flflMwol RocoM 



Published Irv the Interest of Hai.r<lwooii Lurrvber, AmerlcBLn Hardwood Forests, Wood Verveer Industry. H&rdwood Flooring, 

 Ha-rdwood Interior Flrvish, Wood ChemlcaLls, Sa.w Mill and Wood\votklne Machinery. 



LIBI 



NEW 



eoTA 



Vol. XXIX. 



CHICAGO, MARCH 25, 1910. 



No. 11. 



Published on the lOlh and 25lh of each month by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



HENRY H. GIBSON, Prcsidenl 



LOUIS L. JACQUES, Sec'y and Tieas. 



Sixth Floor. Ellsworth Bldg., 355 Dearborn Street, Chicago, III. 



Telephones Harrison 8086-8087-8088 



Eastern Territory - 

 Northern Territory 

 Southern Territory - 



REPRESENTATIVES 



Jacob Holtzman, 5254 Larchwood Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 



- C. F. Dcdekam, >i55 Dearborn St., Chicago 



E. VV. Meeker, 355 Dearborn St., Chicaeo 



TERMS OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 

 In the United Stales, Canada, Philippine Islands and Mexico . $2.00 



In all other countries in Universal Postal Union .... 3.00 



Subscriptions are payable in advance, and in default of written orders to 

 the contrary are continued at our option. 



Entered as second-class matter May 26, 1902, al the Postoffice at Chi- 

 cago, III., under act of March 3. 1879. 



Advertising copy must be received five days in adrance of 

 publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



Coming Association Meetings 



NATIONAI. LUMBER MANUF ACTUREKS ' ASS'N, 

 The Board of Governors of the above association have 

 fixed the dates for the 1910 annual meeting for April 19 and 

 20 at New Orleans, La." 

 GEORGE K. SMITH, EDWARD HINES, 



Secretary. President. 



NATIONAL HARDWOOD LUMBER ASSOCIATION. 



The next annual meeting of this organization will be held 

 at the Seelbach Hotel, LouisviUe, Ky., Thursday and Friday, 

 June 9 and 10, 1910. 



F. F. FISH, Secretary. O. O. AGLER, President. 



General Market Conditions 



Lumber conditions generally are improving and are more nearly 

 satisfactory in the hardwood trade than in any of the building woods, 

 with the possible exception of eastern spruce. When it is said that 

 hardwood conditions are satisfactory the statement is only relative. 

 Hardwood stocks of nearly all varieties are badly out of balance and 

 in several woods the leading and most desirable items in shipping con- 

 dition are practically out of stock. In many quarters there is a 

 hesitancy about buying in quantities, but the aggregate of small 

 orders makes up a vast volume of business. 



Sales conditions in the Middle "West are much better and values are 

 stronger than they are in the East. Trade in the Atlantic Coast cities 

 is still more or less spotted. In all the chief cities of the country the 

 wagon-load hardwood trade is better than the car trade, and the car 

 trade is more in evidence than big block orders. 



The entire hardwood producing country is overrun with hordes of 

 buyers who are trying to make advantageous purchases. The average 



manufacturer is making little effort to crowd sales; his stock is badly 

 broken and with a number of daily buyers at his office feels as though 

 still higher prices were coming soon, and is therefore playing a wait- 

 ing game. 



The position of the jobber just at this moment is not to be greatly 

 envied ; ho is between the ' ' devil and the deep sea, ' ' on account of the 

 aggregate higher scale of prices beiug asked by manufacturers on the 

 one hand, and the insistance of the wholesale consumers that they 

 buy from hand to mouth until they are assured of the stability of 

 values on the other hand. The average stock of lumber at sawmills 

 and in the hands of the jobbers is "shot full of holes." 



The good end of plain and quartered oak, in both red and white, is 

 commanding high and steadily increasing prices, and wide poplar is 

 even stronger than oak. 



There is a gradual absorption of medium and low grades, which are 

 being taken on by remanufaeturers, since they can not secure a suf- 

 ficient quantity of firsts and seconds and No. 1 common to supply 

 their needs. 



Birch and maple are also leaders in higher prices, and a good many 

 of the other woods are close followers. 



Universal Hardwood Inspection 



In the niiuds of the vast majority of hardwood manufacturers, job- 

 bers and consumers there has crystallized an urgent demand for an 

 agreement between all parties in interest on the subject of a universal 

 code of hardwood inspection. There is no desire for radical changes 

 in any of the sets of rules in force, but there seems to be an urgent 

 call that all the existing rules be codified into one universal standard. 

 Apropos of this subject it is pertinent to repeat an abstract from 

 the banquet speech of Robert W. Higbie, president of the National 

 Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association, delivered at the recent Cin- 

 cinnati annual meeting: 



There was a time when it was said that competition 

 was the life of trade. That is no longer true: for the 

 word "competition" we substitute the word "co-opera- 

 tion," and today it is true that co-operation is the life 

 of trade. The formation of all associations is simply the 

 carrying out of that word. 



Our associations have done much good; we have 

 straightened out a great many of the faulty customs of 

 our trade until we have well nigh reached the condition 

 described by one of our guests yesterday, who said that 

 the relations between the various branches of the lumber 

 trade are today ideal. 



But there is something yet to be done, I refer to 

 the question of hardwood inspection, and I am not going 

 to say very much about it because the position of this 

 association is very well known. We are not primarily a 

 hardwood association, but we have adopted the broad 

 principle of national and international inspection. On 

 that broad principle we stand and to that end we are 

 ready to co-operate with other associations, and I be- 

 lieve that the men who conduct the lumber trade of 

 this country are big enough, broad enough, fair enough 

 and liberal enough to get together and settle this ques- 

 tion. John Sherman, who was an honored son of this 

 great state, said when Secretary of the Treasury, that 

 the way to resume specie payments was to resume, and 

 let me say, if you will, the way to settle this question 

 is to settle it. 



