THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT

rid of it mighty quick. Don't worry about my salesmanship t"

When I say that "sales promotion" is the dealer's number two problem today, this is what I mean: fn war-time a shortage of staple items invariably develops at once. It becomes practically impossible to get the things that are in greatest demand-so much so that it is seldom necessary to place much, if any, sales effort behind the limited number that can be obtained. They sell themselves.

When the shortage of staple items becomes acute the lumber dealer must turn his attention to specialties which usually are more readily available. Insulation is a typical example. There are many others. These specialties have to be sold. Sales must be created. That calls for specialty selling and it represents the difierence between peace-time selling in the lumber yard. IJnfortunately, not many lumber dealers are well equipped to do this type of selling in sufficient volume to make up for the loss of volume on staple items. 'Whenever it is possible to do so it is, of course, the most satisfactory way out of the dilemma.

I have yet to find a lumber and builders' supply yard that has "nothing left to sell." I've seen a good many of them that were temporarily out ol 2x4s and boards and the day-to-day staple items that require no selling. plenty of empty bins but no empty yards.

War-time selling requires us to shift our attention frorn the empty to the full bins-to create sales for that which we have on hand, or can get.

It is important that we do not overlook the fact that a lumber and builders' supply yard is made up of several businesses under one roof-a sort of "department store" of building materials.

Roofing, for example, is but one of the many lines car, ried in practically all such establishments. Yet there are more than 5,000 concerns in the United States which sell nothing but roofing materials, usually applied, and do a thriving business.

Take paint. It is now the common practice for almost all lumber and builders' supply dealers to maintain a paint department. The important thing to remember, in this connection, is the fact that 8,50O individual dealers make a living selling nothing but paint !

During the past few years nearly 800 applicators have gone into the insulation business while lumber and builders' supply dealers still regard it as a'small volume side line-"chicken feed business" one dealer called it. War conditions, on the other hand, have shown it to be one of the most important, and most profitable, lines carried in the modern lumber yard.

Last year at one of the lumber dealer conventions one of the speakers used a large white sheet hung at the back of the platform to illustrate a point which has a bearing in the present case. On it were several hundred little squares-all white except one. It was black.

"What square are you looking at ?" he asked. The sheepish grin on the faces of many in the audience gave him the answer.

"Why don't you look at the white ones ?" was his next question as he brought home the point that it usually

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Xenophon said: "We must so strive, that each man shall regard himself as the chief cause of the victory."

*rF*

If Congress can work out a pay-as-you-go plan that will really work, and will let the world in on the secret, it wiil sure help millions of people who have never been able to find one to fit their own private affairs.

World War One cost this nation fifty billions of dollars. If wars are to be catalogued according to their cost, that war -+ompared to this one-will be referred to as the "skirmish of 1917-18."

*rF*

Have you heard of the American flyer in North Africa who wrote home and said: "The evenings here are sure dull. We eat supper, play a rubber of gin-rummy, do a cross-word puzzle, drop fifty tons of bombs on Italy, and go right to bed. Yes, it sure is dull."

*:F{.

Stalin hates "Mein Kampf" without a doubt. But they do say he isn't so strong for that "All Quiet on the Western Front," either.

{3 {. !F

And then, of course, there was the soldier who said he believed his girl friend when she said she had been alone and lonesome all the time he was away; what worried him was the sailor she called in as a witness.

And then there was the housewife who said she changed her mind about wanting some seeds from Washington when she got back that 64-page questionnaire to be filled in giving her reasons for wanting to plant them. *** rl. * {.

Reams have been written explaining what a diplomat is. The best explanation is always a fine example. And the best specimen of diplomacy of modern times was furnished by the South American gent who said, in a speech to some Americans: "Brazil is much larger than the United States ; a fact for which I sincerely apologize."

Hitler used to compare himself to Alexander the Great. Alexander wept because he could find no more worlds to conquer. But that scream out of Hitler is for other reasgns entirely. ***

There seems to be some difference of opinion in India as to whether Gandhi deJiberately starved himself, or simply lost his ration card. ,l*{.

If you are still so gullible as to believe that "the meek shdl inherit the earth," just take a look around the earth today, and see what is happening to the meek. ***

'We are living in an age when if you turn that other cheek when slapped, you will not only get the other one slapped, but your throat jolly well cut as well.

*!**

I've been trying to make up my mind for a long time who my favorite columnist is; f read them all. But f guess I'll have to vote for Robert Quillen, who recently wrote: "My favorite of all foods-which I never tasted till I was 25 yearc old-is black-eyed peas. They must be cooked with salt pork and enough water to provide lots of soup. Eaten with piping hot corn bread and good butter, they provide a feast that nothing else can equal." ***

Loudly I say amen to that opinion. A gang of colored boys were arguing one day about what was the best food in the world. Nominations were made by various members of the group in favor of many delectable dishes, from 'possum to hambone, until finally someone spoke up and said, "I votes fo' black-eyed peas as 6s bes'." Instantly an older man retorted: "Boy, you don't mean de bes'. You means de VERY bes'."

Speaking of additional war uses for lumber, the report is authoritative that the soldiers abroad have kicked so hard about getting tlieir hot dogs all mashed from too tight packing that the order has gone out that henceforth they must be packed and shipped in wire-bound wooden boxes, so that they will arrive in real hot-dog shape, rather than pulp. ***

If you are inclined to wonder at the apparently insatiable appetite of the war machine for our lumber production, stop and look at some of the particular examples. Take airplanes for instance. In 1917 and 1918, our production of airplanes was, comparatively, nothing whatever. Today we are making them by the thousands and the tens of thousands; and every one of them requires a considerable amount of lumber. Special items are used for construction. Many items are used for housing. Tremendous quantities are used for crating, boxing, shipping. Every airplane motor shipped is magnificiently boxed with wood. In perhaps a thousand different ways the great airplane industry that is revolutionizing the science of warfare, uses lumber.

,Bt3*

During World War One airplane industry used a lot of Spruce. Today they still use Spruce, but the Spruce available is not even a drop in the bucket, compared with the lumber needs of the war plane industry. And so in the West where grows most of the lumber available for the most vital aircraft uses, the industry strains every sinew to furnish the units of wood that the flying machines must have. Elsewhere in this issue will be found a most interesting story of how one single Western lumber concern has built railroads, logging camps, and even a special sawmill, just to make aircraft lumber. War planes alone, with all their ramifications, are consuming a quantity of lumber of every sort, that staggers the lumber student.

The other day we celebrated the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. The event drew even more editorial mention and oratorical attention than the recent birthday of Washington. A mighty monument was dedicated in Washington to the memory of the author of the Declaration of Inflependence. I yield to the temptation to relate a few facts concerning Jefferson that some of my friends may never have encountered; some that are a little off the beaten pathway of Jefferson eulogies. If they are already familiar to you, no harm done.

**{3

First, he was no beauty. Like Lincoln-like Washington also, as a matter of fact-he was a man of strong, rugged countenance. In addition he was freckled, as well as redheaded. One shoulder $ras lower than the other. In his youth he was a lean, lank, homely, awkward mountaineer from the Blue Ridge. As he grew older the great mind, heart, character, and personality of the man shown through his rugged exterior, so all who looked might see the greatness of him. But he had the thinnest legs in Wiltiamsburg when he first went there to attend William and Mary College. That was bad in those days of short pants, so far as looks were concerned. :t*{3

But get not the impression from all this, friend, that he (Continued on Page 10)