But How About Homes?

A decidedly clever writer using only the signature, "The Onlooker", (but whose identity we stoutly suspect because of the very quality of his production), hits so directly and interestingly at present conditions-not of business but of home building-that his remarks in the current issue of The Mississippi Valley Lumberman, are well worthy o{ quotation. In the beginning he tells us to:

"Consider some of the many things that are being offered in the 1932 automobile automatic ride control . silent gear selector free wheeling hydraulic brakes centrifuse brake drums double action shock absorbers all steel bodies wizard control . automatic clutch double-girder truss frames floating power . . squeak-proof springs . effortless steerinC . . shatterless glass automatic clutch silent-second easy-shift transmission higher speeds more cylinders . . air cleaners and intake silencers oil temperature regulators . . and so on ad infinitum !

"At higher prices ? No ! At the lowest prices in the history of the industry. You can get better cars now for $1,000 than you formerly got for $3,000 ahd up.

"And behind these miraculous transportation units is powerful advertising-fine display rooms-intelligent salesmanship-convenient financing-and ACTION !

"But that isn't all there is to the story !

"Research departments and laboratories are working day and night planning the cars of 1933, 1934, and 1935.

"Now let us take a look at the lumber yard and see what joys are in store for the home buyer of 1932.

"IIere we promptly encounter the most amazing situation that prevails in any industry and one that readily accounts for the shocking conditions which are wiping out cash reserves, capital stock and all the money that can be borrowed in an efiort to keep unseaworthy crafts afloat .in a tornado of the severest competition ever known to mankind.

"So far as the average lumber dealer is concerned there is no 1932 home. It's just the same sort of a thing that has been foisted upon the public for generations-inefficient, costly beyond reason, uncomfortable-possessing practically none of the functions that homes are supposed to possess.

"-Whose fault is it ?

"The lumber dealer blames it onto the contractor. The contractor says his customer 'doesn't know what he (or she) wants.'

"The contractor knows about as much about what a home should be as a Missouri mule does about Henry Ford's new eight-cylinder car. And if you are inclined to doubt that statement all you've got to do is to examine almost any of the contraptions that have been built during the past few years and see what's happening to them.

'lWhile the development of the automobile goes forward by leaps and bounds the development of homes goes backward until the average man can no longer afford to build one or is afraid to trv. Too many of his friends have been disappointed.

"In a few years cars have trebled in value and decreased in price. During the saine period homes have decreased in value and doubled in price.

"If the lumber industry is going to continue to put its fate in the hands of ignorant, incompetent and.even downright dishonest contractors and carpenters, then the lumber industry is broke.

"On the other hand, if the lumber industry shows the public how to build a complete home for $4,800, it will increase the biggest residential building year we have ever known by @ per cent, according to our best authorities on the subject. Ifit can produce a $3,600 home it will double the high volume rolled up in that memorable year that brought prosperity to so many industries.

"'When building insulation was made available for homes there was introduced an element which completely changed home construction practices. Twenty years later the lumber industry hadn't found it out !

"'Where it was once necessary to try and obtain strength and warmth with lap-siding, building paper, sheathing, lath and plaster, the arrival of insulation meant that the warmth factor could now become something real and could be taken care of in an entirely different manner. A home could be made as heat and cold proof as a refrigerator box. In other words, the heat loss lvould be so small in winter that it could easily be replaced by a simple heating unitprobably electricity-if homes were properly built.

"But the carpenter-contractor, and even the architect, muffed the ball entirely. Very few homes are properly insulated today. Heating costs are appalling and summer discomforts a disgrace to the men who planned and built the home.

"Now comes a new element which is the direct result of insulation-air conditioning. The greatest race in the history of the heating and ventilating industry is to produce machines which automatically heat, cool and humidify the home. Several are almost ready to be announced. Naturally an air conditioned home is beyond the mental capacity of the average carpenter and many contractors, which means that he is rapidly nearing extinction if he hopes to continue to operate in the future as he has in the and hammer, on the job for its existence. read points in the home-a home as easy to buy and

"Everylvhere you go-everything you direction of the development of a nerv efficient, as eco.nomical to operate, as finance, as the automobile.

"It may be steel, synthetic materials, lumber or what have you. Lumber has the best chances so far as materials are concerned, but the poorest so far as progressiveness is concerned. It is still thinking in terms of 2x4s and boards. To assume that all these homes will look alike is absurd. Why should they? They will be produced from sections which can be quickly put together into millions of different forms.

"The man who buys one will not be required to agree to spend his lifetime paying for it' Each component part rvill NOT be sold by a separate distributing organization and co-ordinated by an incompetent carpenter by hand labor on the job. Costs will be more than cut in twoprobably in three.

"Big business has its eye on the small home marketa market wide open for someone to take it-not a leg to stand on so far as a single factor in efficiency, economy' comfort or cost is concerned.

"And if lumber allows its last big market to get away there is only one answer-

"Good-bve to lumber !"

B. c. Logsers seek Government Reduction in Timber Royalties

British Columbia loggers are asking the government for a reduction of 50 cents per M. bd ft. in timber royalties, states a report from Trade Commissioner E. G. Babbitt at Vancouver to the Lumber Division of the Department of Commerce. A delegation of loggers have visited the Minister of Lands for this purpose.

The delegation is said to have described the situation in the B. C. lumbering industry at present as acute in that while there is a shortage of logs and plenty of business offering, loggers cannot produce at the prices quoted. The delegation has asked for action by the government to give relief to the industry by any means in its power, suggesting royalty cuts as temporary aid.

Independent logging companies and 1og buying mills are nearly at a standstill due to this condition, the delegation reported, while concurrently good orders are being turned away, as production at present costs cannot meet the prices quoted.

The delegation is said to have discussed every phase of the situation with the Minister of Lands and touched informally on a suggestion that the loggers put their facilities at the disposal of the government for creation of lvork under unemployment relief. Ol 27,W men normally employed in the industry, only about 10,000 are now at work.