THE CALIFOR}IIA LUMBERMERCHANT

JackDionne,prblishu

w. T. Bt^NtcK Advertising Mcncrgcr

Douglas Fir Ceiling Prices Increased

Washington, May 30.-'fhe OPA toCay announced mill price ceiling increases which it said averaged about $3.50 per 1000 board feet for Douglas fir and other West Coast lumber.

The higher prices, effective tomorrow, are being granted to encourage production of lumber neecled for the veterans' emergency housing program.

The increases are:

On all boards, g5.50 per 1000 board feet; on dimension lumber, $4.50 per 1000 board feet, except six-foot lengths, which are increased by an average of .,$9.50 per 1000 board feet.

On surfaced plank and small timbers, $1 per 1000 board feet.

On timbers, no general increase for large timbers. Instead, all sizes 2Ox20 inches and larger have been removed from the price regulation tables and placed under special pricing provisions.

On flooring, drop siding and bevel siding, ceiling, stepping and casing, and base-$6 per 1000 board feet on all items except flat grain bevel siding in widths over six inches.

On finish and clears two inches and thinner, $5 per 1000 board feet on all "VG" grades four inches and narrorver, and "F" grades eight inches and narrolver.

On car framing, $7 per 1000 board feet on all thicknesses up to two and three-fourths inches, $3.50 on thicknesses of three inches up to five and three-fourths inches, and $3 on thicknesses six inches and over.

On car lining, roofing and siding, $6 per 1000 board feet.

On lath and shingle bands, $4 per 1000 pieces orr No. 1 and No. 2 plaster lath, No. 1 fence lath and shingle band sticks.

(Second revised MPR 26, effective May 31.)

There is no change in the strike situation at the Redwood mills, and as we go to press has entered its twentieth week. 4,000 A. F. of L. lumber workers are out.

Three American Legion Posts asked immediate government action to settle the dispute. Posts in Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte counties told Labor Secretary Lewis Schwellenbach that the strike has resulted in "approximately 135,000,000 board feet of lumber already lost to veterans' housing and other building programs." They said this figure was equivalent to 13,500 five-room houses.

Orders for pine lumber for the rveek ending May 18 for the first time this year exceeded the previous rveek and the same week last year. Western Pine Association reports orders for the week totaled 62,703,0n board feet, as compared with 54,?16,AA0 feet the previous week and @,n6,W the same week last year. Similar comparison of production are 62,301,000, 59,395,000 and 71,48O,000 and for shipments, 57,669,0fn, 61,407,0N and 67,O22,W.

The West Coast Lumbermen's Association for the week ended May 18, 134 mills reporting, gave orders as 92,175,000 feet, shipments 83,130,000 feet, and production 85,483,000 feet. Unfilled orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 518.765.000 feet.

Two More Tree Fatmt Certifted For Cplifornia

Portland, Ore., May 15.-Two more Western Pine tree farms have been certified for California, it was announced here today by Stuart Moir, chief forester of the Western Pine Association. They are the Yosemite Mountain Ranch, Ltd., 3,600 acres in Mariposa and Madera counties, and the Soper-Wheeler company's Stlawberry Valley forest, L4,624 acres in Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties.

Entry of these into tree farm ranks brings the number of California tree farms to 23, totaling 421,434 acres and the total for the intire Western Pine region to 86 tree farms covering 2,320,658 acres, Moir reported. Nationally, the score now stands at 953, totaling nearly 12,000,m acres.

Yosemite Mountain Ranch plans to operate its forest land on a selective harvest basis as a source of revenue, and with the purpose of improving the timber standl Moir announced. W. S. Rosecrans, chairman of the California state board of forestry and president of the American Forestry association, is identified with the property, which ' is owned by a group of Californians.

The new Soper-Wheeler tree farm, containing some of the finest tree-growing land in the Sierra region, will be managed on a basis of "continuing to use, protect and harvest forest crops in a manner that will assure future crops," the company announced.

"Tree farms," Forester Moir explained, "are simply privately owned forest lands that are being managed and protected to grow trees as crops. The tree farm program is growing steadily. It is a serious and far-sighted program that bodes good for the future of our forest resources. Good forest management is to be encouraged everywhere in forest land areas."

Members of the pine association's California forest practice committee are. Flmer E,. Hall, McCloud; W. H. Reed, Chester; Kenneth R. Walker, Susanville; E. D. Baldwin, Quincy; Joel Conklin, Loyalton; L. Wambold, Stirling City; R. H. Byles, Fresno; Swift Berry, Camino, and Fred Ellis, Tuolumne.

