Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

Henry Ford has addressed the public with a declaration concerning business conditions that absoiutely rings the bell on the situation past, present, and future, so far as I am concerned. The gist of his remarks is that we re looking at the situation backwards. Most of us think that conditions of a year ago were wonderful prosperity, and that conditions since the stock market crash has been industrial, commercial, and financial illness. Henry says it's the other wa''x*x

He says that when the whole world was going mad last year with the foolish idea of getting something for nothing, and a lot for a little, THAT was the time when we were going through a severe illness, and that the present condition is one of convalescence and recovery. The average man seems to think that when the stock market goes back to where it was last fall, good times will have come again. Henry says most emphatically no

This column has been ,tt* ,l ,", that same thing over and over again since the debacle of last fall. To go back to the mad condition of a year ago would help nobody in the long run. At that time we were simply going through a condition of high fever, and we thought it was abundant health. After the fever broke we went into a subnormal condition as a reaction. We're well on our way out of that condition. But that doesn't mean that we want to get the fever back. When everyone from the policeman on the corner to the cook in the kitchen was using all his money for gambling purposes, we weren't healthy. Mr. Ford says that what we are now going back to-and he says that we are well on our way back-is toward normalcy, not toward more fever and hysteria.

Yet the country i= firflO *r* ,n."*htless but intelligent people who are measuring our return toward prosperous times by the stock market strength. The fact is that ii we could get rid of the stock market entirely, so far as gambling on margins is concerned, we would return much more rapidly toward normalcy. Too many people are still trying to "get even". The normal things of life are not yet being purchased in a normal way. As soon as they are, we will be back in normal times. Prices may not be as high as they were once, but VALUES will be dependable things.

The American Constru*r"" *"..i1 says that the modernization of older buildings presents the most fertile field in the building industry for the next decade. Sure ! And for the decade after that. And this doesn't mean city work, where an organization f or systematic modernization is worked out. It pertains particularly and most forcefully to the rural district, where the lumber merchant is in position to have his entire sales territory under his eye, where he may observe, list, and personally handle his prospects.

It has been a fertile field for a iong time. The trouble is that the short-visioned people who can't see the forest because oI the trees, and can't find the city because the high buildings obstruct their vision, haven't grasped the magnitude of the possibility, and have done little with it. With thousands of small orders easy to secure right there for the asking-if the asking is intelligently done-the dealer waits for the contractor to bring in some house bills for him to bid on. He smiles derisively when he sees a ten-year-old model automobile passing his door. And all about him are ten and fif teen and twenty-year-old model homes that leeil v761ss-properly visioned-than the ten-year-old motor xF+

Is he doing anything about it? Is he listing those old homes and their short-comings? Is he telling those owners what HE can do for modest cost, to make them more up-todate? Is he deliberately sticking his nose in other people's business in order to help those other people-and himself at the same time? Is he? *** r( '''rttirrttcrl o11 l);1gC 8)

He wasn't much for personal publicity, although indorsing and aiding the greatest publicity campaign for his own concern ever undertaken in the lumber industry, and for that reason the average reader of lumber publicity knows many faces better than they do the face of the late George S. Long. But every lumberman, great or small, no matter where located or in what department of the industry, should know that when George S Long went to his reward the other day. the most powerful and outstanding figure in the lumber industry of the world ceased to function.

He was the executiv. nl"a orin" *"r"rhaeuser Timber Company. And the Weyerhaeuser interests are to all other lumber interests, what Mount Everest is to an ordinary hill. It would take considerable nerve to try and guess accurately the value of the Weyerhaeuser timber and miiling interests, because none outside of that great organization-and few inside-knows. But it is probably safe to say that they rank in value very closely with The ForC Mctor Company, and with General Motors. To call the Weyerhaeuser interests a billion doliar outfit, would probably be not the least of an exaggeration.