Vagabond Editorials

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I am perfectly certain that if you had told the .lumber rnerchants of Iowa that any such sale increase as that could be effected they would have thought you were in training to become an idiot, because they knew that Iowa was broke. But Iowa made the biggest increase in the country in the purchase of new cars.

There is a whole lot of wrong guessing being done all the time in this country with regard to sales possibilities. My great merchandising friend, Ray Saberson, says that the most terrible thing that happened to this country during the first three years of the depression was not the fact that the values of commodities sank to desperately low levels; but the worst thing that happened was that people QUIT SELLING. People began taking it for granted that everyone was broke or scared to death, and they ceased their efforts, or part of them, or their quality, to make people buy things. And when Ray got done lecturing to me on that subject, I'll be doggoned if I didn't to a very large extent agree with him.

For instance, and to prove his contention that the sellers of the world laid down on their jobs ai. d thus helped the world go down hill, he tells about driving an old and obsolete car for many months just on purpose' parking it and displaying it at every opportunity where motor car salesmen had a fine chance to see what he was driving, exposing himself on every hand to the importunities of auto salesmen. No one ever offered to sell him a car. Then he made several ealls at automobile display rooms and looked over cars; left his name. They were never followed up. He says moreover that no one has offered to sell him even an insurance policy in more than two years. He thinks the world has sufiered because it quit selling, and that we will get back to prosperity only when we get out and SELL OURSELVES BACK. Think it over.

We read on every n""U an", "ln" ,.r-., is broke." But what says "successful Farming," one of the great farm publications, published in Des Moines? It says that only 42 per cent of the farms of this country are mortgaged, and 26 per cent are mortgaged for less than half their value. (The total farm mortgages in the country amount to 8.5 billion dollars, about the same as the total of mortgages in N'ew York City.) The ratio of farm debt to investment in this country is 18 per cent, while for public utilities the ratio is 52 pet cent, for railroads 43 per cent, for petroleum 49 per cent, for telephones 54 per cent. So you see the farm situa.tion, figured in that fashion, doesn't look desperate. And there are several tremendous agencies in full force and effect right now offering to the farmer assistance in refinancing, rehabilitating, etc.

City building in this country has been falling off steadily for eight years. Farm building has teen declining since 19f9. It is estimated by well informed people that it would require 200 billion feet of lumber to give the farrns of this nation the buildings they should have. The U. S. Department of Agriculture reports that one State in the {fnion, to whose farmers was sent a questionnaire as to their home building needs, made report directly flom the farmers themselves that 17,300 needed new homes; 169'100 wanted remodeled hornes; 106,000 wanted new roofs; 142,' 000 wanted ne{/ screens; 79,700 wanted new floors; 18'100 wanted new stairs; 119,000 wanted new porches; all these for homes only, and not including other farm buildings.

Someone has wisely ."* an"a ""ery home in the United States is out-of-date except one; and that is the model home at the World's Fair in Chicago, and it isn't shown by a building concern but by an automobile manufacturer. This is the model air-conditioned, drudgery-eliminated, model house of the future. We are going to start one of these days to make every house in America just as up-todate as that one. hnd when we do we will start on an era of prosperity that should last as long as the lumber industrY'

This new Housing Act might well be the lever that starts us on the road to that great promised era. But the lumber industry will never achieve its share of this Promised Land by'sitting back and waiting for folks to com€ and buy lumber. We're going back to selling days again, and the fellow who does the best selling will get the lion's share of the profits. In the future, as in the past, simply stocking and offering lumber for sale will not meet competition. If that is as far as they are going, the lumber industry might entirely miss the mighty building program that is coming. We must do things with lumber. We must sell something INTERESTING and ATTRACTM to meet the competition of all of those other interesting and attractive things that strive for the public dollar.

Right today throughout this land every lumber dealer in every community should be up and on his toes and hustling with other live people in his town to g€t th6 new

Housing Act into operation there. The lumber dealer who is sitting back and waiting for someone to come in and 'buy some lumber and pay cash for it and hoping the Code will pull him through, does not belong in the picture at all. There is work to be done; real, active, interesting work. There should be local committees in every town to get this work going, publicize it, coordinate it, etc. Local architects, real estate men, bankers, newspapers, lumber and other building material dealers, civic clubs, etc., should be lined up, instructed, enthused, and started hustling to PUT PEOPLE TO WORK. Naturally the lumber dealer should play a most important part. Likewise the contractor.

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Enthusiastic drives should be stimulated to acquaint ev" eryone in the district with the proposition. What a chance for the lumber dealer to line up with this civic work, and advertising his own products and business at the same time ! The local ballyhoo can be made just as interesting and enthusiastic as the local committees desire. It is simply a wonderful civic enterprise that aims to help worthy citizens, help worthy industry, and put men to work who have long been in need of employment.

All right, Mr. Lumber Merchant, now is the time to do something for yourself. Pick it up out of the chair and go out and hit the ball to put over the remodeling and home building campaign in YOUR district. You've had nothing to talk about but depression in a long time. This is a chance to get yourself some REAL business.

Tacoma Firm Opens S. F. Office

Buffelen Lumber & Mfg. Co. of Tacoma, Wash., has establised a sales office in the Sharon Building, San Francisco. J. O. Elmer, well known to the trade in Northern California, is in charge.

Arrangements for opening the San Francisco office were made by J. P. Simpson, vice-president and general manager of the company, who visited San Francisco August 4 on his way back to Tacoma from Denver.

This office will handle sales of the company's doors, Philippine and hardwood panels, and Philippine lumber.

George E. Middleton

George E. Middleton, 81, pioneer lumberman, died in Boulder Creek, August 8. lIe was for many years associated with his brother, Henry L. Middleton in the operation of five mills at Boulder Creek, owned by the California Timber Co. He was in the lumber business at Boulder Creek more than 40 years, and was previously in the same business at San Rafael and Alameda.