If California Used Better Shingles She Would Likely Use More Shingles

By Jack Dionne

Three years ago you could ask any shingle man in the Northlvest what states lvere the great consumers of thin, lolv grade, rvooden shingles, and he would promptly reply ..CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS."

That was three years ago.

Today you ask him that same question and he answers _..CALIFORNIA.''

For Texas has seen the light of better materials and better merchandising, and has gone out of the Star Shingle column, never to return.

Two months ago at the annual convention of the retail lumber dealers of Texas, a dealer made a talk on selling wooden shingles, and during his talk he asked every dealer in the audience who did NOT carry thin shingles in stock or sell them any longer, to hold up his hand. And two thirds of those present held their hands up.

Three years ago every man in the room would have had to answer that he DID stock and sell them.

So much for the change in a short time. And the result is that in Texas the demand for and consumption of wooden shingles is INCREASING, while in California it is diminishing.

If you will ask me why, I say it is because the building trade of Texas has found what a splendid thing a good shingle roof is,'and have had no trouble in convincing their customers that a thicker, better shingle, is cheaper than the thin and poor ones, and that these good shingle roofs can be sold successfully in competition with many roofs of greater weight and cost, whereas the thin shingle fades out in the face of such competition.

I have no quarrel with the thin shingle maker. Some of my very good friends are making them. But I think the 6 to 2 Shingle is a mistake from a roof building standpoint, and that the producer who makes them and the dealer who sells them, are both making a mistake.

Nor am I declaring that the State of California should immediately discontinue entirely the use of the thin shingle. That is too much to expect all at one time.

But I believe that the thinking dealers of California should give this matter their serious thought, should stock and display high grade wooden shingles, should call attention to their merits rvhenever they sell a roof, and should preach better roofs to the trade, and understand what they are preaching about.

There are scores of lumber yards in Texas where the dealer has a shingle rack for display purposes. On this rack he lays panels of shingle roofs, a panel for each kind of shingle he handles and carries in stock.

I have talked to dozens of dealers in Texas who employ this method of showing their customers what they get rvhen they buy shingle roofs, and in every single case without one exception, these men tell me that when they show a section of a Star roof and a section of an 18 inch 5 to 2r/4 Perfection shingle roof side by side, THE BUYER TAKES THE BETTER ROOF EVERY TIME. WhCN the dealer quotes him on the FINAL cost of the two kinds of roof, even the small home builder discovers that he can cover his home with this thick, beautiful, clear shingle for very little more money than he has to pay for the thin and far less impressive roof, and he buys the good roof every time.

And when you sell a man the material for a home, and help him to decide upon the best possible roof, you have done for that man a great favor.

I do not contend that you should sell all your customers Perfections. I only mention that grade because it is an exceptionally fine shingle, and because a great nurnber of Texas yards have built up a big business in Perfections who in the past never sold anything but thin Stars. I was much impressed by this fact.

If your trade knows nothing about shingles except the thin shingle roofs they see about them, it is not surprising to find them putting some other material that the dealer probably does NOT sell, on their roofs.

I am hearing of late in California the wail that trouble with the lumber business is that too much building is being done of materials which the lumber dealers do not handle, and which the mills do not make. And the figures and facts seem to indicate that such is the case without a doubt.

And it is a moral certainty that the kind of wooden shingles that are sold generally in California has had much to do with the roofing of homes with other materials. No doubt on earth about it.

The other day I looked at a string of beautiful new homes near Los Angeles. Out of seventeen in a row, sixteen were roofed with slate and tile. The seventeenth, a house that cost about $35,000, was roofed with Star shingles.

The sixteen showed lack of enterprise on the part of the lumbermen. The seventeenth showed lack of brains on the p.art of some lumberman. It isn't much worse to prlt no shingles on sixteen homes in a row, than it is to put Star shingles on a beautiful mansion. Both cases show the trouble with the shingle businesq in California.

There is only one way to sell better wooden roofs. You must stock them, study them, display them, and merchandise them.

With high grade shingles, properly merchandised, the wooden shingle business could be increased fully fifty per cent in the State of Califorhia.

