"Hardwoods Must Merchandise or Disappear"

By JACK DIONNE

Truly it has been said that "A wise man changes his mind." Frank F. Fish, of Chicago, Secretary of the National Hardwood Lumber Association and veteran leader of the hardwood trade of the county, faced that g.reat organization at its annual meeting in Memphis the other day, and talked on only one subject-the absolute necessity for a great trade extension and advertising campaign lest the hardwood industry be destroyed. Mr. Fish was honest. He declared at once that he had always opposed the idea of. their association doing group advertising; had always thought it no proper function of their work.

"f have changed my mind," he said.

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An honest confession and a wise change. And then he went ahead and marshalled an array of reasons whv hard#oods must get busy and save themselves. Here aie some of his statements:

"I am convinced that unless we go into a program to reestablish our industry in the good graces of the public, and unless we learn to merchandise hardwood lumber as vigorously and aggressively and intelligently as the manufacturers of substitute materials; we are simply doomed to a few more years of red ink, after which we will disappear from sight altogether."

"When Henry Ford spends $5,000,00O advertising his r^ew car with its all-steel body and its steel wheels and its rubber composition steering wheel, what happens to our markets for ash, for elm, for hickory, for walnut?"

"Limitation of production is merely a stop-gap in such a situation. As one manufacturer wrote to me, 'Give us a few more years of declining markets and curtailment will take care of itself'".

"We have all seen the statistics showing a steady, remorseless falling off in per capita consumption of hardwood Iumber from 115 feet per capita in 1909 to 57 feet per capita in 1925, and when the industry loses one single board foot per capita, it takes a $5,000,000 sale. Even in the great building years since the war we have witnessed a steady decline in the consumption of hartlwoods, and we have ignored it."

"No industry was ever granted so many opportunities to enrich itself, and no industry, in my opinion, has taken so little advantage of these opportunities."

The whole trouble with the hardwood industry today, gentlemen, is due to its silence. THE PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HEARD YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY AND NEVER WILL UNLESS YOU TELL IT TO THEM."

And many more direct and truthful remarks of the same sort.

Well, well, well ! Sooner or later they all become convinced. For fully twenty years I have been saying to the lumber industry just exactly and almost verbatim what Mr. Fish said to those hardwood folks in Memphis. I,ve written it and printed it and uttered it so many thousand times that I say it in my sleep. I was saying it when not a dime was being spent by the retail industry of the entire nation for trade extension, and when not a manufacturer except the Cypress folks considered trade extension work anything but foolish rot that had no part in this great big he-man industry.

Mr. Fish speaks right up like the man that he is, and I admire him for it. He rightfully states that hardwood has lagged too long. He admits that the softwoods are doing some very good trade extension work, in fact re. marks that both the softwoods and the substitutes are giving hardwoods a fit. The only charge I brino against Mr. Fish is that he is a natural leader, and had his vision been greater and his conversion earlier, the work of correction would have started sooner.

There is one of his reriarks quoted above that I want to call the attention of the softwood people to, and do so most definitely, that in which he says that "Limitation of production is merely a stop-gap". Declining markets is what the lumber industry has to fear and face, and limitation of production without intelligent trade extension worl to build up markets and bolster consumption, will eventually arrive at naught. It is like building levees along rivers to stop overflows. Eventually the river fills up until its bottom is above the level of the surrounding plains. This often has been done. But unless it builds markets and sustains markets, the lumber industry looks into a blank future. >F

No man has a right to say in any industry-"I'll make the material-the Lord must furnish the market." That has always been the lumber attitude until recently, and that's rvhat's the matter with lumber. Hardwoods have been particularly negligent of their merchandising fenees. The fact that the South, where much hardwqod is produced, consumes very, very little hardwood, is a good case in point. Texas, right at the edge of the Southern hardwood field and a great lumber consumer, uses very little hardwood, and no trade extension rvork has ever been done there.

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Redwood, which outlasts concrete, is the best house covering knom. Its durabiliry, paintability ud wqkabiliV call for consideratim u impctut factqs when materialg are specified. Its wide t[ttems makc naterial contributlm to tbe beauty of a hme.

What if it coab a littl€ more? It will still be good when ihe ms makeg his final payEent.