Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

Ilere's the latest and best "gag" that is going the rounds about hard times: "In New York City times are so hard that the bootleggers have had to lay off two hundred Revenue officers"'

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Throughout the Iength and breadth of the land the call is going forth through eyery publicity agency available that business in this country can never get well until the retail prices of commodities come down to a level justified by the wholesale prices. News agencies of all sorts have been drafted to spread the news. The gist of the thing is that the public has a right to know how low commodities really are, and if the retailer won't tell the story, someone else MUST; that business can never start UP, until prices to the consumer Set DOWN, ***

Great is the. growth and development of the demind for Grade-marked lumber in California. The man who doesn't sell it, whether wholesale or retail, is out of luck. The West Coast Lumbermen's Association has gone at the thing in a very.forceful and,intelligent way., that is hugely facilitating the spread of the Grade-marked gospel.

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First, they have authorized a large number of retailers to apply the Grade-mark themselves. This has been dqne in exactly the sasre manner as the association authorizes its member mills to do their own grading. A yard that applies for the Grade-marking privilege appoints some employee as its official grader. The W.C.L.A. grading officer in California instructs this man in the art of grading according to the Association rules.IIe turns the Grade-marking stamps of the Association over to this yard only when such official grader qualifies as competent. ***

A check-up o'f this man's work takes place frequently and at unknown intervals. The Association inspector drops it1 any time he feels like it, and looks over the Grade-marked lumber. Any deviation from the Association ,rules found in the Grade-marked lumber brings a quick check-up. Sometimes the grader is corrected in his work, if the errors found are explainable. Otherwise the Association man picks up the grading stamps, and leaves theyard flat. Sometimes the Association man checks over lumbet' that has been delivered on a job, to see that the grading is correctly done. A very large number of California lumber yards have been given the Grade-marking privilege and are using it actively.

Or, another scheme is that anyone who applies for same and will pay the reasonable fee charged by the Association, can have lumber graded and the Association Grade-mark applied by an.Association inspector. This permits anyone who so desires, whether they stock Grade-marked lumber or not, to sell and deliver Association stamped Gfademarkedlumber'

You've got totip your hat to the broad mindedness of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association in this matter. So dire does this Association consider the need- for bringing chaos out of the lumber grading situation that has always prevailed in California, that it has taken up the burden at its own expense of developing the Grade-marking of lumber in this state, drawing noline of demarkation whatsoever between its member mills, who are paying the bills for the campaign, and the non-member mills. The Association Grade-marking stamp, as stated above, is being applied in California to lumber that is on grade, regardless of whether or not it comes from Association member mills. *,i

We extend our greetings to that Association for so broad a perspective. Of course we all know that since the lumber business began there have always been a certain number who assumed all the necessary obligations attendant upon the orderly procedure of making and marketing lumber, holding an umbrella over the always-existing number who never do their share. ,F{.*

Without the work of the organized Associations we would have no uniform methods of grading, no uniform sizes or dimensions-just chaos. There would be no one to fight for fair deals in matters of transportation, of legislation, and the various other matters of serious importance, without which effort there could be no organized lumber industry. Without the AsSociations everyone would make his own grades, his own sizes, pay his own freight rates, do things his own way, and there would be chaos and nothing more. :k**

So it is not a matter of great surprise to see these mills of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, loyal to their product and itsvital needs, going out and financing this Grade-marking campaign, and unselfishly putting their own stamp of approval on the products of non-member mills.

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