Frank C. Osgood Retires ftom Lumber Business

Frank C. Osgood has sold his retail lumber yard at Bell, the F. C. Osgood Lumber Co., and is retiring from the lumber business. The yard was sold to E. J. Torkelson of Seattle, Wash., who will operate it as the Osgood Lumber Co.

Mr. Osgood operated the yard for twenty-five years, and is widely known in Southern California lumber circles. Before coming to Southern California, he practiced dentistry in Ogden, Utah. His home is in Huntington Park.

Buildinqr Plcnt qt Bedwood City

Tynan & Rogers, Salinas, Calif., recently began construction o{ their nerv plant at ffi4 Fifth Avenue, Redwood City, where they rvill manufacture Utility Fence. They expe,ct to begin operation of the new factory June 15. Frank A. Brown is manager.

Little Export of Philippine Lumber C. l. O. Lumber Dispute Setded Porsible Under Present Conditions

Conditions in the Philippines show little improvement, according to the May bulletin of the Philippine Mahogany Manufacturers trmport Association, Inc., Los Angeles, W. G. Scrim, president. The bulletin continues:

"Manila harbor congestion is delaving Pacific vesesls as much as three months. Inadequate transportation facilities, difficulty in obtaining materials and equipment, inflation and agrarian unrest have hampered Philippine production of many important commedities.

"In April the most important factor in the lumber situation in Manila has been the almost complete cessation of log arrivals from Luzon upcountry, This has forced some of the Chinese mills in Manila to curtail operations. Other reasons include strikes in local mills resulting in 400 per cent increase in wages over prewar rates.

"Many small mills have been started in various places using equipment disposed of bv the U. S. Army. Many logging operations started by inexperienced and underfinanced concerns are now endeavoring to get additional capital.

"The price of lumber in the local market is maintained at about P700 per M for Lauans and Apitong in wholesale lots to P900 for small "cut to order" parcels. Hardwoods brine prices no less than 50 per cent higher than T,auans.

"Some Mindanao concerns are reported selling their logs at Cebu at P30O per M. Stocks of sawn lumber in Manila are low, and will be lower as reconstruction acquires further momentum.

"Until the larger producing mills are ih operation very little export of Philippine lumber is expected. Requirements of the export market cannot be met by the temporary outfits now in operation that are insufficiently financed to handle export specifications.

"fn order to maintain former connections there is no. doubt that an effort will be made by some of the large exporters of prewar days to effect some exports even at a great sacrifice."

Chcrnge oI Ncune

Elsworth & Wilson at 5910 Castro \ralley Blvd., (Castro Valley), Hayward, Calif., will hereafter operate under the name of Castro Valley Lumber. Clarence Elsworth and Robert A. Wilson are the owners.

Portland, Ore., May 25.-The ihreat of a five-state lumber industry ti€up in the Pacific northwest was dispelled today when the C.I.O. International Woodworkers of America accepted a compromise wage offer of a general S-cent an hour raise.

The agreement, which climaxed eight weeks of negotiations, was signed by J. C. Fadling of the union negotiating committee and H. D. Waver, chairman of the fir employers' committee.

The new contract calls for a minimum of $1.10 an hour, retroactive to April l, 1946.

The settlement represented a compromise from the union's original demand of $l.l7l an hour.

Meanwhile negotiations to end the loggers' and millworkers' strike, which has kept 35,000 British Columbia workers idle for 11 days, "are practically at a standstill," Chief Justice Gord.on Sloan, conciliator; said today. The conciliator met twice with the negotiators today.

New Ycrrd in Chico

George Grant and Robert M. (Bob) Grant are general partners, and 'their father, Robert S. Grant is a limited partner, in the Chico Lumber Company, a retail lumber and building material yard recently opened in Chico, Calif. Mailing address is P. O. Box 673, Chico.

George Grant was with the Coos Bay Lumber Co. for about 20 years, and for a large part of that time was gen. eral sales manager. Bob Grant has had retail lumber experience with Smith Lumber Co., Oakland, and for some time has had charge of the distribution yard of Monarch Lumber Co., Oakland. Their father has had long experience in the lumber and millwork business.

Cooper - Hcrndricf,--

Opal M. Handrich of New London, Wisconsin, and W. E. Cooper were married at'Santa Barbara on May 13. Mr. Cooper is president of the W. E. Cooper Lumber Co. and W.E. Cooper Wholesale Lumber Co. at Los Angeles. They took a wedding trip up the Coast, going as far as Vancouver. B.C.

Bedwood logrgrrng Conlerence

The Redwood Logging Conference to be held at Eureka, Calif., on May No new dates have vet been set.

which was scheduled 24-25 was postponed.

