38 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



the sake of argument that there was now in force a national law 

 that would sa\' in efl'ect: 



liumhcrmen! form yourselves into an orqanitation, establish a 

 central office, to wliicli you must furnish the entire details of your 

 business; tlie linowledge you have of the timber standing, tlie cost 

 of producing it; the purposes to which it is put; the annual amount 

 consumed, the amount paid for stumpage, the amount paid for 

 labor, the amount paid for freight, yes and the profit you make. 

 Don't you suppose that we would tlien be able to tell whetlier there 

 was a'tru.'it or not? Don't you think we would then know some- 

 thing more about the supply and demand? Would the lumber be 

 so high in price one year tiiat it would make building prohibitive 

 and so low the next year that everyone engaged in the business 

 would see failure staring them in the face? Do you say that it 

 is a vision — a dream — a theory — impracticable — impossible? 



President Carrier then introduced J. H. Baird, of the Southern 

 Lumberman, Kashville, Tenn., who spoke on the "Functions of the 

 Trade Press." Mi-. Baird's address follows: 



THE FUNCTIONS OF THE TRADE PRESS 



The lumljer newspajicr i.-, imly a specialized new.spaper. and its 

 function is not ditlerent in any jiarticular from that of the legiti- 

 mate newspapers in any other line. The lumber newspaper is the 

 development of modern business conditions. It came into e.^islence 

 as the result of the specialization that has occurred in every other 

 direction. Just as the Interstate Commerce Commission has become 

 a special tribunal for giving a certain character of litigation a 

 degree of careful attention and technical knowledge not possible 

 to be had at the hands of the older courts, so tlie lumber new.spaper 

 has come in response to the need fur a fuller and more accurate 

 news service in the lumber trade than could possibly be furnished 

 by other publications. 



The primary function, then, of the' lumber newspajier, is to publisli 

 the news of the lumber trade — fully, promptly, frankly and with 

 absolute fairness and impartiality. Its main editorial function 

 is to supplement this news with such timely comment and discussion 

 as will make clearer its full meaning and sigiiiticance. 



The lumber newspaper should not only publish tlie news of the 

 trade for the benefit of the men in the trade, but should endeavor 

 so far as possible to enlighten the general puljlic on the true facts 

 of the trade. How much it may be able to accomplish along this 

 line is impossible to say. A strictly trade publication, no matter 

 how readable it be made, can not hope for a large circulation outside 

 those engaged in the business to which it is devoted, but so far as 

 such a paper does reach the general ' public its utterances should 

 be such as to command respect and absolute confidence. If it goes 

 to the general public recognized as a special pleader, all its utter- 

 ances will be discounted and its motive distrusted. Mention is 

 made of this feature of the function of the lumber newspaper for 

 the reason that light now the lumber business is the subject of 

 widespread misrepresentation in the removal of which its several 

 excellent trade newspapers ought to be alile to render some ell'ective 

 assistance. 



The lumber newspaper to accomplish its maximum u.sefulness 

 along any line should be absolutely free from suggestion of partisan 

 influence and control. In this respect it is exactly on an equality 

 with all other ncAvspapers. Freedom from special influence, and 

 an absolute honesty and fearlessness of expression are just as 

 essential to the success of a lumber newspaper as any other. Let 

 it lose character for honesty and truth telling, and its influence 

 is destroyed. With a recognition of its truthfulness the lumber news- 

 paper is in position to bring all the force of a wholesome publicity 

 to bear on the building up of all the good things in the trade, 

 and to powerfully assist in the elimination of all the bad tilings; 

 and this, with the rendering of an adequate, attractive and truthful 

 news .service, constitutes the true mission anil function of the 

 lumljer newspaper. 



Development of the tendency toward specialism in journalism, 

 while not bearing directly on the subject assigned me. is not with- 

 out interest and tends to make clear the true function discharged 

 by class ]iublications. In this dcn'elopment the weekly newspaper, 

 devoted to a certain line of business and giving up its columns almost 

 if not wholly, to recording the news happenings of that business, 

 is the latest step. The tendency toward specialization in news- 

 paper set in almost as soon as tlie first periodical publication was 

 established. 



The first ]KMiodical publication was established in England about 

 two hundred years ago. It was in the form of "Kews Letters." 

 At first these were circulated as written manuscript, but soon came 

 to be ])rintcd. and issued at irregular intervals as occasion demanded. 

 These early "News Letters" were given up almost wholly to news 

 of the church and state — that is politics and religion, the leading 

 issues of those days. They were vital issues too; one had to do 

 with the man while lie stayed here and the other after he left, 

 and both came in for more real concern than they do now. 



