WHO'S WHO IN THE SAW WORLD FOUR OF NEW ENGLAND'S FINEST M ILLMEN of New England have long been well acquainted with the R. B. McKim Company, DISSTON representative at Boston, and no doubt many of them will recognize the members of the group above. These men compose the well known firm which handles DISSTON products throughout the New England States. A brief sketch of the histories of the men who have contributed so much to the success of the McKim Company will no doubt be interesting to their friends in the saw-mill world. Mr. C. D. Woodman, at the left in the upper part of the photograph entered the retail hardware business in 1884 in the employ of G. H. Woodman & Co., Westboro, Mass. In 1893 he took a position with Mr. H. O. Stratton, who represented HENRY DISSTON & SONS in the New England States, but, owing to business depres sion, he remained in his employ but one year and returned to the retail hardware business. After the death of Mr. Stratton, he entered the employ of Mr. R.B.McKim, who had succeeded to the business, and represented him as traveling salesman until the incorporation of The R. B. McKim Co., in 1909, when he was elected Vice-President of the company. Mr. Woodman's territory includes Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Maine. and Mr. W. H. Banks, shown in the picture at Mr. Woodman's left, started in the woodworking business when he was fourteen years old and worked at it until eighteen. Coming from seafaring stock, he naturally took to the water and shipped before the mast in square-rigged ships trading between Europe, Asia and America. He soon advanced to officer, but owing to ill-health, was forced to give up the sea and returned to his "old love," the woodworking business, which business he followed until he retired as Superintendent of The Phonoharp Company, of East Boston. Mr. Banks then accepted the position of salesman for The Frictionless Metal Co., of Chattanooga, Tenn., covering New England and Eastern Canada. He became associated with Mr. R. B. McKim in 1906 as traveling salesman covering New Hampshire, Vermont, and a portion of Massachusetts and Maine. Mr. A. E. Martin, at the lower left, in the group, was employed by Mr. H. O. Stratton in January, 1892, as bookkeeper, which position he retained with Mr. R. B. McKim, and held same up to 1909, the year the business was incorporated, when he was elected Treasurer. Mr. J. A. McKay's connection with the DISSTON COMPANY dates back to July, 1891, when he began as errand and general utility boy for Mr.H. O. Stratton. He was eventually advanced to shipper and then inside salesman and, upon the incorporation of the company, was elected Secretary. The prestige and popularity of DISSTON goods have been greatly increased through the efforts of these four able men. They have made many friends both for their house and for the goods they sell, who will always be glad to hear of their successful achievements. DISSTON CRUCIBLE PRICE 10¢ PER COPY $100 YEARLY IN ADVANCE Copyright, 1915, by HENRY DISSTON & SONS, INC. All rights reserved. VOL. IV. FEBRUARY 15, 1915 NO. 1 IN EDITORIAL CHAT SPECIALIZATION N a primitive state of society every man had to look after his own needs. He was his own tailor, making his rough coverings of skins for himself. He also had to fashion his own tools and implements with which to kill and prepare those animals which he used for food. And we suspect that his cooking was more notable for its shortcomings than for its tastiness. In fact he probably bolted most of his food raw. Under such circumstances, where a man had to provide for himself all the necessities of life, meager though they were; was forced to feed, clothe and protect himself from the attacks of wild beasts and of other "predatory malefactors,'' it is evident that he could not become expert in the making of any one of his outfit of implements. The rough stone hatchets and knives which he left behind him bear witness to the fact. But with the growth of intelligence and civilization, men turned their energies more to individual lines. One became a hunter and supplied the tribe with meat. Another cured the skins and made clothing for his fellows. Still another devoted himself to the cunning fashioning of bronze knives and spears. Thus specialization had its origin. pro Through the thousands of years since the dawn of life on this world, the cess of specialization has been going on. It has led to the establishment of industries which have grown to be great factors in the world's supply of commodities. And within each organization, formed to produce a special product, have grown up specialized departments run by men who have been trained to perform each his appointed part in the building up of the completed whole. So it is with the saw-making business. As the demand for greater quantities and larger dimensions of lumber increased, the saw-maker developed his facilities and built special forms of saws to meet the increasing requirements of the lumber industry. The DISSTON organization has always been a conspicuous exponent of the success achieved by specialized effort in saw manufacturing. Experts have been constantly at work improving designs and testing new shapes of blades and teeth. The results have been a series of improvements which are of incomparable value to the lumber industry-improvements which in turn are being continually bettered and augmented by this ever alert and growing institution. By C. P. McDONALD Ꭱ ALSTON was a $5,000 man who knew the selling game, and whose firm knew that he knew it. But values count but little against the animal fighting instinct planted in the breast of the full-grown, healthy male when the provocation for wrath is big enough. So when Ralston's boss walked in on him one afternoon and taunted him furiously on a personal matter in which both were interested outside of their business relations, neither of them thought anything about what his acts might mean to the firm. Of course there was a woman in it. Ralston, however, was not thinking of her when he landed on the boss's chin, and then, after a decent interval to allow for the other's staggering rise from the office floor, repeated on eye and nose, and finally gave the last punch on the spot marked by the fifth button on the white "weskit." All he realized was that it was good to have the chance at the fat, hated creature that tried in vain to beat down his guard and get in one blow on him. Ralston knew just how the other felt. He knew that it was not the licking that the boss was minding most; it was the sense of utter inability to retaliate in kind. The boss was game, and he kept coming until he met the knockout; but Ralston, raging as he was, toyed with him and let his contempt show on his countenance. That was his triumph. While the boss was twitching back to a pained consciousness Ralston put on his coat, removed his hat from the peg, closed down his desk, and walked out the door. Once outside, he made an inventory of the situation and found that against a lost and lucrative job, he could place about $80.00 in cash, a quantity of clothes, and a constitution unimpaired even by some recent extremely fast living. There was no doubt at all, he reflected of the pace he had been traveling for the last six months. His cash balance was proof enough of that. The case called for an instant decision and he made one. He took the night train for Chicago and the next morning he was registered at a downtown hotel. He did not go to any of the firms in the hardware trade. "I've had enough of hardware,” he communed with himself, "and now that I'm out of it, it's me for the lumber business. I've always wanted to break into it." It required the passage of several days and the infliction of a score of hard jars to bring him to the understanding that the lumber business did not want to be broken into, at least not by him. The big dealers had a full quota of help in every department. The branch house managers turned him down, and there wasn't a niche into which he could fit in any of the city sales departments of the big manufacturers. His $80.00 went fast. Soon he was in possession of nothing but a big stock of nerve, one suit of clothes, and enough change, he concluded, to carry him seven days if he shaved but once a day, had his shoes shined every other day, made a scant breakfast do for three meals, and slept in a ten cent "flop." That was the state of his affairs when he walked in on Billings, territorial manager of the Consolidated, and for the sixteenth time asked him for a job. "And I will be back here tomorrow at the same hour,"he concluded steadily. "If you come back here tomorrow I will have you thrown out," said Billings without any undue signs of perturbation. He Ralston came back the following day and was promptly thrown out. made no resistance because it all was a part of the big game he had in mind. Billings had won his laurels by sticking to his word. Ralston on the succeeding day presented himself at the office of Billings. This time Billings swung his swivel chair around and looked over the nervy proposition in front of himinspected him thoroughly, searchingly, from crown to toe. "Ralston,' he said impressively, "you're the supreme nuisance of my |