Vagabond Editoriafs

Bv Jack Dionne

Good morning, mX lumber friends ! Are you ready fo.r the big balloon ascension? No? Then get ready!

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Personally, I'm ready. I've got on my fying clothes and am practicing for high business altitudes. Sort of acclimating myself, as it were. I'm like the kid at the circus waiting for the balloon ascension in the old days. And, like the kid who had watched them putting the gas into the big bag, I'm convinced that it won't be long now.

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What I'm trying to tell you in my enthusiastic fashion, friends, is that it looks from where I,m sitting like business is getting ready to soar-has already started, as a matter of fact.

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I may be a little over-enthusiastic, and may be placing too much weight on my hunches and impressions, but it looks like a carbolic, copper-riveted cinch to me that in another three or four months things are going to be fairly flying in this country in a business way. f mean ALL business, and particularly the lumber and building industries.

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I don't see how it can miss. And I think that the lumber and building industry-like Abou Ben Adhem-will undoubtedly and unquestionably lead all the rest.

The reports f get from all over the country as this is written make me believe that the building industry is already throbbing with new energ"y. And it proves what I have repeated so frequently in this column-namely-that business is mental. You take the week before the recent upward swing in the stock market, and how were things? About as flat as they have ever been-in the lumber business nationally-since 1929. f don't see that there is any deep, dark mystery about it, however. Course f couldn't see it in advance. but now that its happened it seems simple enough. It was the announced intention of o,ur Government, of course, that things MUST pick up in this country, that did it. That announced intention was backed by such powerful levers to force the development of that ambition, that thinking men knew it had to happen. Weapons and sinews of war such as had never been known before by any Governrnent in this or any other world, had been given to this Government to work with. Thinking people quickly became convinced that everything MUST necessarily turn UPWARD, simply because there was nowhere else for them to turn.

Then one fine day in the morning the stock market began acting like a little boy who has sat down on the business end of a live wire, and presto ! Everything started coming to life ! Right now ! And every day the stock market went up, other things improved. Business began to smile. And business hasn't been smiling for a long, long time. Today the physical affairs of this country look immensely better than they did just thirty days ago, and the balloon ascension hasn't even got well started.

What started the stock market on its sudden and unexpected upward swoop? Ah ! That's a matter of conjecture, my friends. Everyone has been taking turns guessing at that. Nobody expected it. It just happened, like Topsy. But it came, thank God, just at a time when business the country over was in the deep, deep doldrums. And it acted like " ntno.

It is true that we -"U" r* *""rr"s effort of dumping billions of dollars in this land to make business good; and that after an apparent fine up-swing there followed a sort of collapse. But remember, when we turned loose those other billions there existed a tremendous crater of depression slack to be taken up, which swallowed up much of the power and the money. Today there is nothing of that sort. We have been on a pretty fat keel for the past eight months, but there is no great crater or vacuum to be filled, and the new lending-spending program finds us with a pretty fair and firm foundation for the new cash to build uPon'

So I am certain that things are going up, flying. Take lumber, for instance. From ocean to ocean, those who buy lumber customarily but have been buying too little lately, NEED LUMBER. And they are well able to pay for what they need. Most lumber dealers and users the country over have been buying a lot less lumber than they have been selling for the past several months. All they've got to do to make business very good is to buy what they NEED.

To my mind it would be utterly impossible to pile billions of fresh dollars upon our present situation without creating a tremendous market of all kinds. Just the weight of the money alone would do that. And then we hear rumors that unless good times return speedily enough, there may be further devaluation of the dollar, and there may be other efforts resorted to, to put more gas in the rising business balloon. Today a world of money owners in this country are thoroughly convinced that good commodities are more valuable than cash. So they rushed into the stock market, and helped start business going. And this same conviction is boosting the business rise in every wa''

We have become accustomed to big figures in this country in late years. After listening to an astronomer discuss space distances, and light years, and star numbers for an hour or so, we become mentally numb to such things. We have gotten that way about money figures in this country. So, when it was recently decided to spend four or five billion more dollars to fight depression with, most of our good folks yawned and made no efrort to interpret that into terms that might be understood. I won't attempt it' But you can be certain that this nation is about to turn loose in luscious gobs a sum of money never conceived of by any other nation even in a mince-pie nightmare' r am not attempting a".diJ"nJ" this thing over the long route. What will happen when the money runs out again unless in the meantime business goes back to a sound and solid basis of operation, belongs entirely in the field of conjecture. But for the immediate present, for the next year, good business and good times look to me like a copperriveted cinch. ft seems to me that th: ,""*"* of the lumber industry and of the building industry would be entirely safe in slNCE.l88t

