Building Nationally Gets Strong Setback

On May 16th the National Construction Council, composed of bankers, contractors, architects, material dealers, manufacturers, bond and insurance interests, labor, federal, state; and rrnrnicipal authorities, with delegates from all parts of the country, met in New York City, and the resolutions they passcd, published in the press of the whole country, deald the building business of the nation a paralizi,ng blow. Those resolutions urged on the whole nation tltat building construction of a speculative character be deferred for several months, and hdd that present building co6ts are excessive.

Nothing like it has happened since that remarkable period after the war when the Federal Reserve Banking System started tJle big slide by cutting the credit of the business of the country all at one fell swoop.

It is too early yet to say what the effect is going to be, but certain it is that for the time being at least, and extending right up to the mornent we go to press, the building business has been simply knocked cotrd, and the demand for lumber has been paralyzed. Prices of lumber have tumbled in every consuming territory-except Califomia.

Please understand tlrat this report is written to show the lumbermen of California the national situation. The fact is that this national condition has NOT hit California, and unless a most decided break comes in general territory, may not do so. If the general market reacts in the near future, California lumbernrien may never know the difference.

But it is interesting to know that outside ,of Calif,ornia, the building industry is now going through a period of temporary stagnation that is so sudden it is bewildering, attributable directly to the New York meeting, and the publicity given its resolutions.

ft is a well known fact, of course, trhat for the pa.srt two months our Federal Reserve Banks have been openly frowning on money lending for'building purposesr and it is generally understood that Secretary Hoover has been the man who has recommended such action. Restricti,on of public building constructiorLhas been advocated for the past two months.

The lumber industry generally believes that Mr. Hoover's attitude is caused by the slowness of the industry to re. spond to his demands, made in April, 1922, belore ttre National Lurnber Manufacturers' Association assernbled in Chicago, that the lumber industry "clean house." When the National Lurr{ber Manufacturers' Association met in March, 1923, in New Odeans, it received a message from Mr. Hoover, read by his special representative before the rneeting, criticising in no uncer,tain terms certain elerncnts of the lumber industry which has failed to respond to what he considers a vital duty to the public.

The California lurnbermen may be interested in recalling what Mr. Hoover suggested the lumher industry should do. He suggested that the lumber industry needed a "pure food'o law covering lumber; that the public has a right to know when it orders a "two by four" just exactl/ what it has a right tb expect. He suggested uniform methods, uniforrn specifications, and known quantities. He suggested that lumber be marked so that the public would know what it was getting, and so that manipulation of grades, etc., be made difficult. Public protectiorn, was what Mr. Hoover demanded, and is still demanding of the lumber industry.

Southern California, busy with her own building industry, has heard little of this, but the lumber industryf generally has heard much of it. Tob many unknown quantities, too many different grades and specifications, and too much

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