Low Prices M.y Have Silver

Oakland Port Commission Head Lining Talks to East B.y Hoo Hoo

Washington, April 30.-In the lumber industry there are those who think that the greatest disaster the industry has encountered in a generation was the precipitous peak of high prices attained in 1919 and 192O. In those afterwar boom ;rears lumber, non-public use of which had been severely repressed by the various policies of the Federal Government during the war, suddenly came into insistent demand.

Stocks were low and the sarvmill men were hungry for long denied business and profits. Years of restriction of building and certain non-essential industries had built up a great reservoir of demand and buying power. Altogether the situation of scarcity, necessity and deniand was such that lumber was inore subject to wild and run-away prices than most other basic or bulk commodities. In fact, very few finished articles rivaled it in its celerity and degree of price expansion between March, 1919, and February, 1920.

The average F.O.B. mill price per thousand feet of Southern pine lumber, all grades and dimensions, for example, ascended from $28.54 in March, 1919, to 96O.75 in February, 1920. The recession was fully as rapid as the climb, and in March, 1921, the averag'e price was down to $22.58. Lumbermen had thought they would never again see such prices, and they looked forward with hope to another boom when prices began to ascend again in the spring oI 1922. They never approached the 1920 peak; but, looking b;rck, it seems probable that in reaching figures around $37 so soon as 1923 they climbed too rapidly for the good of the trade. They confirmed the general belief that the industry was to be endlessly blessed with high prices and that it had little need to dig for business when events were turning it rrp.

It is considered that the alpine peak of l92O and the subsequent foothill peak of I9Z3-24 were double barriers in turning the attention and desire of the building and manufacturing public to other materials.

Now that the price average, rvhich was $60.75 in 79N, is down to $15.84. lumber statisticians and economists are beginning to u'onder whether there is not a silver lining to the present dark cloud that overhangs the industry in the possibility effects that low prices may have on lumber consumptlorl.

No other building material has declined in price so much as lumber has within the last three years. The former tremendous per capita consumption in the United States, which approximated at one time 500 feet, is attributed very largely to the then extremely low cost of this commodity relative to conrpeting materials. At $15.84 lumber is really about as cheap both nominally and in real dollars, as it rvas twenty or thirty years ago. As compared with 1920, it is 75 per cent off in price. It is more than 50 per cent off as compared with 1923, and fully 5O per cent off as compared with 1929.

It is altogether possible that, as times improve a little and the spirit of enterprise revives, the realization that the traditional .Ar.erican building material has experienced a throw-back in price almost to ancestral levels may be followed by an epidemic of detached home building. It will be recalled that the record boom in residence building got away promptly after the depression of l92O-2I and reached its climax in 1925-26, four years before the apex of the general construction boom of the 1920s was reached.

An old time crowd ol 73 rewarded the efforts of the directors of East Bay Hoo Hoo Club No. 39 by turning out to hear a talk by Ralph T. Fisher, president bf the Oaftland Port Commission and East Ray Safetv Council. at the monthly meeting of the club, heid at the Athens Athletic Club, Oakland, Monday evening, May 9.

Mr, Fisher's subjects r,vere "Interworkings of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Project", ind "Pertinent Facts About the Port of Oakland", and his excellent and clear-cut presentation of both these subjects left the members with a real knowledge of all the important facts about the great Bay Bridge, and with a much clearer comprehension of the importance and progress of the Port of Oakland.

The attendance was srvelled by a delegation brought from Stockton by Chas. G. Bird, Stockton Lumber Co., to hear Mr. Fisher's talk. Mr. Bird is chairman of the Industrial Committee of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Marine Committee of the Stockton Chamber. The delegation included two other members of the Marine Committee, Horvard Bissell and lulius Manthey; Frank Fisher, Fisher Bros. Lumber & [{ill Co.; T. L. Gardner, secretary-manager, Central Valley Lumbermen's Club; Phil Beaton, city editor, Stockton Record; A. M. Robertson, secretary-manager Stockton Chamber of Commerce; Pliny E. Holt, member advisory Stockton Port Commission; Hubert H. Briggs, chairman Marine Committee, Stockton Chamber of Commerce; Claude Clawson, Diamond Match Co., Stockton; E. W. Doe, chairman publicity committee, Stockton Chamber of Commerce.

Entertainment was provided by a boys' orchestra called the "California Bears", and by "Pep" Harper's Capwell Corral Band. Both of these organizations put on fine performances. The cowboy band was brought from Livermore by Earle Johnson.

Larue Woodson, president of the club, presided, and H.' Sewall Morton was chairman of the day.

