapper and 

 read it, and that no permanent good comes from the forced circulation 

 brought about through "a. hard-boiled egg with every drink" idea, 

 dollar watches or any other scheme that induces a temporary cir- 

 culation of people who by no possible chance can have any per- 

 sonal interest in the publication. 



The Hardwood Record has had a steady and prosperous growth in 

 circulation since January, 190.5, when it was taken over by the present 

 publishers. Its circulation has doubled and doubled again, and the 

 percentage of cancellations of subscriptions is so small that it does 

 not enter into the calculations of the business otfice. The paper can 

 honestly lay claim to having the largest circulation among manufac- 

 turers, jobbers and consumers of hardwoods, dimension stock and 

 veneers of not only any of its contemporaries but probably all of 

 them combined. 



Another source of satisfaction is the fact that the average adver- 

 tiser frequently takes occasion to make enthusiastic reports over the 

 results that he is receiving through his announcements. In advertising 

 patronage the publication is constantly gaining new recruits and the 

 percentage of cancellations is so small as not to be worth considera- 

 tion. Without undue self -laudation the publishers are very proud 

 of the fact that the Record's clientage approves and is willing to 

 support a live, up-to-date, conservative, honestly and intelligently con- 

 ducted, semi-tedinical and semi-news hardwood publication. 



