Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 7) put up half the cash and borrow the other half on a first mortgage. He hasn't found anyone interested in buying the paper. So he isn't building yet. There are thousands of such cases everywhere. Building will boom when'reasonable credit is found.

Some of these days I confidently expect to see Uncle Sam open actual home loan mortgage banks in every city and center, for the sole and only purpose of buying good building paper at low interest rates on long term loans. The money will be used for repairing, remodeling, and for building new homes. Operated in simple business fashion those banks will do more to'put men to work than even CWA has done, and the building work will be 100 per cent REAL and not artificial. And, the government will get a much greater percentage of the loaned money back than they will the rnoney loaned in any other direction.

,<**

Honest, friends, I've been kidding about some of the suggestions I have made in these columns as maybe some of my friends suspected. But so far as this suggested home loan bank is concerned there is nothing else on top of this earth that would make a boom country out of a bum country half as quickly as that would. No foolin'!

,f**

I like this guy Al Smith. I like the way he thinks, the force with which he expresses himself, and the courage that bids him talk when the talking time comes. fn one of his recent writings he expresses his utter disbelief that any substitute can be found for "initiative, force, foursquare down-rightness, and hard-bitten self-reliance" in rebuilding the prosperity of this country. Righto ! ***

All of the great and good characteristics that our fathers and mothers believed in are as needed in this country today as they were fifty years ago. More so ! Because it was straying abroad from these fundamentals that got us into trouble. Honesty, thrift, sagacity, hard work, and eternal sticktoitiveness are going to be major elements of success and worth-whileness in the future as in the past. ***

Facts and figures show tremendous improvement in the motor car industry. The reasons? They are two in number. First, it's easy to finance the sale of an automobile. Second, great merchandising. It is almost impossible for a lumber dealer today to finance the building of a home. But ttr'e auto dealer can finance the sale of an auto to al- most any employed person. The machinery for such financing is ready and easily available. The finance companies suffer few losses. If a buyer fails to pay they promptly repossess the car and immediately sell it, and seldom lose anything on the deal. Often they make a profit. That's why this looks like a motor car year, instead of a home building year. That and the fact that the motor car industry is doing everything on earth to induce people to buy cars, while the home builder is handicapped on all sides in his home selling efforts. ,F ,B 'F

The big automobile building cities will boom this year. Detroit, stricken for the past several years, has a huge upward swing. Henry Ford alone employed over 100,000 men in January. That's a city of nearly a half million people by itself. And, he gave his men a voluntary wage increase in addition to putting tens of thousands to work. And, what helps one city and one section, helps all cities and all sections. >i,f*

I find that elderly rnen are as a rule pessimistic about our present situation, and about the things that are being done to promote recovery. This is not strange. To the old business man there is but one god-EXPERIENCE. And, when he sees us traveling strange and unheard-of paths that have never been trod before by either man or devil-it frightens him. There are exceptions, naturally, but they only prove the rule. ***

That, perhaps, is why the average bank seems as timid and frightened today as it did a year ago; simply because most banks are owned or controlled by men of advanced years. Lacking the buoyancy and enthusiasm of youth, there is fear in their hearts, and a dragon lurks behind every business bush.

The other day I sat in the office of the big president of a big bank, and talked about conditions. He asked "What would you do,to hurry up recovery, if you had your way?" I said, "I'd slap such a tax on every idle dollar in this and every other bank in the country, that the guys who owned them would break into a trot to get down here and get them out and put them to work creating jobs." That was when he called the guard. **+

But as I went out I had a chance to add: "I'd even put a stiff tax on semi-idle money, such 1s that invested in government securities." He said, "You can't tax tax-free securities." I said, "I wouldn't tax the tax-free SECURITIES; I'd tax the MONEY invested in the securities." He said, "You couldn't do that." I said, "The Hell we couldn't; we've done everything else on earth that we thought couldn't be done; why not this?" That was when the banker fainted. He could dish it out. but he couldn't take it.

Talk about money traveling in circles ! RFC put the pressure on the banks to make them take cash for capital stock. (RFC had a notion a lot of loose cash would make them loosen up the credit strings). The banks held back. RFC insisted. So a lot of them grabbed it. And, tore right over and bought themselves some nice new government bonds with it. And. the old vicious circle remains unbroken.

Plan to so live during 1934 that, should you die during the year, the preacher might be safe in saying some nice things about you without having those present crowd around for a look at you to see if they hadn't got into the wrong funeral.

E. D. KINGSLEY VISITS CALIFORNIA

E. D. Kingsley, president of the West Oregon Lumber Co., Linnton, Ore., manufacturers of the widely known West Oregon Super Finish, recently spent a week in San Francisco. While there Mr. Kingsley made his headquarters at the offices of Wendling-Nathan Co., California agents for his company.

Mr. Kingsley, who is a past president of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, was a pioneer many years ago in the introduction of high grade Fir finish throughout the country.

Redwood Boxboard Boxes Used for Shipping Calilornia \(/ines

Many carloads of California wines from the famous wineries of the Italian Swiss Colony at Asti, Calif., have been shipped in the last few months all over the United States. in boxes made from Redwood "Boxboard", a new product of the Hammond Lumber Company.

The company has produced and shipped up to date 2O carloads of these boxes, 500O boxes to a car. The majority of these have been used for the'shipment of wines, but several shipments have been made to The Grolier Society" publishers of the well known Book of Knowledge, who {rnd the box particularly suitable for shipping their sets, of heavy volumes.

The box is made of "Boxboard", with ends of solid R.edrvood. "Boxboard" is made of Redwood slats and jute lined with kraft paper. The two main advantages claimed for the container are its light weight and strength. It compares favorably with any other type of container for withstanding rough usage, and a feature that recommends it to some users is that it can be used a number of tirnes..

Code Authority Meets in S. F.

Retail Lumber and Building Material Code Authority (Northern California) members met at the Palace Hotel,. San Francisco, February'2. Ralph Duncan, Merced Lumber Co., Merced, chairman, presided. The principal business was the discussion of uniform terms and conditions, of sale applicable to Division No. 2 of the retail lumber and. bqilding material industry.

Visits Palm Springs

James Tyson, president of The Chas. Nelson Co., Sar Francisco, is spending some time at Palm Springs, where, he is recuperating from a recent,illness.