Lumbermen All Set for Summer Hi-Jinks tune 21

Lumbermen's Post No 403 of the American Legion will hold its annual Summer HiJinks and get-together for lumbermen at the Royal Palms Hotel, 360 South Westlake. Avenue, Los Angeles, friday evening, June 21, 1946. (The Hi-Jinks was originally scheduled to be held on June 14, but the committee found it necessary to change the date to June 2I.)

Three hundred tickets will

Rugsell T. Gheen be on sale at $4.50 each which Choiracn" Arrcngeneatr will include dinner and show.

Tickets may be obtained from Milton Taenzer, American Hardwood Co., (phone PRospect 4235) or Max Vener (phone YOrk 4781).

There will be an unusually fine show which will begin at 7:fr p.m. Cocktails may be obtained in the Cocktail Room of the hotel from 5:30 p.m. on. The proceeds of the Hi-Jinks will be used by the Legionnaires to foster Hospitalization, Americanism and Boy Scout activities.

Russell T. Gheen, Alliance Lumber Co., is chairman of the Committee on Arrangements, together with Harold Hamilton, John W. Koehl & Son; Mike Kuravich, Theo Stearns, Alliance Lumber Co.; and Eric Hexberg, Alpine Lumber Co., who are assisting in the general arrangements.

GET YOUR TICKETS EARLY!

Joins Long Becch Hardwood Firm

N. W. Baum, formerly with Fellows & Stewart Yacht Building Co., Wilmington, Calif., and well-known in boat building circles, recently became associated with B. W. Byrne & Sons, Long Beach hardwood distributors.

This concern has purchased additional land adjacent to their plant, and is putting in a complete planing mill and sawmill for cutting up heavy timbers.

Government's Three-Point Program To Boost Lumber Production I

Washington, D. C., May 16-Three direct steps to bogst production of lumber for the Veterans Emergency Housing Program by more than a billion feet in 194G47 have been taken by Wilson W. Wyatt, National Housing Expediter and Administrator of the National Housing Agency, in a joint move with the Department of Agriculture.

' It is expected that between 250 and 300 million board feet will be produced beyond previous estimates f.or 1946 as a direct result of these Steps, that between 65O and 8@ million board feet will be added to next year's output, and that additional millions of board feet will go into housing that otherwise might be diverted into other use.s.

The three actions for stimulated production are:

1. Building of access roads to out-of-the-way government timber stands. The new roads are expected to add at least 10O million board feet to this year's production and 500 to 600 million board feet next year.

2. Selection by the Department of Agriculture's U. S. Forest Service, from tie bidders in the sale of national forest timber, of those bidders whose output will result in maximum production of materials needed for the housing and reconversion program. With price ceilings, every sale ordinarily results in tie bids-and the Forest Service already has instituted a system of selection among tie bidders whereby the housing and reconversion program is given primary consideration.

3. Agreement by the U. S. Forest Service to."overcut" timber beyond normal yield for an emergency period in certain localities of the South and West, as was done during the war. This will result in added production of 150 to 200 million board feet a vear. it is believed.

Before the war and for long, long years, LABOR was in great distress. LABOR cried "Work! Give us work!" But there was no work. And the hungry wolf seemed always at the workingman's door. And LABOR cried "Work ! How I would work if only I could get work!" And now there is much work. And LABOR, forgetting those sad days-STRIKES !

,Sixty-three (Eembers of the C. I. O. quto workers union in Detroit,have.been found guilty of picketing the private home of a private iitizen and the union officials ann<iunce that they will carry the verdict, by appeal, to-the highest cpurt-the.'United States Supreme Court.

'The v-€rdict should be taken to the United States Su. preme Court and by every possible short cut in the hope of establishing it as supreme law of the land.

If a rabble can mass picket the residence of a citizens and if the highest court should hold this to be legal, then it would be time to tear up the Constitution, burn the Declaration of Independence, and launch a mass exodus to Russia of every American who still believes in even the faintest semblance of freedom, civic decency and basic rights of mankind. Even with its ruthless and blood-bathed dictatorship, with its gigantic mushroom bureaucracy that makes Washington look like a toadstool, and with its complete suppression of individual rights, Russia might well become preferable to a United States in which the sanctity of the home was denied by irrevocable federal edict.

H. E. Pcrk Betires

H. E. Park, assistant secretary of the Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill & Lumber Co., has retired. He was with the firm 44 years and is well known to the lumber trade in the Los Angeles area. He resides in Arcadia.

Tha Poor ,German, Fcople

(The other day I heard an American officer relate stories of German atrocities he had himself investigated. And it brought the following'to inin-d. The Editor)) '

The poor German people are starving, they say, And begging for mercy and aid; ' r'

They ne'er were at fault, they were just led astray, By rulers they blindly obeyed.

