THE CALIFOR}IIA LUMBERMERCHANT

How Lumber Looks

Lurnber production during the week ended January 27, 1940, was 10 per cent less than in the previous week, shipments were 6 per cent less, and new business 10 per cent less, according to reports to the National Lumber Manufacturers Association from regional associations covering the operations of representative hardwood and softwood mills.

In the week ended January 27, 5n mills produced I77,252,0n feet of softwoods and hardwoods combined, ship- ped 188,574,000 feet, and booked orders lor N7,6/ffi feet. Revised figures for the preceding week, 518 mills reporting, were: production 196,233,M feet, shipments 20O,665,000 feet, and orders 2D586,0ffi f.eet.

Lumber orders f,or the week ended Tanuary 27 bv 429 sof'twood mills totaled 197,183,000 feei, shipments were I79,014,0N feet, and production was 168,862,000 feet. Reports from 111 hardwood mills gave new business as 10,479,W feet, shipments 9,56O,000 feet, and production 8,390.@O feet.

Seattle, Wash., Feb. 12.-"In most markets West Coast lumber prices fell off during January," the West Coast Lumberman's Association said in its monthlv survev of the industry.

The report said "the horizon of the West Coast lumber market darkened during January with the pressure of a continuing decline of general business throughout the country and the diminishing supply of shipping space for the industry's intercoastal trade.

"The California market is yet drifting in the doldrums that ended its short rise in November. Exports have slipped approximately to the low level of 1938. The backwash from the tidal wave of lumber buying in September has had a sustained bearish effect on the general market situation."

The weekly average of West Coast lumber production in January (five weefs) was 123,553,000 board f.eet, or 62.-7 pei cent of the weekly average f.or 1926-29, the industry's years of highest capacity realization. Orders averaged 131,169,000 board feet; shipments, 120,155,000. Weekly averages for December were: production, 118,168,000 board felt; orders, 155,644,N0 and shipments 113,489,000.

The industry's unfilled order file stood at 507,26IW board feet at the end of Januarl, Sross stocks at 953,000,000.

The Western Pine Association for the week ended February 3, 112 mills reporting, gave orders as 56,646,00O feet, shipments 57,087,000 feet, and production 4O,75O,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 223,17I,W feet.

The Southern Pine Association for'the week ended February 3, 131 mills reporting, gave orders as 26,545,000 feet, shipments 25533,000 feet, and production 24,724,W feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 74,I7Op$ feet.

About 12 of. the largest coastwise lumber carriers have been diverted to Central America and Atlantic Coast runs, and, according to a prominent shipping man, there is every prospect of additional ships being diverted or sold. When this happens, he says, there will be a serious shortage of lumber space on the Pacific Coast, which will result in slowing up deliveries.

Lumber cargo arriv"t, "t L* Angeles Harb,or for the week ended February 1O totaled I6,&2,NO feet as compared with 13,781,00O feet the previous week.

MlcrurN BU Rg -Du NcAN Gr'r PANY

^"Ti"J."?S:R" @ Oxuxol,ta Ctrv Bffi

An appreciation --and a promise3

Twenty years ago vre began the rnarrufacturor of IIUIiIETAL lfeather Strip for windorrs and d'oorsr Tr'e vrere first to give independent mefchants a perrnanent, practical and effleient metal strip they coukl sell over the counter--end enjoy a IIEW sou.rce of profit.

NUIIETAL still is our outstanding product, however, we have added. hundreds of nerw items to the line whlch we menufacture. Dle to the splendid loyalty and cooperation of our dealers throughout the Unitod Statese we have been abLe to grow frorn a two-mecl factory to an orga'nization of 1?5 direct eurpLoyeesr with nation-wid'e distribution.

Today practicaLLy every first olass lumber end hardrnlare concern in A:nerica buys sorne of our products. Naturally we appreqiate this opportunity of expressing our many thanks and giving f\rIl credit to the lumber and hardware trade for our grorrbh and expansion. And we are especially grateftrl to those merchants who have been with us these entire 20 years.

