SELLINGLUMBER 365 



I feel that the yellow pine manufacturers have made a mis- 

 take which should be corrected, on the basis they are quoting 

 their lumber, and the price-list they are placing in your hands to 

 quote from. It is entirely wrong. The trade has no respect for 

 your price-list; you, yourselves, have no respect for it. It means 



nothing to you. On the contrary, it has no substantial foundation Mistake of 

 , r , J ' . . Yellow Pine 



of real values. The very fact of having a price-current, that is Manufacturers 



most indefinite, that is cut by common consent anywhere from $5 

 to $15 is in itself an evidence of weakness; and depresses values 

 through all the channels it reaches; has no stability; furthermore, 

 you as salesmen, do not actually know the value of the product 

 you are selling, and have no idea what your sales net your em- 

 ployer. 



Up to the time that the white pine operators arrived at an 

 understanding and adopted a more uniform manufacture and in- 

 spection, pine stumpage was bringing practically nothing. From 

 that time on, prices gradually became reasonably uniform and 

 advanced until today pine stumpage is bringing a reasonable price 

 a high price, in fact, compared with yellow pine stumpage 

 values. Let us consider the competition in selling white pine as The Advance 

 compared with yellow pine. In a territory where 80 per cent in White Pine 

 of your product is sold you have no competition with any other ValuX* 86 

 wood in lumber used for like purposes. Compare Northern pine 

 with such conditions. We have strong competition in price with 

 every wood manufactured in the United States in any market in 

 which we sell our product. This is .a broad statement, but never- 

 theless true, whether we go west, south or east. Don't you think, 

 therefore, that your condition should be improved, wherein you 

 have no competition with outside woods in 80 per cent of your 

 territory? Some means should be arrived at which would correct 

 this great evil. Such conditions are not welcomed by the retailer 

 or large consumers of lumber. Within the past six weeks I have Handling 

 heard many statements in the larger buying markets to the effect MadelDiffi- 

 that it is most difficult to handle yellow pine owing to the mar- cu 1 * by Market 

 ket fluctuations. For instance, at the present time many dealers 

 have stocked up heavily during the winter months. They paid the 

 higher prices prevailing at the time their purchases were made, 

 and are now confronted with the perplexing difficulties arising 

 from an all too eager and over-zealous effort to sell lumber, and 

 retailers anticipating lower levels are selling for less than they 



