HARDWOOD RECORD 



43 



Outing Cincinnati Lumbermen's 



Club 



An ideal June day was chosen by Chairman 

 Bolser for the annual outing of the Cincinnati 

 Lumbermen's Club, which was held on Friday, 

 June 17. at Chester Tark, In the early evening 

 the members assembled and at 6 :30 p. m. 

 marched up on the veranda of the club house. 

 which overlooks the beautiful lake, and wer? 

 seated in rows the full length of the veranda. 

 The Smoketown Serenaders furnished vocal selec- 

 tions and instrumental music during the progress 

 of the meal. 



The program and menu card was a neat crea- 

 tion of the typographic an. and reflected credit 

 on Joe Bolsers taste, as chairman of the Enter- 

 tainment Committee. 



After partaking of a delightful dinner, chairs 

 were pushed back, cigars were lighted, and Tresi- 

 dent Walker began to search his pockets, finally 

 bringing forth that deadly weapon, his ivory 

 gavel, and, rapping for order, said, in part : 



Ladies and gentlemen : Another year has 

 rolled around and once more wo are permitted 

 to hold an outing, after a most strenuous year 

 in business, having escaped the tail of the comet, 

 and today have been assured that the great prize 

 light wili surely be held at Keno, and the great 

 American cyclone has again returned to our 

 shores. In "looking over the program I see the 

 committee has failed to arrange for anyone to 

 speak to "the ladies," which is a grave oversight 

 on tlie part of the committee, for which I offer 

 the most humble apology. Nothing is so sweet 

 as a woman's voice and nothing so charming as 

 her presence. I wish that 1 had been selected 

 for that topic myself. I am beginning to think, 

 to use a sporting term, with which your hus- 

 bands are all familiar, that some one has "put 

 one over on you." But youth will be served, aud 

 I will now introduce to you a young man who 

 really "put one over on me" by declining to run 

 for president, and insisting that I succeed my- 

 self to the trouble. Ladies and gentlemen, allow 

 me to present to you one of the brightest of the 

 younger lumbermen of today — Mr. G. Clifford 

 Ault. 



Mr. Ault on Club Finances 



Mr. Ault then spoke somewhat as follows ; 



The flattering introduction of President Walker 

 makes it diflicult for me to open — in fact. I 

 would rather decline, as I come really to listen 

 to the others. It always has a disastrous effect 

 upon my appetite when I have to make a speech. 

 I notice that the committee has assigned to me 

 the topic, Club Financing, which, of course, will 

 only call for a few words : but I will do the best 

 I can for a minute. Let me assure you that a 

 program is always like a basket of Georgia 

 peaches, witn the largest and mcst juicy at the 

 bottom, so I will Iw brief and get out of the way. 

 But as to the finances, club finances, the subject 

 is a very limited one. Any one who has served 

 as a treasurer of a club knows that. You can 

 hardly tell whether the money is coming or going. 

 It is hard to settle a balance. All I know is that 

 when the secretary issues a voucher I skirmish 

 around for enough money to pay the bill, and if 

 there is not sufficient money in the treasury I 

 simply borrow it from myself. Knowing our sec- 

 retary, Joe Bolser. as I do. I'll bet we have sat 

 down' to a cut-rate dinner. Now, to save the new 

 treasurer much annoyance, I hope the Executive 

 Board will do away with the present plan of 

 collecting dues by 'assessment and establish a 

 rule of annual dues in its place. There is noth- 

 ing further to say on club finances, as there are 

 none. There has been, however, a good deal said 

 recently about "a square deal," and I want to 

 say that I hope to see Cincinnati the squarest 

 place to deal in the country, and the simplest 

 way to do it is to apply the Golden Rule and live 

 up to it. And, in conclusion, I want to say that 

 next year, when we meet at our annual outing, 

 may good old Captain Cliff S. Walker be at the 

 helm of our ship. May he always be right ; but, 

 right or wrong, may he always be right with us. 

 Thank you. 



