Cooperation and Current Problems

By Frank W. Trower Trower Lumber Co., San Francisco, California

Address delivered 6efore Hoo Hoo_Club No. 39 of Oukland, November 20,1931, at the Annual Convenrion of the Coliforniu Retail Lumbermen's Association

I thank you for the h-onor and pleasure of addressing you for the next few minutes with some rlndom thoughts on ""ioopera!ion," w.hich. is the vital need of the hour, evirywhere. Fi;st- International Cooperation. We recall those stirring days ol the Great War, when men and women served and sacrificed for the honor and safet_y of their_country. Fxcept for the few profiteers we again proved that sentiment and ideals are more dvnahic than doltars. -The.great_problems of peace and prosperity today overrun all frontiers, they make ridlculous the claims -of a narrow nationalism. We find that to help ourselves we must help others. We have the largest share of thC world's gold, but we also need more customers able to buy our goods.

Modern government, modern business and modern civilizati6n are vast schemes of cooperation on which the health, happiness and prosperity of the individual depend. Enlightened self-interest re- quires that some degree of .personal liberty must be given up in exchange for these community benefits. This is true of men-and natlons,

A. teacher.asked .a_ pupil to define a niche in a church. The boy replied that it was like any other itch, but harder to scratch. Hearst and Hiram are the twin itches that infest the body politic; if succ-essful, the_ir_demagogic appeals to selfishness, ignorance and preju- dice would be disastrous to national and woild prosress. - The wolves of politics will be in full cry when Congriss -meets next month. Fven a journal of the standing of the Saturday Evening Post capitalizes our national fears and the old suspicion of the foreigner. Let the friends of Cooperation be on guard!

, Many of you have read Mr. Garrett's articles on Foreign Loans. I do not presume to reply to so brilliant a writer. He-has been answered by able men like Walter Lippman, editor of the late New York World. There is much truth in Mr. Garrett's arguments, even though one may not agree with his assumption that Germany and some other European powers are permanently "broke" as tb repayment of our loans and those of Great Britain and France.

But it'seems to me that such writers as Mr. Garrett really prove too much; they imply that the statesmen and financiers in whom we have had confidence are simply crazy, or crazily simple.

Then there is the rather crude type of politician and,writer who try to. prove their case mainly by unfair attacks upon the ability and integrity of our national leaders in business and statecraft. They remind me of the story of a noted New Zealand statesman being heckled at a campaign meeting who finally was the target for a well-aimed but unsavory egg. As he wiped the muss ofi his coat he turned calmly to the thrower in the gallery and pointing a long finger at him said, "I perceive, sir, that you have just given me i piece of your mind."

Many of our American problems merge with those of other coun- tries. I did not realize that I had any special interest in the pound sterling until recently an Oregon sawmill connection that had run steadily for ten years informed us they must close down for lack of a China order. due to the low rate of Canadian exchange. No relief could be had until after the British election.

The biS .box factory of the Standard Oil Co. in our neighboring city of Richmond is almost put out of business because of -Orienta-l conditions and the Australian embargo on case-goods. Spruce mills in the North promptly curtail output or close down. The political isolationists will not get far in trying to persuade the owners and employes of those plants and the town merchants that they are not closely concerned with world affairs.

The omniscient Brisbanal admonition to "mind our owll business" may inrpress the moronic portion of his readers but it makes us ask, "what is our business?" No American ever thoueht that obscure student in Serbia and his assassin pistol in 1914 would ultimatelv drag us into the Great War that cost ten million lives and untold billions of dollars, a war whose backwash is largely the cause of the preserrt world-wide economic distress and from whose crushiug burderr of debt we shall not escape for two generations. That ii the cost of failure to establish and use cooperative methods for settline international disoutes.

We-have left these matters largely to politicians and they are long have mostly trimmers, perhaps necessarily so to a great extent, Too long have business men failed to exert their full influerrce fo comnel ess men their full influerrce to comoel the use of saner methods of adjusting world affairs. Of course

America must have reasonable preparedness for national defense, but we have a vital interest in the success of the forthcoming Woild Conference on Reduction of Armament. The present enormous cost of past-a,nd future wars could then be largely iiverted to productive national betterment.

"The. new system of _personal contacts between ruling statesmon of variols countries points the.w4y to better understandingi Gentl'bmen, I have not over-eqrphaSized -the need for greater intErnational cooperation. It has a direct and vital bearing dn our business and our lives. Its critics have nothing better to oifer than the outcrown sham of arming to the teeth; while writers and cartoonists;f the Hearst stripe sow the seeds of future conflict bv incitine hatred towards all foreigners. Civilization is doomed unless we -can find a better system than the jungle law of tooth and claw.

