HARDWOOD RECORD 



2EI-4 



29G 

 207 



2!1S, 

 20!l. 



200. 



oOl. 



;;02. 



303. 

 304. 

 305. 



30C.. 

 307. 



SOS. 



J. 11. i-ipppcs. Cinc-innatl, O., The J. H. 



Dcppes Sous Lumber Co. 

 W. U. Dingfoldcf, Hamilton, O., W. M. 



DiiiKfeklcf & Co. . 



John II. Ai-ns, Cincinnati, O., Lackawanna 



I^ino. 

 E. A. Swain. ShelbyviUe, Ind.. Swain-Kar- 



iiiiro Lumber Co. and Indiana Hardwood 



Lumber Association. 

 .T. T. Davidson, Mason, O.. H. C. .Tacoby. 

 T. G. Pierson, Spencei-, Ind., .1. L. Pierson 



Lumber Co. and Indiana Retail Lumber 



Dealers' Association. 

 .7. Elam Artz, Dayton, O., F. A. Requarth 



Co. and president Ohio Association of 



Retail Lumber Dealers. 

 D. C. Stevenson, Owensboro, Ky., .T. V. 



Stimson & Co. 

 Franli C. Rice, Springfield, Mass., Rice & 



Lockwood Lumber Co. 

 W. E. Berger. Ashland, Ky., W. H. Dawkins 



Lumber Co. 

 .Tohn Dornette, Jr., Cincinnati, O., The J. 



Dornelite & Bro. Co. 

 Frank W. Lawrence, Boston, Mass., Law- 

 rence & Wiggin and Massachusetts Whole- 

 sale Association. 

 V. S. Lawrence, Boston, Mass. 

 Isaac Balker, Chicago, 111., Edward Hines 



Lumber Co. 

 T. S. Morison, Norfolk. Va., Boice Lbr. Co. 



.■!09. 



:;io. 



3X1. 



312. 



313. 



314. 



321. 

 322. 



323. 



324. 



325. 



326. 



329. 

 330. 



L. H. Snodgrass, Johnson City, Tenn., Buck 

 & Snodgrass Lumber Co. 



S. C. Boyd. Cincinnati, O., C. C. Boyd & Co. 

 and Lumbermen's Club of Cincinnati. 



F. J. Davenport, Detroit, Mich., Louisiana 

 Red Cypress Co., New Orleans, La. 



n. E. DuBois, Cincinnati, O.. Div. Frt. Agt., 

 C, II. & D. Ry. 



J. W. Taylor, CoUvmbus, O., Domestic Lum- 

 ber Co. 



Stuart A. Allen, Cincinnati, O., A. G. F. A.. 

 C, II. & D. Ry. 



Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, Cincinnati, 0. 



Edgar Wain, Cincinnati, O., Empire Forest 

 Products' Association. 



Geo. B. Jobson, Columbus, O., A. C. Davis 

 Lumber Co. 



Arthur M. Jack, Cincinnati, O., "Packages" 

 of Milwaukee. 



J. II. P. Smith, Cincinnati, O., The Hard- 

 wood Lumber Co. 



D. C. Snook. Cincinnati. O., Lockland Lum- 

 ber Co., Ohio Ass'n Retail Lbr. Dealers. 



W. B. Kirkpatrick, Cincinnati, O., Fagin & 

 Kirkpatrick. 



W. C. Bartlett, Cincinnati, O., Wiborg & 

 Hanna Co. 



Richard H. Long, Sandusk.v, O., Lumber In- 

 surance General Agency. 



Louis E. Dietz, Cincinnati. O.. Boss Wash- 

 ing Machine Co. 



Hardwood Record Mail 'Bag 



The Sleeping Consumer 



jAJtESTOWN, N. Y., Feb. 24. — Editor Hard- 

 wood Record : Since studying your pleasing and 

 suggestive cartoon in the special Cincinnati issue 

 of Hardwood Record, have thought of volumes 

 to say or write about, which may be interesting 

 to the readers of your paper. 



