HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



given rise, the meeting was deelareil ad- 

 jonrned. 



,4niong' thcise in attendance were: 



E. W. llef'iillongli. secretary National Wagon 

 Euildcrs' Association. Wilmette. III. 



(ieorge Kile, .Sucker Kod Cornoration, Altron, 

 Oliio. 



C. S. Hartwell, Ilartwell Bros., Chicago 

 Heiglits, III. 



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Iloi-t. ImixM-ial Wheel Co.. Flint, Mich. 



Sanford. secretar.v National Association 

 cnienr Mnnufaetnrers, Chicago. 



Curtis. X'ehicli' Woodstock Co., (^hicago. 



Nolan. Wagon Kuilder. New York. 

 W. Herron, .Tr., Royer Wheel Co., Cincin 



10. 



Ilolroyd. Washington, II. C. 

 Allen. Wilmette, 111. 

 Staver. Staver Carriage Co.. Chicago. 

 Hannister, Muncie Wheel Co.. Muncie, 



jyiuck Rake Department, 



The Postal Authorities Step In. 

 The daily press of Atig. 23 announces that 

 tlie Tobaseo-Chiapas Trading & Transporta- 

 tion Company, an alleged $2,000,000 ship- 

 building, eoflfee-growing ami river-trading 

 Mexican plantation concern, with head- 

 quarters at 18 River street, Chicago, and 

 with branch offices in Philadelphia and 

 Mexico City, has tumbled down with a 

 crash. The institution is charged with 

 fleecing 2,800 stockholders out of $8.^1,000, 

 using 32 per cent of this vast sum to pay 

 dividends which were never earned. On 

 Aug. 22 it was raided by the United States 

 postoffice authorities. Henry T>. Bushnell, 

 ( 'hicago, president, and Isaiah B. Miller, 

 Chicago, treasurer of the company, w-ere ar- 

 rested by a deputy United States marshal 

 on the complaint that they were using the 

 mails to defraud the public. It is said that 

 J'ully fifty agents of the Tobaseo-Chiapas 

 ( onipany claim that they have been de- 

 frauded of .$1,000 each and have received no 

 part of the $200 monthly salary promised 

 them. 



The principal complainants are W. S. Sin- 

 clair of Boston, and A. L. Ensign, Chicago, 

 • who were stockholders to the extent of 

 $4,000 each. There are forty or fifty other 

 complaints beside the agents. Warrants are 

 also out for other principals in the concern. 

 Postoffice Inspector William Ketcham, 

 who investigated the affairs of the com- 

 pany and caused the arrest of the officers, 

 puts the case this way: 



The government contends that this company 

 secured titles to a piece of land in Frontera, 

 Mexico, and capitalized under the laws of Ni^w 

 Jersey for $1.ii(io.OU(l. The company represented 

 in the mails that it was earning suthcient money 

 to justify it in I he last five years in paying 

 dividends amounting to .$LOO.OUU. Upon these 

 rosy representations it realized .'jiSol.OOO in cash 

 sales of stock. 



The dividends paid never were earned from 

 the shiphuilding, transportation and coffee in- 

 dustries of the company, and dividends were 

 paid out of sales of stock to induce the public 

 to purchase more stock. 



A feature of the game was for the Lu-Me-Ha 

 Mills Compan.v. a subsidiary "coffee" business, 

 to promise agents ^js'JdO a month. When the 

 agents secured .jobs tliey were forced to invest 

 SI. (100 in stock. The agents complain that when 

 they got to tht branch office they failed to liear 

 from the house and received no salaries. We 

 also charge that the company produces no coffee 

 on its land, but buys in New York, and tmly 

 gets its coffee in Chicago by paying for it in 

 advance. 



The man Bushnell is also president of a 



Mexican Plantation Association, with offices 



at 18 Eiver street, and of the United States 



Peat Fuel Company, 134 Monroe street. 



Isaiah B. Miller, it will be recalled from the 



exposures which the Hardwood Record has 



been printing for months past, is one of the 



powers behind the throne of the Interna- 



tional Lunilier & Development Company of 

 Philadelphia. These companies nameil are 

 only a part of the various graft corporations 

 which have been engineered by Bushnell, 

 Miller and John D. Markley of Chicago, in 

 which apparently the public has been fleeced 

 to the extent of millions of dollars. 



.\ sad feature of these "get-rieh-quick ' ' 

 enterprises is that the stockholders are gen- 

 erally people of the poorer classes who have 

 invested their savings with the companies 

 in the hope of getting large returns from 

 small investments. All the energies of this 



crowd have been devoted to the flotation 



I 

 and sale of stock upon which they have de- 

 clared dividends from stock sales and which 

 apparently never have earned a dollar. 



