I(enneth $rnith

This is a story about Kenneth Smith, of San Francisco. President of the California Redwood Association; a Texas ranch boy who came West and made good, and who has in_ jected into the lumber industry of California a thousand times more good than he can ever take out of it, regard_ less of how well he may fare. It would be more fun to write about this man were the writer not impressed with the dif6culty of doing justice to such a Tellow.

It is pleasant to re,call that long ago this writer penned just a short editorial note in the columns of THE CALI_ FORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT which is remembered by Mr. Smith as "the first complimentary thing ever said about me in print, and while it was one of thoselhings you wrote at the moment and.forgot, it was a big thing to me.,' That came as a grand compliment to THE MERCHANT and its editor.

fn August, 7929, Mr. Smith was up to his ears in one of the most potent campaigns ever waged in the lumber industry of the West. He was attempting single_handed to switch Los Angeles from a no-grade Oregon pine market to a specified grade and grade marked Douglas Fir mar_ ket. It was a titanic job, and he tackled it with full knowl_ edge of the difficulties, but heartened by the great necessity. So he wrote a letter to Col. W. B. Greeley of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, driving home rvith sledge_ hammer blows the impracticability and crudeness and un_ intelligence of marketing good lumber in the fashion it was then marketed in California and suggesting methods and means for .correcting it. That entire letter was oub_ lished in THE MERCHANT, together with an editorial note that said; "Here is one of the grandest business let_ ters I have ever read. I strongly recommend its earnest and careful digestion by this entire industry in California.,'

Of course Kenneth Smith won that battle, changed. the entire face of the lumber industry in Southern california, and was well on his way to becoming the recognized per- sonal force for ,better merchandising and better thinking in the industry that he i's today.

It was just two years before that happened that he got himself drafted into the lumber association life of California by reason of a lot of good speeches he made. He was, in 1927, Sales Manager for E. K. Wood at Los Angeles. One day he made a speech to a lumber crowd that rocked them back on their heels. He simply told them that the only way to HAVtr a good competitor is to BE a good competitor. At that time good competitors were not overly plentiful in the Los Angelse district. The thought was catching, particularly when worded in the fashion of Kenneth Smith. so he responded to various other invitations from lumber groups,and told that same story many times. It caught on. And the result was that the major retail lumber yards of Los Angeles called his hand on this philosophy and put him in charge of a newly organized retail association within the city. So he became a Trade Association Executive, and in such a groove he has remained for over rwenry years. There were several reorganizations during the thirteen years, he served in association work in Los Angeles. During those years, he represented at various times the hardwood dealers, the coast wholesalers, and the custom millwork people, as virell as the retail dealers. In 1934 and '35 he rvas Retail Lumber Code Authority for Southern California.

In such a man as Mr. Smith there is a born and bred talent for leadership that nothing can deny, and that will not down. From the day those Los Angeles retail yards drafted him into service, that genius for leadership has continually manifested itself in his life and in his work. He combines with his leadership urge an apparently bottomless reservoir of mental and physical energy that furnishes the needed power and drive to get things done. He puts everything he has into his effort Tor today, and his preperations for tomorrop. He possesses not a feather of that fictitious bird that spends so much time looking back-