Identified Lumber

When a man writes a book he signs his name to his work. The publishers print his name on the front cover in order that the reading world may know the identity of the author.

When a great artist produces a painting he signs the painting and thus establishes the identity of the production in years to come.

When our Government produces money the name of the maker is stamped indelibly into the face of the coin, and the world is thus protected against counterfeit money.

Architects chisel their names into the corner stones of great buildings, and in this way announce their willingness to become responsible for their conceptions and ideas in construction.

A man who produces anything which obtains more than passing attention assumes an obligation which he cannot shun.

When he produces he is duty bound to stand up before the world and say, "I did it."

If he is not willing to do this, he is not living up to his obligation to the public.

In the early days of merchandising there was a time when the producer was rather inclined to dodge the responsibility of acknowledging the parentage of his p'roduct.

But it was in the days when products were "conceived in sin," and when the slogan of the seller was, "Let the buyer beware."

It was not considered good form at that time to name a product, because no particular attempt was made at getting quality into it, and merchandising consisted in being able to sell something of doubtful value for as much as the seller could extort from the buyer.

But naturally such merchandising policies soon crumbled of their own weight, and the present day method of merchandising came into existence wherein the public no longer is compelled to "beware".

No intelligent man of today would have the temerity to even suggest that modern merchandising methods are faulty particularly as they pertain to the average seller's willingness to stand behind that which he sells.

Individual opiniohs, however, do not count for a great deal in a decision of this kind, because, after all is said and done, the public really decides upon the correctness or incorrectness of any merchandising principle.

If the PRINCIPT E is wrong, all the force in the world cannot bring pressure enough to bear upon the public to cause its unqualified acceptance.

The public is the final judge.

Regardless of what the producer's personal opinions, hopes or inclinations may be, his success depends upoh the attitude of the public towards his product.

If the public does not take kindly to the product, or if it is sold to the public in a way that is distasteful to the public, the maker hasn't a chance in the world.

It is a well known and accepted fact, in present day manu- facturing, that the producer is not his own boss. He has but little to say as to what he is going to do or what he is NOT going to do.

The producer can go right on producing and the public will go right on buying something else, provided the maker doesn't do exactly what the public desires him to.

And the retailer has even less to say about the question than the producer.

Between the maker and the user is the retailer or the distributor. He exists only by virture of the fact that he can render SERVICE. If he cannot do this, he might just as rvell get off the earth for he will not be tolerated by the public.

It is the function of the dealer to be able to do things for the buyer that the buyer could not have done if he bought direct from the producer. If the dealer is able to do this, his position is secure.

If not, he is headed for the rocks.

Sentiment plays no part in the scheme of merchahdising. It is simply a matter of SERVICE from the time the product leaves the maker until it reaches the user.

One may argue on indefinitely about wholesalers, jobbers, mail order houses or any other system.

The only system which will survive permanently and grow great is the one which gives the best SERVICE to the buyer in getting the proclu'ct from the producer to the ultimate user.

And SERVICE includes any number of things, such as price, guarantees and instructions as to the correct use of the product.

If all of these merchandising ingredients are not present in the transaction, the public simply loses interest and stops doing business.

And when the public doesn't buy that is the end of the chapter.

Mr. Manufacturer is all through and so is the dealer. There is nothing more to be said.

The public decides.

The public prefers certain merchandising policies, and it goes to the merchant who comes the nearest to doing business on this basis.

As soon as dealers began to realize that the public really had something to say about merchandising, they promptly turned to the maker and said to him:

"We have to stand back of the stuff we sell. Mark vour product so that we can identify it."

And the maker didn't have a come-back.

There were certain well established grades or standards of quality in each line, and all that Mr. Maker was required to do was to live up to these standards. If he did this, he was not ashamed to put his name or trade-mark upon the product, which, in turn, was considered by the dealer and the public as evidence that the article was of standard quality, ahd that if it was not, the maker, since he was known, would be willing to make good.

That was all the public wanted.

There was nothing unreasonable, irrational or silly about the public's demand for identification.

So universal is the practice that it is almost impossible for one to think of a manufactured article how in common use that is not named or trade-marked.

It now includes articles which people have always insisted could never be named, such as fruit, walnuts and farm produce, which Nature manufacturers in her own great laboratory.

There was, until recehtly, one great and glaring trademark omission in the field of present day manufactured products.

This product, too, is one that is used almost universally.

The volume of business is so great in this particular industry that it ranks well up among the largest industries of the world.

Up to within a short time ago LUMBER was not trademarked.

When one stops to take ihto consideration the fact that lumber plays a highly important part in the scheme of our daily existence and that the foundation of our very existence as a nation depends upon the quantity and quality of our HOMES, it can readily be understood why the public is now ready for LUMBER IDENTIFICATION.

The public knows little more about lumber today than it did fifty years ago. fts conception of the lumber business is 90 per cent wrong.

The lumber manufacturer today is in the same position that manufacturers were in before the public brought about a new era in retailing.

The new era is now reaching the lumber business. It is one of the last industries to fall into line.

Trade-marked and grade-marked lumber is now coming into use.

Mr. Consumer is not unreasonable ! He simply wants the same protection that he gets when he buys a sack of cement, a piece of wallboard, a keg of nails, a door knob, a