so 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



acres of hardwood timber land near Brinkley, 

 Ark., and will take immediate steps for the de- 

 velopment of the timber thereon. It is esti- 

 mated that there are about 100,000,000 feet 

 on the property, the greater portion of which 

 is gum. There is. however, a large quantity of 

 oak and cypress. The firm of Irby Bennett & 

 Co. has already been formed at Memphis, with 

 offices in the Tennessee Trust Building, and it 

 Is considered a valuable addition to the hardwood 

 lumber fraternity of the city. 



Tlie full plans of the firm have not yet been 

 made public, but a number of teams are now 

 hauling timber to the Rock Island road which is 

 being sold to hardwood lumber manufacturers 

 at Memphis and other points. It is practically 

 certain that a band mill will be installed later for 

 the development of the timber on the property. 

 Mr. Thompson's interest is entirely personal, the 

 J. W. Thompson Lumber Company not being 

 connected with the purchase in any way. Mr. 

 Bennett has already secured a Memphis resi- 

 dence and will make his home there. 



and other grades of lumber will be gone over. 

 The committee will also see the representatives 

 of the steamship lines with which the exporters 

 do business, relative to the handling of timber 

 at ports of discharge, which has likewise given 

 rise to numerous complaints. Confidence is ex- 

 ju'essed that a satisfactory agreement can be 

 reached. 



New Columbus Wholesale Concern 

 The B. A. Leach Lumber Company of Colum- 

 bus, O., was incorporated recently with .$33,000 

 capital to carry on a general wholesale busi- 

 ness. The offices of the new concern are located 

 in the Columbus Savings & Trust building. The 

 incorporators are Oscar A. Leach, B. A. Leach, 

 Benjamin F. Kerr, A. M. Leach and George B. 

 Jobson. 



The concern elected B. A. Leach president 

 and treasurer and Benjamin F. Kerr secretary 

 and vice-president. B.~A. Leach, the president, 

 was formerly secretary and treasurer of the 

 Sowers-Leach Company and has withdrawn from 

 active connection with that concern. George 

 B. Jobson, formerly of the A. C. Davis Lumber 

 Company, is sales manager. J. H. Wyatt, 

 formerly of the McLaughlinHotfman Lumber 

 Company, has been employed as salesman to 

 cover northern Ohio and western New York. 

 The concern will handle mostly hardwoods and 

 will maintain a large wholesale yard on the line 

 of the Pennsylvania railroad well stocked with 

 hardwoods and c.vpress. Additional traveling 

 salesmen will be placed on the road soon. 



Exporters Leave for Eiu-ope 



The committee appointed at the meeting of 

 directors of the National Lumber Exporters' As- 

 sociation, held in Cincinnati last Jul.v to visit 

 England and the Continent to confer with 

 organizations of lumber buyers there relative to 

 nn agreement upon grading rules and other con- 

 ditions governing the trade, met for a final con- 

 sultation at Baltimore on Oct. 7 in the office of 

 Secretary J. McD. Price, in the Knickerbocker 

 building, and went over the claims to be presented 

 and the methods to be pursued. The members of 

 the committee left the same evening for New 

 York to take steamer for London. 



The committee includes Harvey M. Dickson, 

 president of the association and also president 

 of the Dickson Lumber Company of Norfolk : 

 John L. Alcock of John L. Alcock & Co., Balti- 

 more, and William II. Russe of Russe & Burgess, 

 Inc., Memphis, Tenn. They will be met in New 

 York by Hugh McLean of the McLean Lumber 

 Company, who will accompany them. J. A. Wil- 

 kinson of Bristol, Tenn., will go as the represent- 

 ative of the Wagon Oak Plank Exporters' As- 

 sociation, and on the other side the travelers 

 will be joined by R. J. Darnell of Memphis, 

 Tenn., who sailed from New York several weeks 

 ago, while D. T. Rees of the Rees-Scott Company 

 of New Orleans is expected to go later. Con- 

 ferences will be held with representatives of the 

 Timber Trade Federation of London, the Timber 

 Trades Association of Liverpool, the Clyde Tim- 

 ber Brokers and Agents' Association of Glasgow, 

 and the Timber Section of the Board of Com- 

 merce of Antwerp, Belgium. With each of these 

 bodies the situation concerning wagon oak plank 



Meeting Memphis Lumbermen's Club 



The first meeting of the Lumbermen's Club 

 for the season of l'JlO-11 was held at the Hotel 

 Gayoso on Oct. 1. The attendance of the mem- 

 bers was large, but in addition there was present 

 all the delegates to the red gum conference, re- 

 Ijort of which is given elsewhere in this issue 

 of the Rkcord. 



S. C. Major was in the chair and, while much 

 of the regular and other business was suspended 

 owing to the presence of the red gum men, the 

 occasion was a most enjoyable one. One of the 

 features of the meeting, aside from the address 

 of President Carrier of the Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association, outlining the plans of the 

 gum conference, was the report of the River 

 and Rail Committee, which dealt with various 

 matters of interest concerning rates and trans- 

 portation which have developed since the club 

 suspended its meetings in the spring. 



Among the most important of these rate ques- 

 tions was that dealing with the proposed ad- 

 vance of 10 cents per hundred pounds on rates 

 to Pacific Coast terminals. It was shown that, 

 working in conjunction with the Memphis 

 Freight Bureau, a petition had already been 

 tiled with the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 asking that this advance be held up until the 

 reasonableness thereof could be determined 

 upon. Tile date of eitectivcness was set for Oct. 