The.British have just set us a splendid example of national co- operatton, ln our own land we have made some real sains from the period of adversity. We are thinking of our duties "as well aj our rights. The Democratic leaders in Cbngress deserve oraise for their ready cooperatio-n with the President -in his recent 'plans for the one year moratorium on inter-governmental debts and for the establishment of the new National Credit Corporation. And they will doubtless back up his plan for Home Loin Banks-a schemi that means tremendous aid to the Building Industry and the increase of a home-owning, sturdy citizenship.

-The qresent close balance of power in Congress and the stress of the times require that the pu6lic interest must be placed above partisan 39va-ntage.- Otherwise the next session will bi simply an- other jabberfest that will further undermine our confidenie in democratic institutions and parliamentary government to meet the acute demands of .today. Stalin and Mussolini draft the best brains lnto natlonal servtce-

We are on the way to a better system of Bank Credit-our modern medium of exchange-whereby real value can be made more !!quid. It is said that some assets would not have frozen so hard if they had not originally contained so much water.

We have learned that unrestricted competition is not the'life of trade. The Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1890-the day of horsi- cars-must be broadened.The Cartwright anti-trust liw of Cali- fornia enacted a quarter of a century ago is now denounced bv its author as unsuited to modern needs.' Bu1 the principle of proteition of the public interest must remain side by -side with the newer cooperatton.

We need more of the spirit of "live and let live". of .,sive and take", of honorable compromise that is the base of 4nost le[islation. Cooperatlon will not abolish economic laws like tha[ of Sufiply and Demand but it will enable us to work in harmony wittr ttrerir.- ttri basic truth in the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest" did not prevent a Luther Burbank from making the worthy weaker species more fit.

In these critical,days of a fast changing world our people demand the substance and not the tabel, the truth behind the llosan. A Watl Street that can give to the nation and the world the"invaluable services of .a .lwight Morrow or an Owen D. young is not the ogre_ that. qoliti_cians have conjured up for us. In spite of our cherished indlvidualism we constantly usi more collectivism. yet so long as we refrain from using certain tabooed words we will avoid scaring some folks.

A Communist has been defined as one who has nothins and insists-on dividing it with everybody. Our task in America'is to use the f_ull advantage of massed resources and efiort and still preserve equality.of opportunity and individual liberty, having in mind always the welfare of the common man.

When President Hoover recently accepted the invitation to have an American representative sit in-with ihe Council of the Leaeue of Nations to discuss the threat of war in Manchuria. which deeolv affects our rights and duties under the Nine power pacific plci and the more than Fifty Power Kellogg-Briand peace pact, he helped by this "direct action" to exert the horse-sense power of unit"i world-opinion against making another scrap of paper out of a _solemn, treaty. But more-he cut clean throirgh ihe mass of political _humb-uggely which has thwarted Ameritan cooperative peace efforts for the past decade. His act was like a blast .of cleansing air that chased away the miasmic fogs and the hobgoblins of a dead past.

This day of modern efficiency condemns a Senate whose ossified rules allow one or more Senators to stra4gle the majority will and hold our.national industries in suspense while the Senate takes fifteen mohths to pass a tariff law. We have learned that in making a tarifi we must explore the possibilities of the old cooperative principle of Reciprocity. The Arts, Science and Industry have long had a world-wide vision; only our politics lags behind.

We shall not have a dictatorship in this land, either presidential, senatorial or financial. We shall not Russianize America, but our people are "Missourians" as regards the epoch-making political, social and economic experiment in that vast empire of 160 million submerged people which stretches from Leningrad to Vladivostok, a distance twice greater than that from San Francisco to New York. As yet their exports of wheat and lumber alone are far below their pre-war level. We are willing to be "shown" any plan which can eitend our successful mass-production into better distribution for the common good. But it must be in harmony with American principles: it must be voluntary and not compulsory cooperation. The successful farmers co-operative selling groups, which have the warm approval of our Government, point the way lor other industries which are entitled to equal assistance or official blessing.

The terrible cost of crime in America cries for relief; it is a mounting total in lives, money and morals. That modern Vigilance Committee-the Secret Six of the Chicago Association of Cornmerce, in cooperation with public olfrcials, has rid that city of many public enemies, and by legal methods. Al Capone is headed for Leavenworth but it will take a great amourtt of patriotic cooperation to solve the problem of Capone's friends, imitators and customers. Too often their dirty dollars are stained with the blood of local, state or national officers oI the law slain in performing their sworn duty.

