Local Associations

Address by Kenneth Smith, Secretary-Manager' Los Angeles Lumber and Allied Products Institute, at the Annual Convention of the Millwork Institute of California, held at San Francisco, Catif.

I approach this subject with considerable trepirlation' Jack b'ionne promised ihe lumbermen at the Hotel Hunt' ington last month that he would write me a new sp-eech but he has not performed, so I have to use the old otte. And when dusting ofi my notes I found -a glip-p-i.1g sent me some time ago by one of the members of the Millwork Institute which is not encouraging.

It recites that before Will Durant became famous with his "Story of Philosophy" he was a Chautauqua lecturer. One hot irigtrt ;n Iowa he took a drink every few minutes from the p-itcher of ice water on the rostrum. In the middle of iris lecture a prominent farmer left the hall, and when the local impresario asked what was the matter said: "lle made me tired. That's the first time I ever did see a rvindmill run by water."

There is just nothing nerv that can be said to you gentlemen on this subject. I never attempt to discuss it without thinking how very close to the truth was the reply of the oldfarirer to whom the agent rvas trying to sell a subscription to a farm journal, on the ground that it would improve his knowledge on how to farm, rvhen he said,- "I don't need to knor,v more how to famr. I don't use rvhat I know now."

And I hope 1'ou rvill not take offense if I tell you that what you need-is not for me to tell you the advantages of local issociations but for yotr to do u'hatyou already know is the right, and sensible and business-like and profitable thing to do. And that is to support your local association 100 per cent if you hat'e one, and to organize and support one if you don't have one already.

Organization is not a panacea for all ills that beset us, but ii is just about our one and only hope of maintaining legitimate profit margins. This marvelous state rvide educaiive effort of yours provides the foundation for constructive salesmanship in the industry; it functions in a highly successful manner as an educating agency, but the profit from all it does must come out of application of the ideas and plans it develops and use of its services. And individuals cannot use or profit very materially from your state Institute when all their energy is consumed in a daily battle for existence in a dog-eat-dog local price fight.

Never was the lesson taught by the fable of the bundle of fagots more needed by business men than today. W_e cannJt cope rvith today's-problems with the policy of individualism that has held back our industry for so long. They can only be solved by group thinking and group action. ft is literally true today that the greater success of the individual can come only from organization.

When you and I were boys, all we hearci was "Competition is the life of trade", and naturally tve grer,v up thinking as we had been reared to think. Learning. to think for ourselves instead of accepting dogma is a slow process, .but we know norv that there is more truthin the modern ' improveqrent that makes it read "Competition may be the life of trade but it is the death of traders." It will be better said when we make it read, "Cooperation is the life of profits." Certainly unrestrained competition today is suicide to profits and slow poison to capital investments. Separately, each going his way alone, we are at the mercy of chaotii conditi,ons. Only by working together can we control the sale of our products.

Basing prices on fear of what a competitor will do makes no profif ind nullifies the laboriously compiled cost schedulei of your Institute. Only by good local organizations can you quit selling on price and put the emph-asis oJ competiiion where it till trelp the customer and the industry; ihat ir, on service and c-ourtesy, adequacy of stocks, display, .creative advertising, knowledge o{- your product, quaUty, or interest in your customer's welfare.

Ifow else but through local organization are you going to cope with the prdblem of piotection of distribution through retail channels, education of the buying -public, coopeiation with building and loan associations, elimination of the "Jerry" buildel, creative selling to increase'the use of millwork,- terms of sale, credit terms, uniform contracts, financing practices, education of salesmen and estimators, supporting and making effective the legislative activities of your State Institute on such'vital matters as lien laws, building codes, contractors license larvs,.etc.? How else can you hope to assure an equal opportunity to all and at the iame time retain legitimate profit margins?

It gets right back to what I said in the beginning. There is no argument. The only problem is to get you to do what you know you should do.

You know that you need stable conditions more thap 1'ou need anything else in your business. You know that manufacturing and distribution are not things apart but that failure to control distribution is sure to nullify the most intelligent an<l economical manufacturjng you can do.

You know that every first-class banker is interested in the competitive conditions of your industry a: much- as your individual condition. They know, and you know-, that idaptability is necessary in these days of constantly changing-cond't'ons, and 'credit ratings are taking cognizance of rvfiether the conditions of the industry are stable and make profits possible for capable management, or lvhether di!brganizition and demolalization prevails and rnakes profit ta[ing impossible for even the most capable managers-

Yoi knbrv that when local organizations are functioning they set the pattern and poli'cy on routine and leave principils some fiee time to do constructive thinking on selling and management problems. You know that cooperative iompetition increases net profits.