It is quite evident that the consumer has been 

 asleep since way back when the hardw'ood manu- 

 facturers b?gan making their first rules of in- 

 spection. 



The consumer lias simply been taking what 

 the producer felt disposed to give him, with the 

 exception of a few who are probably up to the 

 tricks of the trade in their own business, and 

 are thus suspicious that the lumber producer 

 and dealer have a few tricks too, and so investi- 

 gates, as he has learned that "investigation is 

 the art of trade." 



It is a query to many about those "Peace 

 Offerings" to know just what they are supposed 

 to be. When you consider the way lumber pro- 

 ducers and dealers are shipping to consumers ; 

 when the consumer buys straight firsts and sec- 

 onds for the seller to put in about twenty-five to 

 thirty per cent of No. 1 common, and say noth- 

 ing about it, expecting the stock to go through 

 as firsts and seconds ; and when they buy straight 

 No. 1 common to send fifty to one hundred per 

 cent of No. 2 and 3 common Instead, it looks 

 very much to me as though the peace offerings 

 were not meant as such. 



We do not doubt in the least that there are 

 many honest lumber manufacturers and .jobbers, 

 who give a man just the grade he buys as near 

 as they can, but it seems that a majority of 

 them are all up to the same tricks. 



We know that when we buy log run of any 

 grade we generally get only about one-third of 

 the log run grade, as the stock of one grade is 

 divided into several grades according to widths, 

 saps, strips, etc., as the case may he. Now the 

 consumer does not blame the manufacturer and 

 jobber for so doing, as they want tlieiu to make 

 all they can in a legitimate and honest way, if 

 the jobber tells the way he manipulates the stock 

 and grades and his several prices according to 

 the several grades tut of one grade. Having 

 done this let the consumer tell what he wants 

 and when he buys such and such grades, instruct 

 your inspector to put up an honest grade, giving 

 the man a square deal, Instead of telling your 

 inspector that tliey haven't an inspector on the 

 other end or they haven't a very good man there, 

 nud so he can put in twenty-five to fifty per cent 

 below the grade bought. But when you take his 

 coat and he becomes bankrupt, because of using 

 the below grade stock, then you sue him to see 



if you can get his cloak also. Do you think you 

 can make him a "friend of yours"? 



I remember a consumer who once bonjht ten 

 cars of No. 1 common plain oak and went to the 

 wholesaler's yard to take it up. First the con- 

 sumer was shown a pile of No. 1 common, and 

 mounting to the top of it discovered to his sur- 

 [)rise that it was No. 3 common. He soon made 

 it plain that that was not what he wanted, and 

 was shown another pile of supposed to be No. 1 

 common, and mounting to the top of this pile 

 found to his utter astonishment it was No. 2 

 common. Then he told the wholesaler if this 

 was what he called No. 1 common he might as 

 well go home. 



"Well, now, I declare," he says, "let's try this 

 pile. I think this will suit you." After mount- 

 ing this pile he had to lay out about one-third of 

 the stock which was No. 2 common. So. If he 

 had not been "up to snuEE" he would probably 

 have taken the No. 2 or No. 3 common and the 

 wholesaler was dishonest enough to "do" his 

 brother good. 



A jobber told mo of another consumer who 

 received a car of lumber, supposed to be No. 1 

 common, and it looked so bad to him that he 

 had to refitse it. So he w'ent to a jobber's 

 yard, and the jobber told him he was quite 

 sure he had a grade to suit him, and showed him 

 a pile of No. 2 common. The consumer, "being 

 asleep" and not "up to snuff" on the grading of 

 lumber, took the pile of No. 2 common. 



When one lumber dealer sells to another dealer 

 a car of firsts and seconds or No. 1 common, or 

 whatever it may be, the buyer gets his grade as 

 a general thing, as the seller knows the other 

 end of tlie line is well up on grading, and so he 

 sends a more technical grade. Then out of that 

 grade of No. 1 common the buyer puts the select 

 common boards into a pile by themselves. Then 

 the consumer comes along and wants some firsts 

 and seconds and this pile of select common is 

 what the consumer has to take. 



