Ferger Reviews Year's Work; Praises Russell for Shingle Fight

In his annual report to mernbers of the San Joaquin \ralley Lumbermen's club at the Fresno convention President Ferger reviewed, briefly, the club's activities of the year and gave particular emphasis to the work of its mernbers in helping defeat the State Housing, or Anti-Shingle Bill at the recent election.

He gave spe'cial mention to the efforts of A. J. Russell, a member of the club and chairman of the state-wide committee in charge of the campaign against the bill. He also enumerated the nu.m:erous pleasant social affairs in which the club has engaged in recent years and paid fitting tribute to the memory of those of the members' families who have passed away within the year. His complete report follows:

Oire year ago I had the honor of being el,ected to the Presidency of this Club, which I considr€r o v€fy great hbnor, this club being the oldest club of retail lumbermen in the West, and, having an unbroken record of 26 years of continuous service to its members. Our ,club differs from most other clubs as to the qualifications for membership, none being ad'mitted as a member of our club except owners, manage:s and ernployes ol re,tail lumber yards. We hav,e no firm,s as members, ours being a social club only. It is composed of individuals and not firms.

During its twenty-six years of existence our club has been presided over by only seven presidents, F. K. Prescott, being its first president, John Ross, C. S. Pierce, J. C. Martin, H. F..Brey, W. E. Landram, and J. C. Ferger, following in the order named.

'During .these twenty-six years the club has seen many ups and downs in the lumber business, and many tim,es its mem ers have been called upon to go through strenuous times, finding it necessary, practically, to finance the farmer in his business, furnishing him with :su,ch material as he needed and putthe account on his books where, in m,any instances, it r,emained for years belore it could finally be paid. The lumtrer merchant m,ore than anyone else has been a contributing'factor in building up tie great San Joaquin \ralley and it can be truthfully said, that, as a community build,er, thb lumber mer'chant stands in the front rank.

Our club as an organization has participated in many very enjoyable affairs, w'e have made m,any trips to various places of interest, such as the trip several years ago to the West Side Lumber Company's plant at Tnolumne; to the Yosemite Valley; to Shaver Lake and to Huntington Lake and Cam,p 63 of the Southern California Edison Company, where we were shown the development work of this company, which, when compl,eted, will generate 1,250,000 horse power of electricity and will entail a cost greater than the entire cost of building the Panama Canal.

While our club devotes itself to enjoyment, we are also at ti,mes called upon to mourn, and in the past yeair we have bowed ou: heads in sorrow and our hearts have gone out in sympathy to those of our ,members who have met rvith bereavement, namely, W. E. l-andram, F. R. Prescott and 'family, Mrs. B. A. Fa"ssett and family, and the family and relatives of Leroy B. Hall. May God in his infinite wisdom deal kindly and justly withlthose who have been left to mourn.

On January ?3, 1922, you seli:cted tne as your President to reprqg_en! o-.ur. gtub at the.meeting."of''the Western Retail Lumber,rnen's Asqeciation, held.in Salt Lake City, in the month of Februar], and to'piesent to the Westein Retail Lumber'men's Association a gavel and pedestal made of

Redwood burl and upon which there was a silver plate with, the following inscription:

-,"Presented by the San Joaquin Valley Lumbermeh's Club to the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association, Salt I-ake City, Utah, February-1922."

In -y opinion, and also in the opinion of those present, this was a much appreciated and usoful present, and is to be handed down from one President to the next succeeding one, as long as the Association shall be in existence.

In the month of March w€ met in joint session with the Central California Club ,and tfre Sacramento Valley Club at Modesto, and were highly entlrtained and learned many things from inspiring talks-by Parson Simpkin and otheri.

On June 24, we met at the Hughes Hotel in Fresno and had the pleasure of having with us at that time Jack Dionne, famous as the publisher and editor of l'The Gulf Coast Lumberman," o,f Houston, Texas, and "The California Lumber Merchant." At thiq meeting a committee were appointed to arrange for en o.{ting at Huntington Lake, ,and the success with which this committee handled. the affair can only be testified to when w€ mention the fact that we had lumbermen here from all over the state, as {vell as Ben Wood,head and L. R. Putman, President:aird Secretary respectively of The American Wholesale Lumber Association. There were 130 persons in our party'who registered at Huntington Lodge.

From the brief report one might suppose that we devoted most of our ti,me to pleasure, but such is not the cbse, as .we ...;