They were not to blame for the torturing bands, Who murdered the thousands with glee; And ravished the women, and reddened their hands With blood of those helpless to flee.

They were not to blame when their bayonets they thrust, Into flyers whom fate had forced down; They did it for Kultur, in Hitler their trust, When their U-boats our loved ones did drown.

Though Hitler was naughty, his people *ire good, And didn't mean half that they did; They fear that their motives were misunderstood, Their sweetness and kindness they hid.

And now they're in trouble and want to be fed, They're sorry and cry '"Kamarad !"

So we'll love the hellions and give them our bread, And forget that they seemed to be bad.

DOUGTAS FIR

REDWOOD SUGAR OR PONDEROSA PINE SASH AND DOORS , MtttwoRK

MASONITE TEMPERED PRESDWOOD

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A retail lumber friend of mine says that this actually happened in his town. A Black Market truck loaded with lumber appeared on the street. A local merchant called a policeman, told him it was a Black Market shipment, and for him to hold the truck while he got some action. When he got back he found the cop had bought the lumber and taken it home' >r

The British are a nation of horse players of the incurable variety. When Lord Beaverbrook took over the London Daily Express the sheet struggled for existence. He put a famous horse race handicapper on the paper, and the fellow began picking an average of four winners a day. The circulation skyrocketed with no other effort behind it. It became a great success and remains so to this day. t**

I read the other day that old Bill Robinson, famous colored tap dancer, is one of the wisest of present day financiers. The story says that Bill makes about two thousand dollars a week income, but that when his earnings for the year reach sixty thousand dollars, he just quits for the remainder of the season. The tax take above sixty thousand is so great that the remainder isn't worth working for. *:&*

Read another high tax story. A very popular New York comedian gets ten thousand a week. Of this the tax man gets $9007, and the comedian gets $993. Of course we all know that the worst example of inflation in the world today isin the pay of our popular entertainers. A hundred a week would be good pay for any of the New York purveyors of off-color gags. Yet I read about a young night club entertainer recently getting twenty thousand a week for a short contract. How ridiculous. What the entertainment field needs sadly is some savage deflation. When crooners and gag-throwers get more pay in a day than a college professor gets in a month, it is time we punctured the balloon and let the gas out.

Someone told about .": J ttiur. *oa.rn-day theatrical celebrities, swelled up by his inflated income, who, when his birthday comes around, sends his mother a telegram of congratulations for having borned such a prodigy.

While on the subject * Or.lnu"rr, the anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare recently brought up that well-worn but ever popular debate entitled-"Who wrote the works accredited to Shakespeare?" Which impelled me once again to sit down and mull over that most remarkable man, whoever he was, that wrote the works called Shake' speare's. For instance:

Can you imagine a man possessed of unparalleled intelligence, writing, writing, and always writing in a world filled to bursting with vital men and terrific world events, yet who never in any way, shape or fdshion mentioned any of those contemporary people or events? Who just wrote on as though the world about him seemed not even to exist? William Shakespeare did it, which to me is as arnazing as the genius of his writing. In a world absolutely aflame, how could a man of superlative intelligence whose pen seldom left his hand, fail to take some cognizance of what was going on around him? Yet search his works and see if you can discern any trace of interest in any contemporary people ot .r.tl.

He lived at a time when Cervantes and other writing greats were making literary history. In his time Bruno, the martyr, taught in England, then went back to Rome to be burned at the stake by the power of the Pope. Drake encircled the earth. Galileo tore down a tiny world, and gave to mankind a mighty universe in its stead. Michelangelo set the world on fire with his paint brush. Kepler was educating the human race. Those were the days of the Spanish Armada, the execution of Mary Stuart, the Edict of Nantes, the Massacre of Bartholomew. Did Shakespeare ever take notice of any of these men or events? Not one word ! Figure that out, you scholars. *'F*

That a great mentality could be so utterly without interest or curiosity seems impossible. But the facts speak for themselves. Did his sub-conscious mind take possession of him utterly, shutting out all immediate impressions? Or was he like the mule that ran into the tree, who wasn't blind, just didn't give a damn? Anyway, it's something for your mental grinders to chaw on whenever you take a little time off and go to philosophizing. Every way you look at this fellow Shakespeare, the fact that he was no ordinary guy becomes increasingly evident. ***

The era of Copernicus immediately preceded that of Shakespeare. Until Copernicus came along, the earth was the center of the universe, and all the stars wele just company, scenery, or window dressing for this great earth of ours. But Copernicus taught us that the earth is only a grain of sand on the'infinite shore of the universe; that everywhere we are surrounded by shining worlds, most of them greater far in size and importance than our own; all

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