HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



harclvroocls and, as a consequence, a great 

 jiart of the concern 's operations will be in 

 tlie line of lumber development for some 

 time to come. 



The company claims that the estates sur- 

 rounding their own are extremely valuable 

 and that they cannot be bought for $1,000 

 an acre. They bought their own land from 

 Markley and Miller, the contractors, and 

 niii.st have paid for it because they claim to 

 have owned it in fee simple and to have 

 turned it over to a trust company for the 

 protection of their stockholders. Even if 

 they paid as low as two dollars an acre 

 this would still leave them with the tre- 

 mendous initial expense of $576,000, and if 

 the dividends were really being earned, it 

 would be a stupendous proposition. When 

 it IS taken into consideration, however, that 

 the company has a very modern method of 

 declaring dividends, the problem becomes 

 easy of solution. 



Under date of June 9 the International 

 Lumber & Development Company issued a let- 

 ter to its representatives urging them to 

 renew their efforts to gather in stock sub- 

 scriptions. It is not presumed that this docu- 

 ment will induce any vast amount of sub- 

 scriptions from the lumber trade, but it is 

 jiublished to exhibit with what persistence 

 this outfit is attempting to unload its alleged 

 securities on people who are entirely un- 

 f.<imiliar with commercial affairs. Tlie com- 

 ]iany 's letter follows: 



To our Representatives: 



On May 25. 1906, our Mr. W. H. Armstrong, 

 Jr., recently returned from a business trip 

 from our plantation in Mexico, where he has 

 been since Feb. 25, 1906. He reports every- 

 thingr in good condition. 



Enclosed you will find copy of letter written 

 by him on the plantation to Mr. Francis 

 Powell, assistant secretary of this company. 

 This letter will be of interest to you. 



Our stock is being purchased very rapidly 

 and we cannot urge you too strongly to make 

 a special effort to place as many shares of the 

 capital stock of this company before they are 

 all taken. Would recommend that you push 

 the sale of shares with energy and determina- 

 tion. 



It is quite gratifying to the management of 

 this company to note that the old stockholders 

 are increasing in many c.ises in large blocks 

 the shares originally held and it is quite 

 noticeable that a large number of new stock- 

 holders are being rapidly added to our list 

 who have subscribed for large blocks of 20, 

 30. 40, 50 and in one case recently 100 shares. 



Also remember, that this company expects 

 to increase the selling price of our shares, 

 with or without notice, to at least $350, or 

 $50 above par. 



There are only a limited number of these 

 shares to be sold at par value. Hope you will 

 place your proportionate amount of these 

 shares amongst your prospective purcliasei's 

 before they are taken. 



At the close of business tonight we have 

 4,134 individual stockholders upon our books 

 who have purchased from one to 310 shares 

 each. Yours very truly, 



iNTKRNATIONAI, LUMBER & DEVELOPMENT CO.j 



C. M. McMahon. Treasurer. 



Consumers' Lumber Company. 

 There is a concern said to have head- 

 4uarters at 11.3 West Twenty-third street. 

 Xcw York City, known as the Consumers 



Lumber Company, which advertises as hav- 

 ing been established in 1881 and as being 

 incorporated with a capital of $125,000. 

 The company announces itself as being 

 ' ' lumber dealers, general commission mer- 

 chants, and manufacturers' agents." It 

 issues pamphlets and other literature in abtm- 

 dance, which it persistently mails— very 

 largely to the small mill men throughout 

 the country— and attempts to secure con- 

 signments of these manufacturers' lumber, 

 on the argument that the company places 

 such small producers in direct touch with 

 the consumer, effecting a great saving in 

 the cost of handling, "and putting the 

 profit of the wholesaler^ retailer and specu- 

 lator into the pocket of the producer." 

 The company's literature further alleges: 



"It has proven so much more economical 

 that of late years the direct distribution of 

 lumber by the carload .has almost entirely 

 superseded the old methods of delivery 

 tlirough wholesale and retail yards, with at- 

 tendant expense and delays. As we guar- 

 autee sales you make no bad debts. We 

 know whom to sell to and whom not to sell. 

 This, together with the fact that we save 

 handling, enables us to sell consumers at a 

 lower price than they can buy from the 

 retailer, and at the same time pay the mill 

 man more for his stock than he can realize 

 by selling it in any other way. 



