48 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Semi=Annual National Veneer and Panel Association 



The Katioual Veneer >t Panel Manufac- 

 turers' Association convened in semi-annual 

 session at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., 

 June 14. and 15. The tirst day was given up 

 to meetings of the various affiliated clubs, and 

 the second to tlie sessions of the general con- 

 vention. The main meeting was called to 

 order at 10 a. m., June 1.5, by President P. B. 

 Raymond, who delivered his annual address, 

 as follows : 



President's Address 



The necessity for legitimate cooperation among 

 competitors is no longer a matter of debate. Yoii 

 recognize it, and manufacturers in every line 

 I'ecognize it. From tliis necessity this association 

 and hundreds of similar organizations have 

 sprung. Some of the otliers are less effective 

 than ours and some are more effective, but there 

 is no reason why ours should not be as good as 

 the best. I see before me men as Ivcen as any, 

 and you will concedi', I know, that no other line 

 of manufacture is in more urgent need of the 

 upward tendency which comes from helping one 

 another than is ours. When we compare the sat- 

 isfactory percentages of profit of a few large 

 manufacturers in other lines with the percentages 

 with which we have had to be content, it ought 

 to wake us up and put the proverbial burr under 

 our respective tails and start us out. We can 

 make this association as good as any and we will 

 if each of you will catch the spirit and put your 

 shoulders to the wheel. We must do it. Our 

 costs are increasing every year. I think I may 

 say they are increasing every month. The log 

 man takes from us more of our money with prac- 

 tically every shipment he makes, and the logs he 

 delivers are becoming less desirable all the time. 

 Our labor is costing us more and the railroads 

 are advancing freight rates. Our selling prices 

 must increase if we an* to live, and they can only 

 be increased by bringing each and every manu- 

 facturer of veneer and panels to a thorough un- 

 derstanding of the necessity for such increase. 

 We must educate ourselves, and we must educate 

 those of our competitors who may, perhaps, need 

 the education even more than we do. 



I am honest when I say that I think much good 

 already has been done here and in the clubs. I 

 think we have received better prices and made 

 more money than we would have made without 

 them. And, after all, those are the ultimate 

 tests. What we need most now is new members. 

 Every veneer and panel man in the country 

 should join us and do his part, because wha"L 

 helps one helps all : what helps the industry as 

 a whole helps each individual engaged in it ; 

 what tends to advance prices for you and me has 

 the same tendency for those whci are not of us 

 or with US. Therefore, all should help if thev 

 would not be of that rather doubtful human 

 class who forever are taking and never giving. 

 If all will help, there will not be any limit to 

 the success we may achieve. 



Therefore, I say. what we need is new mem- 

 bers. We can get them if we go after them in the 

 right way. I recommend that a special commit- 

 tee, made up of volunteers, be appointed to work 

 with the olBcers and regular membership com- 

 mittee. I would like to have at least one man 

 from each section or locality offer his services in 

 this behalf, and push the association membership 

 in his own section or locality. If more than one 

 will volunteer, so much the better. 



To my mind this matter of increasing our nu- 

 merical strength is the primary step in increasing 

 our effectiveness. Then we want the proper 

 spirit. I think we have it now in a much larger 

 measure than ever before. But let us intensify 

 it. We must believe in helping one another, and 

 we must learn to give and take. We never can 

 hope to agree unanimously upon everv matter 

 that affects our common interests. But where 

 there is honest and reasonable difference of opin- 

 ion, let us get together and talk it ail over 

 frankly, and convince or compromise. The par- 

 ticular subject in controversy may seem of much 

 importance to you. And it mav be. And it may 

 be to the other fellow, too. Each of von may be 

 situated peculiarly in a business wav" But stop 

 a minute. If each problem is to be solved by 

 each individual to meet his own peculiar condi 

 tions, then we are away from the association idea 

 and back where the devil takes the hindmost. So 

 it becomes a question each time whether or not 

 the particular little matter involved is of more 

 or less importance to you than the possibilities 

 that successful cooperative methods hold out. 

 Some of those particular little matters may seem 

 to be more important than the results you are 

 now disposed to give the association and clubs 

 credit for. But do not measure it with what we 

 now are doing. Measure it against what we may 

 do, but which we can never do until the indi- 

 vidual is subordinated to the whole. 



Let me illustrate. I may feel that for peculiar 

 reasons I can sell a certain class of stock at much 

 below what others of us can. I proceed to quote 



a low price and get the businc-ss. and my price 

 makes others meet it. Then another of us has 

 the same sort of feeling about another class of 

 stock with the same result. And so it goes until 

 every class will be at the lowest price any one 

 individual can make it for. Would it not have 

 been better for me to have lield all my stock for 

 the right price? 



And so I say that what we need is more mem- 

 bers aijd the proper spirit. When we have these 

 the rest will take care of itself. We will have 

 liarmony. We can get together and solve our 

 problems and get results. 



Let me urge upon you the freer use of the as- 

 sociation. Our association will grow in strength 

 as it is used. The more you use it the stronger 

 it will become. Take advantage of thi- opportu- 

 nities offered by our credit and inspection bureau. 

 Send in inquiries when you want to learn about 

 particidar buyers and ariswer the inquiries that 

 come to you. Remember that we have an arbitra- 

 tion committee whose duty it is to settle amica- 

 bly differences between buyers and sellers. I 

 think this work can be made of immense prac- 

 tical value if members will exercise their privi- 

 lege of usin.g it. I think it w'ould eventually 

 grow into a system ctf national inspection, and 

 that is what we must come to sooner or later. 