About Stained Shingles

Three years ago Texas bought a lot of stained shingles. No selling effort was put behind them, and they went dead on the hands of scores of dealers.

And you could hear machine stained shingles "cussed" right and left among the lumbermen of Texas.

Then along came some enterprising folks that knew their business. Clever, men, with a kit of samples under their arms, called on the better class of architects, the better class of home building contractors, and lastly on the retail trade. They were selling machine-stained high grade shingles. And they SOLD them. And they MOVED them. And the dealers found themselves re-ordering them to meet their demand. And others got into the game. And they had the same experience, because they put the selling push behind the stained shingles.

A Bay Lumber Notable

Here is a very good likeness of no other than Frank O'Connor. Frank is noted for a great many things, chiefly for being a very prominent Hoo Hoo in the Bay District, is President of the Douglas Fir Club, President of the Ship Owners' Association, and represents the Donovan Lumber Company.

Howell Baker On Long Vacation

Mr. Howell Baker. head of the California Panel & Veneer Company, "Panel Headquarters," Los Angeles is on a month's vacation trip.

'With Mrs. Baker, and their two children, he left San Pedro on the 15th of June, on the "Kroonland," with Havana as his first stopping place. At New York he will receive his new Marmon car, using it to tour the state. They will return to Los Angeles about the middle of Julv.

And today the stained shingle business is booming in Texas, and there are a number of men in the state who do nothing else but display, and show and talk, and sell stained shingles. And the stained shingle thing is no longer a question. It is a cinch.

And other territories also. There are lots of districts in the middle west today where the average dealer carries most of his stock in high grade stained shingles, and only a few unstained shingles in his stock, and you will find lots of progressive dealers who carry practically no unstained shingles in their sheds.

Such is the sweep of the stained shingle business. If anyone tries to tell you that the stained shingle business isn't a complete and thorough success and certain as to both the present and the future, you can just laugh up your sleeve, for you will understand that they just don't know.

In stained shingles also California has lagged-and she shouldn't.

Let's make California a better shingle state !

It CAN be done ! There's no doubt about it !

But seeking the line of least resistance won't accomplish it. You have got to spread the gospel of better wooden roofs, and you have got to be ready to visualize rvhat you are talking about.

What say? Let's give shingles a ride for the next year! They are walking mighty slow now.

ALL WRONG!

Roy P. Hunter, manag€r for the Sterling I-umber Company, Oroville, is all mad up over a well intentioned report contained in the June 15th issue.

Sorry Roy, and mighty glad to reestablish you, officially, in your job.

Here is his letter: "Calif. Lumbcr Mcrchant, Los Angclcs, Calif.

Gentlemcn:

"Your issuc of June l5th on pagc 16 rcads that Mr. Edgarc Reesc is to managc thc Oroville yard of thc Stcrling t rrnls1 Co. Wherc did you gct thc dope, how did you get it; you a16 all urrong once twicc and thrce timos yes.

"I am still manager that I know; at lcast, I arn still recciving my salary. Pleaec makc a correction on that. Mr. Rccsc is to managc thc salcs yard of the Sterling Lumber Co. AT PALERMO.

Yours vcry truly, STERLING LUMBER CO. Roy P. Hunter, Mgr."

Dean Prescott Silences Al Porter

Those that know A. L. "Algy" Porter, of Spokane, well know of his beautiful and oft-used tenor voice. They know of Al's dependableness when song is needed, and in cases, when it is not.

At the recent jinx in the Sugar Pine mountains, when the San Joaquin Valley Club entertained their brother lumbermen so royally, Al was being driven over the rough curves into the hills by F. Dean Prescott, of Fresno, in company with Frank Harris, of San Francisco.

Al's sweet voice was heard ringing through the mountain stillness, sweet in tone and mighty in volume.

On one sharp turn Al suddenly stopped, causing anxious inquiry from Frank and Dean. "Why the silence, so unusual?" they asked.

Al had bare breath to answer, "You scared all the song away when you negotiated that last curve, on two wheels."

Frank muttered an "Ameh."