Kenneth Smith Pictures Conditions and Makes Pertinent Suggestions to Northern Mills

(Continued trollr Page 24)

The first step I would recommend is that you publicly and heartily applaud the dealers of Southern California for discontinuing the sale to the consuming public of mixed grades of common and then put all of the influence that your organization possesses behind securing the cooperation of the manufacturers who cater to this market in supplying straight grades and in discontinuing their- present practice bf 6ndeavoring to discourage the movement by asking an unreasonable differential in price for straight grades and taking an unreasonable time for filling orders.

As a second step I would recommend that in order to take care of the situation presented by the physical inability of a number of manufacturers to segregate grades at the mill that you come down tir that small group of jobbing yards at San Pedro who handle through their plants more than half of the lumber that comes into Southern California with a proposal to license them to officially grade mark with the symbol of the West Coast under the supervision and continual check of your inspectiou department. You have an ideal opportunity to completely remove, by such a step, the very real and riasonable objection that many manufacturers have to backing the segregated grade and grade-marking program. There are only six of these jobbing yards and it would be just as simple for you to supervise grading and grade-marking at those six plants as at the mills due to the fact that sixty million feet or more moves through those plants each month. Indeed, it seems to me that you could more easily supervise grading and grade-marking there .than at the mills. due to the concentration cif volume that would be handled by six corps of inspectors.

An added advantage of such an arrangement would be that it :would automatically take care of the commons brought down rough and surfaced at San Pedro which comprises more than half of the commons handled by the jobbing yards. Even if you grade mark every foot of surfaced lumber that is shipped to Southern California you would still have to make some coperative arrangement with the jobbing yards to authorize and supervise official W. C. L. A. grade marking of the lumber surfaced in San Pedro in order to make your program effective, so that it seems to me that such an arrangement, if effected at this time, would help both manufacturers and retailers and that it is an absolute necessity to the establishment of W. C. L. A. andlor tree grade-marked lumber in Southern California.

I have in mind, in making this suggestion, that you concede for the time being the grade marking of lumber sized to the so-called California standards on the theory that they are in fact the same as the American lumber standards for industrial lumber and leave the question of adopting American standard sizes for yard stock and also the adoption of the surfacing practices favored by the manufacturers and the still more difficult problem of "dry" lumber, to a future date when your sales office in Los Angeles shall have won the consent of the dealers to making the change, a step that will not be difficult if approached after you have done some of these other conshuctive things that are more needed.

I do not predict that such a proposal would be welcomed with open arms but I am of the opinion.that future advances will have to come from the manufacturers and I am confident that the working out of such an arrangement between your Association and the jobbing yards at San Pedro is the one thing which would most quickly and most surely put over the grade-marking program.

It would accelerate the whole trade extension program of our industry and give new meaning and life to the efforts of our leaders to develop a spirit of cooperation between all divisions of our industry that will lead to the joint solution of mutual problems. It is my considered judgment that there is no single project you could undertake at this time which would be either in its immediate or ultimate effect so helpful to the establishment of the trade extension program of the West Coast.

As the third step, I would recommend that you put in Los Angeles a Trade Extension staff, not just a man, or just a man and a girl, but a well equipped Trade Extension office, headed by the ablest man in your organization. Between one-fourth and one-fifth of all the lumber you make comes to California. The per capita lumber consumption is the greatest in the United States. It probably represents the most likely area of continirous building activity over the years to come of any spot in America. It is far easier to keep a market that you have now than to regain one that you havb lost ''and it would, therefore, seem reasonable that you have a greater op- portuniti to cash in on prospective trade extension work in this rnarket than you would have anywhere else.

You have,'most certainly, an unmatched opportunity here, but to cash in on it you need to send down the highest type of ssls5msnmen who can sell ideas-teacherF who can both convince and inspire. My idea is that the opportunity here is as big as the man and'that you would be thoroughly justified in sending the ablest member of your staff here and surrounding him with the best men procurable.

The first job they would have would be to sell the new grading rules to the dealers. I can understand that just mailing out a copy of these rules to dealers who are already buying and selling on rail grades might secure very satisfactory results, but it is my belief that merely distributing the grading rules to the dealers in.this territory without an adequate personal follow up, would be productive of very little results. The very great majority of the dealers in this territory do not know how grading rules are made or interpreted and will conclude from reading the rules that a given grade would be very much poorer than is actually the case. They need and will heartily welcome first hand explanation, This same service is needed with the specifying and consuming public.

