Why Sell Grade-Marked Lumber?

By Kenneth Smith, Los Angeles

Kenneth Smith

That's it-in order to have something to StrLL !

You are a merchant. A merchant is a Person who sells his wares for profit. A person who transfers title to his wares without taking a profit is either a philanthropist or a merchant-on-the-wiv-out. If your aim is to qualify as a philanthropist, then tiking orders for lum'ber and delivering it on a'less than cost basis probably qualifies you'

If your aim is to qualify as a merchant, then changing the basis of your -etihattditing from peddling just lumber to SELLING a definable and guaranteeable grade offers the best long-pull solution that I know anything about'

A few dealers in Los Angeles are taking advantage of the oooortunitv offered bv the West Coast Lumbermen's Assoiiation to sell straight grades in accordance with American Lum,ber standardi pliinly and OFFICIALLY marked. The U. S. Department of Commerce is actively adv.o-cating the adoption by industry of what is t<nown as the "Certification Plan" to further ihe conduct of business on the basis of accepted specifications and commercial standards. The Los Angeles dealers who are offering grade-marked lumber are in siep with the procession and you could not do a.nything thal will help your profit account more than to-join them and give yourself and your men-a chan-cg to sell up to a standird instead of down to a price, which it has by now been amply and convincingly demonstrated does not return profits.

Bob Osgood Returns From Trip To Tacoma

Bob Osgood, Wheeler, Osgood Company, Los Angeles, has returnid from a two weeks' trip to the company's plant at Tacoma, Wash. While in the Northwest, he also spent a few days at Victoria, B. C. Walter Scheck of T- os, Angeles accompanied him on the trip which they.made !f 1ut9- mobile. On their return trip they traveled over the Redwood Highway.

If your volume is large enough to justify the making of a contract with the West Coast to grade-mark in your yard, get in touch with J. C. McCune or A. A. Kayser at the West Coast office. Call them up and ask them to come out and talk to you about it. If your volume would not justify the expense, try talking it over with the wholesaler, and the wholesale yards who are offering to supply you. The main thing is to get yourself in position to SET. L lumber.

Those of you who are selling grade-marked lumber should work together and work wifh the West Coast Association and with the Department of Commerce to let the great number of buyers who will gladly specify American Standard grades know you h,ave them.

You are doing the most constructive thing that the retail lu'mber business in Los Angeles has seen for many a long year-and you should work together to use every ad- 'vantage_ that being the leaders gives you in selling the qual- ity market. Let those who do not think there is a bitter way to merchandise lumber stay in the class where Oliver Wendell Holmes put them as long as they wish. You remember he said, "The human race is divided into two classes-those who go ahead and do something, and those who_sit and inquire, lWhy wasn't it done the other way?"'

(Editor's Note: We will be pleased to publish other contributions on this subject, pro and con, from any of our f riends. )

Roy Harrington Visits Northwest

_ Roy Ha_rrington, of The California Moulding Company, Los Angeles, has returned from a two weeks' business trip to the Northwest. He reports the unemployment situation in the lumbering districts of Washington and Oregon to be very real indeed, the jobless men being very much in evid-ence everywhere, most of them mill and log camp employes.