It is remarkable that in spite of the terrific stress of recent years we have had very few strikes. Labor is learning there is more to be gained by cooperation than by coercion. For the first time, Labor had this year a member on the Impartial Wage Board which drew up the San Francisco and Alameda County Building-Trades agreemint tor 1932. Too often in the past the question-of wages was of minor importance compared with the wasteful and hampering arbitrary rules imposed by the uuions. Those who carry the bu"rden of ldmber assoiiation effort, while a few outsiders share the benefits without cost, have an increasing and consistent respect for the viewpoint-though not all of the methods-of union labor as regards the non-unionist.

As we consider these questions that so deeply concern us all, let us approach them in the broad spir.it of a Thomas Edison or of Theodore Roosevelt, who proudly referred to himself as a Practical Idealist. The inspiration and sympathetic understanding of HooHoo's late Chaplain "Parson" Simpkin will do more for mankind than all the cynical sneers of sour-balled Senators or -the -gibes -of iournalists who prostitute their high responsibilities to ignoble ends. You who have tuned in to the re&rlt Sunday National programs in aid of the unemployed and listened to those -galax-ies-- of talente-d American leaders ai thev pleaded for cooperation of all the people in relieving distress-you - have heard the heart-beat of the real America!

East Bay Hoo-Hoo Club No. 39 is consistent in- presenting.this theme of united effort, for its friendly contacts have materially advanced the work of the local retail association. And when the retail lumberman prospers there should be a chance for the manufacturer and whol-esalir to save their hides' Prosperity must be oisi.d arouttd, for no one section of our industry can long profit at ihe .*petr.e of the others. We must work togethel.

We -lumbermen have not really begun to use the possittllltles that Hoo-Hoo Clubs offer for improving lumber trade conditions' Heidquarters at St. Louis and the National Trade Extension Bureau are e;ger to help us promote the interests of Wood. They seek to augment but not supplant the work o{ the trade associations. The s"preading of Friendihip among lumbermen is the basic putttote of Hoo-Hoo tlubs. We of Club No. 39 have proved to our own satisfaction and pleasure that the Club spirit supplies a lubricant. of cordial impirlses-which help'to remove the friction of competition and humanize rather than cannibalize our business.

The late Dr. Russell H. Conwell of Philadelphia, who was John Wanamaker's pastor, delivered his famous lecture "Acres of Diamonds" more ihan a thousand times. Its central theme was the story of a man who left his South African home to roam the world in search of fortune, only to come back penniless and by chance siarch by digging in his own bacli-yard uncover one of the world's back-yard world's--great diJiroid mines. Most of u! cannot so to some distant Klondike or dlamond us go olsranr ur seek the Golden Fleece; we must find our prosperity and happiness 3ece; hnd our prosperrty an(l napprness ion with those of our own industry, our own in cordial cooperation wtth ( community and at our own fireside. cordial

Last week we celebrated Armistice Day with its memories of courageous devotion to a common cause; next week we shall enjoy the uniquely American Day of Thanksgiving. with all its historic and hallbwed sentiment of gratitude for the blessings of home and countr)' preserved by united effort. Next month we once more share thC happiness of that imrnortal season of good-9treer,.-cel-ebrating the day of "Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men." In the full signifi-ance of that great trinity of holidays we-nlay confidently beiieve that only as we join in. the sincere application- of their spirit and purpose we shall be able to solve every problem that confronts us. I thank You.

Edward Hines

Edward Hines, lumberman and philanthropist, died at his home in Evanston, Ill., on December 1. Mr. Hines had been in ill health for more than a year. lle was 68 years old. Funeral services were held at Evanston on December 3.

Mr. Hines was born in Buffalo, N. Y., July 31, 1853. His parents moved to Chicago when he was two years old where he attended school. He had been connected with the lumber business since he was fourteen years old when he went to work as office boy for S. K. Martin & Co. When this firm was succeeded by the S. L, Martin Lumber Co., Mr. Hines, then twenty-one years old, was made secretarytreasurer. Several years later, at the age of twenty-eight, he resigned and organized the Edward Hines Lumber Co., becoming president of the company. The lumber interests of the Edward Hines Lumber Co. extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakesi and from Chicago to the Pacific Coast.

Among his many philanthropies was the United States Veterans' Hospital near Chicago which is known as the Edward Hines, Jr., Hospital in commemoration of his son, Edward Hines, Jr., who died in France during the late war. He is survived by his widow, a daughter, Mrs. Howell Howard, of Dayton, Ohio, and two sons, who have been associated in business with their father, Charles and Ralph Hines.