Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

' Welcome, 1931. On behalf of the lumber industry we bid Srou twice welcome. Yes, twice. Once because we are so glad to get rid of 1930. Twice. because we have great hopes for what YOU will bring.

If good will and *""u .i,"rlu" lorn n"rn you, 1931, you're bound to be a huge success. We've only got one horse entered in this race for life, and that's YOU. We've bet our whole wad on you. If you fail us, like 1930 did, we're going to be in one Devil of a mess. So please, 1931, DO something; BE something. If you won't do something or be something for your own sake, and for the sake of the name you will hand down to history, then do it for OUR sake. And do plenty of it.

Yes, 1931,.we know "": ;";""r. We admit we have a somewhat dark past to live down. We know our record isn't the best. We know we have made a considerable mess of a grand opportunity. We know we haven't progressed as we should; we haven't kept up with the march of time like we ought to have. We admit we've trusted too much to luck, and haven't done'enough for ourselves. It took us a good while to find it out, but we know it now. And we're going to do better. Honest, we are, 1931, if you'll just give us a chance.

We've made a N"* vl"r'l ,l.ot.rtiorr. 1931. We've resolved that if you'll just bring us a little prosperity, we,ll get out and do a lot for ourselves. In the past we admit ure've left everything to Time, and Chance, and providence. We kicked when the prosperity we were doing nothing to create, wasn't big enough to suit our ambitions. And we cried for help when things got very bad. We didn't understand that we had been given one oi the best and most useful of industries; one that only needed a little help from us to ride the crest of the wave. But we know it now. And in 1931 we're going to do our best for and with our business. It's a promise, that's what it is. **:k

No longer, 1931, will the mills cut boards and dimension just as they've done for fifty years, and hope the world will come and buy it. No more will the dealer sit in his office and wait for someone to drop in and take his lumber away from him. It's a promise, 1931. Do something for US, and, for the first time in our history, we'll do something for ours-g]rq".

Speaking of New Year's ideas and suggestions, Roy Dailey, manager for the National-American Wholesale Lumber Association, at Seattle. offers this: "Horses can pull a circus wagon along a dirt road. They can buckle down and haul it through a little sand or mud. But when it comes to the steep hills-where everyday horse power fails-IT'S TIME TO BRIN*G UP THE ELEPHANTS."

Mr. Dailey likens such a situation to the situation of the lumber industry at the present time, and suggests that the time has come to quit fooling around, quit sitting and wringing our hands, and BRING UP THE ELEPHANTS. He says that the concentrated power of new ideas, plus increased sales effort and co-operation, is "the elephants". And he thinks we have arrived at that point in the situation where one good push by the elephants will put us over the top, and back on the prosperity road.

The greatest boost ,", ; r;"; of building activity that the nation has known so far in 1931, was staged in Los Angeles, on New Year's day. Universal Pictures Corporation, together with a number of the Los Angeles retail lumbermen, staged the very impressive stunt. Universal is getting ready to build a lot of new sound stages and other buildings incident to their 1931 picture making campaign. So they placed their order all at once, and arranged for delivery by truck in one solid pafade of lumber. It required exactly 101 big lumber trucks to haul the order. They were well decorated with banners, etc., and paraded through the main streets of Los Angeles, and through Holtywood to Universal City, where the'trucks were unloaded, and the lumber will be used. Wouldn't a stunt of that nature, even though infinitely smaller, be a big building boost in every city and town ?

One prime reason *n, Jrrrlr* things should revive in a hurry when the upward turn comes, is because it fell off so completely last year. And of all the building materials, lumber undoubtedly suffered rhost of all. Brick, cement, lime, metal, and composition building materials were all hurt in 1930, but none of them as much as lumber.

'Ft(* ft is easy to understand the severe blow that came to lumber with the business depression. A new home or projected structure of any sort, is the easiest thing and the (Continrred on Page 8)