HARDWOOD RECORD 



71 



well as helping the hardwood market because of 

 the increasing demand for hardwoods used in 

 the construction of automobiles. It is reported 

 that the big Maxwell-Briscoe Company is to 

 build a large plant in Detroit. The General 

 Motors Company, the automobile trust, is busy 

 in this vicinity, grabbing up factories right and 

 left and making extensive improvements and 

 building additions to the plants absorbed. The 

 Carter Car Company and the I'ontiac Buggy Com- 

 pany are the latest to fall into the hands of 

 the trust. At Flint the big plant of the General 

 Motors Company is nearing completion. The 

 flooring of the plant will alone cost $74,000. It 

 is of concrete, in which two-inch hemlock planks 

 are imbedded and one-inch maple is used as a 

 finish. 



The safe in the office of Ilunton, Weeks & Co. 

 was damaged by a burglar who was captured 

 and turned out to be Jack Johnson, known all 

 over the country as a counterfeiter. Johuson 

 did not succeed in getting anything from the 

 safe and was rounded up by the watchman and 

 policemen before he could make his escape. 



GRAND RAPIDS 



"Mahogany has advanced twenty-live to thirty- 

 five per cent since early summer," says I. Pres- 

 ton Rice, president of the Kice Veneer & Lumber 

 Company, "and the upward movement has not 

 stopped. A shortened log crop in Africa, to- 

 gether with the increased demand, seems to 

 account for the advancing market." 



The Valley City Desk Company is building a 

 lumber storage shed at its factory on Butter- 

 worth avenue, at a cost of $3,000. 



Three skilled workmen, former employes of 

 the Uoyal t urniture Company, have organized 

 the Sheraton Furniture Company and will en- 

 gage in the manufacture of high-grade furniture 

 at Grandville, occupying the plant of the Ham- 

 mond Novelty Works. 



Roy G. Harrison, former manager of the 

 Grand Rapids Parlor Frame Company, has re- 

 signed and gone to Portland, Ore., where he will 

 engage in the lumber business. The vacancy at 

 the Parlor Frame plant has not been filled 

 as yet. 



Uptegrove & Beckwith, dealers in veneers, 

 are erecting a warehouse on Court street, near 

 Shawmut avenue. 



The Leonard building on Ottawa street for- 

 merly occupied as a refrigerator and game board 

 factory has been converted into a furniture ex- 

 hibition building and all the space has been 

 taken for the January exposition. The five 

 uptown exhibition buildings will be filled with 

 furniture samples and the show will he the 

 largest ever made in this market. 



The Grand Rapids Club held its annual meet- 

 ing and dinner at the club house, Plainfield, 

 November 3. "Billy" Williams, a well-known 

 dealer in furniture and building supplies, was 

 elected president and C. A. Phelps and John H. 

 Bonnell of the Hackley-Phelps-Bonnell Company 

 ^^ ere chosen on the board of directors, 

 "james Lynn of Chicago, buyer for the Ameri- 

 can Seating Company, was in the market re- 

 cently. 



Z. Clark Thwing, manager of the Grand Rap- 

 ids Veneer Works, is in the South supervising 

 the installation of dry kilns in a number of the 

 large mills. He will return in about a week. 



Walter N. Kelley, Traverse City, and A. F. An- 

 derson, Cadillac, were among the visitors here 

 during the past week. 



The United States court has appointed B. B. 

 Luten of the Grand Rapids Supply Company as 

 receiver for the Cecil Pay Stave Company of 

 Cecil Bay : liabilities. $.'>,000 ; assets not known. 



The Kalamazoo Interior Finish Company, 

 Kalamazoo, is bankrupt and the court has ap- 

 pointed George P. Sweet of this city as receiver, 

 with lx)nd fixed at $75,000. Louis Larsen, sec- 

 retary-treasurer and manager of the company. 



left Kalamazoo suddenly October 20 and no 

 word was heard from him until this week, when 

 Henry G. Dykhouse of this city, vice-president 

 of the company, had a telegram from him sent 

 from Denver, but offering no explanation except 

 the statement that he must have been "off his 

 trolley" and offering to come back and assist in 

 straightening up things. Mr. Sweet, who has 

 been in charge of the concern for several days, 

 has examined the books and reports to creditors 

 a shortage of about $100,000 in the accounts. 



the assets being approximately $190,000 and the 

 liabilities $290,000. The company is doing a 

 large business and it is expected the plant will 

 be kept runfaing. Several of the stockholders 

 live in this city. 



Ralph Hanehett of the Hanchett Swage Works, 

 Big Rapids, who had charge of the company's 

 exhibit at the Seattle exposition, is home for 

 the winter, but will probably go West again In 

 the spring. He likes the West and is something 

 of a hustler himself. 



Hardwood Market. 



(By HABDWOOD BECOBD Ezclasive Uarket Beporters.) 



CHIC AGO 



Every hardwood yard in Chicago is extremely 

 busy. The yard men report that the present 

 situation is very much like the early part of 

 1007. Nearly every yard is obliged to hire 

 extra teams to keep up with the local deliveries. 



