Vagabond Editoriafs

(Continued from Page 6) selling large quantities of this Redwood bark to middle western and eastern manufacturers of asphalt roofings, for the rltne porpore.

Someone might well ask, ,.Who is the substitute now?" for wood is here replacing rags for a commercial purpose for which rags have been used for generations. And, instead of this asphalt roofing being a ..substitute for wood", we find it depending on a wood base for much of its virtue. Where we used to find competition, we now find cooperation.

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Change! Only a few months ago the oil iroducers would all have gone to jail had they gotten together and said"The market is over-supplied, the price has gone to pot, let's agree to reduce our production and get this business straightened out". That was a few months ago. Today we find Government clamoring to MAKE the oil producers agree to cut down their production. Proration, they call it.

I know a lot of other industries that would like to get a Government permit to agree on restricted production. Take lumber, for instance. We manufacture from raw materials that are just as important and probably far more limited in final supply as do the oil people. How about getting pro. ration permit for all the sawmills? They need it, and could use it to advantage.

And lots of others -oorl ,;" ."". My friend, Dan orr, who owns a showcase manufacturing company, and one of the keenest thinking birds I know, froths at the mouth every time you mention Governmental interference in business. "They've got a Farm Relief Board in Washington

Oregon Lumbermen Visit California

low", said Dan the other day, ..so when f went to Washington I looked around for the showcase and fixture relief board, but couldn't find one. No reason why not. The showcase and fixture business is in worse shape than the farm business, but no one seems interested in relieving us. f wonder why they discriminate? Why don't you see if you can't get them to appoint a lumber journal relief board to help YOUR busines*s?"

Speaking of moratoriums, I wonder if we couldn't gei the Government to declare a moratorium for a year or so on the activities of The Federal Trade Commission, and give business a rest. It really w*ould help.

And now the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the cement industry. And the various retail lumber associations of the country are made parties to the investigationby having their records examined to see what they have been doing with and about cement. Some of these days these cement folks will see the wisdom of the advice I have given them for years, which is, to enthusiastically exploit their individual brands. Outward evidence of competition is healthful. The public tjn.: ,.; So does the law.

More change! In 1909 lumber production reached its peak in this country, the total for the year having been 44,510,000,000 feet. In 1931 production will not exceed 30,000,0001000 feet. Continual reduction in evidence. But plywood, which is wood sliced up and practically and attractively re-made into perfect boards, increases in volume of production. In 1909 we cut 435,981,000 feet of logs into plywood. In 1929 we used 1,112,910,000 for this purp<ise, an increase of about 250 per cent. And plywood, there can be no possible doubt, is just beginning to scratch the sur. face of its possibitities.

Walnut Association Secretary Visits Pacific Coast

Burdette Green, secretary of the American Walnut Association, Chicago, is spending some weeks on the pacific Coast, calling on the hardlvood trade.