Toastmaster Walker again had recourse to his 

 trusty gavel to calm the applause, as he said : 



I knew that boy would do all right. The club 

 to prosper and do great things needs more 

 finances. I am sorry that he was not on the 

 program to speak to* the ladies. But we have 

 now come to where we will hear a talk on Uni- 

 form Inspection, by Mr. W. IC. Iiel.aney. member 

 of the Grading Commission of the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers" Association of the United States. 

 and inventor of the autoboat automobile, recently 

 made famous in local history, 



Mr. Delaney said in part : 



Unifonn Inspection by Mr. Delaney 



Ladies and fellow lumbermen : 1 have been 

 arc\ised of all sorts of crimes, but this is a new^ 

 honor that has been thrust upon me. I heard 

 Mr. Walker allude to a "joy ride." and wonder 

 why he wants to know so much about it. I wish 

 he had assigned me to talk to the ladies, instead 

 of talking on Grading Rules. I would rathei- 

 talk to the ladies on Grading Rules, because no 

 matter what the rules said, each lady would be 

 certain to have a book of her own rules. Tom 

 Stone said to me while down in the park ; 



"I see you are on the program to talk on lum- 

 ber. We all know what you will say." 



A good many old-timers present I'an remember 

 — at least I can myself — that when a carload of 

 lumber was shipped we always wondered what 

 we would get for it. We would write a man and 

 ask him what he would give. The methods ol 

 kei ping accounts could not be relied upon. 'I'he 

 custom of the railroads in rebating was annoying. 

 I>oes any one liere get rebates now*/ The ijues- 

 tlon of "Uniform Inspection must be solvfd. I 

 was jiresenr at the recent meeting in New York 

 and disciisst d these questions. No one v.'auted 

 to sliip east. Now any one can ship east. Cin- 

 cinnati lumbermen at the great gateway to the 

 hardwood regions are waking up. I'rogres..^ive 

 lumberme i can do more than ever before. (^;?t in 

 the band wagon for Uniform Inspection. We will 

 real) the benefit. 



President Walker : I now have the pleasure 

 of introducing to you the lumberman master of 

 English periods, a man who made me the butt of 

 his speech a year ago, but he had nothing to talk 

 about at that time. 



Mr. Dul-weber's Talk on Freight Bates 



Mr. Dulweber then talked to the gathering. 



Ladies and gentlemen : You will now hear 

 from one of Cliff Aulfs Georgia peaches ; but 

 good people always start their speeches with a 

 story. I was asked just now : 



"Will your speech be like a cat's tail?" 



"How's that';" I replied. 



"Fur to the end." 



I replied, "No ; it's like a dog's tail — ixtund 

 to a cur." 



I wanted to talk to the ladies, but was told 

 to talk on rates. But as I had prepared an ele- 

 gant speech for the ladies, which would consume 

 about an hour and a half, and am prevented 

 from delivering it. I will be delighted to take 

 each lady present for a stroll on the boardwalk 

 around the lake and recite the speech to her. 

 The Freight Rate Sitcation 



Few of us. perhaps, realize the importance of 

 this momentous question to the industry in which 

 we are all so vitally interested. I fully appre- 

 ciate how incapable I am of discussing this prob- 

 lem, especially with this audience, many of whom 

 are far better qualified to make this address 

 than I. 



It would require weeks of preparation w-ith 

 the assistance of tariff clerks and statisticians 

 for even the best of speakers, which surely I 

 am not. to do this subject justice. I trust, there- 

 fore, that you will not be too critical with my 

 handling of the matter, which is largely a recital 

 of the facts that have come to me in my daily 

 business life. 



Briefly stated, the present situation pertaining 

 to freight rates is this. At the time of the 

 financial panic in ItiO" the railroads, finding it 

 difficult to pay dividends and interest on their 

 excessive capitalization and bonded indebtedness 

 because of the temporary decrease in tonnage, 

 endeavored to make a general advance in freight 

 rates. The opposition, however, was so general, 

 and the injustice of an advance under conditions 

 prevailing at that time so evident to the pul>lic 

 that it was decided to await a more favorable 

 time, hoping that with the return of prosperity 

 the business world would be too engrossed in its 

 own affairs and too well satisfied with its har- 

 vest after the famine to pay any attention to 

 what the railroads were doing. 



Last fail, after issuing many pamphlets and 

 much literature, and after some very effective 

 work by their publicity bureaus in the way of 

 endeavoring to make the public believe that an 

 advance in rates was necessary, the railroads 

 made another attempt to increase the rates, but 

 once more found the opposition too strong. 



We now come to the facts that developed the 

 present situation. The railroads have for years 

 endeavored to secure legislation which would 

 exempt them from the operation of the Sherman 

 Anti-Trust law. which law makes it illegal for 

 any persons, partnerships or corporations en- 

 gaged in the same line of trade to agree on the 



price of their commoditv or service. This law 

 naturally makes it illeg"al for the railroads to 

 agree on freight rates and was, therefore, objec- 

 tionable to them. 



