14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



plain red and white oak, mixed, and shipped in one car. He also 

 displayed a copy of his invoice to a fuAiitiwe manufacturer of this . 

 same car of approximately 14,000 feet, billed as firsts and seconds, 

 and then exhibited to me the returns on the shipment. The con- 

 signee regretted that he had to make a complaint, but he failed to 

 find but about 12,000 feet of firsts and seconds in the car, and alleged 

 that it also contained 1,600 feet of Xo. 1 common and 40O feet of 

 No. 2 common. 



"Are you going to let a man get away -with a kick like thih?" 

 I asked. 



■'Well," he replied, "there's a couple nf hundred dollars lu the 

 sale and I guess I Tvill let it go." 



"What about the shipper? Are you going to let him soak.ynii with 

 400 feet of No. 2 common V ' 



"He is a pretty good fellow and I guess I will also let liim off." 



What's to be done in a case like this? 



-.^ * * 



In discussing the matter of uniform inspection a foremost Mem- 

 phis jobber told me a while ago that during that day he had sold 

 three lots of firsts and seconds white oak to three difEerent people, 

 at three different prices, and that each man would get a different in- 

 spection. He is a good National association man and "hollers" 

 louder than anyone in the bunch about the good work of liis associa- 

 tion in establishing uniform inspection. 



Wliat 's to be done in a ease like this? 

 i^ * -a 



A good Buffalo National association man, whom I esteem as highly 

 as I do any man in the hardwood industry, said to me some mmitlis 

 ago that the buyer of a prominent consuming house was in his office 

 recently and said to him that he was ready to place his order for liis 

 season's requirements of quarter-sawed oak. He said he knew the 

 stock was worth ilS a thousand, but ho wanted to place his order at 

 $73. He concluded by observing. "You know what I can use." 



My Buffalo friend said to him, "Why don't you buy a straight 

 grade and pay the price?" The buyer said to him, "Back of me is 

 a board of directors and they know what the price of quarter-sawed 

 oak is just as well as you do. I want to hold down my job, and I 

 can best hold it down by demonstrating to them that I am smart 

 enough to buy .standard grades of oak lumber at five dollars a thou- 

 sand less than the market price. ' ' 



My Buffalo friend made the sale. 



What's to be done in a case like this? 



A friend of mine in East Tennessee, who is a large manufacturer 

 and merchant in hardwoods, tells me that he deals almost exclusively 

 with eastern jobljers. He says that ninety-five orders out of one 

 hundred come to him specifying a certain proportion of one grade of 

 lumber, and another proportion of a lower gi'ade, with the invariable 

 injunction attached, "thoroughly mixed in the car." 



What are you going to do in a case like this? 



I was in the office of a well-known Chicago jobbing house about 

 three months ago when the ruling price of four quarter first arad 

 second white oak was $45 a thousand on this delivery. A sale was 

 made of a car of this alleged grade of lumber at $43 a thousand. I 

 iisked how it could be done, and it was explained to me that the car 

 sold was an "old purchase" and contained 7,000 feet of firsts and 

 seconds on straight National association inspection, for which they 

 paid $43 a thousand, and 7,000 feet of No. 1 common, for which 

 they paid $29 a thousand. It wa.s shown to me that the profit on this 

 transaction was seven times the difference between $43 and $2!t. 



What are you going to do in a case like this? 



These citations are not exceptional cases. They are the every day 

 transactions of a big majority of the hardwood trade. They are dis- 

 cussed as openly as a man invites a friend to step in next door and 

 have a highball. It would seem that the smartest man in the 

 business is the one who is able to work in the largest proportion of 

 lower grades in the sale of an alleged higher one. This way of 

 doing things may be good ' ' business ' ' — may be good hardwood 

 ethics, but I must confess that I am old-fashioned enough not to be- 



lieve it. It is possibly because I was educated in the lumber trade 

 to deliver one thousand feet for ev^'y ten hundred sold, and to give a 

 man uppers when I sold him uppers that I cannot be accounted a dis- 

 tinct success as a lumberman. 



My esteemed contemporary. The Lumber Trade .Journal, gives credit 

 to the allegation that ' ' fully seventy-five per cent of the hardwood 

 lumber sold throughout the country is on National inspection. ' ' If it 

 ean be demonstrated to me that seven and one-half per cent of the 

 hardwood lumber sold throughout the country is inspected and shipped 

 on straight National hardwood inspection, I will guarantee to go 

 to New Orleans and jump across the Mississippi Eiver — or, at least, 

 I will stand on the bank and jump as far as I can. 



Now aliout the letter. Here it is: 



Detroit, Mich., Sept. 14. — Editor Uakdwood ISecokd: In 

 your issue of Sept. 10 you make the editorial prediction that 

 "within the year" the new Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 .\.ssociation "wiil have achieved more for the benetit of the man- 

 ufacturing element of the state and for the consumers of Michi 

 iian hiirdHOOil products than has been accomplished in all the 

 years of the past. 



The italics are my own. 



The manufacturers can benetit themselves <pnl.v hy raising the 

 price or lowering the grade, or both. 



Whore does the consumer come in?— Squaiib Deal. 



'I'hc (ibser\ation was made advisedly. I was brought up in the 

 state of Michigan and I know the character and temper of Michigan 

 liartlwood manufacturers, and I know they are in deadly earnest t« 

 reform their sales system and to correct the evils of it. I assert 

 tluit they will speedily do more ' ' for the consumers of Michigan 

 liarihvood products than lias been acc(iin|ilished in all the years of tin- 

 past. ' ' 



■ These people have siient a lot of time and intelligent work in pre- 

 paring, a system of just and equitable grading to be applied to their 

 product, and from this time forward it is absolutely safe to prophesy 

 that the larger proportion of Michigan hardwoods will be inspected 

 on a uniform basis, and in grades that will be best suited to flu- 

 requirements of the consuming trade; tliat hereafter "salted'' or 

 manipulated cars will not be loaded out of that state; and if need be, 

 consumers will be educated to know what constitutes jti.st grades of 

 hardwoods. 



The manufacturers of Michigan can benefit themselves and tlie 

 iiinsumer by making fair grades and asking fair prices for them, 

 and seeing to it that their product goes into the hands of the con- 

 sumer without being manipulated. 



Now alx)ut tlie jobbers of hardwood lumber. There always has 

 been and always will be room in the commercial world for the 

 merchant. He has always made a good living for himself and always 

 wiU. The merchants who have made money in this world, however, 

 have been the men who have done business on the level. The scalawag 

 merchant has never made a success and never will. There is room and 

 always will be for the hardwood merchant who buys mill cuts and 

 round lots of lumber and resells the product to the consuming trade, 

 but there is not room in the hardwood trade for the scalper who 

 manipulates and "salts" lumber and b.v misleading representations 

 succeeds in grafting profits out of irregular transactions. Even the 

 honest scalper is all right, his calling is legitimate, but for the fakir, 

 the grafter, the thief of the hardwood lumber trade, I have no use. 



^■;- w * 



Hanging up in the private oilice of my esteemed friend Gardner I. 

 .loues of Boston is one of those impertinent legends which reads: . 



DOX T T.VKE YOURSELF TOO OAM SERIOUSLY. 



That sign of Jones" has kept me from speaking my mind about 

 hardwood inspection and hardwood methods for a good while, and 

 I am truly glad that I am far enough awa.y from Boston so that 

 for once I have eased mv conscience. — H. H. G. 