There is a growing scarcity in firsts and sec- 

 onds plain white and red oak, and poplar Is 

 particularly strong in the higher grades, and 

 wide widths are scarce. It now seems almost 

 sure that the car shortage is going to be se- 

 verely felt during the next sixty days, as rail 

 deliveries are already slow. 



Out-of-town salesmen doing business in this 

 market, report a strong demand with com- 

 paratively easy selling on desirable stock. 



The furniture and interior woodworking fac- 

 tories are all busy and it is anticipated that 

 there will be remarkably heavy orders placed 

 for furniture during the big January furniture 

 exposition. 



Everything indicates a still stronger and in- 

 creasing demand for every variety of hardwoods 

 during the next few months. 



NEW YORK 



The hardwood market at New York is firm, 

 with considerable increased activity in oak and 

 maple hardwood flooring, an increased demand 

 for both thin and vs-inch parquet flooring. It 

 is stated that in 214-inch maple flooring, the 

 market is oversold several million feet, with all 

 grades and sizes in good call. In consequence 

 prices are exceptionally firm with an upward 

 tendency. This activity is due to the decided 

 increase in the use and demand for hardwood 

 flooring in all classes of buildings and is a phase 

 of the situation which is well worthy the at- 

 tention of the hardwood flooring manufacturer 

 from a business standpoint. 



In good-grade hardwood lumber the market 

 seems to be taking its full share under existing 

 conditions. Stocks are not overplentiful and 

 prices are firm. Low-grade hardwood is more 

 plentiful, but the market is getting in better 

 shape all the time and the outlook for an active 

 and firm spring with a fair amount of winter 

 business is looked for. As a whole, the price 

 situation is firm, although in low-grade stock 

 there is still opportunity for better prices. 



BUFFALO 



There is no real diflicuity with the lumber 

 trade. If anybody gets in a hurry he is re- 

 minded that business is not up to its old pace 

 jet, no matter what the newspapers may say, 

 and lumber is not the first to recover from dull 

 times. The fact that quartered oak is very 

 scarce and poplar and elm are not much less so 

 shows that there is none too much lumber and 

 that the real difliculty in sight is that the sup- 

 ply will run right down just as soon as the 

 demand is better or the producers stop to wait 

 for it. 



Buffalo is putting in a good stoct of all sorts 



of lumber for winter anil is also in touch with 

 all the rest of the lumber in the country, so 

 that this will remain the chief lumber depot and 

 especially of hardwoods in the East. All hard- 

 woods are very strong and promise to remain 

 so. The increase of Pacific coast woods in this 

 market shows that it is stocks and not sales 

 that are in need of pushing up. 



PHILADELPHIA 



There is an improvement in the hardwood 

 trading of late, but the volume of business is 

 undeniably short of expectation. There was a 

 perceptible lagging in buying during the fort- 

 night which, however, has not materially af- 

 lected prices. The good ends of poplar, chest- 

 nut and oak remain active. The condition of 

 stocks at the mill and storage yard prevents any 

 weakening in values, and as it is already a dif- 

 ficult matter to obtain adequate cars at the 

 southern hardwood mills for shipping the ac- 

 cumulated orders, the result is an increase in 

 prices. The demand for hardwoods in the east- 

 ern furniture factories, and for the carriage and 

 automobile body makers, is better, and the 

 scarcity of the woods most desired by these in- 

 dustries will undoubtedly considerably stiffen 

 prices. In the low grades of hardwoods there 

 has been no noticeable change, but the demand 

 is gradually growing stronger and prices are 

 holding steady. 



BOSTON 



The undertone of the market for hardwood 

 lumber is firmer. Demand, while showing a 

 steady iiuprovement, has not yet reached a point 

 where dealers refer to it as active. The offerings 

 of dry lumber of desirable grades from the manu- 

 facturers are small and the latter are much 

 firmer holders. Chair manufacturers are doing 

 a larger business and are in the market for 

 supplies. Furniture manufacturers have been 

 larger buyers and a good call is reported from 

 the interior finish men. Yard trade has not 

 been very active, but this is better than it has 

 been and retailers' stocks are smaller. 



The demand for quartered oak is good, with 

 offerings small. One-inch, one's and two's, is 

 firm at good prices. Plain oak is firm, with all 

 grades in more inquiry. Walnut is in small 

 ofliering. The demand for birch has fallen off. 

 Cherry and elm are in moderate call. North 

 Carolina pine is rather unsettled, due to the fact 

 that some manufacturers are in need of orders 

 and are willing to accept lower prices in order 

 to secure them. 



PITTSBURG 



Hardwood prices tend upward, and there has 

 been nothing during the past two weeks to 

 interrupt the increasing flow of business or to 

 check the tendency toward higher prices and 

 lower stocks. Mills are kept busy cutting lum- 

 ber enough to supply orders that demand imme- 

 diate shipment. In all the best grades of hard- 



