Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) be working well. But they don't use the old slang phrase -"p6n't take any wooden money." They take all they canget'

* * *

And the fellow who slices the logs into the veneer which is to be so co,ined, murrnurs to himself as he watches his output: "That runs into money fast."

These are times ,ot"r,*trrlirrlr" ""ro"i"tions. like individuals and corporations, fight for existence. The various lumber associations are catching unshirted Hades. The retail associations are particularly hard hit. Not only have the closing and combining of yards everywhere cut down their numbers, but financial straits make it so easy for others to say-"1ye must drop out for this year." *** lently thumb my nose at the prophet. For one thing I am sure of. There is no flat "bottom" to this depression. It goes down until it starts going up. And it will be on the way up for some little time before we are certain of it. It will be like a rubber ball that is dropped. When it hits the floor it will bounce.

Let's hang onto these associations, rnen ! We need 'em ! And the minute things get definitely prosperous again, we'll need 'em worse than ever. There is just one thought for us all to hold in this matter. For the organizations themselves-economy, retrenchment, reduced overhead. increased zeal. For the members-a determination to stick to the old ship through this stonn. You CAN do it. Associations take a long time and a lot of effort to build up. They are easily torn down. And once down, the re-building is a greater job than the first building. So keep them up. Individually we are pygmies-the sport of all the winds that blow. Collectively, we speak coherently, convincingly, intelligently !

There are optimistic signs in evidence now. The banks have quit closing. Numerous banks that have closed are opening up. The anti-hoarding campaign is making a definite impression. The campaign to find and create employment is showing its effects. The pall of fear that hung over the railroads has been lifted by the knowledge that the Government Refinance Corporation will see that they get their bond-interest money. Perhaps we have bounced. One thing is certain. We are either still going down, or we are already going up.

An eminent financier ;a: lor,*,"rrtion of bankers the other day: "You must either start lending money, or at least act as though you were willing to lend money," if you want to get this depression*over.

The Wisconsin

Retail;;:.*"r's

Association at its recent meeting in Milwaukee staged a hit in the shape of a boxing match. The two boxers were attractive girls, Miss Lumber in white, and Miss Depression in black. Need I say that Miss Lumb* yr:O"f out Miss Depression?

Years ago, when my hair grew thick, Don Montgomery, red-hot secretary of the Wisconsin association, used to invite and urge me every year to come to their February meeting and hit the platform. I invariably sent the same answer: "Not in February, my friend, it's too blankety blank cold." Then o,ne summer, it was eleven years ago, he wrote: "We're going to organize a retail lumber association in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan; come and help; it won't be too cold; I dare you." So I went; and the association we organized is still going.

Whenever I hear or read one of these prognostications to the effect that "the depression in business is now on bottom and we can hope soon for signs of improvement", I si-

The hardwood lumber industry is watching with intense interest developments at the Ford auto plant. If Henry gets to really making as many cais as it is reported he is going to make, itwill have an amazingly strengthening effect on the hardwood trade. The present Ford uses nearly 200 feet of hardwood lumber. If the new Ford is the big hit that is predicted, and sells as cheap as is being reported (Will Rogers writing from Detroit said Henry was going to sell "an eight for the price of a four and a four for the price of a baby carriage"), a huge quantity of hardwood lumber is going to be needed.

Something new under the sun.A creosote plant in Texas has discovered-and proven-that aluminum paint can be used to paint creosoted wood, and will stay put, preserve its color and condition, etc. They have a creosoted pole painted over with aluminum paint that has stood out in the weather now for three years,. and still looks like a solid aluminum pole. The black has never come through. This, needless to say, is a big discovery. There are many places where creosoted wood might be used where the creosoted surface is objectionable. A covering of aluminum makes it attractive and acceptable, and just as practical-ierhaps more so-than without the aluminum. A great invention, this aluminum paint. They are using it for nearly as many new purposed as they are cellophane.

And speaking of cellophane, it is-as you know-a product of du Pont. And du Pont has 1,300 people in its 'research department-engineers, chemists, etc.-seeking new things for the world to buy from du Pont. They make cellophane out of cotton. What, I wonder, would these 1,300 people do for the lumber industry if they were .seeking facts and truths and innovations and ideas along LUMBER lines, instead of the ones they follow?

Personally r am conv;i ;". the collective lumber industry should never again tryto spend a single thin dime for advertising to the consurner until they have searched for and found new things, and new uses, and new ideas to promote. To keep on talking "just lumber" when the rest of the world talks of new, useful, attractive things that the consumer is just greedy to possess-is sheerest folly; hopeless and useless waste of money.

A smart lumber ,""""rl"a,irur*."ru something to me the other day that hit me. He said: "We ought to get up a big pot of money when this depression is over, and then go to someone with a big trained force of research engineers and experts, and say to them-'find us new uses for wood, and when you find them, bring them to us, and we have the cash to pay you for them."' I think there is a big idea there. I don't believe the lumber industry is ever going to create for itself anything like the research department that the needs and possibilities justify. We would most likely end up with a bunch of ballyhoo artists, instead of searchers. But we can hang up the cash as a premium, and say to the right kind of people-"here is the prize for you to shoot at."

The average scientific-r";.* who creates something still has to find a market for it, and finding the market is generally beyond his ability, for he is a scientist. But if we will hang up a big bag of cash before these scientific eyes, and pay cash on the barrel head for the valuable ideas developed, we can buy wisdom galore. The money the lumber industry has wasted in the last ten years trying hopelessly to advertise lumber to the consumer, with nothing tangible or desirable or novel with which to engage the public attention, would induce a thousand savants to get out their research equipment ind their test tubes, and work 18 hours a day to produce. We could probably dig up one hundred good sales ideas a year in that fashion.

Buys Yards at Yuba City ,/ and Tudor

J. C. Nason, Nason Lumber Company, who has been operating yards at Yuba City and Tudor, Calif., has sold his interests to the Union Lumber Company, of Marysville, Calif. Isador Cheim, manager of the Union Lumber Company yard at Marysville, will also be manager of the yard at Yuba City. The yard at Tudor will be discontinued. Mr. Nason has not announced his plans for the future.