70 



SELLING LUMBER 



Mr. Sterling 

 on the Use 

 of Wood 



The Value 

 of Knowing 

 Your Product 



problems that affect all branches of the industry in all sections 

 of the country, but in promoting a general advertising campaign 

 for the use of wood and furthering the use of wood. Mr. E. A. 

 Sterling, manager of the Trade Extension Bureau of the National 

 Lumber Manufacturers' Association, will address you on the 

 "Merits and Limitations of Wood." (Applause). 



Mr. Sterling: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: It did not 

 seem feasible for me to give you in a paper or in an address a 

 whole lot of the details about wood. You know a great many 

 of these now. You probably should know a great many more of 

 them. But it is not a thing that you can get by some one stand- 

 ing up before you and telling you about it. It is something that 

 you have got to dig out for yourself. So what I have done in 

 this very short paper is to review some of the things that you al- 

 ready know. It is absolutely nothing new, that you don't know 

 and never heard of, but I am representing these simple statements. 

 We are handling a product we all know so long and know so well 

 that we have overlooked from the standpoint of the consumer 

 some of its plain, common, everyday advantages. 



(Mr. Sterling's paper in full will be found on page 199). 



The Chairman: When I introduced Dr. Hermann von 

 Schrenk to you the other day I didn't have an opportunity of telling 

 you that he is one of the leading authorities in this country on wood. 

 I was down in a little town in New England about three weeks 

 ago and mentioned something about yellow pine, and they asked 

 me for my authority. I said that Dr. Hermann von Schrenk said 

 so, and they believed me without further question. It is my pleas- 

 ure again to introduce to you Dr. Hermann von Schrenk. 



Dr. von Schrenk : Gentlemen : I have prepared a most 

 beautiful manuscript. I will keep that in my pocket, however, 

 and say a few words without the same. If you care to; you can 

 read what is in the manuscript after it is in print. 



(Dr. von Schrenk' s paper in full will be found on page 218). 



Mr. Sterling, to my mind, hit on the keynote, the modern 

 merchandising of yellow pine; and that is, that you must know 

 something about yellow pine to sell it. My impression, in going 

 about the country for a good many years, both among retailers 

 and consumers, is that the problem which confronts us today in 

 getting the public to not only appreciate but actually buy our ma- 

 terial, is to tell them something about it, and to tell them some- 