The Hardwood Record has been aware for 

 months that the International Lumber iS; 

 Development Company was but one of a 

 chain of kindred institutions that were 

 being handled by this bunch of grafters, 

 but inasmuch as the Philadelphia institu- 

 tion was the only one in which "lumber" 

 was made a basis of inducing stock sales, it 

 felt that it had no right to butt in on enter- 

 prises outside of the lumber business. This 

 attack b.y the federal authorities will un- 

 doubtedly end in winding up the entire 

 coterie of Mexican fake enterprises and will 

 involve serious loss to many thousands of 

 credulous investors throughout the United 

 States, and should bring at . least deep 

 humiliation to indiviiluals of former high 

 i-haracter who have loaned their flames and 

 acted as stool pigeons for these deals. 



The Mobile Register, Mobile, Ala., of 

 Aug. 23 gives credit to the Hardwood 

 Record for probing into the affairs of the 

 International Lumlicr & Development Com- 

 pany for the benefit of the public, which 

 has resulted in the raid of the postal 

 authorities. 



Markley, Miller & Co, have been trading 

 at Mobile for some time as "contractors" 

 for the International Lumber & Develop- 

 ment Company, but it has been understood 

 that they were the actual promoters of the 

 institution. They, have a re-built second- 

 hand sawmill in commission at Mobile, in 

 which they have been sawing mahogany tim- 

 ber secured from the lands of the San Pablo 

 Company in Mexico, which was optioned to 

 the Internatioual Lumlier & Development 

 Company of Philadelphia. This timber was 

 transported to Mobile by means of a little 

 steamer, either owned or controlled by 

 Markley, Miller & Co. 



A petition in bankruptcy has been filed 

 against the Tobaseo-Chiapas Trading & 

 Transportation Company, but through some 

 chicanery the information of this step was 

 withheld by the counsel in the case for some 

 days. The liabilities of the company are 

 alleged by the creditors to be more than 

 $800,000. It is probable that the Bushnell- 

 Miller syndicate has gotten away with such 

 residue as they have not paid out as ficti- 

 tious dividend earnings. It is understood 

 that these people have been turned loose by 

 the authorities on comparatively small bail 

 lionds, which snndy is unfortunate, as their 

 financial operations certainly should be 

 classed with those of Stensland. the Mil- 

 waukee .\venue State Bank wrecker, 

 whom the United States government is now 

 attempting to extradite from Morocco. 



The only feature of the case that is de- 

 plored by the Hardwood Record is that it 

 could not have secured more prompt action 

 on the part of the postal authorities and 

 tiuis save many thousands of dollars to in- 

 nocent and credulous investors. 



Hardwood Record Moil 'Bag. 



[In this department it is proposed to reply 

 to such inquiries as reach this office from the 

 Hardwood Kecobd clientage as will be of enough 

 general interest to warrant publication. Every 

 patron of the paper -s invited to use this de- 

 partment to the fullest extent, and an attempt 

 will be made to answer queries pertaining to all 

 natters of interest to the hardwood trade. Id 

 a succinct and intelligent manner.] 



What Kind of Trees Are Hardwoods? 



I.KSSLKV. .Miss.. .Vug. 'JO. — Kditor IIaudwuud 

 Ukvord : I have been referred to you for an 

 opinion that would be authoritative on the fol- 

 lowing questions ; 



Which of the I'olhjwing timbers are strictly 

 hardwoods : Hickory, blue and yellow poplar, 

 white and red oak. elm. hackberr.v. pine, linn, 

 uuignolia. cottonwood. cypress and sweet gum? 



If ytiu should buy the right to cut the liard- 

 wo(>d timber from a Iract of land on which all 

 of lliese varieties grew which trees would you 

 cut and wliat aiuhority would you cite in sup- 

 port of your l-ight ti» do so? 



Is there a commonly adopted commercial classi- 

 fication <u* custom or a technical definition of 

 the terms hardwood and softwood that would 

 govern in such a transaction? — 



There is no botanical classification be- 

 tween haril an.l soft wooils, but commer- 

 cially, all broad leaf trees are recognized 

 as haritwonds, while needle and cone bear- 

 ing trees are known as softwoods. This 

 distinction is recognized by the government 

 Forest Service, by the lumber trade press 

 and liy all lumber associations. The only 

 exception to this rule is cypress, which is a 

 cone bearing tree but is ordinarily classed 

 among the hardwoods, as it is very largely 

 handled by the hardwood trade and its rules 

 of grading, price lists, etc., are published 

 either b\- exclusive cypress associations or 

 by the hardwood associations. 



Thus, among the woods mentioned, hick- 

 ory, blue and yellow poplar, white and red 

 oak, elm, hackberry, linn (linden), willow, 



