HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



did not see liow they could interest anyone 

 further. My own experience has taught me that 

 the place in which a man lives has little or no 

 bearing on the memhers he is ahle to secure, and 

 to illustrate that point, personally I have se- 

 cured during the past two years about eighteen 

 members, and of the eighteen Just three from 

 the city of the country. Some applications I 

 have secured in my own office, and some while 

 at the mills ; It therefore seems to me that the 

 (luestion of territory Is not as important as it 

 might appear. This association can, of course, 

 through its Special Membership Committee, do a 

 certain amount of good woik. but if the member- 

 ship is to be increased materially it cannot be 

 done through a committee alone, but must have 

 the hearty support and cooperation of every 

 member, and each of us must work hard to in- 

 terest good, eligible, first-class concerns whom 

 we should have with us. 

 nespectfully submitted. 



GofVEitNicuK E. S.MITH, Chairman. 



Three Conunittees Appointed 



President Craig then announced tlie fol- 

 lowing committees : 



Resolution : Lewis Dill of Baltimore, chair- 

 man ; C. H. Carleton, Cleveland, and Henry Cape, 

 New York. 



Nomination of Trustees ; C. H. Prescott, Jr., 

 Cleveland, chairman ; J. R. Williams, Philadel- 

 phia ; T. .1. Moffett. Cincinnati ; .lohn M. Woods. 

 Boston ; C. H. Barnaby. Greencastle. Ind. ; L. L. 

 Barth. Chicago; C. L. Shepard, New York; Alex- 

 ander, Willson. Pittsburg, and W. W. Dumphrey, 

 .Johnstown. Pa. 



To confer with retail and other associations: 

 N. H. Wolcott. Providence, chairman ; F. E. 

 Stone, Newark, N. .1. ; Dwight .T. Turner, To- 

 ronto : M. S. Tremaine. Buffalo. 



Following the suggestions of George H. 



W. W. KXIGIIT. INDl.W.M'ill.lS. TRt'STEE 



Holt pertaining to the consiileration of plans 

 of the Chicago Association of Commerce for 

 recruiting membership, the meeting adjourneil 

 until the afternoon session. 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION 



President Craig again brouglit the meeting 

 to order at 3:09 p. m., when the report of 

 the treasurer, deferred from the morning 's 

 meeting, together with that of the auditing 

 committee, wras called for. A most satisfac- 

 tory financial condition was evidenced in the 

 former paper, vvhich the auditing committee 

 vouched for. The l.'itfer report is as follows: 



Report of Audit and Finance Committee 



Herewith you will please find certificate of 

 the Sydney P. Waud Company, certifying to the 

 accuracy of your company's books. 



Experience has proven that the check voucher 

 now in use is too large, so a small form has 

 iieen adopted, which we believe will be more 

 suitable to our banking purposes. 



In submitting our report from year to year, 

 you are aware that although an Audit and Fi- 

 nance Committee, we are not at five with the 

 hnancial problems of the association, they being 



handled almost entirely by your board. While 

 the resourcss each year have been sufHcient to 

 provide for the liabilities, it would .seem that 

 with an or.ganization of such magnitude .is ours 

 Ihat not only should the current year's expendi- 

 tures he provided for, hut, in addition, a rea- 

 sonable suri>lus accumulated for contingencies. 



We would also call your attention to the fact 

 that the audit of the books does not refer to the 

 assets of the association, in the shape of reports 

 ami record.', which we understand are protected 

 hy insurance to the extent of $i;u,000, and which 

 probabl.v could not bo duplicated lor double the 

 aniount' it destroyed, 



Kespectfully submitted, 



Henry Cape, Chairman. 



The chair next called for the report of the 

 Committee on Trade Ethics, which was as fol- 

 lows : 



Report of Committee on Terms of Sale and 

 Code of Ethics 



Your Committee on Tei'ms of Sale and Code 

 of Ethics take pleasure in making the following 

 report ; 



We recommend that the code of ethics, as re- 

 vised and adopted at Chicago, on June S, 1909, 

 hy the American Lumber Trades' Congress, be 

 adopted by members of this association. 



Ii is not without considerable thought and 

 correspondence on this matter that we make 

 this broad and unwavering statement, but with 

 the courage of our convictions and belief that 

 by adopting this code o£ ethics the lumbermen 

 of the East will, as the lumliermen of the central 

 West and West (and we will say that the asso- 

 ciations of the central West and West have al- 

 ready far outstepped the East in the advancing 

 of their trade relations) not only i-aise the 

 standard of onr business principles to Ihat high 

 moral standing that they should attain, hut 

 broaden the business methods and moral ideas 

 of our associates. 



Taking up more fully the various points in 

 the code : 



Article I. paragraphs a, b, c and d, 2, 3, 4 

 and u, meet with your committee's approval 

 and have been cause for very little comment. 



On January VS. the secretary of this associa- 

 tion sent out a circular and among other ques- 

 tions he asked were : 



"Shall lumber be paid for before it is deliv- 

 ered?" 



This question, we think, we have answered. 

 Another question asked was, "What position 

 do you take on orders canceled after once ac- 

 cepted, and some expense incurred in preparing 

 to ship?" 



