LumberCode Authority Asks NRA-Approyal of Assessment For Trade Promotion Purpos?s

Washington, D. C., Dec.27.-The Lumber Code Author_ ity's advocacy of an amendment to the Code empowering the Authority to assess, collect and expend code fees not exceeding 5 cents per 1,000 feet for purposes of trade oro_ motion. r,r'as formally presented to the National Recoue.y Administration at a public hearing today, conducted by NRA Deputy Administrator A. C. Dixon.

fn presenting the viervs of the Authority, which he said had voted on three separate oc,casions this year in support of the principles embodied in the proposed amendment, Da_ vid T. Mason, the Authority's executive officer, quoted Section 1 of the National Industrial Recovery Act as encompassing adequate provision for trade promotion work, then referred to the objectives of the National Housing Act as providing further justification for co_operative sales efforts by the lumber industry.

The Lumber Code in its present form, Major Mason said, can do no more than regulate the business that ,,just hap_ pens to develop, and does nothing to create an increased volume of business so essential to recovery in both the lumber industry and inclustry at large',. Lumber is especi_ ally handicapped, he said, because it is in competit;on with industries made up ofa comparatively few- large units which can and do appropriate money for furtherirg their markets. In contrast, he said, the lumber and timber proci_ ucts industries subject to the Lumber Code are comiosed of some 36,000 units, employing at pre-sent approximatelv 450,000 workers, with dn average o? only t)r/ "emptoye, P!.. .ttt-t. Only by mandatory possibte, Major Mason held, to obtain promotional funds :ind clis_ burse those funds in a manner equitable to so many indi_ vidual concerns. On a purely voluntary basis of contri_ butions, he said, all benefit while only a portion pay.

Major Mason designated benefits that rvould accrue to other industries if the lumber industry could carry out a comprehensive promotional campaign, stating that the in_ creased movement and use of iumber would give work to vast numbers unemployed in the buildine tiil4... would add signaily to lottg-haul freight for the ,lil.."JS ,rd;;;: coastal shipments by water, and rvould go far toward re_