In conclusion, let me warn you against long- 



r. B. RAYMOND. IXDIAXArOLIS. PRESI- 

 DENT. 



time contracts. Remem1>er that conditions are 

 constantly changing and what you may malce 

 money on today may be a money loser six'months 

 from"today. I recommend a change in our code 

 of ethics, so that it may be made t(t conform to 

 the peculiar conditions of our particular busi- 

 ness. Terms should I>e thirty days net in all 

 cases, whereas our code of ethics recommends 

 sixty days net. 



I call your attention to the railroad rate bill 

 wliich is now pending before Congress. I undi'r- 

 stand that there is a provision in it which will 

 bring about a uniform freight classification in- 

 stead of the four different classifications which 

 now confuse us. 



It has not bi-en my purpose to tire you with a 

 long speech. There are other and more interest- 

 ing papers to follow, and I hope that you will 

 stay in close attendance until our meeting is 

 done, and that when you go home you will go 

 with a firm determination to do your part and to 

 arouse the interest of others in a work that must 

 help them as much as us. 



Secretary Defebaugh's Speech 



then addressed the 



Secretary Defebaugh 

 meeting : 



It is always wdth a great deal of regret that I 

 find men in the veneer business who I know hav'e 

 seciu'cd great benefit from this association not 

 only in a general way. but in actual money, and 

 still they do not come to these meetings. EVery 

 man in the business should help to benefit this 

 associatiim and use his every effort to binld it up 

 until it reaches the ideal which we have outlined 

 for it. 



On the other hand, we have some very loyal 

 members ; some of these loyal ones were with us 

 in the early days and are still enthusiastic. They 

 do not act as though they did not receive bene- 

 fits from this association. 



There is one point that I want to call to your 

 attention especially, and that is with reference 

 to the sales end of the business. The salesman 

 goes out in most every line determined to get 

 an order on his order-book. If he finds it a little 

 hard sledding, it is not uncommon for him to 

 sell his goods for half a cent or more under the 

 old price in order to get a customer to cancel 

 another order with some other fellow and to 

 break a contract that he has already made. This 

 is poor salesmanship, and it does seem to me that 

 we ought to avoid this kind of thing in the ve- 

 neer business. If one man goes oiit and tries 

 to get a higher price for his product we should 

 not discourage him : on the other hand we should 

 encourage him to the fullest extent, so that we 

 can all be in shape to get a living profit out of 

 the business. 



I think you ought to get more money for youf 

 stock, but you can only do this by asking for it. 

 Lumber has gone up. Your operatiug expenses 

 may not have increased much, but you are pay- 

 ing more for logs and you ought to "get more for 

 your product. I iiope yon will consider this mat- 

 ter seriously when you leave this meeting, and 

 the next man that wants veneer, let him be sat- 

 isfied to pay you a fair profit on the stock you 

 sell him. 



Of course, we want not only those of you who 

 are here to attend the meetings, but all the others 

 as well. Remember, gentlemen, it is not the pro- 

 gram that we carry out at these meeting so much 

 as the meeting together, talking together, lunch- 

 ing together, etc. This is the real benefit of the 

 meeting, and none of us who are here and those 

 who are not here can afford to miss this oppor- 

 tunity, wdiich means a full realization to us all 

 of the benefits of the conventions of the Veneer 

 and Panel Manufacturers' Association. 



The report as to the finances of the asso- 

 ciation by Mr. Defebaugh showed the asso- 

 ciation to be in excellent shape and reported 

 a good balance on hand. 



Discussion on Gum Log Values 



Charles T. Jarrell of Humboldt, Tenn., 

 talked on the subject of gum values and re- 

 lated his experience in the change in the value 

 of gum logs during the past few years. His 

 speech is given herewith : 



During the last quarter of a century advance- 

 ment has been made along ail lines by leaps and 

 bounds, and the woodworking industry, especially 

 the veneer branch of it, has kept ata'east of the 

 times. This being the case, those of us who 

 have been identified with the industry for any 

 considerable period of time can recall many 

 changes that have been made, and especially so 

 in regard to the kinds of woods that have been 

 used and the manner of handling the stock from 

 the log to the finished product. My mind goes 

 back to the time when poplar was the only kind 

 of wood in my section of the country that was 

 classed as at all valuable for working into ve- 

 neers and, on account of its abundance and the 

 foolish idea the owners had that the supply was 

 simply inexhaustible, it could be purchased at 

 very low prices. At the same time poplar was 

 king and always took precedence over all other 

 woods. Owing to its straightness of grain, soft- 

 ness and good burning qualities, our forefathers 

 even cut poplar into stovewood and enough was 

 wasted in this manner to make all of us million- 

 aires had it been conserved. 



When the firm with w-hich I am identified be- 

 gan making veneers ahout thirty years ago. noth- 

 ing but the choicest poplar logs were used. It is 

 seldom that I now see a poplar tree that would 

 have been good enough to pass muster then and 

 the general run of poplar now standing would 

 have then been rejected as unsalable and worth- 

 less. 



It has been only a few years that I have been 

 on sufficiently friendly terms with gum to even 

 give it justice in my thoughts. I remember when 

 we were confronted with the awful condition that 

 the poplar forests had been about devastated and 

 that we would be compelled to find a substitute 

 or cease the manufacture of veneers. In casting 

 about for a substitute for poplar our minds nat- 

 urally went In the direction of gum as the only 

 possible way out of the difficulty. After con- 

 siciering the" matter carefully and experimenting 

 in a small way. we decided that gum could not 

 Ik' used, and cast the thought aside, but neces- 

 sity, "tile mother of invention," compelled us to 

 make further investigations along this line, as 

 we reached the point where something had to be 

 done. We cut some gum material into straw- 

 berry crate bottoms and when we gave them out 



