42 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



INDIANAPOLIS 



With pi-iCL-s advancing and tlie largest de- 

 mand of any time during tlie year, local bard- 

 wood interests are well satisfied witti the pres- 

 ent situation. The outiooli for the winter trade 

 is unusually bright. For the first time in almost 

 two years some of the local hardwood plants 

 are now working night forces in an effort to 

 catch up with orders of the last two or three 

 weeks. The demand for all grades of oak is 

 heavy and there is considerable improvement in 

 mahogany. 



J. H. Lang has returned from a business trip 

 to Chicago. 



A voluntary petition in bankruptcy has been 

 filed in the Federal Court here by Edward R. 

 Richmond of Seymour. 



C. H. Comstock, vice-president and manager 

 of the Interior Hardwood Company, is making 

 an extended business trip through the South- 

 west. The company reports a nice business and 

 the plant is running full time. 



W. A. York of the Mahogany Interior Trim 

 Company has just returned from Houston Texas, 

 where he superintended a large contract for a 

 twelve-story office building. 



The Central Veneer Company has been granted 

 a switch connection with the belt railroad across 

 Winter avenue to its plant on Keystone avenue 

 by the board of public works. An ordinance 

 ratifying the contract is pending in the city 

 council. 



Owing to increased business, the Talge Ma- 

 hogany Company is working a night shift. The 

 company has recently established a lunch room 

 in the plant for the accommodation of its em- 

 ployes and ollicers. 



Local hardwood manufacturers and woodwork- 

 ing plants report they are having great diflJ- 

 culty in getting sufficient workmen. The man- 

 ager of one ot the largest of the local plants 

 iiredicts that the situation will become even 

 more serious next year owing to renewed activi- 

 ties in all industrial lines. 



The Mahogany Interior Trim Company is work- 

 ing on large contracts for the new government 

 building at Atlanta, Ga., and on a contract for 

 a twelve-story office building at Youngstown, O. 

 The company is running its plant night and day 

 at the present time. 



BVANSVILLB 



Bedna Young of Young & Cutsinger left this 

 week on a business trip to Indianapolis and 

 other points. 



The Schelosky Table Company will begin op- 

 erations in lis new building at First avenue and 

 the Belt railroad this week. The new building 

 is three times as large as the old one. In the 

 past only extension tables were manufactured, 

 but in the future a general line ot tables and 

 complete dining room outfits will be made. The 

 company will employ about sixty or seventy men. 



The large mill of the Helfrich Lumber & 

 Manufacturing Company closed down temporarily 

 this week. It has a large supply of timber on 

 hand and will start up again soon. 



F. M. Cutsinger ot Young & Cutsinger and 

 Claude Maley of Maley & Wertz returned this 

 week from Lexington, Ky., where they were at- 

 tending the races. 



The mill of the Brown Milling Company and 

 the yard of the J. A. McHaley Lumber Company 

 at Spencer, Ind., were destroyed recently ; loss 

 .$25,000, with insurance on mill of .$2,500 and on 

 lumber 54,400. 



W. A. Guthrie, receiver for the Standard 

 Veneer Company ot Indianapolis, Ind., has sold 

 the company's property to the Gemmer Lumber 

 Company, in which J. Frank Hanly, former gov- 

 ernor, is interested, for $4,S50. 



Luther D. Morgan, a lumberman ot Owens- 

 !l)oro, recently filed a petition in bankruptcy in 



the United StMhs ii>urt. His liabilities are 

 $2,040.50 and bis ussi-ts are listed at .$1,233, 

 excluding $385 which he claims as exempt. 



The Blount Plow Works of this city are mak- 

 iug plans for a new factory to be several times 

 as large as the present one. It will be built on 

 a ten-acre tract which was acquired recently. 



Thompson. Thayer & McCowen have started 

 their Fort Smith (Ark.) plant running, after a 

 shutdown of some time. They are also operating 

 their local plant at night to take care of in- 

 creasing business. 



The CoquiUard Wagon Works of Henderson, 

 Ky., have made an assignment to the Ohio Val- 

 ley Banking & Trust Company and James K. 

 Rankin. The company was capitalized in 1002 

 at .$200,000. The president of the company 

 stated that the company owed no accounts other 

 than current monthly bills. He stated further 

 that the terms upon which wagons were sold by 

 competitors were such that it required more 

 capital than could profitably be employed. 



MEMPHIS 



One ot the large operators in this market is 

 authority for the statement that during the past 

 two or three weeks there have been sales of 

 between 5,000.000 and 6,000,000 feet of low- 

 grade Cottonwood and gum by manufacturers in 

 the Memphis district. He points out that prices 

 were not what sellers could have wished but that 

 they represented some advance over the figures 

 at which this class of lumber sold earlier in the 

 year. The heads of several of the larger firms 

 here state that they are doing more business 

 than for the past two years, and two of them 

 declare that they are enjoying the largest trade 

 in their history. One company, which is not 

 among the biggest ones here, reports that during 

 the first ten days of October it shipped about 

 1,000,000 feet of hardwood lumber, and a part- 

 ner in a big Arkansas firm states that in the 

 past six weeks he has booked orders for ninety- 

 five oars. Some idea of how good his business 

 is may be judged from the fact that he cannot 

 ship more than thirty to forty cars in a month. 

