38 SELLING LUMBER 



ably say: "Now, if this car don't come up to grade you can go 

 somewhere else to sell your lumber." Now, my idea is, when you 

 get that on an order, why not hold the order and ask the sales- 

 man what he means by that? (Applause). 



Mr. Snell : I believe that nearly all of the manufacturers 



who are members of the Yellow Pine Association put on their 



letter-heads and invoices : "We sell our lumber subject to the 



rules of the inspection bureau." Now, we say we do, and we 



ought to do that; we ought to ship our lumber that way; and if 



Association an order sent in specifies something different, we have got two 



Rules contracts in one, one printed on the invoice and the other on the 



theStandard order. Therefore I think that a special contract should not be 



made. I don't see the advantage to the salesman, and certainly 



it is a disadvantage to the general trade. We ought to try to 



make our grades comply with the rules of grading, and we ought 



to sell our lumber that way, and we may, perhaps, have some 



trouble, but we will get by. 



The Chairman: In answer to what Mr. Wilhite says, I 

 think this : That if a salesman has trouble with a customer, or 

 is in danger of losing a customer on account of inferior ship- 

 ments in the past, that he should have more interest in that propo- 

 sition and in the customer than to simply write the words on his 

 order "must be good stock;" I think the salesman should keep 

 that off of his order entirely and write a special letter on the sub- 

 ject to the house, and let them know all about the trouble that 

 has happened in the past, rather than to put anything like that 

 on the order at all. (Applause). 



Mr. Austin : In reference to the Southern Pine Association, 

 there is a point that comes up, and that is the case where a cus- 

 tomer expects something better than the rules outlined by the 

 Association provide. We should write him and say that all of our 

 lumber is graded in accordance with the rules and regulations of 

 the Southern Pine Association, and all settlements must be made 

 on that basis, unless a special contract is made to the contrary. 



The Chairman: Any other comment on this question? 



Mr. Price: If he wants something specially good, sell him a 

 grade higher and get the money. 



Mr. Irwin : Supposing, for instance, a mill authorizes you 

 to talk quality as a reason for their price being $1 or $2 higher on 

 an item, say, on low grade flooring, and you tell that man you are 



