Random Editorial Ramblings

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had a tough wrestling match over this moisture content business. Naturally it presente'd a serious problem to the maqufacturers of the Pacific Northwest who have always shipped a large majority of their cornmon lumber Bren, and who had no facilities, as a rule, for drying same. Finally the Northwest manufacturers agreed on a moisture content specificatlon for their upper grades, but insist that rrdth common lurnber it should be a matter of contract.

Southern Pine, fighting the inroads of the Fir products in all their old territories, went ahead and recerttly wrote into its grading rules that any lumber containing more than a specified amount of moisture, took the next lower grade.

The lumber bu3iness in California has always been a BULK business. The big tidewater mills of the North have cut their lumber and timbers in great volume, and loaded them right from the saw onto vessels headed for California Lumber is generally cheaper iq California than anywhere else in the world. F,:rcessive competition is one reason for this condition, but bulk manufacture and "dumping" is the big reason. The mill that cuts 400,000 feet of lumber today, and has it on the way to California day after tomorrow, doesn't naturally help keep up lumber prices. If that same mill had to handle, pile, dry, re-handle, and theq ship carefully and protectively (as they do for practically all other territories) there wouldn't be so much pressure always on the California market, and conditions

George Roberts Visits Los Angeles

George Roberts of Chicago, Eastern representative for the Henry McCleary Timber Company, recently spent several days in Los Angeles visiting T. B. Hatten. He was accompanied by Mrs. Roberts.

would not be so almost eternally disrupted as they are here. ***

This move on the part of the California Retailers is the first move toward lumber standardization in this state. It is the first change that aims to make the lumber business in California slightly less a volume business, and somewhat more a known quantity. When it becomes effective thd consumer will buy his grades specifically and definitely''to suit his needs and purposes, and there will be available to him the standard specifications so that he may determine just what he wants. ***

In the long run it will hurt no one, and will help e\reryone connected with the industry. The mills of the North may object, but it will be a blessing to them. The curse of the Fir industry is their huge productivity, and inclination to dump their product. Any move that slornrs them up, will be helpful. Anything that makes California less a dumping ground will help every wholesal,er and retailer in the state. And the consumer will be many times benefited!8 :F :F

Water always seeks its level. So does busirless. California conducts its lumber business totally unlike the rest of the wodd. Which won't dways be. Many changes will come. This segregation of grades is only the first one" It's the law of standardization, of uniformity, of progress. Watch and seet

FRANK J. CONNOLLY ON EASTERN TRIP

Frank J. Connolly, assistant secretary of the Western Hardwooi Lumber Company, Los Angeles, is making a business trip to Chicago, and on his return will stop at Memphis, Denver and Salt Lake City.

In Los Angeles

We heve a large and completG rranufacturing plant in connecdon with our warehoure at 7O2 E Slauson Avenue.

RED RIVER sash are a "good buy." The soft, smooth-cutting, even textured CALIFORNIA, PINES grve clean sticking and have the "Old Fashioned White Pine" characteristic of holding their size and shape under a wide range of weather Gonditions.

CAREFUL WORKMANSHIP, combined with quantity production in our modern factory are refected in a quality product. We are equipped and organized to handle special jobs of any tize,in SASH, DOORS, MILLWORK and BUILT-IN FIXTURES.

"Producers of White Pine for Over HaIf a Century"