The Smiling$.Pessimist

Oh ! Lord ! Give us this day our daily bread, And the fuel with which to bake it. We will run this yard fo'r another year, And then fs1-sake take it.

Amen!

There are four snakes in the retail building material industry which must be killed off before the industry in its entirety will enjoy its full produ,cing capacity of orders.

These snakes are Fear, Doubt, Worry and I'll-wait-tillspring-f all-or-next-year-and-see-what-the-prospects-are.

The kid who looked in his stocking on Christmas morningr- and when his brother asked what he got, said "I got a Shetland pony. It's gone away but it will come bick fgain," has the average retail building material merchant backed off the map for optimism.

From personal conversation and through written communications with hundreds of our retail friends of late, I am inclined to give them the nom de plume of "smiling Pessimists," and the reason they smile is because they know, right down in th,eir hearts, that it is not as bad as they say it is.

Charlie Gloom runs a lumber yard, so called. in most anv town and any state in the Unlon. When I met him the other day with "How's business, Charlie?" he said, with a smile on his face, "By Golly ! It's rotten. We are going to balance in the red. We are cuttin' her off to beat the band this year, and taking a big loss on our inventory. It's a cinch we won't have to pay any excess or any other kind of profits tax this year."

Well, I guess it's true. If the retailer inventories at market value, he'll have to use some red ink on the last entry he makes in his books.

But what do you think, Charlie, of the prospects for 1930? "Well, I'll tell you. There's been a half dozen banks fail around here in this community. Everybody's btoke. Money is scarce as hen's teeth. Lois of the farmers have their applications in to the Federal Farm Board and it will be a year or eighteen months before they get their Ioans through.

"Honey, hogs and hominy don't bring enough to pay the cost of producing them. The same thing is true of sheep, steers and straw. Also wheat. oats and corn. not to mention wool and cotton. Thousands of people are out of a job. The charity lists are as big as theyle ever been all over the country. Why, I saw an old lady pawing over the garbage can behind a restaurant the other day to get something to eat."

To hear Charlie talk you'd think we were living in Russia. This Charlie, a smiling pessimist, has you about ready to take the count, when he sort of smiles and says "Did you hear the story about the big nigger over in France duiing the war?" Then he told a funny story and laughed with the rest of us.

We noticed that Charlie ate his meals with a great deal of relish. He showed us around the town in a- peach of an automobile-took us out to the house for dinner, just a bird of a home. It must have set Charlie back for something around fifteen or eighteen thousand dollars. It was furnished beautifully and the missus and the kids were all well dressed. We all went to the theatre in the eveing, on Charlie's invitation, and to the restaurant afterwards.

This smiling pessimist, Charlie, was the life of the party. We knew that what he had told us during the day, he didn't believe himself. But the difficulty is that although from day to day Charlie's business is pretty good, he continually keeps company with these snakes---fear, doubt, worry and the rest of them.

His line of conversation, from day to day, although he may not realize it himself, is the biggest enemy that his business has. In the old davs. it was the custom of a retail building material merchint to say that business .was no very good, or it was poor. This, largely for the reason of keeping anyone else from starting in business in that town. But we are above all that now. or should be.

Wouldn't it be a good thing for the entire industry to kill off these snakes-fear, doubt, worry, etc., and begin right now, this new year, to talk and advertise optimistically and join the progressive party of retail building material merchants who are "Helping 'Em Build," and when asked how business is, come right up quick with a statement that we're making 'er hop. We've killed off the snakes of fear, doubt, worry and procrastination and set up a goal christened FAITH and CONFIDENCE.

In the book of Joel, second chapter, twenty-eighth verse: "Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions."

That is the idea exactly. Let the old fellows dream of the past. But all the young fellows in the building material business, under the age of 6O years, let them see visions of what is to come-Prosperity, Better Business, providingthese young men irr the retail building material industry ADOPTAND PRACTICE MODERN BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.

Let's go to it,folks. Heart within and God o'erhead. Serve the people. Show them a picture of what they want. Make their mouths water. Prepare to assist them in financing their building operations. Organize savings and loan societies, or local mortgage companies. Back up and encourage anyone who will organize any sort of a loan company that will assist the retail building material merchant in financing his customer-his home builder.

In my judgment, no one can stop a large amount of home building during the next few years, the volume will be materially increased if more money is made AVAILABLE for home construction.

There is plenty of money in the United States. Treasury issues and good bond issues, running up into the millions are being grabbed up within a few hours all over the country.

Take the bit in your teeth-head up-get action-start to go. Let the smiling pessimist pull on the lines as hard as he will. All he can do is to just steady you to an easy three-minute clip.