"All consignments will be sold for the 

 shipper at tlie full price quoted in our 

 price list, and prompt returns made, less $1 

 per thousand feet, which is our commission. 



"The prices quoted by us in our price list 

 are correct and can be relied upon, as they 

 are the prices at which we guarantee to sell 

 all stock that is consigned to us f. o. b. 

 cars this city. ' ' 



The literature of the alleged lumber com- 

 pany continues in the same strain, with a 

 bunch of specious arguments to induce small 

 mill men to place their lumber in its hands 

 for disposition. The pamphlet referred to is 

 a very alluring one to a manufacturer who 

 is not acquainted with metropolitan lumber 

 conditions. 



The documents issued by the Consumers 

 Lumber Company bear all the ear-marks of 

 the authorship of one Horton, who has been 

 preying on the lumber trade of the country 

 for many years. He has done business under 

 various company names for a long time. One 

 of his old institutions was the Consolidated 

 Lumber Company of 73 Bedford avenue, 

 Brooklyn. For irregular transactions in con- 

 nection with the enterprise on May 9, 1900, 

 he Mas held in $500 bail by Magistrate 

 Flammer on the charge of larceny. The 

 National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation at this time charged Horton with 

 defrauding many lumbermen by ordering 

 lumber and paying some of the dealers in 

 part and others not at all; with preying for 

 five years previously on small lumber deal- 

 ers not members of the association, and with 

 doing business under the firm names of the 

 Consolidated Lumber Company, the J. W. 



Martin Lumber Company and W. H. Horton. 

 It is very difficult to actually identify this 

 shark Horton with the Consumers Lumber 

 Company, but to the mind of most people 

 familiar with Horton methods in New York 

 City, it is a safe guess that he is back of 

 this new game. The literature of the old 

 Consolidated Lumber Company and of the 

 Consumers Lumber Company is practically 

 identical. 



In spite of the advertised capital of the 

 Consumers Lumber Company being $125,000 

 and that it claims to have existed since 1881, 

 the commercial reports state, under a late 

 date in 1905, that the company was recently 

 incorporated under New Jersey laws, with 

 J. M. Davis as president and N. J. Cahill 

 as secretary and treasurer. It claims to have 

 a paid-up capital of $2,500, and declines 

 to make further statements at this time, as 

 it alleges that it lias a number of stock- 

 holders who are mill owners located in the 

 southern states, who do not care to have 

 their names made public until such time as 

 the company can make a good showing. Very 

 little can be learned concerning either Cahill 

 or Davis, but authorities consulted regarding 

 the company claim to have positive informa- 

 tion that C. J. Horton is the promoter of 

 the enterprise. Horton has operated under 

 several styles, and has endeavored as far as 

 possible for the past few years to main- 

 tain his connection with any lumber enter- 

 prise a secret. In the past he has taken 

 advantage of the bankrupt law and in bank- 

 ruptcy proceedings acknowledged a heavy 

 indebtedness to various creditors distributed 

 over the country, and no assets. The re- 

 ports further say that the New York trade 

 would decline to gi%e any concern with which 

 Horton was thought to be connected the 

 slightest consideration. Eeports from one 

 house in the South, wliich had the temerity 

 to make a shipment of lumber to the Con- 

 sumers Lumber Company, would indicate by 

 the settlement that the latter concern is do- 

 ing business strictly on the lines of the ■ 

 old Horton management — the total net avails 

 offered for the carload of lumber being less 

 than $10. 



It should be unnecessary to utter any 

 further word of warning to H.4.EDW00D 

 Record clients in this matter. 



An "Operator" at Rochester and Stanley, 

 New York. 



There is a man named F. A. Booth, now- 

 said to reside at Stanley, N. Y., who former- 

 ly lived at Eochester, with whom the lumber 

 selling public will do well to transact busi- 

 uess only on the basis of getting cash in 

 advance. It is charged that this man has 

 defrauded people out of goods to the amount 

 of many thousands of dollars during the last 

 three or four years. His letter-head would 

 indicate that he is a dealer in threshing and 

 well drilling machinery, steam and gasoline 

 engines, boilers, wagons, farm implements, 

 furniture, musical instruments, wind-mills, 

 pumps, tanks, lumber, groceries and sundry 

 other commodities. He was convicted in 190-i 