 10, but later press disijatches from Washing- 

 ton indicate that the commission has ordered the 

 roads to leave the old rate of 75 cents in effect 

 until arguments can be had. Petitions have 

 been signed by the various lumbermen of Mem- 

 phis protesting against the advance, and the 

 Memphis Freight Bureau has sent similar peti- 

 tions to th3 various commercial organizations 

 in the alfected territory asking luembers to sign 

 and return them promptly so that they may be 

 tiled with the Interstate Commerce Commission. 

 It is expected that all these organizations will 

 join in the tight and one of the best informed 

 railroad men here is authority for the state- 

 ment that, in his opinion, there will be no ad- 

 vance to 8.0 cents. He states that the same 

 matter came up in the case of George D. Bur- 

 gess et al. versus the Transcontinental Freight 

 Bureau and that the commission ordered the 

 lailroads to reduce the rate from 85 cents to 

 75 cents. This order, however, was good only 

 for two years and it has now expired. He 

 believes that the railroads will not be able to 

 show any cause for the advance or any leason 

 why rates should be higher now than they 

 were when the commission ordered the reduction 

 referred to. 



James S. Davant, ooirmissioner of the Mem- 

 phis Freight Bureau, explained the scope of his 

 organization, declared that it had worked for 

 the interests of the shippers of this territory 

 for the past fifteen years and expressed the 

 hope that closer relations would exisl: between 

 it and the Lumbermen's Club of Memphis. He 

 said that during the past few months some 

 time had been spent in straightening out kinks 

 in the refund on logs, bolts and other freight 

 .shipments into Memphis and that he had rea- 

 son to believe that very satisfactory results 

 might be expected. He referred to the action 

 taken by the Memphis Freight Bureau in con- 

 nection with the California terminal rate ad- 

 vance, giving about the same report as the River 

 and Rail Committee. He voiced the sentiment 

 of those present when he declared that, if the 

 light kind of opposiliou did not develop, the 



lumbermen would be confronted with advances 

 in freight rates on lumber shipments to all 

 northern points in the near future. Mr. Davant 

 is a great believer in organized effort and has 

 found through experience that a good deal more 

 can be accomplished through co-operation of a 

 number of men or firms than by any or all of 

 them working singly or individually. 



The River and Rail' Committee reported that 

 a letter had been received from the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission saying that a hearing 

 would be held at Memphis in the case of the E. 

 Sondheimer Company versus the Illinois Central 

 Kailroad Company, on Oct. 17. The plaintiff 

 in this suit has alread.v won a decision, the 

 commission having held that it was entitled to 

 damages on account of alleged discrepancies in 

 rates, resulting from the absence of the same 

 reconsigning privileges at Cairo which existed 

 at Memphis. The present hearing is, therefore, 

 for the purpose of determining what reparation 

 shall be made. 



It was announced that the Frisco proposed to 

 put in flat rates on log shipmeuts into Memphis 

 of 2 cents for ^5 miles and under; 21/2 cents for 

 not over 50 and not less than 25 ; 3 cents for 

 not over 75 and not less than 50; SV2 cents 

 for not over 100 and not less than 75 ; 4 cents 

 for not over 125 and not less than 100. 



A. L. Foster, chairman of the River and Rail 

 Committee, also brought to the attention of the 

 club the fact that the minimum weight of lum- 

 ber was being agitated by the southeastern roads 

 and he expressed the opinion that some protest 

 should be made by the club. The present min- 

 imum weight on carload lumber shipments is 

 34,000, while the weight desired by the rail- 

 road is 40,000 pounds. The western roads have 

 this larger minimum weight alrea'dy in effect 

 and Mr. Foster is of the opinion that, if the 

 so.utheastern roads take similar action, it is 

 only a question of a very short time until the 

 roads in the central territory will do likewise. 

 This is his reason for wishing the subject taken 

 up in formal manner. 



President Carrier explained the purpose of 

 the meeting of gum manufacturers was to pro- 

 vide large outlets for all grades of gum, par- 

 ticularly the lower grades. He referred to what 

 the small club of five manufacturers had been 

 able to accomplish through publicity work dur- 

 ing tlie past year and outlined what it was 

 hoped to accomplish this year through the 

 larger funds in hand. He dwelt particularly 

 t;pon the steps that would be taken to prevent 

 warping and other defects, declaring that there 

 was no use in spending money to advertise un- 

 less those who did the advertising were able 

 to deliver the goods. He extended his invita- 

 tion to every gum manufacturer to come in with 

 the publicity committee and thus increase the 

 work. He said that there would be a central 

 bureau and that all inquiries and requests would 

 be forwarded to the distributors of the fund 

 with the result that they would receive what- 

 ever benefits that might arise. He also asserted 

 that the work being done by the smaller num- 

 ber was for the good of the whole and that, 

 since all would participate in the benefits, he 

 thought it only right and proper that they 

 should help in the good cause. 



On the completion of the remarks of Mr. 

 Carrier a motion was offered thanking the Lum- 

 bermen's , Club of Memphis on behalf of the 

 delegates to the gum conference for the cordial 

 invitation given them and for the delightful 

 entertainment afforded. 



Jiist before adjournment J. W. Thompson, 

 president of the J. W. Thompson Lumber Com- 

 pany, asserted that the work of the bureau had 

 brought about an advance of 20 to 25 per cent 

 in tile price of red gum and that, in view of the 

 tact that it had been able to show such splendid 

 results, every member of the Lumbermen's Club 

 producing gum in any way should take part in 

 the work. He believed that an e<iuitable basis 



