HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



Next comes the Valuation Committee, with 

 the idea that it should report as to what present 

 conditions are. The members should get out a 

 notire to the veneer people stating that we cau- 

 not make a price list, but that every man should 

 adhere to the prices. Gentlemen, these are plain 

 facts and you linow it riglit down in your hearts, 

 as does every man who is a member of these 

 clubs and linows what our trade is up against. 

 Hence I am telling you the truth. Every fellow 

 who does not rub shoulders with his competitor 

 linows that when lie rubbed shoulders with the 

 buyer he had to pay the price. These commit- 

 tees, when named by our president to make up 

 reports for tomorrow afternoon, shotTTd make up 

 reports that will mean something. 



1 attended a convention of thirty-one hundred 

 organizations, some of them having as many as 

 one thousand members, in Washington last week. 

 Every man wanted something locally, but would 

 be satisfied if Congress would meet the policy 

 along the line suggested by the Deep Waterways 

 Convention, tne funds to be distributed through 

 engineers of the United States who have al- 

 ready examined these waterways and find it 

 desirable for this government to improve them. 

 We will accomplish something in getting profits 

 In 1910 the same as the Waterways convention 

 is bound to get an appropriation from Congress, 

 unless the congressmen of the United States are 

 not true to the people of the United States. If 

 we are not true to ourselves and our families there 

 is no use belonging to this association : there is 

 no use for a national association. If we are, 

 and we have reason to believe we are, or we 

 would not be here, then let us work this prob- 

 lem out before we leave here, and then work in 

 harmony through local associations and clubs. 

 You will determine you are the master of your 

 own business, and through cooperation with the 

 members of this association you will tell the 

 customers you are : and your goods will be sold 

 in 1910 at your price, not the customer's. 



Take the Committee on Membership and Cre- 

 dentials. The credentials end of it does not cut 

 any tigure, for it merely specifies manufacturers 

 of veneers and panels. What is a thousand-mile 

 trip, if you can change the policy of your busi- 

 ness and make it pay, in preference to the non- 

 dividend paying institution ? We need members ; 

 we need every man in the industry in this as- 

 sociation. We have sixty-three members ; we 

 should have one hundred, and live ones at that, 

 men who are willing to come to the front and 

 do anything necessary to work out the problems. 



A few years ago we used to say Chicago was 

 the coldest place on earth. Today four thousand 

 men in the Association of Commerce once a week 

 get together and spend two hours at luncheon, 

 through the Ways and Means Committee, and if 

 you want inspiration you should go there and 

 see 150 of the best men in Chicago. They meet 

 tliere because they are interested in making Chi- 

 cago the greater market in the world. Then, as 

 members of this association, we should be in- 

 terested in making our association profitable. 

 We can do it, gentlemen, if we want to, and 

 now is the time. 



I would like to see the Committee on Inspec- 

 tion and Grades get busy again. The manufac- 

 turers of lumber in the Northwest, the men who 

 perhaps have made money out of the timber, 

 shifted along as we are doing until about fifteen 

 years ago. They were making money, but not 

 nearly as much as when they got together on 

 inspection and grades, and the first thing they 

 did was to form an organization. The minute 

 they got together in harmony, and decided on 

 grades it meant $5 per thousand more, a pretty 

 good dividend, gentlemen, pretty good dividend, 

 ff the members of the veneer association through 

 harmony, cooperation and friendly relations with 

 each other, were to increase the selling price 

 of their product ten per cent in 1910, you have 

 opportunity of increasing twenty per cent from 

 what you have b^en selling for. Is not this 

 worth while ': Therefore, in appointing your 

 Committee of Inspection and Grades give it 

 something to do. It will make it easier to get 

 this ten per cent or tw*enty per cent more in 

 1910. If you were closer to your customer and 

 discovered he could use a substitute of lower 

 grade, would you not be cleaning up the product 

 of your logs better'.' These things come aljout by 

 cooperation, gentlemen, by discussing the various 

 phases of your business "honestly, and not being 

 afraid to talk. No man comes to this meeting 

 with the idea of accumulating information and 

 telling it to someone else. Men in the veneer 

 trade, as I have known them, have done less 

 than those of other lines, but in other words 

 they are truer men : do not take advantage of 

 other fellows ; insist on opening up their per- 

 sonal business to help you as well as themselves. 

 That being true, it seems to me every man should 

 come to this meeting interested in his subject 

 and talk specifically of how you can better Im- 

 prove your business. 



