Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) osophy must go. But think not it is going to be eady to dislodge ! It will take almost an earthquake to move it.

People are buildin*--r*"U ""*. The land is thinking building. By spring we should be,in the midst of a splendid building program that absolutely covers this nation with its entire forty-eight states. This will not only make the building industry good, but it wiil take armies of men off the unemployed lists; and these armies off that list will go to spending wages and salaries again, which money will, in return, take still other people from the ranks of the unemployed. The vicious circle of the past five years will be replaced by the golden circle of the next five. ***

Not even the fact that it is Presidential election year'is going to interfere. We've got too much rebuilding to do to let a little thing like a Presidential election get in the way. This country is going back to where it came from, and nothing is going to stop it. Men and money are going back to work. Taking the scare off of scared money will take thi scare off of scared men. Scared money and scared men are what make a panic and a depression.

This should u" opport.rrlirr*r"1, for the lumber industry, and for all of its followers. After five or six years, during which the intelligent prornotion of building bordered on the impossible, the time comes back when the salesman will get the grapes. There will be a tremendous-possibl/ unheard-of-need for buildinss; and there will be finances available to buy the materials and pay the labor.

All other intelligent J ; "i, o.n", worthwhile industries are going to sense the same thing and be out there fighting for the available dollars that Mr. John Citizen is going to spend. A life insurance salesman said to me this very morning: "The guy that doesn't get his this yearnever will." f'm inclined to think that statement will well apply to all worth-while lines of human activity. *'F*

People are going to start advertising again. (Won't that be grand for these starved lumber journals?) The building industry has been particularly mute for the past five years, more so, mayhap, than any other great industry. Not that I especially blame them. The sawmill man who couldn't sell what lumber he made and whose chief interest was trying to keep together the bodies and souls of his men, was hardly an. easy guy to talk advertising to.

But the millmen whose saws are whining, whose order fires are splendid, whose employees are busy and happy, and whose iedger-sheets are taking on the good old hue of health-that man should advertise.

The whole building t;r.r, lf,oofa advertise this year, and advertise big. They should advertise for a variety of healthy reasons, not the least of which is that they will thus sell themselves on their own industry and its possibilities. It is the birds that fly in darkness that men shoot at, not the ones that sing in the sunlight on the front porch. The lumber industry needs to do a little singing; in the sunlight; on the front porch. **{<

All the good things that MIGHT come to the lumber industry this year won't just happen. There will be plenty of smart and active hands reaching out for the consumer dollar, ready and willing-and able-to sidetrack a world of the dollars that should rightfully go to building. 'We've got to go to the public with our story. And we've got to be doggoned sure we've got a story. The public is no more interested in two-by-fours and boards than it is in nuts and screws. And the automobile industry doesn't offer nuts and screws for sale. They deliver them-in the completed car-but they don't mention them in the sales talk. *{<*

The lumber industry should start this very minute to COMB THIS NATION, SEEKING BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES. NOT next spring but this VERY MINUTE. Every day lost is a lot of sales lost. And it goes right back to the retail lumber dealer who is the point of sales contact between the industry and the building public. What are YOU, Mr. Lumber Dealer, doing about it? What are you planning to do about it? When are you going to do it? What are you planning to offer? ***

Get this ! Every highway and every by-way of these United States of America should be traversed in the next few months by men offering every sort of building service, and every prospective builder, and every prospective buyer of anything from a strip of board to an office building should be exposed to a BUILDING SALES TALK just as soon as possible. ***

Individual right doing is the hope of the lumber industry. Individual activity is the foundation on which lum- ber sales must be built. Therefore, every man who sells lumber and building service to the American public should be out right now hitting the ball. All the prospects should be coordinated and charted; all active prospects should be sold. The lumber industry should start back on its long deferred boom.

*d.d<

What is the lumber industry going to do about it? The guy I am talking to is the guy whose face you shave. What's the answer?

\(/estern Retailers To Hold Annual Meeting At Portland, Ore., Feb. 20-21-22

The 33rd annual convention of the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association will be held on February 20, 2l and 22 at the Multnomah Hotel, Portland, Oregon.

Among the speakers who will address the convention are Ernest E. Woods, Kansas City, Secretary of the Southwestern Lumbermen's Association; Alfred Collier, Klamath Falls; Ray W. Beil, Spokane; Ben H. Hazen, Portland, President, Benjamin Franklin Savings & Loan Association; Clifford C. Anglim, San Francisco, District Director, Federal Housing Administration; F. Dean Prescott, Fresno, member of the Executive Committee. National Retail Lumber Dealers' Association; Col. W. B. Greeley, Seattle, Secretary, West Coast Lumbermen's Association, and David T. Mason, Portland, Manager, Western Pine Association.

Some of the subjects scheduled for discussion are: "Getting Results with FHA"; "Where and How of Home Finance"; "What About Title II ?" ; "A Forward Look on Distribution" l "To Sell or Not to Sell Grade Marked Lumber"; "Association Teamwork fbr Profit"; "Putting New Life into the Lumber Business" l "Challenge to Management", and "Step Ahead in'36." Feature attractions will be the showing of the moving pictures, "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" produced by the Red Cedar Shingle Bureau, and "I{arvesting the Western Pines" produced by the Western Pine Association.

The annual banquet will be held Saturday evening, February 22. Everyone connected with or interested in the lumber and building material business is cordially invited to attend all convention sessions and events.

Will Reopen Redwood Mill

The mill formerly operated by E. J. Dodge Co. at Newberg, Humboldt County, will be reopened by a concern to be known as the Newberg Lumber Co., according to a report from Eureka. It is said that the new company will acquire the Bemis tract on Grizzly Creek, containing more than 3,000 acres of Redwood timber, The mill has an eight-hour capacity of 60,000 feet.

JrM \,IITSNOM ON VACATTON

Jim Wisnom, Wisnom Lumber Company, San Mateo, is on vacation in Southern California. He is a keen horseman and will be an interested spectator at the $100,000 Santa Anita Handicap, to be held on February 22.

Port Orford Oedar for

Heavy Duty Floors, Dam & Irrigation Work, Boat Building, Ttim, Screens, Closet Lining & Drawers, Lawn Furniture, Tanks and wherever Strength, Rot, Insect, Impact and Warp Resistance is needed.

Smith \(/ood-Products, Inc.

Mixed Cars of P. O. Cedar and Douglas Fir coQUrLLE, OREGON

California Sales Agents

JAMES L. HALL

San Francisco

1026 Milb Bldg.

Telephone SUtter

Main Oftce

Ralph L. Smith Lumber Co.