The efforts of your staff to improve lumber standards and milling and construction practices in California will be ably supported by the California Development Association which functions as the Chamber of Commerce of this state. whose board of directors have already proffered support to the National Committee on wood utitization, the National Lumber Manufacturers Association and any other interested agencies. Their interest in the subject is by no means perfunctory and one of their influential directors will be present at the meetings of the Board of Directors of the National at Longview on the 8th and 9th to learn how they may work with the industry to improve building conditions in California.

Another job for your sales office and one that seems to me to offer splendid opportunity for creative selling is teaching the dealers to sell and the architect to specify Structural. This is practically an unknown item in Southern California yet we have a tremendous industrial building program going on and in contemplation. The steel and concrete people have a free hand here even on one and two story buildings and your staff should be able to go a long way toward paying for itself by the development of this business alone.

This is a green lumber market yet a recent survey shows that more than 50 per cent of the architects have asked whether it will ever be possible to specify dry lumber in Los Angeles. The metal sash people are very aggressive and are securing an increasing percentage of the business every year. People are tiring a little of white walls and red roofs and while it would be bucking the tide to try to sell the idea of all wood construction there is a great potential market for all wood interiors in the public rooms of homes and for shakes and heavy sawn shingle roofs.

The use of steel derricks increases. The National has helped retain this market for you, particularly by stopping the passage of restrictive legislation but they cannot begin to make the contacts that should be made on this business. Interesting the dealer in the possibilities of backing a Home Modernization advertising program is another field. Selling realtors on the uses of grade marked lumber would, of itself, assure the success of a wood program in this market because of the tremendous amount of building done by them, particularly if this were coupted with setling the idea to the Building and Loan offices of Southern California of knowing the lumber they loan their money on, Keeping some of the air ports from going to steel and concrete would help you, because we are going to be building air ports from now on.

Another thing I have in mind is that you could well afford to back this step with some association advertising as this would probably lead in time to cooperative advertising and would give your men the opportunity to sell the idea, They would undoubtedly be able to contribute to the development of a better mutual understanding between thb manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

Finally, not as a fourth step, but as a means of bringing about the three things I have suggested I would urge that the West Coast appoint a representative committee of manufacturers who cater to the Califorriia market to corne down to California to discuss problems and remedies in detail. It is only possible in a letter of this kind to discuss the high lights and at most it is the opinion of only one observer. It is my thought in suggesting this that many of the manufacturers do not have a contact with the retailers and rather regard the wholesalers as being their customers, when, as a matter of fact, neither wholesaler nor retailer is the customer of the manLfadturer. They are in reality merely his salesmen.

Lumber is not sold until it is purchased by the consumer and a

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Ilt'KTLN,DRTED!

-r Llhads the reason why greater-

-, Elo"r,*rh and durability are possible-

Eln*, Fir lumber bearing the C.C. & C.C. trade.mark.

O" every piece thistrade,mark appearsr-guaranteeing ftefiability and dependability of dryness, as well as quality.

Elt" C.C.& C.C. trade,mark appears ONLY on Kiln,Dried Fir. fll"rr" a supply always on hand-it will attract the best tradeto your yard.

Eln" <iemanci qoci3Vls tbr Kiln,Dried Lumber-for euality Lum, f1.1 ber. C. C. & C. C. trade,marked Fir meets theie demands. lllaving one of the finest old Growth yellow Fir Timber tracts ffi.r" soft texture makes it easy to work. flirr"l.ost decreases in proportion to the number of years it serves. ffl"q,rir"s less time and labor to work it on the job, for llc. & c.c. kilndried old Growth yellow Fir has many f,f*rro-i"al advantages that will prove to you,,Ids Worth the Difierence."

1.a in the Pacific NorthwesrLlvery modern facility and experienced workmen availabreuniformity of texture, dryness and quality are assured.

EI"t {r }gqber ar its best-that,s the kind that bears the C. C. Il & C.C. trade,mark.

I-|t's light and easy to handle-yet sronger.

[o.ry piece is Kiln,Dried in the rough and surfaced after drying.

Err"", piece is of even width and thickness.

N" warping-no shrinking-no checking.

"Sudden Seruice"