Random Editorial Ramblings

By Jack Dionne

We won't indulge in any platitudes regarding this, our sixth birthday. If we've done well, the lumber industry knows it, and no self praise is needed, and no self appraisement would be valued. If we haven't, they know that also, and no self protestations or subterfuge will convinpe them otherwise. So we simply leave it to you to say whether or not this Journal has lived up to its hope of being essentially and practically USEFUL. For to be USEFUL has been our primary ambition-and true usefulness includes most other worthwhile characteristics.

But we can and DO say "Thank you" to every lumber man and lumber vyoman whose good-will and co-operation keeps us hitting the ball. We hope the next year will bring peace and prosperity to every one of you. ***

If the rut-riders, the do-nothings, the get-nowheres, the goodreorougfr-for-father-and-good-enough-f or-me fdlks speak ill of you-Rejoice ! You may be getting somewhere. But if they speak well of you-Bevvare ! You may be joining their ranks.

Speaking from a business, and not a partisan standpoint, the Republican nominee for President should be a pleasing choice. Mr. Hoover is a business man, understands busin€ss, s5rmpathizes with business, possesses a business consciousness, and if elected President would lend to businBss an understanding mind. If the Democrats do as well, business may breathe easily for another four years. *** the answer.

Every now and then some humorist writes us sarcastically criticising the line on the outside front cover of this magazine which refers to The Gulf Coast Lumberman as "America's Foremost Retail Lumber Journal". Sorfie of them get right "sassy" and want to know where The California Lumber Merchant comes in, and why we publish a second class paper in California and a first class paper in Texaq etc. Of course, our wise-crackers didn't stop to, think that The California Lumber Merchant does NOT pretend or propose to be a "retail lumber journal", but rather a journal that covers the entire lumber industry of California, sawmill, planing mill, millwork industry, wholesaler, retailer and every other branch; while The Gulf Coast Lumberman covers many states and is edited strictly as a "retail lumber journal".

Well, Mr. Lumber Merchant, have you CREATED any busi4ess since you read this column last? No? Then you're not a merchant-you're just a wood yard man. Here's how you can tell. When you get to your office every morning with this idea foremost in your s1ild-"!l/hat can I sell today that would not be sold BY ANYONE without a creative effort?"-then you are not merchant-minded. Not otherwise. That house bill you got away from your com- petitor, aJter the fellow has done all the preliminaries to building, isn't necessarily merchandising. If you plant the IDEA that develops into an order-THAT'S merchandising. Or, if your particular plans, or your special service, or something that differentiated between you and your competitors-without price-cutting or qudity reducingbrought you the order, then you are merchandising. But to make an order grow where none grew before, or make two orders grow where there was only one-THAT'S merchandising. And that sort of merchandising is what is needed throughout the lumber O";t"ft;

Suggested slogan for ambitious lumber merchants: "Sell something every day to someone who was not openly in the market." You don't have ts cut prices to get that sort of orders' * ,r. rrr

Dontt put a ttsilencer" on your business gun. Use arl AMPLIFIER. Honest, it won't do you any harm for every man, woman and child in your territory to know with what fine things of a building kind you are equipped, and know how to do FOR t"t*. * * ,n -

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," says the old adage. "A grapefruit by any other name would still squirt in your eye," says a ne\rver one. Philippine Mahogany, regardless of what you may call it, is a beautiful, useful, practical, economical wood of many varieties, colors and grains, and it is surely a "comef', regardless of the eventual court decision as to its trade name. You can't keep a good wood down. These Phitippine woods have come iqto popular demand because of what they ARE' not because of their trade name. And their progress will continue regardless of names. * ,r

Receqtly a hardwood man from Memphis visited Los Angeles. fle was shown through the big hardwood whole' sale yards, and he looked with unconcealed amazement and admiration at great piles of Philippine "squares", without a knot or defect in the carload. "I didn't know there was such a supply of clear cabinet wood on earth," he, is reported as saying. "There are no limitations to the possibilities of such a wood"'. True ! And one of the best things atout Philippine Mahogany is that there'is huge quantities of it'

Are there any homes in your community that look like 1910 model automobiles? Qould you suggest things that would make those houses more useful, more attractive, more homelike? You could, couldn't you? Have you done so? Does that home owner know what you could do for him? How is he going to fiqd out?

(Continued on Pa$e 16) (Continued