you frankly that I am wholly incapable of, within anything 

 like a reasonable time, suggesting specifications that will 

 properly meet this situation. Nor could any committee that 

 you might select satisfactorily accomplish this work. 



The only way in which this problem can properly be 

 solved is to employ competent engineers to make a careful 

 study and survey of the situation, taking into account the 

 different uses to which our product is put and the natural 

 restrictions under which we are laboring, the character of 

 timber we have available and our manufacturing limitations. 

 The interest of the consumer should be developed and they 

 should be asked to assist our engineers in working out this 

 problem. Each wood should be considered separately and 

 the work could be very advantageously carried on in con- 

 junction with the Forest Service which has already col- 

 lected considerable data that would be of great value to us. 



When all of this data had been collected, specifications 

 could then be provided that would meet the different con- 

 suming needs as closely as possible. It is the elimination 

 of waste and the reduction of cost that I am sure Mr. Hoov- 

 er primarily has in mind and the accomplishment of these de- 

 sired ends would be of material benefit to the producer, 

 consumer and the public. 



The grade branding of lumber at the mill and proper 

 guarantees to the public are matters of extreme importance. 

 This industry has suffered untold injury through grade jug- 

 glery and manipulation and we should stand unitedly for the 

 elimination of such practices; and the grades of hardwoods 

 should be so standardized and thoroughly established that 

 when a man exchanges his money for our product he would 

 know absolutely that he was getting 100 cents on the dollar. 



This is a doctrine that we must not only preach but 

 must live and practice, and I want to say to you that if there 

 is a single mill operator present who does not believe that 

 this is the right principle and who has not firmly resolved in 

 his own heart to deal honestly and fairly with the public 

 and to ship lumber exactly according to specifications of the 

 grades that may be devised, then I say to that man: Do not 

 come into this organization. If there be such a man, the day 

 will come when he will realize that this is the correct and 



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