Random Editorial Ramblin$s

By Jack Dionne

All humans don't look with the same degiee of admiration at our modern American miracle workings' When Lord Balfour, the great English statesman, visited-the United States, an eithusiastic guide pointed out to'him one of the highest and most modern of New York's skyscrapers. "Think of it," exclaimed the American enthusiast, "thai mighty building is absolutely and entirely fire-proof ! ft couldn't possibly burn down!" The calm Englishman gazed at it for a moment, and then was heard to murrnur very audibly: "What a pity!"

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Every now and then someone hazards the pessimistic opinion that thc future holds very little opportunity for the man of the future, because, in the great accomplishments of the irnmediate past, "everything seems to have been done." 'We've discovered the radio, flying, etc', on top of all the other human accomplishments, and the slack in human opportunity, they say, seems to be all taken up' Which reminds us that in 1833 the head of the American Patent office at Washington wanted to resign because he felt that the possibilities of human invention had been exhausted and there was no more need for his services' Yet today applications for American patents average about 90,000annually. * *

The fact is that with every decade that passes the applications for patents will increase in number and variety' And with every year that passes the opportunity for ad' vancement in human thought, and progress in human things will increase. There never was a time when there *"ri to many vital problems crying for further development. Some of these days someone is going to discover a way to cut out static in radio, and such an invention would eclipse in value any previous invention in the world's history, financially speaking. The immediate future will develop new thoughts in flying. No possible doubt of it' The great need makes the thing a certainty. Transportation fuel afrords another marvelous field for improvement' With all the brain and energy and money now invested in transportation, the best minds are constantly on the alert for absolutely revolutionizing that field. A great auto engineer recently said: "We have perfected a car that far exceeds anything in existence. If it still does by next August, we will bring it out. But no one knows what may be brought out before that time." And so it goes. The world is tooking for-and confidently expecting-miracles. There was never a time when hutnan opportunity was so great'

In the April number of National Geographic you will find some wonderful reproductions. of likenesses of George Wasnington; done from life by great artists. And the thing that impressed me is that they don't look any more like the stereotyped pictures of the Father of our Country that have always hung in schools and libraries, than they do like Calvin Coolidge. I wonder where these streotyped pictures came from?

What a kick I got out of the Weyerhaeuser adve'rtise ment in this issue! If you had spent more than half of your life trlang to make an industry believe-through the pri'nte4 tlryewritten, and spoken word-that lurnber is MERCHANDISE and must and should be MERCHANDISED like other worth-while products, you'd understand the thrill I got. "It's Merchandise-not just lumber," says the heading. Packaged, trimmed square' ready to use, guaranteed, identified. Horrt many thousands of times I have written in these columns: "Lumber should be manufactured more slowly, more carefully, and should be sent out into the world with a selling thought, and a definite selling effort behind ever5r piece?" Last year Weyerhaeuser stepped out with their first packaged lumber. They found that it paid them handsomeln that the trade and the builder both appreciated such progressiveness. Now they are going the limit-pioneering in a wide-open field. Understand this ! Weyerhaeuser could easily cut 100 per cent more lumber in their present mills than they are cutting, if they were strictly volume-ists. "4 Square Lumber" is doing much for itself, and for the industry.

Every business -"rr, ,"l"rl"J, of his business, location, condition, or size, is necessarily cognizant of and intensely interested in, the marvelous progress of the automobile industry. If he is possessed of thinking machinery, that industry must occupy a prominent place in the operation of that machinery. A few years ago the whole world stopped and watched the auto industry with keen interest. Somehow the word had gone out that the auto industry had reached its saturation point, and was up against a stone wall. What would happen? How would they solve that problem of all problems? What would become of the used cars? How could the world go on with this huge expense anylonger? * * :B

And pretty soon we found that it was all a myth. There isn't any saturation point. There wasn't any stone wall. The problem was just a hurdle that they took at full speed, and were going faster after they lit. Today, with several times as many cars in use, and several times as many being produced, the auto industry hasn't a single serious hurdle in its path-to say nothi"f, ol "*-"11. Why?

The other day I heard the official spokesman for the , (Continued on Page 8.)