HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



IS now ripe when there should be a revolution in hardwood affairs. 

 There is no good reason to believe that the merchant in hardwood 

 lumber is not an essential and valuable element if his status in the 

 trade be clearly defined, and he have a chance of securing a reason- 

 able profit on his investment, time and labor in the prosecution of 

 his business. 



This desideratum can only be brought about by going back to 

 pretty nearly first principles in the sale of forest products. For 

 many years in the white pine trade of this country lumber was largely 

 marketed on the basis of mill run or ' ' good, common and cull, ' ' and 

 sold to jobbers at Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, 

 Tonawanda, and other points for manipulation into a multiplicity of 

 grades to suit the requirements of the eventual user. In a general 

 way this sj'stem of selling hardwoods was also quite extensively em- 

 ployed. There would be no general trouble in transactions between 

 manufacturers and jobbers on the basis of the grades of firsts and 

 seconds. No. 1 common, shipping culls and mill culls, or iu many 

 purchases on a straight mill run basis. This system surely would 

 clarify the atmosphere and give merchants a reasonable chance to do 

 business on a fairly profitable basis. 



Again, there is no good reason why merchants and such manufac- 

 turers as make sufficient quantities of stock to enable them to go 

 into the finer manipulation of lumber should not establish a series 

 of gi-ades as outlined in the last issue of the Eecord to suit the exaci 

 requirements of the eventual consumer. If the big manufacturer 

 wants to make these numerous grades and seU direct to the wholesale 

 consumer he has the right to do so, if he is willing to pay the cost 

 of doing it. The great mass of minor hardwood manufacturers would 

 not and eou.'d not, by reason of the limited quantity of stock pro 

 duced and their deficiency of knowledge of the subject, enter into 

 this trade. They would sell their lumber en bloc, or under the grades 

 of firsts and seconds, common, culls and mill culls, tc the jobber, 

 ana let him group lumber at advantageous points and assort it to 

 these exact specifications. 



This system of doing business would work no hardship on any 

 division of the industry. The big manufacturer could, if he chose, 

 be a merchant and do business in hardwoods in exactly the same way 

 as the Edward Hines Lumber Company, for example, does it in 

 building woods. They could assort their lumber to the twenty or 

 more grades necessary to cover the exact requirements of and sell 

 direct to the factory. The small hardwood manufacturer would find 

 it to his manifest advantage to market his lumber to the jobbing 

 trade. The hardwood jobber could mtke this same multiplicity of 

 grades now masquerading under the title of "special grades," and 

 could secure a reasonable profit. 



The wholesale consumer could also have what he is seeking — estab- 

 lished grades made exactly to his requirements for the most advan- 

 tageous cutting. 



This plan would put the manufacturers on a better footing, would 

 put the jobber in better shape, and would be advantageous to the 

 wholesale consumer. It would mean going back to first principles — 

 selling lumber at wholesale and in a wholesale way, and selling in 

 carlots in a carlot way. 



Furthermore, it would put out of business the undesirable and 

 piratical element of the hardwood trade — men who sell lumber at 

 any old price — and then make a grade to suit the price, not forgetting 

 a "reasonable" profit for themselves. 



The Eecord thinks this subject is worth the earnest consideration 

 of every element of the trade, and it believes that this is the only 

 logical solution to the present hardwood grade embroglio. 



Association Meetings 



It is hoped that lumbermen will not fail to attend the association 

 meetings in which they are interested. 



On Thursday, January 13, the invariably interesting annual of the 

 Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association will be held at Indian- 

 apolis. This meeting usually brings out the full attendance of the 

 Indiana contingent and their friends from neighboring states. This 

 year's meeting should be no exception. 



On Friday, January 21, occurs the annual meeting of the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers of Wisconsin at Hotel Pfister, Milwaukee. This is 

 an unusually important meeting and it is desired that all the Wiscon- 

 sin hardwood fraternity be present. 



On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, February 1, 2 and 3, wUl 

 be held the big annual meeting of the Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 Association of the United States at Hotel Sinton, Cincinnati. A lot 

 of enthusiasm has been aroused over this meeting, as, for the first 

 time in lumber history, the wholesale consumers of hardwoods will 

 take an active part in grade making. It is expected that fully five 

 Hundred manufacturers and jobbers wUl be present at this meeting, 

 anu an equal number of leaders in tne lemanufacture of hardwood 

 lumber into furniture, wagons, automobile bodies, coffins, caskets, etc. 

 Matters of the greatest importance to the trade will be discussed 

 jt this meeting, and undoubtedly the legislation will be of great 

 moment to the future of the industry. The entertainment features 

 provided for the function are elaborate and interesting. 



The daily "doings" of this convention will be recounted iu three 

 special issues of Haedwood Record, which wUl not only be distributed 

 at the convention, but more than two thousand extra copies daily will 

 be mailed to prominent manufacturers and wholesale consumers 

 'ihroughout the country. 



The American Forestry Association holds its annual meeting at 

 Washington, on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 18 and 19, which 

 should be attended by such of the lumber fraternity as are iuterested 

 in forest conservation. 



On Wednesday and Thursday, March 2 and 3, at the Sinton Hotel, 

 Cincinnati, will be held the annual meeting of the National Wholesale 

 Lumber Dealers' Association. This meeting should not only call out 

 the larger number of eastern wholesalers in both building woods and 

 hardwoods, but also include the attendance of large delegations from 

 all the important trade centers of the Middle West and South. 



Technical Publicity Association 



The Technical Publicity Association is the name of an organization 

 made up of the advertising managers of a good many of the leading 

 machinery manufacturing houses of the country. The president of 

 this organization is Chas. S. Eedfield of the Yale & Towne Manufac- 

 turing Company, and the headquarters of the institution are at 202 

 E. Twenty-third street, New York, at the office of the secretary, H. 

 Harrison Kress, of the A. S. Cameron Steam Pump Works, of New 

 York. Affiliated as members are quite a number of the advertising 

 managers of manufacturers of electrical, logging and woodworking 

 machinery. 



The Technical Publicity Association is attempting to work out 

 logical means of insuring the best possible advertising results for the 

 houses they represent. It is giving considerable attention to the 

 trade press, and while working in perfect harmony with publishers, 

 is in a measure insisting that trade newspapers shall supply them 

 with definite information covering the quantity and character of cir- 

 culation, the distribution of this circulation and other facts. The asso- 

 ciation is working on the theory that if they spend money in adver- 

 tising in the trade press they should know what they are buying. 



The Haedwood Record is entirely in accord with the tenets of this 

 business organization, and can see no more reason why a publisher 

 should not supply an advertiser with definite information covering 

 breadth and character of circulation than should a machinery man 

 refuse to tell a prospective buyer something of the character and 

 capacity of the machine he proposes to seU. 



Members of the Technical Publicity Association are not foolish 

 enough to demand a vast volume of miscellaneous circulation from 

 trade publications. What they do expect is a circulation among a 

 class that are probable buyers of the tools they wish to sell, and 

 that tills circulation shall covw with reasonable fidelity the majority 

 of this special class. 



The trouble with the average trade paper publisher is that he is 

 ashamed of his circulation, and is afraid to turn loose facts about 

 it for fear that it will be compared with the million circulation of 

 tlip Ladies' Home Journal, to his disadvantage. This is illogical 