Crude as they were, the success of these early "News Letters" show 

 that they supplied a distinct want. They increased rapidly in 



number and slowly enlarged in scope. It required a long time for 

 them to get away from politics and church news. Little by little, 

 however, some came to take on a distinctively literary character, 

 and the development thus begun has led in a period of two hundred 

 years to the literary magazines of to-day. Somewhat earlier than 

 the beginning of those literary publications, however, occurred a 

 great advance along another line — the development of a news service. 

 The earlier forms of the "Letters'' were soon supplanted by what 

 might be fairly called newspapers, to the old topics of church and 

 stale doings Ix'ing added sporting announcements and social gossip. 

 Along this line the development led, somewhat more rapidly than 

 that leading up to the magazine, to the daily and weekly news- 

 papers of modern times. 



it was long before any of these early new-spapers paid any atten- 

 tion to business, for the reason, no doubt, that business in those 

 days cut but a relativel.y small figure. Business was not in it 

 with war and politics. As it is now carried on business is a com- 

 paratively modern institution, and the real business newspaper is 

 one of its very latest developments. It is impossible to .say when 

 the first strictly business publication was established. Whenever 

 that event occurred, however, it was the result of the need felt 

 for a more adequate and accurate treatment of matters all'ecting 

 some particular trade or business than could be had in existing 

 publications. Probably no strictly business publication of any sort 

 dates back further than fifty years. 'and nearly all of those now in 

 existence or that have existed were cstablislied within the past 

 twenty-live years. As soon as the first one had been established, the 

 same causes that led to its establishment began at once to operate 

 to bring about further siiecialization. The first trade publications 

 were rightly called journals. They were is.sued at regular but 

 somewhat long intervals. None of the earliest were issued oftener 

 than monthly, and many were content with bi-monthly or even 

 i]uarterly issxies. There was no need for frequenc.y of publication, 

 as their contents were made up almost wholly of statistical or 

 technical matter, or a combination of the two. When these earlier 

 trade journals began to depart from statistics and technic, it was 

 to introduce special articles dealing with features of the business 

 or trade with which they were allied, and a more or less academic 

 discussion carried on in essays on tojiics of collateral interest. The 

 introduction of trade news matter into these earlier trade journals 

 came slowly. It was only when several lines of trade had come 

 to lie so developed that thousands of persons were engaged therein, 

 and in which happenings of real news value were of frequent 

 occurrence, that there was felt a need for the real trade newspaper 

 as distinguished from class journals. Not many lines of business 

 have yet develojx'd to the point of recpiiring a weekly news service, 

 and to say that the lumber busim'ss supports more real newspajiers 

 than any other line of business is but one way of saying that 

 the lumber business is the most advanced and up-to-date of any 

 business on earth. 



Mr. Doster, as secretary of the Insignia Committee, stated that 

 the committee recommended the adoption of the seal used on the 

 badge as the official one of the association. 



On motion, the reconnnendation of the committee was accepted 

 and adopted. 



The secretary then announced the make-up of sundry commit- 

 tees on statistics, grades, rules, transportation, waste, resolutions, 

 etc. 



President Carrier announced for the evening for the entertain- 

 ment of the visitors an address on Eough Country Lumber Opera- 

 tions, supplemeuted by stereoptieon and moving pietiires, by H. H. 

 Gibson, editor Hardwood Eecord. 



TUESDAY EVENING, FEB. 1 



j\lr. Gibson's ft^ntiiif.^ of the eutertaininent w;is produced in the 

 main assembly hall of the Hotel Sinton, at eight o'clock on Tues- 

 day evening, and consisted of an address involving a description of 

 more than a hundred colored stereoptieon views of scenery, timber 

 landscape, tree growth, monntaineei's, moonshiners, feudists and of 

 individuals involved in the range of the mountain country known 

 as the Appalachian, and concluded with a moving picture exhibi- 

 tion showing the woods and splash dam operations of the Yellow 

 Poplar Lumber Company, Coal Grove, O., in Dickinson county, Ya. 

 l"?xccr]its from Mr. Gibson's address follow: 



ROUGH COUNTRY LOGGING OPERATIONS 



Primarily, I want to disabuse the minds of the suspicious. Lec- 

 tures are serious things — usually to be avoided — and this 's not to 

 be a lecture. It has been suggested that I might exhibit some 

 pictures, reproduced from photographs which I have made during 

 years' cruising in the woods which would interest and entertain 

 the members of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association and their 

 guests. 



