Four Years Old

By JACK DIONNE

"Know Thyself"; this Socrates continually dinned into the ears of the men of his time. And "Know Thyself," The California Lumber Merchant has been continually, for four years, trying to drive home to the mentality of the California lumber industry.

Because what Socrates preached to the Athenians, is the same philosophy that the business men of today need continually impressed upon them.

Four years ago the lumber industry of California was without any medium of thought exchange, any mirror of publicity in which it could look upo4 and judge itself, any vehicle of news gathering and transmission, any journalistic mouthpiece t h r o u g h which it could address itself and the world in general.

Yet this mighty commonwealth with its great forest wealth, its huge building industry, its live, active aqd aggressive lumber fraternity, and its distinct pre-eminen-e in the world of business, finance and industry, seemed to us-more than any other district in this natiorl-to be in need of such service as a California Lumber Merchapt could give.

It was of such impression that this journal was born.

Four years is a mighty little time in the life of a California Redwood, but it seems a long time in the life of a publication. And the early years are the interesting years.

With the close of each year, and the printing of each Birthday Issue, we become more and more thoroughly convinced that there WAS a great field-a great NEED-for the Lumber Merchant.

The lumber industry of California just "didn't know what it was missing" until the Lumber Merchant came along to make its cheerful bow twice every month, to spread thoughas of progress, co-operation, good cheer, better business thinking, better buJiness operation, truthful news and editorials that look always on the sunny side of things- just an optimistic message to and between lumbermen.

And, just four years after the first number was issued, it actually seems as though we have been doing it always, and we'll gamble that the average California lumberman 91n hardly remember when he didn't have the first and fifteenth coming of the Lumber Merchant to look forward to.

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They have been four interesting years.. We have made plenty of mistakes during that time, and the beauty of it is that we know it. The man who doesn't make mistakeJ isn't doing anything. The greater work you try to do, the greater chance to make mistakes you have. So we have tried our "durndest", and we make our "busts" every now and then just like other poor humans.

But they have been mistakes of the head, and not of the heart, and every page of every issue during the four years we have been in business has been devoted to-an honest and earnest effort to do something worth while for the lumber business in California, and for the lumber folks of this great commonwealth.

And we are cheered on by the growing and developing co-operation and assistance of these good lumber people, to go on with the work. We are not at all modest. We believe this to be the keenest aqd cleverest lumber journal published anywhere. We are trying to make it reflect the qualities of this modern Garden of Eden that men call California, and while we can only hitch our wagon to a star in shooting at so high a mark, we believe that we have give4 to California a publication that gets entirely ou1 of the average trade journal rut, in physical as well as mental qualities. Look it over, then look over the average lumber jotrrnal, and note the difference in appearance, typing, paper stock, etc., not to mention the methods of handling the news and editorials.

The Lumber Merchant has been a success from its first issue. One of the chief essentials of a successful speech, is a good audience. And the same is true of a publication. A kindly, considerate, charitable, interested personnel of readers is a fundamental. And THIS The Lumber Merchant has had, and for that fact it is deeply grateful. The lumber people of California have been charitable with our mistakes, generous in their apprecia- tion of the things we have accomplished, a4d always ready to help us make the giade.

And we enter our fifth year of existence, bubbling over with determination to make every lumberman and every- lumber woman- in California proud that the state possesses such a journal as The California Lumber Merchant.

Watch our smoke.