2A 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



So this eommittee meets probably three times 

 a year aside from the regular meeting of the 

 as>:ociatic)n, when the committee always con- 

 venes, and they go over various measures which 

 Ihey then present to the general assoeiation. so 

 thMt it saves hashing and re-hashing a lot of 

 ijiHti-rial at the meeting of the association, hut 

 noiliing <li'finite is passed wit hont a two-thirds 

 majority vote of the entire organization. We 

 believe that every fellow should have a fair deal. 

 l)Ut that we are only entitled to our measure of 

 any square deal, and you will liave to arrive at 

 that iK)int in any organization. When you form 

 an organizati<m for the purpose of taking advan- 

 tage of the other fellow, you will fare pretty 

 hard. I have seen a number of instances of that 

 in my work. One thing more 1 want to impress 

 upon you and that is. you should not make the 

 mistake of trying to start a cheap organization. 

 You understand what I mean by that. We do 

 not attempt to conduct the business of our mem- 

 iM^rs. but simply to improve the conditions sur- 

 itiunding them. They must go on tlieir own line, 

 working out their own problem and succeed or 

 fail according to their own conduct of their own 

 affairs. We have absolutely no price list. Our 



ir. H. ALEXAMiKU, IIlLI.SItnlin. iMi.. MKM- 

 nVAt FKKMAXENT olUJANlZAllnX 



(;<»MMITTKK. 



plan is simple — there is no even pric >■ in farm 

 wagons. Of forty odd factories. I venture to 

 say there are not more than two or three thnt 

 have an even price on their wag(ms. When we 

 have a meeting and find that the in<*rease in cost 

 of production is so much, we want that increase 

 if we can get it. so we pass a recommendation 

 that we get that five or ten per cent advance if 

 possible. We have gotten to a point where we 

 know there is a majority that will live up to the 

 advanced price. I have the right to advise you 

 what you shall sell for, but you can do just as 

 you please in carrying it out and that is the 

 privilege our members have, liul with the dis- 

 tinct feeling that they need the increased price. 

 Xow, when our association recommends anything 

 of this kind, we have several large competitors 

 outside of it who are on the watch and they f(d- 

 low those recommendations pretty quickly every 

 time. All we are after is a legitimate profit 

 over manufacturing cost. 



The chairman then introduced Lewis Dos- 

 ter, the secretary of the Hardwood Manufae- 

 tiirers' Association of the Thiited States, an- 

 other gentleman who has 'been remarkably 

 successful in association work, and who liail 

 expressed his willingness to give the liandlc 

 men the benefit of his experience. 



Address of Secretary Doster. 



.\lr. Hoster: 1 liave been called upon to talk 

 on organized work and 1 am going to confine my- 

 self to what our associatiim has accomplished. 

 It will be in detail and may not cover some of 

 your wants, but I am going to give you all I can 

 in hopes that your organization may be alile 

 lo benetlt itself as we have. We were one oi 

 I he latest associations in I he lumber manu- 

 ra.'turing industry to organi/.i' and represent 

 the manufactured product from the timber up, 

 and I believe you have all heard of the suc- 

 cess we have made and realize its ben<'fits. 

 Trior lo llioii the hardwood manufacturers- — I 

 speak of them now as Southern producers — were 

 in very bad shape. It was such that their 

 credit at the banks was in proportion to the 

 capacity of their mills — the larger the capacity, 

 the greater the credit at the bank, and vice 

 versa. Today I consider that the Jianking inter- 

 ests look upon the liardwotKl manufactui-cr as a 

 very good custonier. Our oi-ganization was 

 formed and its membership composed of men 

 who attributed their losses to the fact that the 

 grading of lumber was not satisfactory. There 

 was a feeling existing that a grade might he 

 so and so in one .section — in the East one thing, 

 in the West another, etc., with the result that 

 values of lumber were according to grades, and 

 uidiuiirily no man knew exactly where he stood. 

 \\f found we could unify the values of lumber — 

 not make prices but educate the men who were 

 cmt of touch with conditions existing in the 

 large consuming markets. Our phin of organiz- 

 ing to cover the large area we represented was 

 by holding sectional nieeiings where production 

 was largest. The result was that the meetings 

 ;ill ]iractically agreed to consolidate in a na- 

 tional body, and semi-yearly meetings were then 

 held iit certain central points. After organizing; 

 we adopted olijects which I will read to yt)u 

 from our constitution and by-laws and which are 

 familiar to some present. [Mr. Poster read ex 

 iracts fr»m the rules of his asscK'iation.] You 

 will see that these cover a multitude of coudi 

 tions. We also established a set of grading 

 rules which was verj' hard work, because condi 

 tions in different sections were in a i-ather 

 chaotic state, but we finally <'stah!ished somi' in 

 the face of strong oppositi<m. for New York. 

