HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



has made exhibit his want of knowledge of 

 any detail of the business. He may be a gilt- 

 edged promoter, but he has been wise in not 

 telling what he doesn 't know about the 

 mahogany business over his signature. 

 Interview with an Expert. 



One of the heaviest buyei-s of mahogany and 

 veneei-s iit Philadelphia was seen by a Kecokd 

 representative regarding the statements of tlie 

 International Lumber & Development Com- 

 pany. He was asiced if lie had ever received 

 price lists or quotations from them. 



"No." he replied : "the only dealings T ever 

 had witli that company was when one of their 

 agents came to me and wanted to sell me some 

 stoeli. When I talked to him about the mahog- 

 any end of the business, and tried to get a line 

 on* how they manufactured and sold it, he was 

 all at sea and appeared completely ignorant of 

 that end of the business. I told him I would 

 be glad to have liim come around when he had 

 some lumber to sell, but tliat 1 didn't want any 

 stocl\. Tiiey have never come near me since." 



"Have you ever seen any of their lumber?" 

 lie was asked. 



"No, I never saw any of their mahogany," he 

 replied, "but I bought some veneer that was cut 

 up at the Astoria Alills in New York wlien they 

 shipped a cargo there about a year ago. I got 

 the goods at a fair price, and was well satisfied 

 witli tliem. It was reported around at the 

 time, and so I understood it. that the Astoria 

 people practically owned the stock in payment 

 for their work. I don't know who bougiit the 

 lumber, but it was put on the market some- 

 where. If tliey are selling mahogany, tlie sales 

 are being made in the West, for I have heard 

 of none of their lumber being offered in this 

 market." 



"Do you know anytliing of the T'uderwood 

 Veneer Company?" 



"Not jiersonally. I have heard that they are 

 interested In the National Lumber & Develop- 

 ment Company, but I do not know to what ex- 

 tent. I have also heard that their work is not 

 of the finest quality, but as I have never seen 

 it. I am not in a position to speak positively on 

 that point." 



"Do you think that the International Lumber 

 & Development Company can pay a dividend of 

 twelve per cent the first year from their sales 

 of mahogany?" 



"I don't know what they can do, but I know 

 that if that is the fact they are doing more 

 than any of the rest of us can do. and I, for 

 one, would like to see how they do it. They 

 claim to have developed the land, bought or built 



a railroad, » iiiio possession of a wharf, and 



bought a gi>oa si/.cd steamship, and in spite of 

 all these expenditures to have paid a dividend of 

 twelve per cent on their stock for the first 

 vear. I don't believe it can be done, and it will 

 probably be found that the whole affair has more 

 In common with a stock jobbing operation than 

 with a legitimate lumber enterprise." 



From Other Mahogany Producers. 



riiii..\DKi,i'iin. .\pril lu. — Editor Il.MiDWOon 

 KKrcjKi) : I liave given the matter of the Inter- 

 national Lumber A: Development Company con- 

 siderable thought aud believe it is impossible 

 for the divldPiuls they name to have been paid 

 from profits on the sale of mahogany. I have 

 liersonal knowledge of two cargoes which were 

 brought into New York, which were sold at a 

 very low price — I should say only enough to 

 pay freight and actual cost of getting the stock 

 out. Without having the actual figures before 

 me. my recollection is that the wood sold at .fGil 

 to $r,'i. The freight would be .SIO. and the cost 

 of getting the wood to the coast, based on the 

 average cost of mahogany produced in Mexico, 

 is from .$50 to $(10 a thousand. I believe they 

 brought in three other shipments. One of these 

 I myself saw at Mobile, and it consisted of logs 

 not from their property at all, but which they 

 had purchased on the outside market at Laguna. 

 This particular lot of logs amounted to about 

 12."i.Ono feet. Allowing for the best results, 

 should say that .fl.SOO profit from such a lot of 

 wood would be about all that could be obtained. 

 I do not think that this company will ever bring 

 in enough mahogany to have any effect upon the 

 mahogany market, but for the protection of any 

 innocent" investors. I think your ventilation of 

 this concern is very commendable. 



Letter from Prominent Mahogany Concern. 



BdSTON-. April 14. — Editor II.ikdwoud Uecokd : 

 Your edition of April 10 has come to hand, and 

 we liave noted with much iuterest the article 

 on the International Lumber & Development 

 Company. Y'ou certainly have put this in very 

 good shape, and it ought to be conclusive as to 

 the character of that concern. 



Letter from Pioneer Mahogany Operator. 



CisciNN.iTi. April 23. — Editor II.\i!DW(>on Rkc- 

 ORD : We have received your valuable pajier and 

 have read your article on the International Ma- 

 hogany & Development Company with much in- 

 terest." I endorse all you are doing to enlighten 

 investors concerning this scheme. We have been 

 in the mahogany business for forty years, from 

 tlie ground up." and I say it is impossible for 

 any company to pay such dividends as stated. 

 Keep up the good work. 



What Does it Look Ut,e to You? 



It is really unfortunate that the Hard- 

 wood Record should be obliged to devote so 

 much of its space to the gratuitous adver- 

 tising of the more or less notorious Imel- 

 Spiro-Harris bunch, iFhich has headquarters 

 at Pittsburg, Pa., aud has acquired so un- 

 savory a reputation in hiinber circles for 

 several years past. 



