Plywood Control Orders Rescinded

As a result of the rescinding of plywood control orders L-l50 and L-150-a on August 22, 1945,lumber dealers can now buy and sell plywood without ratings. This is one o[ the best items of nelr's that dealers and the plywood industry have received in a long time.

The following telegram, which was received by 'I'he California Lumber Merchant on August 18 from W. E. Difford, managing director of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association and Fir Door Institute, Tacoma, Wash., is self-explanatory, and is of interest to all dealers in plyrvood and fir doors:

WPB advises rescinding all limitation orders Plyrvood effective date will be announced Saturday, August 18. Norn' appears that any future government orders will be handled under General Priority System PR 29 dated June 30,1945, with balance of production immediately moving into peacetime channels. Under limitation order approximately 35 per cent of all government orders allocated to 325 distributing warehouses selected by WPB. This percentage, which formerly could be released only for direct war uses, now can imrnediately be transferred to retailers' inventories.

Controlled Mctericls Plan To Be Revoked Sept. 30

The comg-licated Controlled Materials Plan rvill be revoked as of September 30. This was the master system for regulating the florv of steel, copper and aluminum. IJnder CN{P the Army and Navy got rations of metal. They rationed it in turn to contractors, the contractors to subcontractors and so on.

The agency directed cancellation, effective ir.r-rmediately, of all allotments of steel, copper and aluminum for the fourth quarter of 19.15 and all sultsequent quarters.

Elected Mills College Trustee

Leonard C. Hammond, president of Hammond Lumber Company, San Francisco, was recently elected a trustee of Mills College, Oakland, the west's oldest college for *ome.r. He succeeds John P. Coughlan, who has served on the board since 1934.

Jobbers not now qualified under present WPB allocation order may place their orders with Plywood mills and these orders will be processed in the order of their acceptance. Estimate present inventory in distributing warehouses totals thirty million square feet while present estimate of amount required to bring inventories in all jobbers' warehouses back to normal is two hundred million square feet. Since Plywood has been virtually eliminated from dealers' inventories it is expected that jobbers' stocks rvill move to dealers in steady flow until all dealers have some inventory available. l{owever, it is abvious that it rvill be some time before dealers' stocks reach normal prewar levels although with the expanded capacity of Plywood industry this may not take as long as has been pessi, mistically predicted prior to VJ Day. Surveys have shor,r'tr that dealers anticipate carrying postwar inventories of Plywood that will average hundred per cent higher than prewar stock requirements. Industry advocates that jobber-s and dealers place orders for requirements u'ith regular sources of supply immediately. Cancellation of lumber contracts yesterday means that supply of shop lumber should immediately be easier and production of fir doors therefore should improve somewhat.

Lumber Strike Bcllots To Be Mciled To 40,000

Portland, August 20.-National Labor Relations Board has cornpleted plans for taking its first big strike ballot since the war ended-a poll of some 4O,00O A. F. of L. lumber workers in five western states. Unionists have applied for aZ}-cent hourly wage increase, r,vhich would boost the minimurn to $1.10.

Thomas P. Graham, Jr., regional director of NLRB, said at Seattle that 40,000 ballots will be mailed to workers involved. Each rvill receive his individual ballot. which must be mailed back by midnight of either Aug. D or Sept. 1, depending on rvhich district ,council he belongs to.

N{r. Gral-ram said it will be the largest strike election ever conducted by mail. Mail balloting was chosen, he said, because of the tremendous task involved in setting up local election machinery in isolated logging camps and sawmill settlements throughout the Pacific northwest.