 Haltimore, Philadelphia. I'.utT'alo. St. Louis and 

 Chicago all had their own system. The result 

 was that when a man stacked up his lumber 

 he never knew where it was going to or how it 

 would ho inspected. You all know that the 

 inspectors of lumber in those days were a lowei- 

 class than today, and. in my oi>inion. tbey are 

 beneath what they should be still, and we have 

 iiaid special attention to raising the standard 

 of I his class of w<)rk. Many numufacturers 

 lell me that an extra exiiense of .in cents a thou- 

 sand in inspection properly condiu-ted will mean 

 an increase to them of '$2 a thousand in the 

 ]0'ice they get for their stock. 



After our rules became effectivi- we naturally 

 made other necessary additions to the asso- 

 ciation. Our first was a department of market 

 ^alues. At no time did we ever have an iron- 

 clad agreement as to the question of prices. 

 I'hey were based upon market values, stump- 

 age valuu. cost of manufacture, demand, etc. 

 and prices made accordingly. There never was 

 a liona fide price agreement. Our list was mere- 

 ly a target to shoot at. Every one was privi- 

 leged to try for it and to hit the mark if he 

 <-ould. We realized the fact that organizations 

 who organize for values only never make a suc- 

 cess. We never trj' to run a man's business 

 for him, but I can show you how we help him 

 out by placing his stock on the market in a 

 legitimate manner without so much loss to him- 

 self. Xor did we ever try to make an agreement 

 as to the prices of purchasing raw material. 

 Our stock reports which we send out semi- 

 monthly help members to unload .surplus stocks. 

 We make a thorough canvass of the entire mem- 

 ]iership regularly, asking each firm if they have 



any accumulation of certain stock. This allows 

 us to find out what is in overproduction. We 

 find what stock there is an accumulation of. 

 I'eople who have this item on hand stop manu- 

 facturing it and manufacture other stock which 

 will go upon the market more easily. We like- 

 wise ask members what they are short on. what 

 they are oversold on. etc. When Ihey find out 

 what is in short supply they go to manufactur- 

 ing it. so that the purchasers of lumhi-r are all 

 the tim<' getting a rcas<mahly even supply. It 

 helps the manufacturer and the buyer. In fact, 

 all we have tried to do has been to create a 

 smooth track for lumber to run over from the 

 forest right into the consumers' hands. After 

 the lumber is sold all of us will sometimes find 

 difiiculty with people who are unjust. We all 

 know how hard it is to grade lumber and what 

 different interpretaticms can he put upon the 

 same princiijles. To jirotect our members we 

 created a commercial leport department. We 

 sent it to all meml)ers. When one wants to 

 know the standing of any man he writes us 

 and we send his inquiry to all members of the 

 association, nf course, we leave exact financial 

 standing to tiie conimi-r.-ial agencies, but we get 



ClIAKLKS O. O.VTKS. LnriS\'lLLi:. KY.. 



MEMREK I'KK.MANEXT OIJOANIZA 



TI(»\ i'oMMlTTEi:, 



Ihe moral standing of that individual and re 

 port on his dealings with our members. Each 

 reports to us his knowledge of the person in 

 question, and Mie report in general is then sent 

 to ever}- member of the association as well as 

 to the inquirer. Though they may uot need 

 it at the time, they file the report away for 

 future use. The result of that report system 

 has made a great many people good — that is to 

 say, bad people good. It has taught them that 

 thi'y cannot use unjust methods in settling for 

 lumber several thousand miles away from our 

 sawmills, for their unjust dealings are invariably 

 reported faithfully. Then we have special re- 

 ports which are what we call our information 

 Imreau. Members write us regarding cost of 

 manufacliu'e, labor problenis. 

 is hard to determine in tlie 

 business. 



We could not cover the eni 

 satisfactorily in ihat respeei 

 members who are close lo 1; 

 labor is plentiful. wln> have 

 tion facilities, who are located close to their 

 source of supply. In the labor problem I will 

 say we had a confidential correspftudence with 

 members a few years ago when the unions at- 

 tempted to organize the handlers of lumber. 

 The result of our reports to each other was 

 that that set of men started from the north 



