Vagabond Editorials

(Continued on Page 6) have to pay on the loan. But he appointed a referee in the Both of them were amateurs. There has never been a masr case who was instructed to collect payments from the ter story-teller on the stage or screen' so far as I know. carpenter WHENEVER THE CARPENTER WAS There have been-and are-men who can do a grand job of ABLE TO MAKE THEM, but set no date for such pay- some particular form of story-telling. But of men who can ments or settlement, ***

It is reported that worlds of borrowers from HOLC have never since they got their loans paid interest, taxes, or anything else, and never intended to. So far as the Government is concerned, it made its HOLC loans in good faith and for a worthy purpose; but they were made during the period of time when from the length and breadth of this land people were borrowing everything they could get from Uncle Sam for innumerable purposes besides relieving mortgage distress on homes; and when it was freely proclaimed that "Santa Claus" would never try to collect. *** handle ALL the many branches of story'telling-there is practically no such animal. Dialectarians and orators combined-arefew'

I have myself sat and heard men roar with laughter when they proposed getting huge loans from the Government, and were asked the once important question; "FIow can we ever repay it?" That feeling that Uncle Sam only wanted to distribute money to get it in circulation and that he never expected to get it back, was a very general one. Many men who sought HOLC loans, sought them with that mental attitude toward the loan; while the majority were in such deep trouble with their home mortgages, that they had no desire to look deep into the future, but grabbed at the opportunity offered.

Uncle Sam acted a *.Jo *r,J. His proposition and his terms were fair. But he is going to have to take a huge percentage of those homes from their owners-or else. The thing is so big it is bound to attract much attention as the tide of delinquency rises.

It sure puts Uncle ,"- t" " lorr*n "noa. He moved in nobly to prevent hundreds of thousands of American families from being thrown out of their homes because of home indebtedness i and now for him to have to move in and throw them out himself in wholesale quantities, is something of a predicament. What will he do?

George C. Walker is dead. To many people in California that name and that news is very important. George C. Walker was a famous builder and constructor of fine buildings in the West. But to me it meant a lot more than that. Several years ago I told a newspaper man who interviewed me on the subject of stories and story-telling; that in my ramblings I had never heard but two master story-tellers.

I had heard two. Dr. Jack Shields was the greatest I ever heard. He died several years ago. George C. Walker was the other. And when I picked uP a newspaper and found that he had died-as did Dr. Shields-from a heart attack, I felt a great sense o'f personal loss. Had George Walker not been a master of his profession and a most successful business man, he could have set the entertainment field afire. For he had everything. He could tell a darkey story far better than Irvin Cobb; an Irish story in much finer style than could the Virginia Judge; a Hill-Billy story better than Bob Burns; and besides he was a master of Swede, Italian, Spanish, English, Cockney, Scotch, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, stammering, hair-lip, and everything else. He was a REAL story-teller, was George Walker. We won't hear any more like him. And that kind of story-teller -for some reason-never gets on the stage. He is always too busy doing something else.

I got "jumped on" in rltJry l""rrion since my last issue Vagabonds by the Certain-teed Products Corporation concerning the remark I made about Beaver Board being a thing of the past. I was thinking of my old group of friends in The Beaver Board Company, at Buffalo, New York, who first made, sold, and marvelously advertised Beaver Board' That concern has been gone these many years" In 1928 Certain-teed bought their remaining physical assets, and they make a variety of wallboards that they call by that same grand old name, Beaver Board. And what is more, they tell me business with those products is very, very good. Which is as it should be.

On California Business Trip

Ernest E. Johnson, vice-president and sales manager of the C. D. Johnson Lumber Corporation. Portland, Ore', is on a business trip to the company's California offices' He spent most of last week in San Francisco. arrcl is visiting Los Angeles this week.

Hammond Purchases Two Vessels

Hammond Lumber Company, San Francisco, purchased trvo ships from the Charles Nelson Company, San Francisco, February 23, the Jacox ancl the Glymont, sister vessels. The ships rvill be renamed the Arcata ancl the Portland.