 It is also notable that practically all of the 

 lumber he has sold is for shipment to Europe, 

 consisting mainly of plain and quartered oak and 

 ash. The railroads report a large increase in 

 the volume of lumber traffic they are handling 

 throughout the Memphis territory. 



J. W. Hale of Hale & Keiser, with headquar- 

 ters in the Tennessee Trust building, reports 

 that both of the mills of 1;.he company are run- 

 ning on full time and the demand for hardwood 

 lumber is steadily increasing. Mr. Hale states, 

 however, that the mill of the Shreveport Cotton- 

 wood Company, in which he is interested, has 

 been forced to close down on account of the low 

 water, which has made it impossible . for the 

 company to bring in its timber. 



L. W. Ford of the Goodlander-Robertson Lum- 

 ber Company, says that business is very satis- 

 factory with his firm. Mr. Goodlander has just 

 returned from an extended business trip to the 

 northern and eastern markets and has brought 

 back with him a nice lot of orders. Mr. Ford 

 calls particular attention to the improvement in 

 the demand for ash. 



Mr. Wright of the Wright-Bacbman Lumber 

 Company. I'ortland, Ark., was in Memphis re- 

 cently and stated that his firm was doing a very 

 satisfactory volume of business at good prices. 

 He also reported Ihat the Bliss-Cook Oak Com- 

 pany. Blissville, Ark., which was closed down 

 a short time ago, had resumed operations. He 

 states, however, that there are some mills in that 

 section which are out of operation for the 

 present. 



W. H. Russe of Eusse & Burgess, Inc., says 

 that there is a satisfactory demand and condi- 

 tions are gradually approaching normal again. 

 He states that his firm has had about as good 

 a business this year as at any time in its history. 



Mr. Russe has recently given the greater portion 

 of his time to the collection of money with 

 which to defray the expenses ot the entertain- 

 ment tor President Taft and his party, who will 

 be hero for a few hours October 27 en route to 

 New Orleans. Some idea of what he has had to 

 do may be gained from the statement that .$10,- 

 00(J will be required for this purpose. 



J. W. McClure of the Bellgrade Lumber Com- 

 pany, Belzoni, Miss., states that the outlook is 

 very good. This firm reports that it is finding 

 a good demand for both domestic and export 

 lumber, about twenty-five per cent of their ship- 

 ments going abroad. 



C. R. Ransom of the Gayoso Lumber Company . 

 left Memphis this week for a selling trip. He 

 will include New York and other eastern mar- 

 kets in his itinerary. This company has been 

 doing a splendid business during the past few 

 months and reports record-breaking shipments 

 since October 1. 



The Anderson-Tully Company has not resumed 

 operations at both of its box factories here, but 

 it has increased the operating time of one of 

 them to twelve hours daily. Another firm en- 

 gaged in the same line here is also working on 

 fuller schedule. There is some improvement in 

 the box business, which accounts for the in- 

 creased activity at the box factories. 



It may also be noted in this connection that 

 the box factory of the Lamb-Fish Lumber Com- 

 pany, Chauncy, Miss., has resumed operations 

 within the past fortnight. The bender plant at 

 Charleston is working on full time and the band 

 mills of the company at both points will prob- 

 ably begin operations again within the next three 

 weeks. 



The big mill of McPherson Brothers, near 

 Lambert, Miss., has recently resumed operations, 

 and dispatches from that point indicate that all 

 the mills in that territory which were closed 

 down during the financial depression are now 

 working on full time and are finding business 

 good enough to justify this course. 



The car shops of the Louisville & Nashville 

 Railroad Company, Decatur. Ala., have started 

 on the order for 1,100 box cars booked some 

 time ago, and there is so much increase in the 

 amount of rush order business at the plant that 

 it is estimated that it will require at least a 

 year to complete this order. The shops have also 

 booked an order for 200 cars to be used exclu- 

 sively for the shipment of automobiles, and this 

 is to be undertaken at an early date. 



Dispatches just received here state that the 

 Seaboard Air Line has placed an order within the 

 past two days for 1,000 box cars, and some of 

 the other roads in the South are finding it neces- 

 sary to increase their equipment. In fact, the list 

 of idle cars has been exhausted and there is so 

 much increase in the volume of traffic that new 

 rolling stock is absolutely necessary. 



Lumber interests here report that they are 

 not having any difficulty in getting all the cars 

 they want in Memphis or in the greater portion 

 of Mississippi, but conditions are quite the re- 

 verse in Arkansas, where the congestion of 

 freight has become such that the railroads are 

 meeting with much difficulty in filling the needs 

 of lumber shippers. As usual, they are making 

 the lot of the lumberman hard by giving in- 

 structions to those who control the placing of 

 cars to take care of cotton shippers first. The 

 railroads do not seem to be able to get over the 

 fact that Memphis and the Memphis territory 

 have long since ceased to be purely a cotton 

 city and section any more than the banks, and 

 discrimination in favor of cottonmen and against 

 the lumberman is just as pronounced as ever. 



The Meto Valley Railroad Company, which 

 runs out of Lonoke, Ark., has been completed 

 and placed in operation for a distance of seven 

 miles out of that town and Is now being used 

 for the development of the large timber re- 

 sources along that line. The Estabrook Lumber 

 Company, W. J. Miller and others have exten- 