Chairman Morton introduced Fred liurgers of the Santa Cruz Lumber Company, rvhose Hoo Hoo number is 6695, and who became a member of the order in 1898.

Buys Yard at Fresno

H. B. Gamerston, has bought the yard is operating it under Co. J. R. Shipman sistant.

of Reynier Lumber Co., San Francisco, at lM Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, and the name of National Builders'Supply is manager, and L. J. Greeh is his as-

Insulation Board Conference to be Held at Chicaso

A general conference of producers, distributors and users of insulation board will be held at l0 a.m., Monday, May 16, 1932, at the Palmer House, Chicago, Ill., according to the announcement of }Iarry H. Steidle, Division of Trade Standards, Department of Commerce. The purpose of the meeting is to consider the adoption of a standard for this commo-dity. Anyone interested in this subject is invited to attend the conference.

CHAS. CURRAN VISITS HONOLULU

Charles Curran, Curran Bros., Inc., Pomona, Calif., left Saturday, May 7, on a six weeks' trip to Honolulu."Mrs. Curran accompanied him on the trip.

National Confer ence of Lumber

Fred Conner Re-Enters Sales Managers Held in Rctail Lumber Chicago Business

Fred E. Conner

E. T. Robie and Wendell Robie, of the Auburn Lumber Co., Auburn, and Fred E. Conner, of Sacramento, have purchased the yard of the M. L. & D. Marsh Company, of Nevada City, Calif. The yard will be operated under the name of Nevada County Lumber Co., and u'ill be managed by Mt. Conner.

Mr. Conner is well kr-rown to the California lumber trade, pnd was co-owner and manager of the Sacramento Lumber Company, Sacramento, until May 16, 1924, when he sold his interests in the business. He is a progressive lumber perchandiser, takes an active interest in lumber association affairs, and is a former president of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association. E. T. Robie, and his son, Wendell Robie, are prominent Northern California retailers: E. T. Robie is vlce-president for the northerrl district of the state retailers' association.

Nevada City and the city of Grass Valley, which are only a few miles apart, are known as the "Twin Cities" and have gained national prominence for their mining activities. The M. L. & D. Marsh Company was established in the early 6O's under the firm name of Gregory & Marsh. Later Dan Marsh took over the Gregory interests, forming lhe partnership of M. L. & D. Marsh,

Lumbermen Buy Redwood Calendar

Orders and inquiries are coming in fine for the "1933" Redwood Calendar, according to Lawton & McClure, Ltd., 216 Pine Street, San Francisco, publishers of this artistic calendar, who say sales of the new one will far exceed last year's total. They will be glad to furnish particulars on ree tlest.

W. E. GRADY A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VISITOR

W. E. Grady, St. Louis, Mo., for many years associated with the lumber business in the lvliddle West, is spending a few weeks sojourning in Los Angeles. Before returning east, he plans to visit the Northwest. Mrs. Grady is accompanying him on the trip..

Chicago, April l5.-Adjournment here yesterday of the first national 'conference of lumber sales managers marked a unique and highly effective accomplishment in the industry in the opinion of those who attended and of leading manufacturers who kept in touch with the proceedings. The ten sessions proved of incal'culable advantage to the delegates in attendance, giving them their first opportunity of getting together for the purpose of analyzing the weaknesses and difficulties of lumber sales and for building a suggested program of steps for overcoming these. The recommendations resulting will be placed before the annual meeting of directors of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association at the Congress Hotel here on May 23,24 and 25, by Harry T. Kendall of Kansas City, who presided at the conference.

Despite the short notice upon which the ,c'onference was 'called, the attendance was .close to one hundred per cent, more than two dozen sales managers, representing every manufacturing region and species, being present. As called for in the tentative program, the first few sessions were devoted to ferreting out distribution and consumer appeirl weaknesses. The remainder of the sessions were given over to plans for aggressively combating and overcoming these and for generally developing lumber markets.

The sessions evoked marked interest on the part of the sales managers and there developed a strong 'belief that su.ch conferences should be held periodically. Many expressed the opinion that the mere opportunity to get together and view common problems with the eyes of fellow sales managers had proved more helpful to them than anything that had occurred in the past decade. There was a general and genuine expression of appreciation for the efforts of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association in arranging the conference and of the strong desire that similar conferences be held from time to time as a means of gradually developing a more unified sales program for the industry.

G. A. HO,USTON VISITS LOS ANGELES

George A. Houston, Long-Bell Lumber Sales Corpora- tion, Kansas City, Mo., was a visitor at the compiny's Los Angeles office around the first of the month, where he conferred with Harvey F. Bowles, manag'er of their Southern California office. Mr. Houston was en route to Kansas City following a visit to the company's mill operations at Longview, Wash.