368 



SELLING LUMBER 



Consumers 

 More Particu- 

 lar in the East 



Yellow Pine 

 Has No Com- 

 petitor in 

 Price, Except 

 Itself 



Wide Latitude 

 in Extending 

 Credit 



buying white pine, where they wanted stock of a certain uniform 

 grade, where thickness, width, grade and dryness meant what was 

 asked, where lumber was largely used for specific manufacturing 

 purposes, to fill certain prescribed wants and where the better 

 grades of lumber were used for pattern work and the better class 

 of finish. Today there is not alone great competition in selling 

 lumber on account of the various substitutes that have for some 

 time been making serious inroads, but of one kind of lumber 

 against tlie other, particularly in the West, where you have your 

 competition with fir, the white and yellow pine from the inland 

 empire. No wood has really the field alone. In all territories at 

 certain points, one wood meets to some extent, competition with 

 the other, although yellow pine is practically exempt from com- 

 petition except with itself, in that great territory embracing the 

 area from the Atlantic Coast to the Rocky Mountains, where it 

 meets practically nothing in competition, as far as price is con- 

 cerned, and in meeting Norway and white pine in the North, you 

 have an advantage in price of from $5 to $20 per thousand, and 

 even in competition with hemlock you have very little competition 

 in any territory, drawing a line east and west from Chicago, and 

 you do not meet fir competition until you get pretty well West. 



Yet, in this large territory yellow pine has no competitor in 

 price, but itself. It must, therefore, appear to you that there 

 exists a great need for advanced, intelligent, honest co-operation 

 among salesmen, and that you try to reach a better and clearer 

 understanding of the duties that devolve upon you. 



In the earlier days the salesman was about the only means 

 of establishing credit between the buyer and seller; the buyer 

 catered particularly to him in order to have him give as good an 

 impression as possible to his employer when he returned from 

 his trip. I, personally, had experience in that direction because in 

 those days, especially in the West, many retailers were obtaining a 

 much greater line of credit in the purchase of lumber, than really, 

 technically speaking, as we view credits today, they were entitled 

 to. But the salesmen were given a great deal of latitude as 

 regards credits; lumber sold quickly; retailers were making sub- 

 stantial profits and about the only thing one had to view generally 

 was the moral risk and the character and business ability of the 

 man to whom you were selling. At that time there were no such 

 things as price-lists or stock-sheets issued. The millions of letters 



