350 



SELLING LUMBER 



- Entitled 



closer. Now, what I want you to understand is this : That this 

 great industry, comprehending so many units of manufacture, 

 is the prime industry in the nation. (Applause.) It employs 

 over 700,000 laborers. When you go to the country towns, my 

 friends, selling the retailer, who is depending upon the farmer's 

 trade, I want you to have in mind the fact when you are chatting 

 and exchanging gossip with your friend the rural retailer I want 



to Farmers' vo u to take occasion to impress him with the fact that he can 



Help 



A Lumber 



"Trust" 



Impossible 



tell his farmer friends, that this industry buys more farm produce 

 from the farmers of the nation than any other industry operating 

 in the nation. (Applause.) Let each of you make it plain to 

 the farmers, through the lumber retailers in the rural communi- 

 ties, that this industry is entitled to the moral and active help 

 of the farmers of this nation. There has been a prejudice abroad 

 in this nation, that lumber was in a trust. I wish that question 

 could be tried out before a lot of salesmen of these manufactur- 

 ers. (Laughter and applause.) I hope, and of course, I know 

 that the good newspapers of this fine city of St. Louis, that have 

 been giving you such splendid publicity I hope that they will 

 challenge their people to this thought, that there has existed in 

 this country for years an absurd fallacy, to-wit, that there was a 

 great lumber monopoly; that the lumber barons had their hands 

 over the lumber manufacturing situation of this nation, and were 

 dictating prices. I trust, gentlemen, that some man with imagina- 

 tion and a vivid pen can portray the fact that here you sit, five 

 hundred salesmen representing competing manufacturers; and the 

 thing you are trying to learn is not how to compete more, but 

 how to compete less. (Applause.) In the nature of things there 

 could not be a lumber trust. There are too many mills, there 

 are too many trees, the spread of the industry reaches over too 

 great an area. 



Now, my friends. I can only touch a point here and there. 

 I have no prepared paper for your edification. I only wish I 

 had had time to give this matter thought, so that I could have said 

 something to try to assist you as salesmen. For instance, I had 

 a little evidence of it in my hotel here this morning. I wanted to 

 to talk to my home in Kansas City. I called up from my room. 

 The young lady at the phone said, "We do not connect with the 

 Home phone system in Kansas City. This is the Bell phone." 

 "Well," I said, "I am sorry." "But," she said, "Mr. Boyle, if 



