Remembering and Recommitting

Remembering and Recommitting

By Renee Hornsby, Editor As 2013, a Rules change year, brings to the forefront NHLA’s original purpose “to establish a uniform system for the inspection and measurement of hardwood lumber” it seems only prudent that a reflection upon past Association work as it relates to the Rules is in order.

Current articles and writings of the Association reference with admiration the lack of government involvement in the hardwood lumber industry. (e.g. this month’s Executive Director’s Message on page 6)But how did the hardwood industry successfully escape the grasp of “government involvement and regulations” that appear in other industries? And how can the hardwood industry of today benefit by remembering the past?

Upon review of official NHLA Convention Reports it appears that the year 1922 was pivotal in the development of NHLA and accomplishing this hands-off approach to the hardwood lumber industry.

Between 1921 and 1928, Hebert Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce under President Harding and later President Coolidge. A mining engineer by training, Commerce Secretary Hoover, who would later become President, was influenced by the ideas of Frederick “Speedy” W. Taylor (1856–1915), an efficiency engineer regarded as the father of “scientific management.” Under Hoover’s leadership, initiatives undertaken within the Department of Commerce reflected the impact of Frederick Taylor on the business world, and set the tone for a nationwide effort to maximize worker, managerial and industrial productivity. In his effort for nationwide reform, Secretary Hoover gathered and challenged the top business and labor leaders, including the leadership of the National Hardwood Lumber Association, to create self-imposed operating guidelines and safety regulations that would benefit both business and society.1 Upon prompting by the Department of Commerce, a Lumber Conference was called and held in Washington, D.C. the week of May 22, 1922. The conference was composed of twelve associations; nine associations having to do with softwoods only; one association dealing with both hardwoods and softwoods; one hardwood association which had voted to go out of existence and the National Hardwood Lumber Association. NHLA was invited to attend because of the advanced steps it had already taken by creating grading Rules twenty-five years prior for hardwoods. The purpose of the meeting was to encourage standardization within the industry, simplify grade names, develop a means of guarantee to the consumer of the quantity and quality of lumber bought and to create uniformity in lumber sizes.

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The conference itself proved to be contentious. Delegates from NHLA requested that questions affecting the standardization of hardwoods be considered separately from those related to softwoods, but the request to change the format was denied. As a result, NHLA delegates were obliged to vote ‘no’ on a majority of questions or declined to vote at all. It is important to take note of this situation, as the incident later proved to be a cause of grumblings and discontent from both sides of the lumber industry and the NHLA membership itself.

The NHLA Annual Meeting was held one month after the great Lumber Conference on June 22 in Chicago, Ill. In an effort to squash the gossip and set the record straight, NHLA President Horace Taylor addressed the membership on the recent Washington meeting.

“It is an entirely false statement, published in some of the trade press that the National Hardwood Lumber Association voted ‘no’ on the Hoover recommendations. We assured Secretary Hoover in the utmost sincerity that we desired to follow his ideas as far as we could honestly do so. We did not in fact vote against the “Hoover recommendations” but against the perverted form they were given as related to the hardwood standardization already effective and recognized by much the larger part of the consuming trade as well as by the industry itself as invaluable to all concerned.”

Mr. William A. Durgin, representing the Department of Congress also addressed the 1922 convention, in an attempt to make clear the DOC’s intention. As stated in William Durgin’s address: “The real question, we think, is whether the lumber group can thus make effective the wisdom and vision which some of its leaders possess in determining a far-sighted policy of high public service and of fundamentally sound practice, or whether the lumber industry and other great industries will permit the blindness of immediate self-interest and of clique jealousies to so dominate, that the great consuming public muse in self-defense, insist upon Federal regulation as the only possible corrective to the inevitable iniquities of an utterly selfish program.”

As is apparent, the hardwood industry did indeed take a “big picture” approach by further embracing and enhancing the NHLA grading system. Pause now and think how the outcome for the hardwood industry could and would have been different had the NHLA leadership of the day not taken the advice of the Department of Commerce. How different might things have been had the leadership listened to the grumblings and gossip and not stayed on the path laid before them; had they not recommitted the Association at its Silver Jubilee.

BE IT RESOLVED, that the members of the National Hardwood Lumber Association, in their Twenty-fifth Annual Convention, reaffirm the original purposes of their organization as set forth in Article 3 of their Articles of Association, to –wit: “To promote the welfare and to protect the interests of the hardwood trade; to establish, maintain and apply a uniform system for the inspection and measurement of hardwood lumber”

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The 1922 NHLA Convention went on to address more resolutions, motions and new projects. Secretary Hoover gave personal evidence and direct regard for what NHLA had already accomplished and offered suggestions of ways to enlarge the scope of the Association’s work. These suggestions which were acted upon changed the Association in ways that are still evident today.

The suggestions included the following: 1. Statistical work or department to gather and compile data for use of the public through the agency of the Department of Commerce.

2. The establishment of a Department of Hardwood Research to study the best uses of various species for recommendation to the consumers of the most suitable material for particular use. To this may be added a campaign for trade extension in various woods, for the education of the public and the benefit of the timber owner and lumber producer.

3. A means of making National Hardwood inspection and its accompanying guarantees available to non-members.

The NHLA grading Rules and Sales Code define how the business of hardwood lumber is conducted. Membership in NHLA shows an outward commitment to adhere and support this developed conduct without which the hardwood industry would return to its previous days of chaos.

With each passing year, the NHLA Annual Convention plays host to motions and projects and the leadership of NHLA continues to possess individuals of wisdom and vision. Attesting to this is the recent expansion of NHLA membership to include companies involved in the trade of hardwood lumber no matter their geographical location as well as the conduction of training, education and National Inspections throughout the world. In 100 years the hardwood industry will look different than today and hopefully members of NHLA will reference the leadership and vision of today as setting precedent and staying true to the path.

Perhaps it is time for the Association and membership to remember and once again recommit to the foundations that have held true through the years of depression, recession and affluence.

As a final challenge to the Association, a quote by William Durgin of the Department of Commerce:

4. A plan for providing foreign purchasers with the same guarantee and facilities for re-inspection available to domestic buyers.

In addition, NHLA also introduced for consideration at the 1922 convention the adoption of an official Sales Code. The Sales Code presented was unique. It was the work of not only the NHLA Sales Code Committee but had the input of 100 people with diversified interests. It was the thought of the committee that a Sales Code adopted by the seller’s side would not be of much use.

Instead the committee asked for development input from many of the consuming, distributing and producing elements of the trade.

The adoption of the Hardwood Sales Code passed unanimously.

The Sales Code is still in practice today and provides a practical and responsive means for the settlement of disputes. There is no doubt that the Sales Code has facilitated without litigation hundreds if not thousands of disputes between buyers and sellers of hardwood lumber over the years.

“Gentlemen, you have a great opportunity. By forgetting past animosities, by uniting in genuine effort to develop a national lumber practice of highest ethical grade, you can place your industry in the lead of great American projects.”

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As the implementation and adherence of the Sales Code has continued at NHLA since its adoption, so has the review and standardization of the grading Rules. On May 7, 2013 the NHLA Rules Committee met to review and discuss the Rule change proposals. After 115 years of self-regulation and voidance of government involvement, NHLA stands behind the process and standards that has benefited everyone involved in the trade of hardwood lumber. No matter the company or level of involvement in the process: timber owner, logger, sawmill, distributor or manufacturer; there is a direct benefit of doing business in an industry free of direct regulation. Should the industry ever decide to not support or lack adherence to these proven standards, the doors to government regulation will be unlocked and opened; to which there is never any going back.

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