The early days in marketing Philippine mahogany

Iiy Gage McKinney

Contributing I:ditor

1|lNE afternoon in l9l7 a young tTforester named Roy Barto was cruising timber alone in the hot, humid jungles of Luzon, the northernmost major island of the Philippine chain. He had been accompanied by several Filipinos, but he had sent them back to camp. Suddenly, as he forded a shallow stream, Barto was attacked by a 28-foot python, a thick, boa constrictor-like snake, in one of the rare instances of a python attacking a man.

Barton, 6'2' and muscular, wrestled with the snake on the muddy bank, trying to keep the animal from getting a suffocating grip upon him. He clung to a sapling that grew on the bank to keep the python from dragging him down into the stream. He hacked at the snake desperately with his bolo knife. The sharp blade never penetrated the python's tough hide, but the powerful blows that Barto landed on the python's head kept the snake's menacing teeth at bay.

Barto battled the python for what seemed like an hour. He was almost exhaused. Then, unexpectedly, the python retreated. Freed, Barto hurried back to the nearby camp. He got a rifle, returned to the stream and shot the python through the head.

Years later, when Barto became president of Cadwallader-Gibson Company of California, the huge snakeskin, striped in shades of black, brown and copper and measuring as much as a foot wide, decorated the wall of his Los Angeles office.

Fittingly, this testimony to Barto's strength and stamina was a silent one. A large, handsome man with a strong personality and a powerful voice that shook walls, Barto was not one to boast. He was actually a shy man who took satisfaction in a thorough, technical appreciation of things. He was never superficial. He had been raised in the woods, and all of his life was associated with forestry, lumbering and the woods, whether those woods covered the slopes of the Rockies or lined the humid river valleys of the Philippine Islands.

Barto had grown up in ldaho, where as a young man he worked around logging camps and sawmills. He studied forestry at the University of Idaho. In 1908 he joined the U.S. Forest Service to work in the Rockies and later in Alaska. In l9l4 the Forest Service sent Barto to the

Philippine Islands, then an American protectorate, to survey timber and to train native foresters, duties which took him to practically every island of the archipelago.

Two years later he resigned from government service to conduct timber investigations of large and generally unexplored tracts licensed to private companies. Among other companies, he worked for Cadwallader-Gibson, an Americanowned sawmill firm that had been manufacturing and selling Philippine mahogany from its own concession since 1910. CadwalladerGibson employed Barto as a railroad surveyor, and he steadily advanced to the position of general superintendent, having charge of all mill logging camps and shipping.

During this time Barto met his future wife, Martha, whose father was an American engineer responsible for building Insular Lumber Company's sawmill at Fabrica, Luzon. Barto bought an engagement ring while on a trip to Manila, and the couple were married in 1918. By that time the story of Barto's battle with the python had made him a local legend. And by the time Barto returned to the U.S. another six years later, his experiences in the Philippines had made him an American authority on Philippine lumber and timber.

Until this time CadwalladerGibson Company had been managed by two brothers. Both brothers, while serving with the U.S. Army in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, had been impressed with the potential of the forests.

Fred Cadwallader ran the firm's sawmill, logging and railroad operations in the Philippines. B.W. Cadwallader, who had a reputation for by-passing his distributors in order

April, 1981 to enhance his own profit, directed the sales in the U.S. from an office and yard at Third and 23rd Streets, San Francisco.

Then, in the late 1920s, the direction of Cadwallader-Gibson Company changed. The inventory in San Francisco was sold and the office moved to Los Angeles. In 1928 Roy Barto succeeded B.W. Cadwallader as president and general manager of

Story at a Glance

The amazing story of Roy Barto and the role he played in the importation of Philippine mahogany, both in lhe islands and here . . how he and a young salesman named Bob Osgood built the old Gadwallader-Gibson Lumber Co. to prominence in the hardwood business.

Cadwallader-Gibson Company of California and the firm began selling exclusively through distributors and agents.

