Shows lncrease

Th,e pine and redwood lumber cut in California for 1933 showed a slight upturn according to a preliminary statement prepared by the U. S. Forest Service for the Bureau of the Census. Th'e cut for the pine region of the State for large mills rvas 590,361,000 board feet and for the redwood region 200,043,00O feet. Small mills brought the total to 790,838,000 feet as compared with 680,520,000 feet in 1932. The average annual lumber cut for California during the peak years of production from L925 to 1929 inclusive was 2,063,529,ffiO board feet.

This year there will be a 100 per cent increase over 1933 in timber sales business on national forest land in California, according to estimates made by U. S. Regional Forester S. B. Show. which is considered to be an indication of general conditions in the lumber industry.

The return of 25 per cent of the receipts from the sale of Forest Service timber in 1930 netted California counties in which national forests are located a revenue of. $D7,000 for road and school purposes. This revenue dropped to $30,00O in the fiscal year 1933 but will show an increase this year, according to the Forest Service.

New Manager Appointed

Maurice M. Daubin, formerly manager of the Sterling Lumber Company's yard at Roseville, and who has been out of the lumber business for some time, has been appointed manager of the company's Salinas yard.

Lumber Mill Employment Gains Sharply Over Last Year

Washington, D. C., May 26.-April employment and payrolls at sawmills included in computations by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed wide gains over both Nlarch, 1934, and April, 1933, with the gains considerably exceeding the average of gains of all manufacturing industries reported by the U. S. Department of Labor, it was announced today by the National Lumber Manufacturers Association.

Sawmill employment in April, 1934, gained 5.3d/o,. over March, 1934, and 53.8% over April, 1933, while the average gain in rnanufacturing industries was L.9/o over March, 1934, and 37.4% over April, 1933. Sawmill payrolls rose 9/o above March, 1934, and 120.6% above April, 1933. The average gain for manufacturing industry payrolls was 3.9/o above March, 1934, and 73.5% above April, 1933.

Employment and payrolls in millwork plants also registered gains in excess of the average, except for April, 1934, over April, 1933. Millwork employment increased 4.9/o in April, 1934, over March, 1934, and 34/o over April, 1933. Millwork payrolls for April, 1934, were 6.1/o above those for March, 1934, and 608% above April, 1933.

Housing Act Hearing

Washington, D. C., June S.-Wilson Compton, general manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association and member of the Lumber Code Authority, testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency in support of the Administration sponsored National Housing Act, which bill has since been placed on the President's "must" list for passage before adjournment of Congress.

Compton said that the lumber industry, whose business a year ago had shrunk in volume to the lowest point in 60 vears and the price level to the lor,vest since 1905, has seen its volume of business increased 3O/o during the first year of the Lumber Code. He placed the increase in employment under the Code at over 55/o, the minimum wage increase at nearly IOO%, and the total payroll increase at about I2O%. Employment in sawmills alone, that is sawmills in the woods in the primary operation, in 1929 was about 450,000, then fell to below 200,000, but in March of this year was up to about 260,000.

Replying to questions by Senator Barkley he said that on the average labor accounts for 65/o of. the cost of mill production, although probably running as low as 4O/o in some areas where the industry is more highly mechanized. Questioned regarding lumber prices he said the index figure for March, 1934, showed lumber prices at 86.4/o of the 1926 avenge, rvith the high point 8/o at the first of this year.

Recommending passage of the Housing Bill, Compton termed it "a very ingenious embodiment of the insurance principle in probably the largest single area in which it can be helpfully introduced, and promising in a national sense large results in terms of economy and in stability, in security of home orvnership, and in restoring what is perhaps vastly more important, the confidence of the people that do have money to place in this particular type of investment'"