The Value of a State Lumber Association

By C. W. PINKERTON, Whitticr, Cal. President. California Retail Lumbermcn's Assn.

So many people ask me what are the functions of a state association of lumber dealers, that I am imposing on The California Lumber Merchant for space in which to answer that question in general manner.

There is no question as to the value of the various district organizations. They handle local and district problems in a wav that no larger or more general organization can hope to do. I have been identified for years u'ith the Southern California Lumber Dealers' Association, and somewhat active in its operations, and a strong believer in the usefulness and necessity for such organizations.

But there are problems continually arising in the lumber industry of any great lumber consuming state, that call for the united action of ALL the lumber dealers of the state. and not for district or local activities. Take the new housing law to which our association has recently secured suih amendments as pulled the teeth of the law, so ,far as the lumbermen are concerned. It required a state organization to handle this matter. To go before the Legislature as The California Lumbermen's Association means a great deal more to the Legislators than to go to them with representatives of various smaller organizations.

A state association could iustify its existence by its work in preventing injurious laws alone, even if thal were its only activity, which it is not.

During the late war when the Government of the United States called its various industries together 'to coordinate the work of winning the war, a statewide association could have been of great value to the industry and to the Government, had there been one to decide important matters pertinent to California, and act through the general lumber meetings that were held. When the Government asked for lumber information. it asked the various state associations throuqhout the country, and thus reached a great number of dealers directly. The Government could not take u.p its wishes with all the various local lum'ber associatlons.

There are rate matters continu'ally bobbing up in California that are ,important to all dealers, and. should therefore be handled by' the state lumbermen as a unit.

There are many things that will come to California in the future that affect the entire' lumber industry. The lumber dealers need a general state association to handle such affairs and handle them practically.

It is worthy of attention that the great lumber consuming states of the union all have their state associations and that without except.ion they are very successful. In most cases these organizatians 'have district associations also, but the parent body is considered absolutely vital.

Among the states that have powerful and, experienced state organizations may be named Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, Louisirana, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Kentucky. Some of these are more than a generation old, and getting stronger and more useful all the time.

I recentlv sat and talked with Tack Dionne about the Lumbermei's Association of Texas. which he took when it was a very smalL organization, and built into the most powerful and respected of state lumber associations, Like California, Texas is a state of great size, and covers a varietv of territory. There are district and local lumber associitions in many parts of Texas, yet the state'associations has more than one thousand, members, which does wonderful work every year for the retailers of Texas by being always on the job to handle as a unit any ,rnatt€r that arises vital to the lumber dealers of the entire state. Mr. Dionne thinks such an organization as the Texas Association is the most valuable of all lumber units.

I am not in favor o{ a statewide association that interferes in any way with the activities of any other California association, but I do believe that there is a great work and a great necessity for a California statewide association, and thit the problems of such an organization will increase and multiply as time passes.

\ tr f RITE one letter aslcing for. what inforY Y mation you want; mail it to-the Tacoma Lumbermen's CIub, and immediately upon receipt, your inquiry will be placed before the entire lumber manufacturing interests of Tacoma and Tacoma District- "The Lumber Capital of America."

This is a service which the Tacoma Lumbermen's Club-a non-profit service organizatioi.r comprising the leaders in the industry and comprehending every branch of manufacture and re-manufactur*ofiers you without charge or obligation.

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