WOODEN SHINGLES

(Continued from Page 34)

TION BETWEEN LUMBER, BRICK, STONE; PORTLAND CEMENT, TILE AND NEW COMBINATIONS -NOT TO FORGET SLATE, TREATED WOOD SHINGLE, ASBESTOS, COPPER, ZINC AND ASPHALT COMPOSITIONS FOR THE ROOF.

When his wife answers the call of spring with a new dress she is confronted by the competition of cotton, wool, silk and rayon and the almost countless number of varieties and combinations of these. And the number of products which compete for a place on the dinner table is even less calculable.

In the same category, for instance, is the competition of fuel oil with coal; of the motion-picture with the theater, the radio and the book; of the automobile, bus and truck with the railroad and street-car1' ol magazine, newspaper and billboard for advertisers. That this type of competition is increasingly recognized is proved by tie growth of trade associations and of their constructive cooperative activities on behalf of all interested in a particular commodity or service, and sometimes of destructive efforts against competing interests.

Not One-way Competition

But, again, inter-commoCity competition is also not oneway competition. There is not only the competition of commodities for outlets but of outlets for commodities. There are hundreds of products, for instance, which are sold in hardware, drug, grocery and department stores. There is a natural tendency of almost everv kind of store to follow the'liberality of tie drug store in interpreting its function. Only Mr. Wrigley knows all the different ivailable outlets for chewing gum. Real estate and automobiles are being sold by department stores.

Of all the forms of the new competition the one with protrably the greatest economic and social significance is that of inter-industrial competition. Only a few scattered individuals at present realize the import of these developments which must inevitably assume a vital intensity in the next decade. A few among the masses of business men are beginning to see and to raise their voices, but their vision is generally trivial, distorted and colored by thwarted self-interest. These men are right, but they are helpless unless they use all the intelligence and energy they can command.

Inter-industrial competition is here; it is the competition of all industries for as much as they can get of the national Insgrns-fer their share and more of the consumer's dollar. This type of distributive pressurg !ur, of course, existed ever since our cave-man ancestor had to make up his mind whether he should put in some time killing a saber-toothed tiger for dinner or in making some drawings on the wall of his cave. This, in principle, is the equivalent of the conditions decried, for instance, by the clothing merchant who complains that the descendant of the cave-man is not spending so much on clothes because he has to pay instalments on his car. The fact is that this case is only a beginning, and only the first recognition of a widespread stress in our economic structure.

What is the cause ? In seeking it we shall mistake the effect for the cause because they are inter-related inextricably. The next few years may see legislative attempts to ease the tension, forced by those who are losing. But such attempts at reversini the economic laws of gravity will be doomed to failure if they concern themselves with what are thought to be causes.

Inter-industrial competition is one aspect of the pressure of goods for outlets-of increased pressure due to overcapacity for production. This pressure, working through all the powerful machinery of advertising exploitation, has raised the American standard of living to the highest in the world and in history. The ways of spending money have been multiplied a thousand-fold. And, in turn, the Ameri-