Spring will soon be here--Business vr1lL pick up--People wiI1. begin to buy--1940 should be a n'onderflrl year for everybody--America must, and vrilI, go forrrard.

You cari count on our continued cooperation.

yours,

.When, after many battles past, Both tired with blows make peace at last, What is it, a{ter all, the people get? Why,-taxes, widows, wooden legs, and debt.

-F'rancis Moore. ***

I believe 6rmly in the medicine of mirth, in the longevity of laughter. Solemnity and stupidity are twin brothers.

*1.*

Van Dyke wrote: "The real test of character, is joy." Van had something there.

**'t rl. {( ,f

Let's laugh today. Who knows what tomorrow will develop? Time was when to be a Roman was greater than to be a King. But the time came when to be a Roman was to be a slave.

Our present-day economists remind me of a little boy riding a hobby-horse in his mother's living room. He thinks he's traveling to beat the band, when he's only wearing out the rug.

* r *

And then, of course, there was the man who sued a woman motorist for breach of promise. She signaled for a left turn, and then changed her mind.

**'f

A visitor once asked the great Roman statesman and citizen, Cato, why it was that Rome had built no statue in his honor. Cato replied: "I would rather posterity asked why Rome did NOT build statues to me, than why they DID.'

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The success of capital was built on its ministrations to the public; and so it shall always be. The day when business could prosper by preying on the public, is far behind us. Big business has been created by the intelligent production of better goods for lower prices for Mr. John Public. All the demagogues in the nation cannot erase that fact from informed minds. "Let the buyer beware" is the slogan with which the demagogue tries to smear honest business.

***

Many horrible things have crept into our industrial af- fairs in late years. It is painfully evident that when thg end of prohibition threw thousands of professional grafters and racketeers out of their easy jobs, they turned to industry for their next victim. The Federal Government right now is stretching out its arm to remove many of these throttling tentacles from the throat of decent business. Every honest man will gladly help in the clean-up. tf*:3

The weight of the O*r" .r,n" average man is 49 ounces. The weight of the brain of an orang-utan is 16 ounces. The weight of the brain of a snob is-let's see, what's the next thing lighter than an ounce?

And the most priceless question I've heard in years is the one the little Jewish boy asked his father: "Papa, where in the world do these Gentiles get all this money we take away from them?"

***

InaJV a man hides his stupidity behind a guise of dignql. ptratespeare wrote, "There be men who do a wilful sti\s entertain with purpose to be dressed in an opinion of wisllom, gravity, and profound conceit."

-ri**PlatJ congratulated himself that he was born man, not -@; Greek, not barbarian; and that he lived in the agell Socrates. These words have been multitudinously copied.

The di$rrence between wit and humor is the width of tne yofi. A man may have wit that flashes like a rapier, and \[ be a very grim and unhappy person. But if he has humor he has happiness, also; for the two go ever hand in hand.

Sqmefwise man once said that to be in trouble was sad; \f but t\fe in trouble in Ireland was much less sad, because the lriih have such kind and charitable hearts.

The origin of the trade name "Philippine Mahogany," is one of the most unusual of lumber stories. Because the wood is NOT botanically of the Mahogany family, as you probably know. When they first began cutting the mighty stand of commercial hardwood timber in the Philippines,

(Continued on Page 8)

DRODUCED exclusively by the leading man. I ufacturers in the industry . . . and because it'stheonlyoak flooring in America guaranteed for grade . . . NOFMA Oak Flooring is recognized, by home owners everywhere, as the criterion in hardwood flooring value.

As a plus value to guaranteed grades, it is the purpose of NOFMA manufacturers to protect every user with correct instructions for proper installation. This includes specifications for trouble-proof framing of sub-floor construction in additionto laying andfinishing, all contained in pocket-size booklets, free for the asking.

No wonderthen,that the numberof NOFMA dealers are in such vast majority or that more and more are lining up with NOFMA's makers so as to get away not only from sharp pencil competition, but also the "kick-backs" that so often follow a sale of sub-standard flooring.

