Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-12
THE RISE IN FUR
NITURE
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN

that we may yet see a reVersion to
the Japanese style which considers a
few mats and a tea table adequate
equipment for housekeeping.
Just now, the retailers say that
they cannot supply fast enough the
demand for twin beds and floor
lamps at prices several times thWoId
rates. But, as we cut deeper into
our timber reserves the prices will
rise still further, until we reach a
point where even the most rashly ex-
travagant buyer will balk. Then
there will doubtless come a fad for
simple housekeeping, which we can
only hope will take a more rational
form than the overall episode in the
clothes reform.
Z Furniture dealers are getting stock
ordered a year or more ago, and the
manufacturers have begun to recov-
err from their war difficulties with
labor and embargoes. The consumer
derives no financial gain from this
'lessening 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 con-
cerned, that privilege was limited by
the shortage Of stock. but now he Is
led around to look at period" furni-
ture, pieces which he is told repre-
sent the Chinese influence, and other
exhibits pleasing to the eye and tag
ged with startling prices. Furniture
is skyrocketing with a speed that
loused to price shocks.
A manufacturer entertained con-
vention recently by explaining that
a dressing table of cheap oak be-
fore the war sold for around $3.98.
He said that last year the same
would be tagged at least SIS. The
1898 dresser is gone, and there is
nothing cheaper to take it's place. In
fact, even the $25 article is not plen-
tiful. A number of manufacturers
OF the so-called cheap furniture-the
straight oak bedroom and library
sets-have stopped making this
it is not popular.
The man who sees a cheap grade
bureau marked SIS argues thus:
That's good deal to put into an
ordinary and not too well-made piece
Of goods. Guess I'd better pay $40
look high class and last longer" At
least, that is how furniture dealers
say customers reason. The dealers
hold that it is impossible to sell very
cheap furniture, that they have tried
selling 1t at cost, and the public,
with it's rising standards, refuses to
give it a glance.
The demand now, they say, is for
mahogany, with walnut as second
choice. Mahogany requires careful
usage and regular rubbing and pol
ishing, but it's wearing qualities,
coupled with it's aristocratic appear
ance cause it to be regarded as a
ishly, for woodwork. and furnishings
in the offices of executives, and a
good deal of the furniture for or
CARNATIONS less pretentious than
banks is also made of mahogany.
To be sure, when you look with
awe. at massive dark red desk you
are probably not feasting your eyes
entirely or imported wood, but on a
combination of mahogany and gum.
Until a few years ago the red gum
was regarded as a weed tree, unfit
to be used for furniture material be-
cause it warped and twisted. Then
a firm found a way of overcoming
facturer Of mahogany pieces knows
some secret process of treating gum
Gum is used for legs and other
parts of a piece where the grain or
the mahogany would not show any
way. Gum takes the same polish
but connoisseur would detect the
difference. Manufacturers claim that
to make piece of furniture of solid
mahogany is as great a, waste of
valuable wood as it was for the
Cubans to lay solid mahogany rail-
extravaganza of it was explained to
them.
Mahogany is shipped to us in large
quantities from the tropics where
it is apparently plentiful. Our do
nestle hardwoods, on the other hand
others-are being turned into tables
and sideboards so fast that they are
rapidly reaching extinction. The for
est service 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 80 scarce that the government
had to advertise for it, and hunt out
single trees, when it was needed for
gun stocks and airplane material.
Even then 1t could not be obtained
AS black walnut is one Of the best
woods for furniture, there is sub
stantial fortune for the patient in
weston who will plant a grove of
these trees and wait forty years for
them to grow large enough to be cut
profitab bly,.
Planting more timber Is the only
way to offset the huge 1nroads- made
yearly into the supply. Our virgin
forests of hardwood have shrunk
back from the coasts and lumber
centers to inaccessible regions where
the mills cannot follow. Transporta-
ton of lumber is rapidly becoming
a large item in furniture prices.
Besides transportation, labor is an
other big factor in turning the $3.98
bureau into a SIS article. Employees
at these factories claim that in the
past they have been paid lower than
workmen in other industries. Since
the war, however, their wages have
increased about so per cent more
than have the wages in any other
industry, so that any discrepancy
that existed has been practically re-
moved.
Wages Of men in the lumber mills
have advanced to point where many
find it convenient to work a few
days and then knock off long enough
to spend their n4&ney in the nearest
city. The demand for their services
is so great that they know there is
no danger of being out of work when
they want it.
An item which affects only GER
tain D4eces of furniture is the glass
for n8SRrors. A piece of glass which
used 70 cost about 81 now brings SILL
and the price is still rising. 1t. seems
that there have been six big manu-
facturers who supplied the furniture
trade with mirrors. Recently they
have been able to handle only 80 pei
cent of the demand, and now three
of the six companies have decided to
make glass for automobiles instead
of house furnishings. There will be
no room for doubt as to the bad luck
of breaking a mirror if you have to
buy a new one.
Any. reader who expects to buy q
piece of furniture in the next few
years will be glad to know that there
is at least one thing that has a
tendency to keeping down the price
ardization. You remember how Cthe
government got the shoe manufac-
turers to cut down the number. OF
styles they produced. Well, the fur
niture makers decided on a similar
plan.
In the old times manufacturers had
to bid for contracts, and the retail
ers had to bid for public favor, by
continually offering novelties in fur