fndustry-Wide Pubfic Refations Committee Appointed

Washington, July 1-M. L. Fleishel, NLMA president, has announced the industry-wide committee which will seek the funds necessary to implement the campaign to improve the forest industries' standing with the general public as recommended by the NLMA Executive Committee at its May 15 meeting in Washington.

F. K. \Areyerhaeuser will serve as General Chairman with C. C. Sheppard and Walter Neils as Co-Chairmen of the new 4Gman group rvhich represents all of NLMA,s federated associations.

Appointment of the General Committee establishes the machinery for providing the $300,000 necessary annually to conduct the 'rvork outlined in a public relations program presented to the Executive Committee by a special subcommittee on public relations which had studied the problem for several months in collaboration with the NLMA staff and Selvage & Smith, New York public Relations Counsel. The detailed plan of action lr,as contained in a l0O page publication-Better Public Relations For Lumber.

Because the new public relations work calls for the cooperation of a large group of varied forest industries, it will be conducted by the American Forest products Industries, Inc.

Coincidental u'ith the establishment of the larger committee. Mr. Fleishel appointed a temporary committee for the administration of the new activity. The membership of this group is: J. I\{. Brown, Earl McGou,in, Corydon Wagner, L. G. Carpenter, F. K. Weyerhaeuser, R. C. Winton, C. C. Sheppard, and I\f. L. Fleishel.

General committee appointments were:

Appalachian: Luther Griffith, E. M. Vestal.

Hardwood Dimension: C. Arthur Bruce, parrish Fuller.

Maple Flooring: John Bush.

Northeastern: Kenneth Hancock, Ned Plunkett.

Northern Hemlock: John S. Landon, John M. Bush, Geo. N. Harder.

Southern Cypress: C. R. Macpherson.

Southern Hardwood Producers: W. W. Kellogg. H. M. Seaman, Lee Robinson.

Southern Pine: E. M. McGowin, P. A. Bloomer, L. O. Crosby, Arthur Temple, W. H. Burruss, O. N. Cloud.

Veneer: Thomas A. Dean.

West Coast: Corydon Wagner, E. A. Lewis, 'Walter B. Nettleton, Edmund Hayes.

Western Pine: E. N. McDevitt, C. L. Billings, J. M. Brown, R. R. Macartney, T. S. Walker, Swift Berrr,. A. G. Glassow.

Northern Pine: L. G. Carpenter, R. C. Winton.

Walnut: B. F. Swain.

Mahoganv: H. A. Freiberg.

Red Ceclar Shingle Bureau: Paul R. Smith.

At Large: J. W. Blodgett, J. W. Watzek, Jr., W. Nf. Ritter, James G, McNary.

Ex-Officio: M. L. Fleishel, I. N. Tate.

NLMA's Subcommittee on Public Relations, which lvas instructed by their directors in Novemb er, 194O, to study the standing of the forest industries with the public, was composed of Corydon 'Wagner, F. K. Weyerhaeuser, R. C. Winton, C. C. Sheppard and Leonard Carpenter.

One of the Subcommittee's first moves was to seek means of determining the position of the forest industries with both the public and the merchants, builders and mechanics who work rvith their proclucts. The Subcommittee felt that an authoritative diagnosis of the reasons for unfavorable items in the public press concerning the forest industries and generally unsympathetic attitudes elsewhere, was an indispensable first step in the preparation of a program to fairly present full facts concerning the industry's stewardship of the forests and their generally progressive outlook.

With the assistance of NLI\IA the Committee determined to employ up-to-date scientific means of sampli.ng the reactions, or lack of reactions. among its customers and the public. In March Opinion Research, Inc., the commercial counterpart of the highly successful Institute of public Opinion, which originated the successful sampling methods ofDr. George Gallup, .ivas employed to make rvhat is probably the first authoritative survey of general thinking concerning those who utilize American forest resources. The Committee has decided that ,.off-the-cuff,, opinions concerning the industry's standing would no longer be acceptable as a basis on which to build a constructir.e public relations program.

Opinion Research, Inc., has already delivered to the public Relations Administration Committee the first draft of its preliminary conclusions. It is expected that a full report can be made to the entire industry some time late in July.

The sawmill operators who were responsible for the inauguration of the survey of the industry, the operating plan and the employment of advisory public relations counsel, expect to invite into the program forest products interests other than lumber manufacturers. Obviously, public appraisal of the manner in rvhich forest resources are employed will not differentiate between commercial forms lvhich timber crops ultimately assume.

American Forest Products fndustries, fnc., organized several years ago to permit lumbermen to be joined in constructive efforts by other forest industries, finds the netv public relations programs its most important undertaking. Carried to a successful conclusion, the public relations program as outlined will establish an activity doubling the current collective industry rvork now being conducted by the National Lumber Manufecturers' Association.

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