282 SELLING LUMBER 



the material in the best and proper condition for a satisfactory 

 workmanlike job of decorating. 



Does it not therefore seem to you, gentlemen, that there are 

 a great many things which you can now tell your dealer friends 

 about finishing that many of them do not know, and which would 

 be of great value to them as merchants as well as to you as sales- 

 men? Isn't it also true that by taking this information to your 

 trade and at the same time letting your customers know that you 

 sell a wood best adapted to finishing, that the dealer will become 

 so interested in what the stock will do for his customers that your 

 price will be a secondary consideration? 



Advantages of Technical 



Training in the Lumber 



Business 



By S. E. Robinson 



Western Lumber Company 



Columbus, Ohio 



I have been given a few minutes by Mr. Kendall to tell of 

 the technical training I have received in the lumber business and 

 to let you men judge whether it is worth the time and money 

 expended. 



As a basis of this talk, I take it that every man here and 

 in particular the men who control the mills, who established the 

 chair of lumbering at Yale, and who are responsible for the lum- 

 ber business in this country, are interested in raising the standard 

 of that industry. I do not mean this in a theoretical way, but in 

 a practical way ; that is, to extend the scope of the business, to 

 get more sales and therefore more profits, and get those sales in a 

 cleaner, better way. 



I did not take this course with the aim of fitting myself to 

 become a lumber salesman. The course was one designed to turn 

 out a professional forester, a man to handle timber lands. After 

 I had taken it circumstances willed that I become identified with 

 the selling end of the lumber game and my purpose today is to 



