Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) has created. And that not only means lumber, it means anything and everything in building materials.

'F**

Paint, roofings, wallboard, plywood, hardware-what a selling chance ! Nothing like it before in history.

Millions of homes an"a lr" "O***, millions that cannot now be replaced but should be improved and protected and repaired before long; millions of opportunities for the building specialist and the building thinker and the building specialist to go out into the highways and the byways and say to the possessors of homes and other buildings that NEED things-let us sit down and counsel with one another.

***

People ARE thinking homes today, thinking them in terms of doing something definite, for the first tme in six years. They ARE thinking building.

{<**

The lumber dealer is the natural paint dealer. He sells the stuff the paint is to cover and beautify and protect, and who therefore is better fitted to sell the paint. If the lumber dealers of the country did nothing more during the next six months than sell the paint that is genuinely NEEDED, they would have a lucrative business.

**>F

I have always thought that the lumber dealer has a decided advantage over the paint store man, in paint selling. The paint store man mostly waits in his store for folks to come and buy paint. The lumber dealer is continually selling the materials that are to be covered by paint, and therefore can go out and solicit business. IIe can buttonhole the man who needs paint, any time and anywhere, and talk paint to him. I think paint should be one of the saving graces of the lumber dealer.

**t<

And one definite thing the lumber dealer should set himself resolutely to do in 1936 is SELL QUALITY lumber. In the days of too hot competition too-poor lumber creeps in. Poor lumber has its place, but its place is NOT in those buildings where strength, and durability, and quality are needed. There is no greater service the stout lumber dealer can render his industry than by stocking, displaying, and talking to his trade the merits of GOOD LUMBER. Poor lumber, for a good building, is high at any price. Good lumber, for a good building, is cheap at any price. The lumber dealer who delibrately sells poor lumber for a good building is an enemy of the lumber business generally, and of his own business in particular.

A veteran lumber a".r"r"a"rL"Jao -" the other day about the advantage he has discoverrid and proven the dealer possesses who helps sell the completed building. He put it this way: "If a prospect comes to me and says, 'I am planning to build a home, here is the lumber bill, please quote me your prices,' he immediately puts ME on the spot. I have to try and get his business by the price route. But if he comes to me and says, 'I am planning to build a home,' then you immediately and naturally ask HIM, 'About how much do you plan to spend for your home?' Then the shoe is on the other foot, you see? Then he makes a price to you, and you go ahead and plan how to.get him the most home for that money, AND A FAIR RETURN FOR YOURSELF." Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

Anyway, I believe ah. ;*" nl" "orn" again, after rnany years lapse, when there IS a return to be had on proper merchandising of building material; that the merchant's time has come back again. The next year should be the year of the salesman. I think the time is at hand when " we will profit according to the quality and quantity of our effort to sell and to supply our trade, and do something for ourselves and our business.

I think, that to a large "*""a, O*rness this coming year will be what we make it. In wishing all our friends a prosperous New Year I am hoping that they go out and hit the ball and MAKE IT PROSPEROUS.

Hi-Jinlcs Brings Out Big Crowd

The Hi-Jinks staged by Lumbermen's Post No. 403 of the American Legion at Los Angeles on Friday evening, December 13, brought out a big crowd. nearly 300 attending. A five-piece orchestra furnished music during the dinner hour, and there was a fine entertainment program. The arrangement committee included the following: Ed Biggs, Union Lumber Company; Carl Schrieber. Northwestern Mutual Fire Assn.; Andrew Foster, California Portland Cement Co., and Hans Westberg, Certain-teed Products Corp.

Spends Xmas In Redwood Empire

E. E. "Abe" Abrahamson, Hammond & Little River Redwood Co., San Francisco, has returned from a trip to the company's mill at Samoa. He spent Christmas with his folks at Samoa. his former home.

Jack Dionne to Speak to East Bay

Hoo Hoo Club Jan. 6

Jack Dionne, publisher of The California Lumber Merchant, will be the speaker at the regular dinner meeting of East Bay Hoo Hoo Club, to be held at the Athens Athletic Club, l2th and Clay Streets, Oakland, Monday evening, January 6, at 6:09 p.m.

All lumbermen and their friends will be welcomed. It is not necessary to be a Hoo Hoo member or a member of the club in order to attend.

There will be a clrarving for a door prize of $15.00. Holder of the winning ticket must be present to be eligible to receive the prize.

"Gur" Hoovet Made His 193s Business

Beat 1934 Just a Hundred Per Cent

A. L. ("Gus") Hoover, of Los Angeles, who represents The Pacific Lurnber Company for Redrvoo6 un,1 lMgndlin{Nathan Company for Fir, closed a mighty satisfactory year with the tolling of the New Year bells. He sold a little over one hundred per cent more Redwood in 1935 than he did in 1934, and a hundred per ,cent increase isn't bad. His Fir business was practically as satisfactory. He left the downtown district of Los Angeles several years ago and moved to the cerner of La Brea and Wilshire, where he has comfortable offices not far from his home. In addition to being something of a whip as a seller of lumber in Southern California, he also lays claim to the senior Badminton cham-

_pionship of the district.

Oder-Dixon

Don M. Oder of Los Angeles was married to Miss Ann Dixon of Oakland at Reno, Nevada, December 11. They spent a brief honeymoon in the San Francisco Bay distri'ct, and will make their home in Los Angeles.

Mr. Oder is president of the Northwest Lumber Agency, I-os Angeles, representative of the Aberdeen Plywood Company in Southern California.

Elected Lunch Club Chairman

Jim Farley, assistant'Western Sales manager of The Pacific Lumber Company, has been elected chairman of the Redwood Lunch Club, su,cceeding Caspar "Hex" Hexberg, Union Lumber Company.

\(/allboard Concern Executive Sayt Business Good

"Business is good," said Ernest Rudolph, sales manager of the Schumacher Wallboard Company, Los Angeles, recently to a representative of The California Lumber Mer'chant. "The month of December with us has been relatively better than usual, and all signs point to a good building year in t936."

V/E ARE MANUFACTURERS, IMPORTERS and DISTRIBUTORS OF V/HAT V/E BELIEVE TO BE on hand at ouf rcady for quick