VaSabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

"The whole world," said Mr. Pip, despairingly, "has gone to the dogs."

"Fine !" exclaimed Mr. Pep. "Think of the dog houses I'm going to sell."

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The ancient Chinese knew something of the fundamerrtals of merchandising. Witness one of their old prov' erbs, which says: "A man without a smiling face must not open a shop." Get that grin working, €v€n if things aren't so hot. A popular ballad ends-"Though things may not look bright, they'll all turn out all right, if you keep painting the clouds with sunshine."

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Ray M. Hudson, of the United States Bureau of Standards, is quoted as saying recently-"It ought to be as easy for a man to buy a home as an automobile." It IS. Just as easy, so far as financial arrangements are concerned' As a matter of fact I have seen many cases recently of brand new homes sold under foreclosure for far less than it cost to build them. You can't do that with automobiles, even in these times. Not with new ones.

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You can buy a new home today in most plaoes in the country for a cash payment smaller in comparison to the total price, than the cash payment on an automobile. And you can get a whole lot more time to pay for the house, than you can the auto And the interest rate on the house is generally smaller than on the car. It isn't THAT that makes home selling slower than auto selling. It's the selling itself' rt:t*

A well, known lumber manufacturer writes me that he thinks we are doing too much marking time in the lumber industry; that we keep waiting for things to improve, and directly we look back and see that we've wasted a lot of time. Sure ! That's exactly what the lumber industry as a whole is guilty of right now, in this time of all times when special activity and unusual effort should be the order of the day. I've been saying it so frequently in this column that it probably seems like "rubbing it in," but I'm afraid there can be no controverting the fact that in these times of depression, as always, the lumber industry is asking "When will things pick up?", instead of the'more practical and intelligent question-"\llfhat can I do to make'things better?"

Building permits in Los Angeles fo,r the year ending June 30th, 1930, weie approximately $80,000,000. It seemed small'by comparison with so'me recent years. Yet by contrast with two decades ago-which isn't a very long timeit is huge. For in the year ending June 30th, 1910, the building permits in Los Angeles were $19,000,000. The newspapers proclaimed that a banner year, as in 1909 the totals were only $11,000,000.

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The Port of Los Angeles shows mighty growth. In 1902 just 965 vessels passed through the harbor. In the year ending June 30th, 1930, the total number of vessels was 8625; The total tonnage in and out of the harbor this past year was 26,480,678 tons, valued at $1,104,892,806. Lumber played a prominent part in this total,.

On the evening of the *-a ", ,""uary, 1831, a group of men assernbled in an inn in Frankford, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia, and there in a little parlor, by the light of an oil lamp, they organized the first building and loan association. Today the United States Building & Loan League has over 1,200 mernbers, and more than eight billion dollars worth of assets, and is rated one of the most powerful movements for the good of the land in existence. The location of the headquarters of this great organization is 59 East Van Buren Street, Chicago.

Herbert lloover says that the greatest waste in our economic system is the periodic infationary boom and its consequent ensuing sl,ump, and that the correction of this waste lies in the prwention of booms. Simple indeed. Whenever we build a race of men that will refuse to in'crease prices as demand exceeds supply, we will have solved that problem. Not before.

William Trufant

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Catchings tell some fine truths in their short stories on economics. One of them tells of the Seven Little Troubles that came marching down the street. The cop on the corner stopped therrr and inquired where they were going. "We're loing where we're expected," replied the leader of the Seven. Troubles are always expected. There never was one that was dressed up and had nowhere to go.

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