| OCR Text |
Show First Witness Examined Ad-' H mils Former Existence of Price List Committee. I .VLSO OF A COMMITTEE j ON TRADE AND REPORTS H, In- Addition, He Testifies to Curtailment of Production at Times. ' KANSAS .CITY, Juno 12. At the behest of tho Southern Lumber Mauu-facturers' Mauu-facturers' association, the Lon-Boll Lumber compatry, which controls thou-sands thou-sands of acres of timberland, curtailed , its yellow pine output 33 1-3 per cent during' six months of 1901. So cstified Hi Ii. A. Lone, president of the company, at a hearing of tho state's ouster suit Hj against the allcRod lumber trust here This curtailment was not effected for the purpose of raisin? the price of luni-Hj' luni-Hj' bcr but to avoid losses by depreciation and ncodloss insurance' "and other ex-H1 ex-H1 penses. said tho witness. At that time, said Ar. Lonjr, thoro was an over-supply over-supply of j-ollow pine on the market. Mr! Lonfc- also admitted that the ns-j ns-j sociution appointed a price list coin- mittcc and adopted its report nl an mm and semi-annual meetings. The use of those price lists .by dealers was 1 not mandatory, "said Mr, Lone, but wore for jjuidanco In making sales. Jn-c Jn-c id en tally. ZNEr. Long asserted that if the public would cease its ''prosccu-ticm ''prosccu-ticm and persecutions of the lumber trade'"' ami would permit dealers to act together, 20 per cent of the timber (hat now goes to waste would be saved. AH of Mr. Long's testimony was taken today. Ho may be recalled, however. He is the principal wit-ncs9 wit-ncs9 at this )o int. and it is thought tho hearing here will be closed in a few i days, . Charles S. Keith, president of the Central Coal & Coke company, was j the 011I3- other witness today. ITc cov- 1 cred practically the same ground as did Mr. Long. 1 The hearing is being conducted by 1 .John Atkinson, assistant attorney geii- I oral. The suit was brought in J00S by Governor Herbert U. lladley, who was then attorney general. There are about , forty defendants. First Witness Galled. .Mr. Long was the first, witness called. Tic said his company was a member of the Southern Lumber Man-u Man-u facturers' association, and that he had H, heen an officer of that association, hav ing been president during the years 1004 and VM'u He said the name of the association had been changed to H' .thp Yellow Pine .Manufacturers.' as- sociation .at a meeting held at New OrTcans'ln January. J 90(5. "NY'cre you chairman of the price Hj' Mm committee when the company pro- motors -met in Memphis in 10027-'' he was asked. "1 do not remember." "What was tho condition of the ycl-low ycl-low pine business in the year 1001?'' " N'ot very good." Hr "Did yon" attend the meeting of ihe assueiatinii in St. Louis in 1 001 when the subject of curtailment was dis-cussed dis-cussed V "r 1'. Production Curtailed. t ''The demand was not as great as H'' the supply at that time, and it was 1 recommended that yellow pine produe H, tion be reducer 33 1-3 per cent. Is H' that not true?" Hf "This curtailment was to last for ninety davs?" "Did the Long-Dell Lumber com pany and others of the Southern Lum-bcr Lum-bcr Manufacturers' association curtail 1, the output in accordance with the. rcc- ' ominendation V m "Our company did. I cannot say K as to the others." HT "How long did your company cur tail its output of yellow pine?" "About six months." "Who issued tho order that the cur tailment be continued for an additional addi-tional ninety days?" "1 do not remember." Returniug to the question of a price list committee in the association. Mr. Long, in response to a question by Attorney At-torney Atkinson, admitted that there had been such a committee. He said, however, it was abolished some time ago. The committee on trade and roports also had been done away with, he said. Cross-Examlnation. "Explain whv the production of lumber lum-ber was curtailed ?'& 1-3 per cent In 1904," Mr. Lonsr wan told by one of the attorneys for the lumber dealers when It came to cross-examination. "Tho lumber trade was found to be In a demoralized condition." ho replied. "The production was far in excess of tho consumption, and as a natural result there was a slow demand for a fast accumulating: ac-cumulating: surplus of product. The way to correct that condition was to lesson the production. That was what any sensible denier would havo done. Then was no use continuing tho piling up of lumber for which there was no market " "The market price was down, was it not?" "Vos." "Was tho prodUcllon of lumber curtailed cur-tailed then to control and raise the prices?" "There were many reasons for curtailing curtail-ing tho production, especially of yellow pine, which our company produced. Not to curtail production meant the piling up of lumber that we could not sell and putting into It the cost of labor, which was about 7 to ?S a thousand feet. The Investment naturally would lie Idle and that would not bo good business. It would mean an Increase of taxes and Insurance In-surance In amount from $10,000 to $15,000 a year for each mill. Curtailed to Avoid Loss. "Yellow pine timber depreciates rapid -Iv when iL remains In the piles for a long time. This business demands thnt ye!-1 low pine lumber be not produced faster than it can he marketed. It depreciates at least one grade if It is permitted to remain In the piles too long before being shipped to market. It was not to control or advance prices that we curtailed the uroducllon. Tt was to avoid a heavy loss by depreciation and needless insurance insur-ance and other expenses. "And. If I may be permitted. I may say something about the lumber business generally that will coincide with the prcaont public agitation In favor of conserving con-serving our natural resources. By the reason of so much public clamor, and I might say. prosecution of the lumber trade, ill dealers are denied the privilege privi-lege of cooperating to save much of the forests. If those who control the lumber dared to act together they could produce conditions that would conserve about 20 per cent of the lumber of the forests that Is now going to waste. "By reason of this agitation the prices of lumber are so demoralized and the dealers are operating so much at cross purposes that about 120 per cent of the logs arc left In the forests to decay and become unproductive. Under the present conditions It Is Impossible to work these smaller and less desirable lor-s. and the result is that tho manufacturers leavo them and take only the logs that can be worked at a profit. The natural result re-sult of this Is to deplete our forests much more rapidly than would be the case If these smaller logs were used. Remarks on Price Lists. "The sending of price lists to the different dif-ferent dealers is the natural outcome of good business. The price lists are only recommendations to tho dealers. Our company used price lints only as a guide In offering lumber to the market. Sometimes Some-times our prices are lower and sometimes higher than those shown in the price list It Is a matter of business Judgment Judg-ment on the part of the individual manufacturer. manu-facturer. There is no penalty for not following tho recommendations of the prjee list. "Any good business man has means .of knowing the market. Those recommendations recommenda-tions as to prices are the result of re-vlowlng re-vlowlng tho different conditions of the trade after getting information from all sources. No good business man would produce more than he could sell. That's 11 m condition In the cotton mills of the east at present. They are running at half capacity because the demand for their product does not warrant more." Charles F. Keith, president of tho Central Cen-tral Coal & Coko company, was a witness. wit-ness. He went over about the same ground as had been explained by Mr. Long. "A .review of the trade in the last few years will show that prices have gone up and down with supply and demand," he said. "If there had been a trust to control con-trol prices they would have moved uniformly. uni-formly. That has not been the condition. condi-tion. The prices have been choppy. "The price list that has gone out to dealers has been only a rocomnicndatlon as to the conditions of the trade. Those recommt'.udatlons as to prices were the result of accumulating all information possible about conditions." |
