A Better Or$anized Lumber Industry

(Continued from Page 35) a good stock-we cut the price and depreciate the value of their inv-entories. When there is no other place to put odd lots of any surplus item, we pile it up-unsold---on the docks in Los Angeles Harbor.

I know of no place on the map where there is a- better -oppor- tunity for the constructive and proltable mer-chandising of. West Coasi woods under stable policies than in California, or where it would meet a better response from the local distributors. And for many mills in the California trade this can best be done'by joint sellrng agencles.

There are equal opportunities for greater profit through collective sellins in the rail trade. There we now have at least 500 difierent sellin! units, large and small, competing with each other. There we constintly witneis the loss oI realization to the mill-not from intrinsic market conditions-but from the manipulations of the buyer. There is the realm of the wholesaler who sells short. There is the realm of the "swindle sheet." There is the incessant search for bargains in distress lumber which straightway assume the proportions of a fictitious market and lvear down the selling resistance of the mills. I cannot but believe that the consolidation of rail sales under four or five selling organizations, representing either logical manufacturing groups or market territories, would tremendously strengthen the rnerchandising of our products as compared with the present unreasoned and often blind competition. I earnestly commend this form of organization to our rail mills.

Collective selling should accomplish much more than simply move our lumber currently at a greater profit. It should bring powerful aid to the rational control of production. The mills grouped together in a selling unit and guided by its current business and market knowledge will more readily respond to needed adjustments of production and stocks than when each is running on its own.

The selling agency would aid in standardizing grades. It should be able-in some measure at least-to distribute orders so as to best fit the character of timber and manufacturing equipment at its member ,rnills and thereby promote operating efiiciency.

And the selling agency-once going strong-would unquestionably become a powerful factor in trade promotion. All of our experience goes to show that market extension and aggressive salesmanship must go hand-in-hand. Here the sales company with half a billion feet behind it can do much that a single manufacturer cannot do.

For example, last summer brought the West Coast a promising opportunity to enter the southeastern cotton-mill district for the sale and prornotion of Douglas fir structural lumber. We could not grasp it because no group of mills-with sufficient yelumg-\ /ag ready to undertake it.

There is a real field in the Central States today for the sale of dry common, carrying a dry trade-mark if you please and competing for the quality trade. It will require organized selling and trade promotion in the same harness. Here is an opportunity for a live West Coast sales company,

And so-in organizing the industry along these lines for selling at a greater profit we will also be organizing it for selling a largei volume.

The destinies of the West Coast lumber business are rieht in your hands. Only you can say whether it shall be a profitaSle industry or a losing venture. Last year handed us a hard drubbinealso much food for sober thought. It showed that the world still needs and uses our product-lots of it, It also showed that we are now unable to make a profit on what we produce and sell. This industry needs a reorganization for profit, I believe that the key is consolidation, both in property mergers and in collective selling. And I urge you to drift no longer but strike right out-front an-d center-and take control of the destinies of your business.