SELLING LUMBER 



349 



times past a few industries were being exploited, to the dis- 

 advantage and the hurt of the public, because a few men had 

 put their hands over those industries and were willing to take 

 selfish advantage of power. But because a few men have done 

 wrong is no reason why all business men should be tainted by 

 that statement. We have 250,000 business concerns in this nation ; 

 250,000 corporations and partnerships engaged in various lines of 

 business. That does not include banks; it does not include rail- 

 roads, it does not include public service corporations, but purely 

 business concerns. Gentlemen, do you know that 100,000 of 

 those 250,000, that their ledgers show during the last year that 

 100,000 of them are in arrears? Do you know that only 60,000 

 of the 250,000 made over $5,000 a piece? A few of the 60,000 

 made many millions. The part J. want to get at, however, is 

 this : That because a few great corporations like, we will say, 

 for instance, and by way of illustration only, the steel corporation 

 that controls 40 odd per cent of all the steel products of the 

 nation a great institution which the courts have said is a legal 

 institution now, because some man should feel that no one great 

 concern should control practically 50 per cent of any one product 

 in this nation is no reason why all business concerns should be 

 handicapped and prejudiced by that kind of economic theory. 



Now, I want to give you a thought here touching the pride 

 that you ought to have in this industry. I want to couple with 

 my thought the work that the Southern Pine Association is doing 

 for the benefit of the industry and for the glory of the nation, 

 if you please. Gentlemen, there are something like forty odd 

 thousand sawmills making boards in this nation. The sway of 

 this industry reaches from the lakes to the Gulf, and from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. In thirty odd states lumber is man- 

 ufactured. In fifteen states it is a prime industry. In five states 

 it is the vital industry. Now, mark you ! Take yellow pine, 

 hemlock, and fir by way of illustration, and they are competitive 

 woods. The yellow pine salesman is in competition with the 

 hemlock salesman and with the fir salesman, each of them de- 

 scribing the merits of their particular wood. Fir comes from the 

 far Pacific, from Washington and Oregon, on a long distance 

 freight haul of thousands of miles. Fir competes in this middle 

 western country of ours, where the great markets exist, with 

 yellow pine, which is closer to them; with hemlock, which is still 



A Wron& 

 Attitude 

 Toward 

 Business 



Why Lumber 

 Men Should 

 Be Proud 

 of Their 

 Business 



