Besides, he's changed the grading-rules. I
found the men putting clear boards with hard-grained streaks in them
in with the No. 1 clear. The customer may not kick at a small
percentage of No. 2 in his No. 1 but it's only fair to give it to him
at two dollars a thousand less."
"Well," purred Zeb Curry, "they don't grade lumber as strict nowadays
as they used to before you went away. Colonel Pennington says we're a
lot o' back numbers out this way an' too generous with our grades.
First thing he did was to call a meetin' of all the Humboldt lumber
manufacturers an' organize 'em into an association. Then he had the
gradin'-rules changed. The retailers hollered for a while, but bimeby
they got used to it."
"Did my father join that association?" Bryce demanded quickly.
"Yes. He told Pennington he wasn't goin' to be no obstructionist in
the trade, but he did kick like a bay steer on them new gradin'-rules
an' refused to conform to 'em. Said he was too old an' had been too
long in business to start gougin' his customers at his time o' life.
So he got out o' the association."
"Bully for John Cardigan!" Bryce declared. "I suppose we could make a
little more money by cheapening our grade, but the quality of our
lumber is so well known that it sells itself and saves us the expense
of maintaining a corps of salesmen.
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