The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-10
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. C.
THE RISE IN FURNITURE.

Of furniture is difficult picture to
imagine, but the furniture situation
indicates that we may yet see a re-
version to the japanese style which
consideres few mats and a tea table
adequate equipment for housekeeping.
Just now, the retailers say that they
cannot supply fast enough the de-
mand for twin beds and floor lamps at
prices several times the old rates, But,
as we cut deeper into our timber re-
serves the prices will rise still further,
until We reach point where even the
most rashly extravagant buyer will
balk. Then there will doubtless come
fad for simple housekeeping, which
we can only hope will take more ra-
tional form than the overall episode
in the clothes reform.
Furniture dealers are getting stock
ordered year or more ago, and the
manufacturers have begun to recover
from their war difficulties with labor
and embargoes. The consumer de-
rives no financial gain from this les
SEEMING of the tension. He profits only
to the extent that he can now spend
his money if he likes. During the war,
so far as furniture was concerend, that
privilege was limited by the short
age of stock, but now he is led around
to look at period" furniture, pieces
which he is told represents the Chinese
/ influence, and other exhibits pleasing
to the eye and tagged with starting
| prices Furniture is skyrocketing
with a speed that would surprise even
persons canoused to price shocks.
Price MuItiplies Six Times.
A manufacturer entertained a con-
vention recently by explaining that
dressing table of cheap oak before the
war sold for around $3.98. He said
| that last year same dresser brought
$3.50, and now it would be tagged a.
| least SIS. The 1898 dresser is gone,
n nd fS oh To Ira
| its place. In fact, even the $25 arti-
| Gle is not, plentiful. A Number of
| manufacturers of the so-called cheap
| furniture-the straight oak bedroom
ing this grade because at its new price
| level it is not popular.
The man who sees a cheap grade
bureau marked $25 argues thus:
That's a good deal to put into an
ordinary and not too well made piece
| of goods. Guess I'd better pay $40
more and get something that will look
| high class and last longer" At least
that is how furniture dealers say Gus
toners reason. The dealers hold that
| it is impossible to sell very cheap fur
niture, thatAhey have tried selling it at
cost, and the public, with its risin &
standards. refuses to give it a glance.
The demand now. they say, is for
mahogany, with walnut as second
choice. Mahogany requires careful
1 - r.
| ing, but its wearing qualities, coupled
with its aristocratic appearance cause
| it to be regarded as a good investment
! Banks use it lavishly, for woodwork
and furnishings in the offices of execu>
| tiVes, and a good deal of the furni-
ture for organizations less pretentious
| than banks is also made of mahogany.
| To be sure when you look with awe
| at a massive dark red desk you are
probably not feasting your eyes entire
| Cd hut m n i
nation of mahogany and gum. Until
a few years ago the red gum was re
! garded as a weed tree, unfit to be used
/ for furniture material because 1t
| warped and twisted. Then a firm
found a way of overcoming this diff
Guilty, and now every manufacturer OF
mahogany pieces knows some secret
process of treating gum.
Gum Saves Mahogany.
Gum is used for legs and other parts
of piece where the grain of the ma
| hogany would not show anyway. Gum
| takes the same polish as the mahogany
| top and no one but a connoisseur
would detect the difference. Manu-
| facturers claim that to make piece
/ of furniture of solid mahogany is as
was for the Cubans to lay solid ma
| hogany railroad ties, which they did
4 until the extravaganza Of 1t was ex-
planned to them.
Mahogany is shipped to US in large
| quantities from the tropics where it
is apparently plentiful. Our domestic
| hardwoods, on the other hand-hick-
! DRY, maple, walnut, ash and others
are being turned into tables and side
| boards so fast that they are rapidly
reaching extinction. The forest serV-
| ice warns the country that for every
four feet of timber cut, only one foot
is being replaced by new growth.
| Black walnut, for instance, has be-
/ come so scarce that the government
had to advertise for it, and hunt out
| single trees, when it was needed for
gun stocks and airplane material L.
| Even then it could not be obtained in
anything like sufficient amounts As
/ black walnut is one of the best woods
for furniture. there is a substantial
| fortune for the patient investor VINO
will plant q grove of these trees and
| wait forty years for them to grow
large enough to be cut profitably.
| Planting more timber is the only
way to offset the huge inroads made
yearly into the supply. Our virgin
forests of hardwood have shrunk back
I from the coasts and lumber centers to
| inaccessible regions where the mills
| cannot follow Transportation of lum-
Der is rapidly coming a large item in
furniture prices.
Besides transportation, labor is an
other big factor in turning the sass
4 bureau into a $25 article. Employees
at these factories claim that in the
past they have been paid lower than
4 workmen in other industries. Since
the war, however, their wages have
| increased about so per cent more than
1 have the wages in any other industry,
so that any discrepancy that exists has
! been pra ctically removed.
/ Wages of men in the lumber mills
have advanced to a point where many
find it convenient to work few days
and then knock off long enough to
spend their money in the nearest city.
| The demand for their services is so
| great that they know there is no dan
| ger of being out of work when they
want it.
Don't Break Your Mirror.
An item which affects only certain
/ pieces of furniture is the glAss for
mirrors. A piece of glass which used
| to cost about 81 now brings S11. and
the price is still rising. 1t seems that