Advices from Pittsburg announce that the 

 Pittsburg Fuel Company disappeared from 

 the Bijou building about April 5. The agent 

 of the building sold out the fixtures of the 

 two offices occupied by the conceru last week, 

 and has no knowledge of the whereabouts of 

 either J. C. Harris or Louis N. Sturnman, 

 the only people connected with the enter- 

 prise with whom he was acquainted. It is 

 reported they have ' ' done ' ' everybody they 

 could, and skipped to parts unknown. 



Simultaneous with this report comes word 

 from "Wilmington, Del., announcing the incor- 

 poration on April 12, under the laws of that 

 state, of the Delaware Hardwood Lumber Com- 

 pany, with a capital stock of .$20,000, of which 

 $10,000 is said to have been paid in. Its 

 officers are as follows: James C. Harris, 

 "Wilmington, De)., president; Edward J. 

 Emery, Philadelphia, Pa., vice-president; J. 

 L. Greenwald, Indianapolis, Ind., secretary 

 and treasurer. The office of the concern is 



located at 306 Ford building, Wilmington, 

 and it announces its intention to do a whole- 

 sale business in hardwoods in the eastern 

 markets. 



Of the incorporators, who are also offi- 

 cers, James C. Harris claims to be the 

 moneyed n an of the concern and to own 

 about 80 per cent of the stock. The re- 

 mainder is said to be divided between the 

 other two officers. J. L. Greenwald and Ed- 

 ward J. Emery are the practical lumbermen 

 of the company and are to transact the busi- 

 ness. James C. Harris, the president, does 

 not claim to have any knowledge of the 

 lumber business, but to have been formerly 

 connected with the Pittsburg & West More- 

 land Coal Companj' of Pittsburg. 



Inquiry among the trade and among resi- 

 dents of Wilmington fails to reveal any 

 knowledge of James C. Harris, but the reg- 

 ister of the Clayton House shows that he 

 was registered there with his wife and son 

 March 2G to March 31. From the hotel he 

 removed to 914 West street in the same 

 city. When interviewed, Mr. Harris said 

 that the company had selected Wilmington 

 as headquarters for its operations on account 

 of its railroad facilities, and stated that he 

 had come from Pittsburg and intended to re- 



side permanently in Wilmington, lie gave 

 his former residence in Pittsburg as 217 

 Vine street., Edgewood Park, whore formerly 

 resided the James C. Harris, who was con- 

 nected with the Pittsburg Fuel Company, a 

 concern which has been frequently referred 

 to in these columns, who at one time posed 

 as the moneyed man in the notorious house 

 of S. S. Spiro & Co., whicli made a disastrous 

 failure in Columbus, ()., a few years ago. 

 Mr. Harris is Virother-inlaw to C. J. Imel, 

 of unsavory rcjnitation, and has been asso- 

 ciated vvith him in several deals. 



Diligent inquiry among the trade in Phila- 

 delphia reveals that no one knows anything 

 about Edward J. Emery, and no one of that 

 name has recently been recorded in the city 

 directory save a machinist who lives in a 

 suburb. Mr. Harris was asked where Ed- 

 ward J. Emery lived in Philadelphia, and 

 replied that he was a lumber salesman who 

 had no fixed abode, but that he lived in 

 hotels. When pressed to tell the name of 

 any particular hotel at which Mr. Emery 

 had stopped, Mr. Harris said he lived 

 wherever he pleased. On further interroga- 

 tion he said he did not know for whom 

 Emery worked before he became vice presi- 

 dent of the Delaware Hardwood Lumber 

 Company, but that he was a lumber sales- 

 man of Pittsburg. Later Mr. Harris said he 

 had known Emery several years. Who Ed- 

 ward J. Emery really is is uncertain, but it 

 is suspected that he is none other than Wal- 

 ter Imel, a brother of C. J. Imel, another of 

 the free-booting gang which has preyed on 

 the lumber interests for some time. Wal- 

 ter Imel was in Philadelphia previous to 

 the filing of the papers of the Delaware 

 Hardwood Lumber Company. 



Various reference books fail to show any 

 lumber and coal dealer in Indianapolis, Ind., 

 by the namo of J. L. Greenwald. This gen- 

 tleman is secretary and treasurer of the 

 Delaware Hardwood Lumber Company. His 

 headquarters are said to be in that city, and 

 he is supposed to buy and sell lumber for 

 the corporation. 



S. S. Spiro registered at the Bellevue- 

 Stratford Hotel at Philadelphia April 7, and 

 remained there several days and was con- 

 tinually in the company of Walter Imel. It 

 is thought that possibly Spiro is playing the 

 part of J. L. Greenwald of Indianapolis, 

 Ind. 



Dun's Agency in Wilmington states that 

 it has not yet given the Delaware Hardwood 

 Lumber Company a rating, but it is very 

 favorably impressed with Harris. One of 

 the particularly dangerous features of the 

 Imel crowd is the fact that it has always 

 succeeded in making such a showing before 

 commercial agencies as to secure a good 

 rating at the start. 



From the foregoing facts concerning the 

 Delaware Hardwood Lumber Company it 

 would seem wise on the part of the lumber 

 trade to exercise at least reasonable caution 

 before entering into business alliances 

 with it. 