At the same time, the shippers, feeling that the 

 Interstate Commerce law did not afford the pro- 

 tection that it should, demanded the passage of 

 an act increasing the powers of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commissiim by giving it the right to 

 determine the fairness or reasonableness of 

 freight rates befiu'e such rates went into effect 

 This condition resulted in the drafting of a bill 

 designed to satisfy both : exempt the railroads 

 from the Sherman law and give the commission 

 the supervision of freight rates. 



The railroads at first felt that through their 

 representatives at Washington and through other 

 political influenci'S they would be able to elim- 

 inate the latter clause from the bill before it 

 became a law, but. realizing later that with the 

 president's endorsement it would be difficult, if 

 not impossible, to do this, they adopted different, 

 and I might say radical tactics. 



Believing that the bill in question would pa.ss 

 and fearing a review of any increased rates that 

 mi^ht be made by the commission under the pro- 

 visions of this bill, they concluded to take a 

 chance with tlie Sherman law. and began the 

 preparation of new tariffs, considerably Increas- 

 ing the rates which were to take effect "just prior 

 to the new railroad bill becoming a law. By this 

 they hoped to escape the examination of the 

 rates by the commission and counted on their 

 violation of the Slurmnn act being overlooked in 

 the general satisfaction resulting from the pass- 

 age of the new bill. 



Fortunately, however, our illustrious fellow- 

 citizen. Wm, II. Taft. was on guard, and caused 

 proceedings to lie instituted against the railroads 

 because of this violation. This resulted in the 

 withdrawal of the increased rates by the rail- 

 roads, in consideration of which the government 

 withdrew the suits that had been filed. 



The railroads clearly violated the law in this 

 instance, and were fortunate indeed in escaping 

 punishment, the Standard Oil Company being 

 fined .$20,000,000, and several lumbermen" in To- 

 ledo having gone to jail for similar offenses. 



It must be borne in mind that the withdrawal 

 of these rates is but temporary, and it is under- 

 stood that as soon as the railroad bill is passed 

 they will be refiled and reviewed by the commis- 

 sion, so that it will be necessary for the railroads 

 to prove- to the commission that these advances 

 are justified, or, perhaps it would be better ex- 

 pressed by saying that it will be necessary for 

 the shippers and receivers of freight to prove 

 that it is not justified. 



If you shippers and receivers of freight believe 

 that the increased rates are unnecessary and un- 

 fair (and I believe that a thorough considera- 

 tion of the question will lead you to this con- 

 clusion), I warn you it will be necessary to pre- 

 pare your case well. Even now the railroads 

 have their armies of clerks at work securing the 

 necessary data for presentation to the commis- 

 sion, and all their forces, from the men who sit 

 in their offices in Wall Street and finger the tape, 

 to the president, general managers and their 

 horde of highly competent attorneys, are devot- 

 ing much of their time to devising schemes for 

 making the commission believe that the increased 

 rates are necessary. 



It is. therefore, only by the greatest prepon- 

 derance of evidence and a reasonable presenta- 

 tion thereof that we shippers can hope to prove 

 the contrary. 



There seems to be an opinion prevalent that 

 the agreement with the president disposes of the 

 matter and that our case has been won and we 

 have nothing more to do. This, however, is er- 

 roneous. The fight has just begun. We have 

 only forced the railroads (through our presideni:) 

 to l>e fair and to use a straight deck : the game 

 is still to hi' played. This is the freight rate 

 situation today, as I view it. 



It is now for us to decide whether or not these 

 proposed advances are reasonable and necessary, 

 and in our consideration of this subject we must 

 be liberal and fair. The general business of this 

 country depends on no ' ce thing so much as the 

 service" and the prosperity of our railroads. We 

 cannot afford to deny the railroads a reasonable 

 return on their investments, and if an increase 

 in rates is necessary to j'ield this reasonable re- 

 turn, we should accept the increase without ques- 

 tion. 



Let us. however, refrain from accepting the 

 mere statement of the railroads that such ad- 

 vances are necessary, and let us consider care- 

 fully the evidence that they submit to prove 

 their contentifin. as well as such other evidence 

 pertaining to the subject as is available. 



We will consider first the necessity of a gen- 

 eral advance in freight rates, or freight rates as 

 an entirety, rather than as pertaining to any 

 particular commodity. 



The first claim of the railroads is that dur- 

 ing the past ten or twelve years there has been 

 a constant advance in the price of all commodi- 

 ties, and that during that period there has been 

 no advance in the freight rates. This is not 

 quite true, as there has been some advances in 

 freight rates, but in considering this statement 

 it must be borne in mind that inost of the pres- 

 ent rates were fixed before the existence of the 