A lumber dealer sold us a car of lumber about 

 six months ago ; it was supposed to be No. 1 

 common and better. We inspected about two- 

 thirds of the stock and found a large per cent 

 of thin lumber and No. 2 common. Of course, 

 we could not use the stock, so we had to refuse 

 it. The dealer afterward told us he sold it for 

 No. 1 common and better and got more out of it 

 than if we had taken it. He then said to me, 

 "What do you know about that?" I simply told 

 him the other fellow did not understand what 

 he was doing. 



When we see ear after car coming in and a 

 large portion of the stock below the grade 

 bought, it is time the "sleeping consumer" woke 

 up. It looks to me as though "the spirit of the 



times" is, "While he is asleep let's do him." 



But listen : we hear something in the wireless 

 atmosphere that the lumber associations mean 

 to make the consumers members of their organi- 

 zation. This would be very satisfactory indeed 

 in one way, if consumers enough would join so 

 as to make an even number or more with the 

 lumber dealers, then their combined efforts might 

 get up a standard of rules that would be satis- 

 factory to and thoroughly understood by every- 

 one. 



However, after all this was seltled it would 

 not eliminate the trouble or tell a man he must 

 not "doctor up" the grade, as they call it. Can 

 it |je possible that the only way out of this troulile 

 would be to legislate on it, making it a national 

 affair and imposing a heavy penalty for such a 

 misdemeanor? Why not legislate on the lumber 

 business the same as was done by weights and 

 measures? This was only to give the purchaser 

 the full value of his money, and we think there 

 is nearly a parallel case in the lumber business. 



This epistle ma':.' look a little antagonistic, but 

 it is not so meant. It is telling a few every- 

 day facts to help bring about an e^'ohition of thi; 

 legitimate grading of lumber, and us our honor- 

 able ex-Presldont Theodore Roosevelt has stated, 

 "a square deal for every man." 



Now, if the lumber dealers and consumers in 

 our city would come together and unite their 

 efforts and invite the lumber associations and all 

 Ihi' consumers of tho country here this summer, 

 when the Chautauqua Lake season is at its best, 

 and at the lime of our great 1910 centennial, we 

 think something might be done in the betterment 

 of the lumber business. — A Ja.mestown IN. Y. i 

 Consumer, 



To the foregoing eonimuuieation the fol- 

 lowing reply has been made: 



Chicago, III., February 28. — Dear Sir: The 

 trouble with .you, in common with a great 

 many wholesale hardwood consumers is that 

 you do not take advantage o£ the facilities 

 placed at your disposal in securing "a square 

 deal ' ' in your lumber purchases. There is no 

 excuse for any buyer of hardwood lumber, 

 if, when he makes his purchases, he specifies 

 that it shall be under the rules of either the 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the 

 United States, or under the rules of the Na- 

 tional Hardwood Lumber Association, not get- 

 ting exactly what he buys or having a reir- 

 spection that will insure him in getting what 

 he buys. 



The intelligent buyer will not permit the 

 seller to work off ' ' special grades, " " fur- 

 niture common," or anything else on him, 

 Imt will specify that he is buying under a 

 certain grade of one of the leading lumber 

 associations. If the lumber received does not 

 correspond with his purchase according to the 

 rules, he has the privilege of calling for a re- 

 inspection, and at the present time there is 

 no reason to believe that he will not secure an 

 absolutely honest reinspection, and if the 

 lumber is not according to specifications he is 

 not obliged to accept it. 



You, in common with many other wholesale 

 hardwood consumers, neglected to accept the 

 invitation of the Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 Association of the United States, when they 

 asked you to come to their Cincinnati meet- 

 ing and present your claims for any needed 

 change in hardwood rules. To be sure a good 

 many buyers of hardwood in leading lines did 

 present themselves, and their suggestion for 