You know all these things, and it seems to me the thing you need yet to learn is how to do what you know you should do.

No plan of cooperation is perfect, not can ever be' The essence of cooperation is compromise. Cooperaiion doesn't mean every one else giving up his pet ideas and adopting yours-it means all working together on the most feasible and practicable common meeting ground that can be found.

In the nature of things that common meeting ground is going to be the fabric of a part of your ideas and part of the other fellow's ideas woven together. It must be developed out of a willingness to see and analyze things from a variety of angles-yours and from five to fifty othersdepending on where you live.

That's the first thing you have to learn in order to make local associations successful. You have to learn to submerge your individualism gracefully and a,ccept the soundest compromise that caft be found.

The second thing vou need to learn, it seems to me, is that no cooperative effort can be nailed down to a definite, unchangeable policy any more than your orvn business can. Yet that is rvhat you so often do with your own local assoctatrons.

You start on a certain plan that seems right and feasible and then rvhen it fails to do the job, you quit, and throrv your associations'overboard. If you set out to try a given plan and then when that plan fails, throw up your hands, you may as well not have started. But if you set up your objectives first and then make and remake your campaign to attain those objectives, just as you do in your own-buiiness, you will find a way to succeed.

What is best today may have to give way tomorrorv to something that better meets tomorrow's' needs. You must learn to keep your hearts and minds in harmony with changing conditions, and be willing at all times to toss old ideas and plans into the discard, and adopt new ones in their stead, when that seems the advisable thing to d.o after a thorough and careful study of changing conditrons.

A third weakness of local organizations is the failure of principals to follow through and train their staff men to work harmoniously with their experiment in self-govern= ment. You may go into the association yourself and with your intentions 100 per cent right; you may be at heart the staunchest believer in following program, but your fellow members judge you not by your intentions or your beliefs,

New Hardwood Yard In San Francisco

Weston Basket and Barrel Co., San Fran,cisco, has added a hardwood lumber, flooring and panel department to their Fir panel business.

Nelson E. Jones, well known in the woodworking and hardwood lumber trade in Northern California, has supervision of the new department.

BAKERSFIELD LUMBERMAN VISITS S. F.

P. T. Burns, of the Kern County Lumber Co., Bakersfield, rvas a re.cent visitor to San Francisco.

but by your actions. By what they see you and your organization do. You know the old saying "Character is what you are; reputation is what people think you are". Too many of you put too much faith in your own organization and do not keep a ,close enough curb on their actions to know that they are doing what you would yourself do. Too much friction in local associations arises from failure of the principals to see that every man in his employ is educated to do what he has agreed they would do. Employees 'conduct themselves as they think their employer wishes them to. They will conclude that it is okeh to cut corners if he does not check them up sharply and train them to live up to the spirit of the cooperative program he has pledged himself to.

Frank Irving Fletcher once wrote a striking motto that should be the guiding policy of every local association member and that should be kept so prominently before his organization that it will be,come its guiding spirit. He said, "No philosophy has ever improved on the Golden Rule. The most gorgeous tapestry of trickery looks likea rag alongside the simple beauties of a square deal."

I'd just like you to listen to that again. It is the finest manner in which the thought has ever been expressed. "No philosophy has ever improved on the Golden Rule. The most gorgeous tapestry of trickery looks like a rag alongside the simple beauties of a square deal."

And so those are the three things, as I see it, that you have yet to learn in order to function successfully togefher in local groups. Not what cooperation will do,-you hale long knorvn that-but how to cooperate. Let me repeat them.

l. Compromise on program.

2. Set definite objectives, but keep ways and means of obtaining them flexible.

3. Train every man in your own organization to be just as fair and square always as you would yourself be.

And then remember just one thing more. It is fundamental to sound thinking in the building of local organiza- tions. Cooperation is not a sentiment. It is a necessity. You will either cooperate with one another i4 local organi- zations in the future or go without profits.

FRANK R. ADAMS RETURNS FROM ANNUALTRIP

Fglnk R. Adams, manager of the Chicago office of The Pacific Lumber Company, San Francisco, spent a week visiti{rg the home offi,ce and plants of the company, and left for Chicago on December 16.

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RED CEDAR SHINGLE

The annual meeting of the Red rvill be held at the Olyrnpic Hotel, January 15.

CONGRESS

Cedar Shingle Bureau Seattle, on Thursday,