And we have gone further. In addition to handing our Government this unbelievable sum of cash to distribute, we have clothed it with other powers and authorities that are too great even for most of us to estimate or conjecture. It can make the gold content of the dollar what it pleases, in case it deems it necessary to help fight depression. It can do other things of a money character, boundless in their possibilities. In other words, we have handed over countless money and measureless powers with which to create prosperity in this country. It is to be done in the next few months. And to my notion there never existed a more definite certainty, anywhere, any time, anyhow. It can't possibly miss. We ought to have something closely resembling a business boom before the first of the year.

SNIDER RED CEDAR SHINGLES HAVE MAllE RtltlF HISTORY!

From the acrliest dcys in the Pocilic Coqat Shingle Industry, Snider Shingleg hqve been Lnown Ior their high quclity Red Cedcr trrd theb line worlmcnship ln Ednulacturing. Through the yeos the acnufccluring dnd drying proc€saes hwe been iroproved until todcry SNIDER RED CEDAR SHINGI.ES INE TRT'LY TIIE FINEST SHINGLES MONEI CAN BttYl The cloge, even grcin g'uarctlrteo8 d peDodnent rool Iree lroo repoirs ctrr ercellent insulstion qgqinst we(llher.

Snlder Shingles cona h all eizag ond grcdes. Also Nu Cut Shaleg see your n€creat adlea repr€ssntqtive Ior prlces.

eal,l@in 9nltt 04lh2t llvla N, Lolgrra 2l0l Cal. 8t. Flllnorc 6l7t So Frcnclrco, Cd. assuming that that is what is about to happen, and to further assume that the building industry will lead the procession. There are today in Washington about three hundred paid publicity propagandists employed by various phases of our Government, fooding the country with prosperity arguments, and pep talks. And please notice that every broadside that goes out refers specifically to the leading part that building is ALREADY playing in the business hill-climb.

There never was a time before when building was onehalf so spotJighted, so advertised, so thoroughly promoted. It is every man's job to prepare to do his part.

John E. Marshall Picnic Delightful Affair

A delightful picnic \,\ras held at Royal Palms, Point Fermin, San Pedro, Sunday, July 10, by John E. Marshall, Inc. of I-ong Beach, for their employes, families and friends. There was a big turnout and everybody reported a wonderful time.

The affair was efficiently carried out by Sam Chapelle, general manager of the company, and his three lovely assistants, Virginia Ricketts, Adaline Sibson and Mae Garner of the office force. Sam personally supervised the serving of the splendid luncheon.

John E. Marshall, president of the company, was on hand to see that everybody was enjoying themselves. He is held in high esteem by his employes and many friends, and holding these parties a.nnually is certainly very commendable on his part.

During the afternoon, there was a fine program of outdoor sports, both for the youngsters and the grown-ups, including running races, three-legged race, bag race, tug of war, etc.

John E. Marshall, Inc., lumber handlers, operates three docks, Pier A and B, Outer Harbor, Long Beach, and Berth 28, Terminal Island. IVIr. Marshall has been specializing in handling lumber at the Harbor since 1914.

Addresses Agricultural Engineers

Max E. Cook, agricultural engineer, The Pacific Lumber Company, San Francisco, was one of the speakers at the 32nd annual convention of the American Society of Agritultural Engineers, held at Asilomar, on the Monterey Peninsula, June 26'to 30.

He spoke on the subject of "Marketing a Pre-Fabricated Septic Tank."

Mr. Cook, who is a member of the Society, was appointed National chairman of the Committee on Rural Sanitation.

Wll&rd ?. Coopor !(ll Glcil 8t. Ctdtol lSi[ Lor lrgolo, Ccl.

Swafford And Von Breton

H. W. Swafford, of E. J. Stanton & Son, Los Angeles, has returned home after a three weeks' business trip that took him through the Pine milling districts of both California and Oregon.

Hal von Breton, of the same concern, is spending his vacation far down the West coast of Mexico.