THE OPEN FORI]M

Our readers are invited to use this department for the free discussion of such subiects as may interest them. Questions may be asked and answered, suggestions made and discussed, etc.

WEY DOES BUYER, OF CARGO LUMBER, NOT PAY FR,EIGHTS MOBE PROMPTLY? SEIPPER ASKS

TIIE CAIJIFOR,NIA IIUIIIBER MER,CHANT.

G'entlenmn: Some of the readers of your ,,Open Forum', may be interested in the discussion now going on among the cargo shippers of lumber in California ports as regards the proposal to make the terms provide that vessel freight shall be paid cash within ten d.ays from date of delivery at ships tackle at San Francisco Bay, San Pedro or other California ports. It is frequently the case that the buyer takes the usual 60 days permitted for payment of invoices and this includes the vessel freight which the mill or wholesaler has to pay cash, promptly upon discharge of the lumber. Where , the dealer is slow about payment the seller sometimes has to wait nearly ninety days for his vessel freight to be paid him. This custom is an unjust discrimination against the cargo shipper because on all rail shipments the freight must be paid cash upon anival of the car. Not even the ten-day period is allowed as proposed in the new cargo terms.

It would seem no more than fair to the cargo seller that he should. be reimbursed for his cash outlay of freight money at least within 10 days of discharging his vessel, even though the lumber part of the invoices is not paid for the customory 60 clays. To follow the present antiquated custom which exists only in Califorgrna makes a banker out of the seller of lumber. Does it not seem an imposition for him to be obliged to dig up this freight money to the vessel o'wner prorrptly after discharge of cargo and then be compelled to wait two or three months in some instances for repayment from, the buyei of the lumber? Probably no other industry in the country would continue such a ridiculous practice. It is a holdover from the days of '49.

CAR,GO SHIPPER,.

(We will be glad to learn what others have to say on this subject. Does any one have any opposite views? Eclitor.)

TIIIS WEOLESALER, COMPLAINS TIIAT R,ETAILERS ABUSE DISCOUNT PRIVILEGE

THE CAIJIFORNIA IJUMBER MERCHANT.

Gentlemen:-Your Open Forum column might well say something about the abuse of the diseount privilege. In a few sections of the state, notably the San Joaquin Valley, some dealers try to take thirty to forty-ffve $ays fiom date of invoice before discounting their bills. When the mill or wholesaler refuses he is arbitrarily told that other sellers agree to these terms and that they can take his trade on this basis or leave it. The regular West Coast terms are two per cent cash discount if paid within fffteen days from date of invoice, which is the date of shipment from the mill. These terms are just as much a part of the price as is the price itself. No reputable dealer would think of changing the priee on an invoice to suit his own sweet will, but there arg too many retailers who accomplish the same thing by seeking to mhke their own discount terms after the shipment has been made.

Some dealers change the date of invoice to the date of arrival of car and then attempt to take the d.iscount on the

10th of the month following. For instance, a car shipped from the mill June 20th arrives at Fresno July lst ana tne dealer deducts two per cent cash discount on August 10th and the check is sometimes not reeeived for two or three days later by the seller. It is possible to admire the nerve of a_ train robb-er, but no one has any use for a pickpocket.

There are a few Sau Franciseo retail lumbermen who also attempt to make their own terms of payment by discounting on the 10th of each month all bills dated in the precedinf month. This is a one-sided game, because in the cargo trade ;l e terms are two per cent for cash in 10 days from=date of de-live_ry. _The buyer is therefore ahead of ihe game on all bills datecl in the preceding month and frequenlly gets his two per cent for so-called cash, although the invoice is sometimes forty days old when the biII is discounted.

It would seem that so long as the buyer does not have to exercise his discount privilege within the usual time but can take his 60 days net, he ought to either quit discounting altogether or exercise the discount privilege within the stated term. This question is a sore spot with many mills and wholesalers who feel that certain buyers are ,,rubbing it io.'l One progressive retailer who owns several yards, says he d.oes not like to be botheretl with payment of his invoices every-few days. He therefore has adopted the poiicy of discounting on the 10th and 25th oL each month-for ill ship- ments billed and received prior to these dates

Yours truly,

SQUAR,E DEAIJ.

(The foregoing communication was submittecl by one of the best known and one of the most reputable whblesalers in California. If any other lumbermen, whether retailers. wholesalers or manufacturers, have any views on this sub- ject, we will be glad to receive them and print them in these columns.-Editor.)

Our First Ad Check

We gave due notice conceming our first subscription check.

Our first check for advertising desen'er mention, for it ir by advertising that we eat.

It came on August 2nd, from THE M. R. SMITH LUMBER & SHINGLE CO., Los Angeles office, covering July advertising.

More history is made.

Robert H. Brooks, of Little Rock, Ark., a nationally known advertising man (he handles the publicity for the Standard Lrumber Co. of California), writes us commenting on an editorial in the first issue on useless correspondence.