38 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 



rules of this association, so far as I know — and 

 I have known something of them for four years; 

 I have served on the Rules Committee for two 

 years — have been made by practical and un- 

 selfish men. When I say "practical" men, I 

 mean men who have actually worn out the toes 

 of their shoes turning lumber with a board rule. 

 They have been made by men who were so un- 

 selfish as to forget whether they were whole- 

 salers, manufacturers or consumers. [Applause.] 

 I have known wholesalers and manufacturers to 

 stand side by side opposed to wholesalers and 

 manufacturers. The rules have been amended 

 time and again by such men. by unselfish men. 

 and we have come to believe that the hardwood 

 trade of the I'nited States regard our rules as 

 the "gold standard" of inspection. [Applause.] 

 Now. gentlemen, I do not want to be under- 

 stood as saying anything vindictive at all. I 

 want to say, in the most kindly way. and I want 

 ir to be so received and understood, that this 

 association, in years passed and until this day, 

 has been placed in a false position by an un- 

 friendly trade press. I do not mean, gentlemen, 

 that every trade organ has been unfriendly : but 

 some of them have been, and some of them, or 

 their representatives, within the past twenty- 

 four hours, have admitted to me personally that 

 they have l>een unfriendly. I do not say this 

 in a vindictive spirit, but simply for the pur- 

 pose of explaining the position of this associa- 

 tion. In editorials and perhaps in cartoons, we 

 have been represented as a dog in the manger, 

 keeping the "hardwood trade cow" from eating 

 the "univer.sal inspection hay." Now, gentle- 

 men, this association is not and never has been 

 a dog in the manger. This association owns the 

 whole barn. [ Applause and cheers. ] Gentle- 

 men, this association constructed the edifice that 

 made satisfactory trade possible. [Applause.] 

 It is a large edifice ; there are many mangers in 

 it, and if you enter into that edifice you will find, 

 we will say Raltimore. eating out of a manger 

 without any difficulty ; you will find Boston in 

 another ; you will find Philadelphia in another; 



you will find Pittsburg in another ; you will find 

 Buffalo in another : you will find Cleveland in 

 another; you will find Chicago in another; you 

 will find St. Paul and Minneapolis in another : 

 you win find St. Louis in another : you will 

 find Memphis in one ; you will find Louisville in 

 one: you will find the state of Wisconsin in one; 

 you will find the state of Indiana in one; you 

 will find the state of Michigan in one. There 

 may be a dog in the manger — 

 A Member: In New York? 



President Diggins : In New York. yes. But, 

 gentlemen, let me assure you that the dog in 

 the manger in New York is not a dangerous dog. 

 and if he were the trade does not need to feed 

 in that manger. [Applause.] There Is a large 

 manger over here that the New York trade may 

 feed from. That dog is a dog that we extracted 

 the teeth from in 1905. [Laughter and applause.] 

 He is a good old dog. He is just sleeping there. 

 He is not there for any other purpose. [Laughter 

 and applause.] 



Our inspectors issued certificates covering 650,- 

 (>00 feet of lumber inspected in New York City 

 during April. liilO. [Applause.] In the month 

 of March, IIUO, the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association did the largest inspection business of 

 any month in the existence of the association 

 up to that time. That means that the hardwoi>d 

 inspectors of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association issued more bonded certificates in 

 the month of March. 1910, than they did before 

 in any month of the life of the association. In 

 April. 1910. the volume of business was greater, 

 by nearly 3.000.000 feet, than it was in March. 

 [Applause.] May (last month) was better than 

 April. The months of April and May. 1910. show- 

 that the National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion's inspectors inspected about 25.000,000 feet 

 in these markets. Is there any other associa- 

 tion or any two associations in existence that 

 inspect that much in two years? A gentleman 

 prominent in the affairs of another association 

 said recently that no honest man could success- 

 fully defend the existence of more than one set 



of rules of inspection. He was right— absolutely 

 right : and no honest man or set of honest men 

 are doing it. [Applause.] 



Here is the point, gentlemen. This is an as- 

 sociation with a membership of 686 members 

 today, and other applications coming in. I hon- 

 estly believe that we are inspecting 95 per cent 

 of all the hardwood lumber produced in the 

 United States today. [Applause.] I am con- 

 fident that north of the Ohio river there is not 

 1 per cent of the lumber that is produced that 

 is sold, first hand, under any other rules than 

 ours. Gentlemen. I leave it to you — upon whom 

 should the burden fall of defending the existence 

 of a second or a third set of inspection rules? 

 [Applause.] Should the pioneer, the fourteen- 

 year-old association, with a membership of over 

 686, doing 95 per cent of the business of the 

 hardwood trade of the United States, be called 

 upon to defend a rule or rules when the others 

 came along afterwards? I submit that to you in 

 all seriousness and earnestness, because I want 

 jou to know what this association is and what It 

 .stands for and what we can continue to make it 

 stand for. [Applause.] 



I have said all these things simply because 1 

 want to appeal to you as members of the asso- 

 ciation to be loyal in your support of the asso- 

 ciation, as you have been heretofore. That is all 

 1 ask of you. gentlemen. This association has 

 gone on record today to use all honorable means 

 to bring about absolute universal inspection. 

 Gentlemen, we have used honorable means in the 

 past. Does the membership know that we have 

 used honorable means? Do you know that we 

 have made two trips to New York City and have 

 spent our money and time in doing that, and 

 that we have made one trip to Philadelphia? 

 Does the membership know that at the New York 

 meeting we could not agree without sacrificing 

 the interests of every manufacturer in this as- 

 sociation? Would you have had us do that? 



Members : No, no. 



President Diggins : Do the members know that 

 in a conference with the people on the other 