At the same time, the imported mahogany market was changing across the country. In the late'20s the U.S. began for the first time to import more Philippine mahogany than either Tropical American or African mahogany. In 1929 Philippine mahogany imports nationwide reached 40 million board feet.

By the early 1930s CadwalladerGibson was operating four dry kilns on three acres behind its general offices at 3628 E. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. There the firm also operated a planing mill to manufacture mouldings, jambs, flooring and cut parts, and a plywood plant. The firm leased another six acres on deep water at Berth 45, Long Beach, where four additional kilns each dried 30 thousand board feet of Philippine lumber per charge. Thirty-five men worked at the Long Beach operation. Normally the firm inventoried five to six million board feet of Philippine lumber at Berth 45, and vessels carrying up to 500,000 board feet arrived once or twice a month.

The Depression of the 1930s curtailed the demand for imported lumber in the U.S. and Philippine lumber prices remained depressed through much of the decade. FAS 4/4 dark red Philippine mahogany sold for $127 per mbf fob Los Angeles and the light red for $ll1 per mbf. Sixteen quarter dark red was $20 per mbf more than the 4/4 and the best l0l4 apitong sold for $80. Surfacing-two-sides cost $1.50 per mbf.

While exact price comparisons are not always possible, it is interesting to note that dark red Philippine mahogany now sells for $1,120 kiln dried; while the k/d light red sells for around $950.; 10/4 apitong sells for $800 (10 times as much) and surfacing two sides has risen from $1.50 to $42 mbf.

Low freight rates helped to keep Philippine lumber competitive throughout the decade. Lumber shipped from the Philippines to Long Beach for about $40 per mbf, which represented a significant cost. Today's range is $175 per mbf. But then, after drying and processing in Long Beach, the same lumber could be transshipped to Gulf or East Coast ports for only $15 per mbf more (now it's approximately $165 mbf .) American-Hawaiian and Luckenbach Lines participated in this trade.

In the midst of the Depression, in the Spring of '33, Barto hired 32-year-old Robert S. Osgood as (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page/ sales manager. For a young man, Osgood had considerable experience. He had been brought up in his family's firm, the Wheeler-Osgood

Company of Tacoma, Wa., and he had traveled the country as sales manager for a group of fir plywood mills in the Northwest. Osgood was a great raconteur, universally wellliked, wonderful company and keenly interested in his customers. He brought real enthusiasm to the job.

As sales manager Osgood built up business through skillfully written offering letters that showed a keen ability to analyze and focus. He also traveled the country extensively, much of the time in a '36 Buick convertible, always with his golf clubs in the trunk. He would regularly travel 42 states in three to four months, sometimes driving 500 miles overnight just in hopes of getting an inquiry.

When Osgood called upon distributors of Philippine lumber he would customarily ask, "May I travel with your best salesman?" Then, working with these salesmen, he would help his distributors sell more Philippine lumber to consumer accounts. As he traveled, Osgood continually found new applications for Philippine lumbers, and he pioneered the use of Philippine mahogany in bed rails and apitong in railroad car decking.

Together shy Roy Barto and outgoing Bob Osgood forged an unbeatable combination of technical expertise and sales ability. The two men foiled one another perfectly, and their collaboration led to important innovations in the marketing of Philippine mahogany. In the eight years that they worked together, mutual admiration and respect characterized their relationship, and long afterwards Osgood looked to Bafto as his mentor.

Drawing upon Barto's thorough, technical knowledge of Philippine lumbers, Osgood developed the Cadwallader-Gibson registered trade names that became famous throughout the U.S. hardwood industry: "Bataan," "Lamao," "Duali" and "Bagac." Rather than referring to botanical species, the trade names referred to firmtextured Philippine hardwoods cut from the firm's own concession, sawn at its own mill and selected to meet Cadwallader-Gibson's special standards.

From Hawaii to Glifonda . . . to the Rocky Mountains .

Your best source for redwood from the people who really know redwood. Try ,a us for clears, commons, industrial items and lath. Also siding in redwood and /l Douglas fir, plus Douglas fir C & better finish.