Arbitration and Grievance Committee : We 

 have heard very few reports from this commit- 

 tee. In other lines this has been of great bene- 

 tit. If the buyers in the United States who 

 consume veneer understood that just claims and 

 unjust grievances where the buyer would not be 

 fair in the market were put on a blackboard at 

 the national association meeting : if they knew 



it would come up before the manufacturers, they 

 would do less kicking. This is where the Com- 

 mittee of Arbitration and Grievances could lielp, 

 but it is not fair for individuals through the 

 association to be unfair to the buyer. The 

 man who would avoid criticism must do nothing : 

 be nothing or say nothing. Gentlemen, this 

 tirievance Committee should be used. If you 

 have a bad complaint and cannot settle put it 

 up before the Grievance Committee for settle- 

 ment. The members can help you and make it 

 possible to get fair value for your stock, and if 

 you sell No. 1 stock you are not going, to get 

 paid for No. 2. 



The National Association of Veneer and Panel 

 Manufacturers is practically an insurance policy 

 tor your business. You all take out insurance 

 for your families, so that when you pass away 

 there will be something to take care of them. 

 Everyone should take out a policy in this asso- 

 ciation. It will not only pay your dues, but 

 will bring you in closer harmony and enables 

 you to help yourself as well as your neighbors. 

 Let us take out this policy for 1910. If it is 

 necessary to have meetings every month, let us 

 get together. The only way to do this is to 

 work in harmony and cooperate through this 

 national association. Those of you who are in 

 the clubs stick there, if it costs you $500 a year. 

 You will get the dividends back. You have all 

 seen the sign at railroad crossings, "Look out 

 for tlie cars." If you will just keep your eyes 

 alKtut you and are satisfied the other fellow is 

 all right and work with him, the cars will not 

 hurt you. The trouble is you are all afraid of 

 the cars. 



Gentlemen, w'e have been very much pleased 

 with the cooperation given personally by most 

 of you, whenever I have asked you to do some- 

 thing in my office as secretary. I have tieard 

 .Mr. Young say the same thing and know our 

 president has secured your cooperation, but we 

 need more cooperation. Do your part. I can 

 look in the eyes of men here to whom I have 

 said, "Would you like to do this or that?" They 

 would say. "You bet." We should have sixty- 

 three good men who are willing to do anything 

 tliat is for the good of themselves and the asso- 

 ciation. All we need is the personal interest in 

 this organization and when a matter comes up 

 in which you are asked to do your part, do it. 

 It will mean that the national association will 

 talk ; it will mean that every club you have will 

 bring best results. With these two things in 

 mind we can accomplish anything we start out 

 to do, and I hope we will start out to do them 

 today. I hope you have suggestions liere and 

 thatthe work of this convention will be memora- 

 ble in the history of the association. 



Cooperate in 'Waterways Movement 



The secretary had something to say also 

 conceruing the "water eart" proposition in 

 this wise: 



I am very much interested in the water cart 

 proposition, in other words, nine feet through 

 the valley. Commercial associations of the 

 United States are trying, as you all know, to 

 secure .$50,000,000 appropriation to improve our 

 harbors, dockage and secure deep water which 

 will mean water transportation, which further 

 means better facilities to carry freight longer 

 distances at very close prices. The railroads 

 admit the fact that they need an increase of 

 freight shipments. In ten years they have only 

 prepared to increase their facilities twenty-eight 

 per cent, w'hiie the increased business is over 

 110 per cent. So if we have anything like 1907 

 business we will be in the same fix we were in 

 the fall of 1901) and spring of 1907. If we have 

 water transportation to increase the freight fa- 

 cilities, to take care of manufactured product in 

 times when we need shipments ; when we need 

 orders and facilities in order to follow them, it 

 will mean a lot to the business world, and I 

 would like to suggest to you that a committee 

 be appointed to cooperate with this association 

 by urging congressmen in your particular dis- 

 tricts to follow the specifications of Mr. Taft in 

 his speech at Washington last week when he said 

 he was in favor of the proposition because it 

 was recommended by engineers of the United 

 States that waterways be improved from Chi- 

 cago to the Gulf, from Missouri river to the 

 Gulf, 



A committee, composed of S. B. Ander- 

 son, Memphis, Teun.; W. S. Walker, Ports- 

 mouth, Ohio, and J. D. Saunders, Park Falls, 

 Wis., was appointed to draft resolutions to 

 express cooperation in this movement and 

 the wish of the association to put the mat- 

 ter before the congressman of the various 

 districts. 



Mr. Kline's Address 



The president called on T>. E. Kline to 

 read a paper on the ' ' Comparison of Log 



Prices for Ten Years," which was a very 

 clear resume of this proposition. The paper 

 follows: 



I have been requested to prepare a paper for 

 your consideration upon the above subject. 