The tirst part of this question has to do with 

 articles 8, 9 and 10, and the latter part in refer- 

 ence to expense with article IL 



Article 0, as it now stands, reads as follows ; 

 "The terms ot sale as noted on original order 

 or acceptance of same should be considered as 

 much a part of the contract as the price at 

 which the stock is sold. Should any shipment 

 upon which cash has been advanced or discount 

 has been taken, on arrival at destination, not be 

 acceptable, for legitimate reasons to buyers, or 

 satisfactory adjustment cannot be made as to 

 the acceptance of the stock, buyer should have 

 the right to demand return of such money as 

 he has paid, before allowing the shipment to be 

 moved or disposed of elsewhere." 



You will note that this article does not state 

 01 lay down what the terms shall be, but state 

 that they shall be as noted on original order or 

 acceptance of same, and we wish to lay stress 

 on those words. If we were as particular in 

 our transactions in having this point made clear 

 when the orders are taken as we are in reference 

 to the price, there would be little trouble in re- 

 gard to settlements. In connection with this 

 question of taking off a discount before the ma- 

 terial ari'ives, there seems to be a varied opinion, 

 many expressing the view that material should 

 arrive before cash settlement taking otf discount 

 is made. l*ou can see. however, how unfair this 

 would be to the shipper in a shipment to an 

 eastern point from the state of Washington. We 

 therefore consider that owing to geographical 

 positions and delays in transit, the practice of 

 paying cash less a discount after arrival of car 

 should not be encouraged. Speaking from a per- 

 sonal experience of some if not all the members 

 of this committee, it has been their custom to 

 lake advantage of I'a per cent discount in all 

 their business transactions, by payin.g an amount 

 on account within ftfteen to twenty days from 

 date of invoice, after deducting an estimated 

 amount for freight and discrepancies that may 

 occur, and they have yet to experience the time 

 where they lost by this custom, and furthermore, 

 they have found that the benefits derived bv 

 this custom are manifold, winning not only tli" 

 confidence of the shipper but enabling purchases 

 to be made to a much better advantage. It Is a 

 matter of choice with the buyer if he wishes to 

 take advantage of a discount, and should he 

 choose so to do, the shipper should receive the 

 benefit of having the cash. The shipper figures 

 on getting so much for his lumber on the cars 

 and guarantees that the freight to a given point 



will not be over a certain amount, and if you 

 wish him to take less for his stock by taking off 

 a discount, you should pay for the same when 

 it is loaded, allowing a reasonable time, say, 

 lifteen to twenty days, for the invoice to reach 

 the buyer's offlce. 



Article 8 reads, "When a definite time for ship- 

 ment is specified." You can see that when a 

 buyer specified a definite time by which he 

 wishes his order to he shipped, he lias given the 

 seller to understand this point, and if the seller 

 sells on these conditions, he should be bound by 

 his agreement, for he is supposed to have real- 

 ized these conditions when he booked the order. 



Article 9, as it now reads, was so adopted bv 

 the congress on June 8 after a lengthy discus- 

 sion, and we think that, as it now reads, it is 

 a just and fair agreement, hut you can see that 

 the circumstances of the case will greatly gov 

 ern the question at hand, for, after all, gentle- 

 men, it depends whether the parties engaged are 

 of a high moral standing or what we sometimes 

 term as "a little too smart," and it is the idea 

 of the American Lumber Trades' Congress to 

 educate this latter class to the higher morals of 

 trade relation for which purpose they have got- 

 ten up and spent so much time and untiring 

 energy upon this code of ethics. 



In regard to article II, or the expense incurred 

 by the seller on a special order : Some of you, 

 if not all, are actually engaged in manufactur- 

 ing, and spend a part at least of your time at 

 the mill end, and I think all of lis will agree 

 that the seller should be protected in this regard. 

 The buyer must understand that the material 

 is gotten out for a specific purpose and should 

 he not take it, it would necessitate the seller 

 to sell the material at a sacrifice in order to get 

 rid of it. Therefore, gentlemen, in considering 

 this article No. 11. please put yourself in the 

 position of the mill man and agree with your 

 committee that we are right in our approval of 

 article II. 



'>VM. E. LITCHFIELD, BOSTON. TRUSTEE 



Articles 12 and 13 meet with our approval and 

 have brought out little or no comment. 



Article 14, which you will note calls for arbi- 

 tration when possible, or the settlement ot dis- 

 putes by referees when reinspection is not pro- 

 videcl for by association inspection bureaus, 

 meets highly With our approval, as does article 

 15, which deals with the matter of cost of in- 

 spection, and which was not adopted by the con- 

 gress without considerable discussion and 

 thought, and through compromise and consulta- 

 tion was finally amended to stand as it now 

 reads, of which" your committee approve. 



Your committee realize that this code of eth- 

 ics cannot be appreciated and adopted liy all at 

 once, but that the use of the same can only be 

 by gradual increase, and that the seller must In 

 many cases he governed by his customer. We 

 feel that in getting you to coincide with the 

 actions of the meeting held in Chicago, June S, 

 1909, as much as possible, will be as much as 

 we can ask. We know that in business some 

 people have one way of doing business and oth- 

 ers have anolher. and it is often necessary to 

 conform in a measure to what our customers 

 want, not what we would like. We realize that 

 there are many who thoroughly coincide with 

 this code of ethics, yet cannot bind themselves 

 to be controlled liy them entirely. 



The continual dunning for settlement ot ac- 

 ccunts sirlcllv in nccoidance with the terms of 

 sale often proves distasteful and in some case* 