There's a NOFMA sales representative within reach of your telephone. CalI him, or address:

Easy to Work Easy ]o Paint

Colifornic Pine Plywood cut from selected logs of soft even-textured growth. An excellent bose Ior point ond enomel finishes economicqlly crp plied. Stroight cors or mixed cqrs with lumber ond moulding items.

Try Pine

THE RED RIVERIUMBER GO.

MrLL, FACTORTES AND GBNERAL SALES WESTVOOD, CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

Sater Olf,ce: 715 Vertern Paciic Btdg., 1031 So. Broedway

Varehoure: L. C. L Vholerale, 7O2 E. Slauron Ave. SAN FRANCISCO

Saler Ofice: 315 MoaadaocL Buildiag

OAKI,AND to NOFMA dealcrs. And plcnry oJ rcom on the bach courloryo*r imPrint, Write tor totr qaot, ,odar.

Sater Ofice: 9O8 Firrrnciel Ccatec Building

MEMBER WESTERN PINE ASSOCIATION

(Continued from Page 6) and selling and shipping their products to the United States and various other patts of the wood-using world, a most amazing name situation was discovered. Get this picture ! There were about fifty different varieties of commercial hardwoods being produced on the various islands. In each locality they called each of these woods by its local name. There were exactly 87 different dialects spoken in these various lumber producing districts. Multiply 50 by 87 and you have the different number of names of commercial woods the buyers of Philippine hardwoods had to contend with. It was a gigantic mess. For a buyer to know what he was ordering or going to get, was a real problem.

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Of course, all these fifty different woods did not exist and produce in anything like equal quantities. Some grew in great abundance. Others were rare. There was a vast difference in their physical appearance, color, density, workability, and various forms of usefulness. Soon several of the varieties that grew in most abundance and which ryere much alike in character and appearance, came to be recognized as the popular Philippine hardwoods, and their production and distribution developed very rapidly. However, there still existed the same old trouble. Each producing district called each of these woods by a different name. As usual, American buyers solved the problem, and solved it simply and easily. They called this group of woods "Philippine Mahogany." And so they are called today, the world over.

No one knows who started it. But there was a crying need for such a simplification, and the name was universally adopted in no time at all. "Philippine Mahogany" became a very popular name, and the wood found many markets, particularly the West Coast of the United States, where it is in almost as common use as Douglas Fir and Redwood. Of course, troubles came. The right to call these woods "Mahogany" was guestioned, and for many years past the organized Philippine hardwood importers have had to fight almost continuously for the right to use the word "Mahogany." They do not claim that it belongs to the Mahogany family botanically speaking. They admit no intent to deceive or defraud anyone. They always use ttre word "Philippine" before the "Mahogany." But the fight against using the name the Yankees themselves gave the wood to take it out of the name chaos that formerly existed, still goes on.

*:f{<

I never tire of hearing and reciting the unusual and characteristic words and remarks of the simple colored people of the South. And I find that the unsophisticated country type produces the most unusual distortions of the language. Not long since we saw a little six-year-old darkey carrying his Pappy's dinner pail at a Southern sawmill. FIe was so fine a specimen of his race, that we photographed him. When we showed the finished photo to the little boy's father, his eyes almost fell out in astonishment. "Yassuh, Cap'n," he said. "Dass him, sho nuff! Dass PURE him!" and "pure him" went into my note book ?s itl €ntirely new and original addition.

Los Angeles Visitor

R. C. (Bob) Parker, manager of the Pacific Coast Lumber Carriers' Association, San Francisco, spent several days in Los Angeles last week on business.

Treated Tumber

TBEATED AND STOCIED AT OUN LONG BEACH PI.AM FOR IMME.

DELIVENY TO LI'MBER renicc-dcdcr'r urtrcqt.d lubcr lor our Chronctcd Ziac Chlorldo rtocl plu chcrgr lor troatiagr. declcr'r om lunbcr+ill thip our docl or truc] lotr lron