"Holding The Line"

Saint Paul, Minn., July l,1946.

To All Employees:

The following is a statement which Mr. F. K. Weyerhaeuser gave in an interview with the local papers, which states our price position:

"Mr. F. K. Weyerhaeuser, president of the Weyerhaeuser Sales Company, states this morning that the following instructions have been wired to all sales offices of the company:

'You will continue for the present to sell on the basis of our June 30 price lists, which were at or under OPA ceilings. You will also continue to distribute our products to regular customers, paying no attention to price offers over published lists.'

"Mr. 'Weyerhaeuser further states that the Weyerhaeuser Sales Company does not expect to make any advance in its price averages unless circumstances beyond the company's control, including increased costs, compel such action."

You may give such publicity as you wish to the above statement, which we think is a very important one at this time.

HARRY T. KENDALL

Lumber prices probably will not be changed materially, C. H. Kreienbaum, president of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, said in a statement issued at Seattle.

"The danger of runaway prices is well recognized and I believe the challenge of President Truman to business to maintain reasonable prices will be accepted by the individual operators of the West Coast lumber industry. There probably will be some gouging by the irresponsible opportunists, but on the whole I do not expect any material changes in present lumber price levels."

S. V. Fullaway, Jr., Portland, Ore., secretary-manager of the Western Pine Association, in a bulletin to his members warned that spiraling prices would bring chaos to the industry and said that "the Western pin€ industry made an enviable record, under terrific handicap, in meeting wartime requirements for lumber. It will meet this present test by common sense restraint."

No price increase is anticipated in the Northwest's plywood industry, according to Thomas B. Malarkey, Portland, Ore., president of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association.

"I am confident this industry will not adopt the 'shortsighted policy of pyramiding plywood prices," Mr. Malarkey said.

"We are hopeful this view will be shared by others, whose materials and labor make up the cost of our product' Only through such similar attitude' and identical action can we, or any other industry, hold the price line," he stated.

Robert J. Wright, Fresno, Calif., executive vice president of the Lumber Merchants Association of Northern California, in a bulletin to its members stated:

"Conversations with members throughout Northern California indicate that there is a strong feeling.among dealers that they will 'hold the line' on prices so far as it is' possible."

The Southern Pine Industry Committee, New Orleans, La., in a letter to Southern pine manufacturers, states: "We are able to report that the attitude seems to be in favor of holding prices as near to the existing level as possible. At the same time, the manufacturers we have contacted express the hope that it will be possible to restore the relationships between items, sizes, and grades that existed before the advent of price control. It is felt that such adjustments are necessary to increase the supply of housing construction items which are so critically needed now to assure a greater degree of success to the National Housing Program."

(Continued on Page 6)