Let Every Lumberman Do His Part To Help Make Business Good

By Jack Dionne

About ten years ago I made my first visit to the Pacific Northwest, going there to deliver an address to the Red Cedar Shingle Manufacturers. In thinking over the lumber situation in California today, I am carried back to the day of that address before that bunch of splendid fellows who m.aje up the Shingle Association-such men as John McMaster, E. E. Case, E. C. Miller, Neil Jamison, George Bergstrom, and others-and the remark I uttered that seemed to be the biggest hit of my talk, which was:

"Gentlemen, I am convinced that you are the most intelligent, the most loveable set of disorganized jackasses that it has ever beeq my pleasure.to meet."

They WERE, and they cheerfully admitted it, and acknowledged the truth of the hit by their loud applause.

But there was one thing to be said in behalf of those Shingle Manufacturers that cannot be said for the lumber folks of California today who aro crying-"Bad business." The shingle men could not and did not succeed in finding a market for their product, and therefore they cut their prices to starvation level in otder to try and force business. (Of course, business cannot be forced or created in that way. They know that NOW. But they did not know it THEN )

But here in California, in the midst of plenty, with a demand that is taking care of a splendid volume of business, and with crop, financial, and economic conditions in the State in splendid health, we fiqd the lumber folks sobbing about how bad business is.

I have been doing a whole lot of looking, listening, and questioning for the past several weeks, and the situation in Southern California is as sadly man-made as any unsatisfactory lumber situation I ever saw-and I have seen a wonderful variety of them during the twenty-odd years I have been watching and writing lumber markets.

I have found retail lumbermen who are doing a splendid busingss and making a splendid profit, and who are most enthusiastic over things as THEY find them. I have found wholesalers who are making good money, and who are listening in on the recent broadcasting of pessimism, sawing wood, and saying nothing. I have found sash and door men who are doing a nice business and making a nice profit.

And, on the other hand, I have found others in those same three lines who tell me they never saw business so rotteq. THESE are in the majority.

But here is the impressive thought-the SAVING thought from my viewpoint: ALL OF THEM ADMIT THAT THE TROUBLE ALL LIES IN OVERHEATED COMPETITION AND RESULTANT LOW PRICES.

Take Los Angeles, for instance. It may be truly said that Los Angeles makes the Southern California lumber market, and has a powerful efrect on the entire California situation, because of the tremendous consumption of lumber iq and imrnediately surrounding the city.

In Los Angeles a great ded more lumber has been bought and consumed during the first six months of this year, than during the same period of last year. In Los Angeles the building permits for the first half of the year far exceed those of last year. (See facts and figures in this issue to demonstrate this,conclusively.) In Los Angeles the bank clearings are greater than they were last year; the postoffice volume is greater than last year; the general economic situation, collections, failures, etc., show a better condition than last year; the big stores of Los Angeles report business much better this year than last.

ADD UP THAT TOTAL OF GOOD POINTS AND YOU FIND WHAT WOULD SEEM TO INDICATE SPLENDID CONDITIONS THAT WOULD CERTAINLY JUSTIFY PROSPERITY IN SO BASIC AND FUNDAMENTAL A BUSINESS AS THE LUMBER INDUSTRY.

Yet Los Angeles has become pessimistic headquarters for lumber. Why?

They all give the same answer. "Starvation prices."

So, here we are, face to face with a lumber situation that could and should be splendidly prosperous, and ISN'T. Looks like it were time for intelligent and fair thinking men to do something in the face of so excellent a prospect.

So, what are'we going to do about California, and this foolish situation that has arisen here? There is just one answer. Individual right thinking and right dclng, is now and always, the hope of the lumber industrji.

Every man in this industry owes it co the industry, to his own business, and to himself, to do something to help the industry. And here is a situation where he can only help himself by helping everybody else to get this lumber business back in shape.

So let every man in the business take the responsibility on himself of doing SOMETHING EVERY DAY to help make the lumber business better.

There are two things EVERY MAN can do. He can stop talking pessimism; he can start talking optimism. A.y man who doesn't understar\d that this alone, if followed by all members of the industry would help a whole lot, doesn't know human nature, and doesn't know the lumber business.

Start with those two things:

STOP TALKING PESSIMISM.

START TALKING OPTIMISM.

Then go ahead andASK A PRICE ON EVERYTHING YOU SELL THAT MEANS A FAIR PROFIT AND F'AILING TO GET THAT, DON'T SELL.

You'd be surprised how quickly those three things alone would help the market. It wouldn't take a week to make a decided change. Honest it wouldn't.

"But," many will say, "if I don't meet and beat the price of So-arrd-So, I don't get any business." All right. Let's assume that you don't, momentarily. It would be better to keep your stock for a short time, than to sell for cost, or at a loss. And the stock that IS sold at a decent profit, will fix a higher price level as the value of YOUR goods, and the next thing you know you WILL be selling stock, and getting a fair price. It works that way. Any REAL merchant knows that.

The public is not going to object to a living price for lumber. The public profits in the long run by such a situation. When goods are all sold on price, the fellow who has to cut too deep to get business, has only one recourse. I{e must do some manipulating of grades' some substituting, to get out of the hole. The public is the unsuspecting victim, and in the long run, a too-low price of a basic commodity hurts public and industry both.

Let every man use his brains and ingenuity to devise ways and means of selling on some system other than the slashing of price. No one ever profited consistently by a purely price cutting campaign of selling goods.

L. A. LUMBERMEN TO PLAY GOLF

Mr. Frank Burnaby, Sun Lumber Company, Beverly Hills, and chairman of the Los Angeles Hoo Hoo Club Golf Committee, has just disclosed the date of the next Tournament to be held for the lumbermen of Southern California, under the auspices of Hoo Hoo.

Roy Stanton, demon mashie throrver, has arranged with the Lakeside Country Club to be host to the boys on July 16th, when an 18 hole tournament will be played for the usual string of excellent prizes, and there will be another bloody duel between the Retailers and Wholesalers.

Let every seller of lumber busy his mind with reasons why people should buy from him on some basis other than Mr. Pip's slogan of-"The cheapest lumber at the cheapest price." There MUST be some other reason why people should trade with YOU ! If there isn't, you don't belong in this business !

If the lumbermen of California will just give their undivided thought to the idea of selling building material at a fair profit, it won't take thirty days to get the game back in good shape in California.

CREATE SOME BUSINESS. Get some of the cash that is going in other directions, transferred into business channels by active and intelligent effort to create a desire for those things your lumber will build.

If every lumberman in California sold one fence this month that he would not have otherwise sold, business would be improved.

Now, all together. Let's make the lumber business good iq California. There is enough energy and brains in this industry in this state to make it boom before the summer is over. But it won't "just happen." You have to make it.

WILL YOU DO YOUR SHARE?

A Stag Dinner will wind up the festivities in the evening, and Frank says the entire party will be Bigger and Better. Lakeside is a very snappy sporty course, according to Roy, and it is anticipated that a record crowd will turn out.