The cost of logs ten years ago, and at all 

 subsequent dates, is a matter of fact and his- 

 tory. I find from my own records that in 1S99 

 we paid the following prices per thousand feet 

 for No. 1 logs, delivered at our yard : 



POPLAR 



Under 20" diameter $17.50 



20 to 29" diameter 19.50 



10" and up diameter 20.50 



WHITE OAK 



Under 20" diameter $19.00 



20 to 29" diameter 21.50 



ao to 35" diameter 25!oO 



and for 36" and up, for which we offered a pre- 

 mium so as to obtain large logs for quartered 

 veneers, $35. 



I recollect also that every lot of oak must 

 contain some 36" and up to make it sufficiently 

 attractive to consider. 



Gum .$12.00 to $14.00 



Sugar 12.00 



Walnut 25.00 to 55.00 



and I find in one lot three logs for which I paid 

 .^70. They must have been extra choice. 



Ash $15.00 $16.00 $17.00 



Lynn 14.00 



Sycamore 10.00 12.00 



It must also be remembered that, at that time, 

 we bought only No. 1 logs, and while I find that 

 in some instances logs had been cut in measure- 

 ment for minor defects, I do not find that we 

 bought No. 2 and No. logs at «ity price. In 

 addition to the better quality then to be had. 

 veneer men bought only the larger logs. We con- 

 I'.ned our purchases to logs 2U inches and up in 

 ■ diameter, but did at times take some logs as low 

 as 18 inches, this rule applying with us par- 

 ticularly to poplar and oak. 



The history of log prices during the decade 

 lias been a gradual but constant increase. I 

 hardly need say anything about the prices today. 

 The fact is that they are from 66% per cent to 

 lUO per cent higher than in .1899. 



Now, how about prices for our output? In 

 1899 the business of the country had barely 

 recovered from the shock of the p'anic of 1893. 

 I'rices, however, for goods in these lines had 

 not reached those of the days up to May, 1893, 

 nor have they since. Profits previous to 1893 

 were good but not excessive. They have never 

 been reasonably good since that time.. The course 

 of our prices iu the face of the marked increase 

 in cost of raw materials has been downward, 

 and continued downward, until the launching of 

 this association, exactly tour years ago. Then 

 we enjoyed two years of somewhat bettered con- 

 ditions, until the flurry of 1907 came along; 

 and then, as our sporting friends would say, "aii 

 bets were off," and "price chaos" (or very nearly 

 so) ruled supreme. Happily the bettered condi- 

 tion of the demand in the past year, and par- 

 ticularly the past few months, has enabled us 

 to stiilcn up somewhat in price. But that prices 

 are still too low is certainly the case : the best 

 evidence of which is that we are not now get- 

 ting the prices of 1.892 and early 1893. , Is 

 there any other business on the face of the 

 earth that has stood for this sort of tbin^? I 

 think not. 



Let us take a fe.v items of staple manufac- 

 ture. The recommended price today for 1/30" 

 rotary cut poplar cross banding is 16% per cent 

 higher than it was in 1892, and prices were not 

 as strong m 1899 as they were in 1892; 1/8" 

 and 1/4" R. C. poplar dimension stock was lower 

 in 1899 than in 1892. and is only about 25 per 

 cent higher today than in 1899: 1/20" S. C. 

 poplar is today only about 12V'> per cent higher 

 than in 1899. 



In glued up stock, 1/4" 2-ply poplar in 1899 

 was supplied at 20 per cent less than in 1892, 

 and is today 50 per cent higher than in 1899, 

 and not high enough at that; 1.4" plain oak 

 jianeis in 1899 were 7% per cent lower than at 

 any time up to 1893. and never equaled the price 

 of that date until 1906 ; since then have dropped 

 back again. During the past few months there 

 has been a gain in prices, but today's figures are 

 only 41/2 per cent better than in 1892; 1/4" 

 quartered oak panels, with both sawed and slice 

 tut faces, show better advances, recommended 

 prices today being 25 per cent higher than in 

 1899. Quartered oak tops, 5-ply, are today $5 

 to $10 per thousand feet less in price than In 

 1,892. and during the period ranging from 1.S93 

 to 1906 were sold at nearly 12 per cent lower 

 figures than today. 



But someone says that improved methods of 

 manufacture have cut down the cost of produc- 

 tion, and we can, therefore, manufacture at a 

 less cost than ten years ago. I think not. In 

 the production of veneers proper the rotary out- 

 ting machines and slice cutting machines were 

 run just as fast ten years ago as today, and 

 there have been none but minor improvements 

 in their manufacture. Therefore, a machine of 

 the same capacity, run on the same wood and 



