V.gabond Editorials

Bv Jock Dionne

Never in the history of this country have the buildings been in such run-down condition as they are today. That means repairs"

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Never in history has there been as great need for paint on buildings and structures of every sort, as there is today. The next couple of years is going to witness an orgy of painting.

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The retail lumber industry can prepare itself to respond to this unrivalled opportunity to do the repairing and repainting business of the country in tremendous volume.

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Just the needed repairing, re-fixing, remodeling, and repainting that is vitally needed everywhere in this land, if it could be financed and developed, would mean an active and prosperous business for the next year or so, even if new building was r""r"".*

Hang up the good old sign over the lumber yard door"A board and a nail and a can of paint, Make many a place look new that ain't."

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And it would be well to keep in the front of your head the fact-

That towns are built of houses, you know And houses are built of wood; And the man who will see that both are built well, Is doing a work that's good.

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We might go rhyming on and remark thatThere ne'er was a time in the annals of rnan

When repairs were as needed as now, But the dealers efficient Can furnish sufficient By putting their hands to the plow. ***

For-don't you see-

The bird has his nest and the fox has his hole

And cattle can stand under sheds, But the children of man Are in luck if they can

Find a sheltering roof for their heads. ***

Since under the new Federal securities regulation Act fines and jail sentences are possible for the bonding and investment house that gets too enthusiastic in its advertising, there will naturally arise a new kind.of advertising man, the combination lawyer and ad writer. Every agency handling investment advertising will need one.

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What an ideal combination! The legal phraseology that makes for safety on the one hand, and the publicity redundancy and enthusiasm that rnakes for sales pressure on the other. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun ! ***

I see one great benefit that may come from the new securities regulation bill that Congress has passed. The Federal Trade Commission is made the arbiter of this law. This may keep them so busy that they wo,tr't be able to dig into the botanical and trade names of commercial woods for a while, which would help some. Although they lost their five year contention regarding what woods may be called mahogany, and about the designation of some of our pines, f've been worrying about cottonwood. Of course I know the manufacturers of this wood do not claim it is a competitor of our Southern cotton, but I,m not sure tfie F. T. C. knows it.

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And now Mr. Ickes wants to investigate the cement industry and at the same time Mr. McAdoo wants the oil industry looked over. And all the while their boss man is trying to give both these industries and all other harassed industry a chance to operate on a living basis to the end that they may put men back to work in honorable employment and thus create an irreplaceablb foundation for prosperity. Looks to me like the big man is going to have to call in the little men and explain to them just what it's all about. They don't seem to understand. Of course they found Mr. McAdoo on the Morgan list; but what Mr. Ickes is trying to set a back-fire for does not yet appear.

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The fact that aluminum kegs with glass lining are being offered-and used-for beer, as substitutes for the good old white oak kegs, shows how very much the substitute boys are going to be on the job from now on. But {fiat ain't nuthin'. The first week in April an oil refinery man told me he had loaned a lot of used gasoline drums-metal of couse-to a brewer to be used as beer containers until he could get real kegs. Wonder how the contained in that container tasted?

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Absolutely no telling what this enthusiastic beer-seeking nation DID drink the first few weeks of the beer era. Not only was it packed and shipped in any sort of containers, but the Lord only knows what they packed and shipped. Naturally the entire supply of near-beer was doctored in some fashion and foisted upon a thirsty and unsuspecting world. But that is gone by this tirne, and the brewers have had time to really make something akin to old-fashioned beer, and get decent containers to store and ship it in, and the chances are that a present day beer drinker may get something like what he expects. Soon, anyway. But I shudder to think what HAS been swallowed since April first. One man said to the other, "What do you drink?" And the answer was, "Sometimes I often wonder." He reallY sHouLD'

Mind you this is NOT offered as an editorial criticism of bringing beer back. Not at all. When Mr. John Citiz€l says-"I want beer," I say, "Give him beer." And the innovation HAS made lots of fun, and awakened lots of interest, and put a lot of money into circulation, and put a lot of men to work, and put a lot of tax money in Governmental cofrers. All of which are constructive things. And, if it will take the place of the rot-gut, murder-making, brain-killing "licker" of the bootleg regime, I'm for itstrong'

And, as an interested by-stander, I get a lot of "kick" out of watching the show. Naturally, there is a lot of farce about the fight over beer. Frequently I read where some enthusiast quotes the Bible to prove that intoxicants were approved by Scripture. They turn to that dear old mis- used, misunderstood Bible to prove everything. SURE the Bible recognizes the use of intoxicants. It likewise lays down the laws for human slavery; and for polygamy; and for many other things you would go to jail for if practiced today. Abraham, the sainted seer; David, from whom Jesus was descended; and many others of the good rnen of the Bible kept their vyomen besides their wives. And the Lord turned Miriam, the sister of Moses, into a leper because she objected to Moses marrying a colored lady (12th Chapter of Numbers). Yet we would put him in the pen if he did it in Texas today. You can prove a lot of strange things by Biblical quotations.

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But, speaking of substitutes, millions of fiber containers for beer bottles have already been used. In fact, that's about the only kind of beer bottle container to be seen, anywhere. Coca Cola has long since taken the fiber package route. Looks like loyal lumber folks are going to have to stick to old fashioned pop. They still use wooden cases for THAT.

Taxes, taxes, everywhere ! It's a strange world, my masters ! Every man, every businqss, is bowed down with the weight of the taxes we are now bearing. Yet we are told-and provably in most cases-that we can find no royal road out of the troubles in which we presently find ourselves without paying a new toll for that road-in taxes. Our most substantial hope is that, when this frenzied era has passed into history, and we arrive once again

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