WELDWOOD Plywood

rVeMwood. Pfuuood. and Pfu1utood. Prod.ucts are ,ndatrfactttred. and. marketed b1 UNIIED 5IAIE3 PTYWOOD CORFOIATION Ncu Yorl, N. Y.

Los Angeles 2l Scn Frcncisco l0 1930 East l5th St. 2727 Atny Sr. Rlchmond 610l ATwcter 1993 rHE MENGEI. GOMPANY IDcoeBbd Lo*ittilh, K1, Ocklcnd 7 570 Third St. TWinocks 5544

Secttle 99 l3th C W. Nickergon .6,Lder l4l4

How will it be when our brave boy comes back And greets the land he battled for, once more ? How will we look upon the gun and pack He shouldered in our names on foreign shore? What will we do when he lays down his arms, And lets us know he would resume the place He left when called away by war's alarms? Will we throw wide our doors-or turn our face? He fought that WE might have that job to giveThat we might have a business to enjoyThat WE might have the wherewithal to liveShall WE deny those things to that brave boy?

.Aye, friend, it is a little thing to doA job for one who gave his all for you !

Soldier rest ! Thy warfare o'er. Sleep the sleep that knows not waking; Dream of battlefields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking.

-Sir Walter Scott. ***

All those old enough to remember lvere impressed with the abrupt difference between the ending of World War One and World War Two. In 1918 we were fighting furi ously. Then an armistice was announced, the Germans laid down their guns that minufs-and the whole thing was over. We celebrated furiously for a day, and then went back to our normal way of living, with no great problems on our minds. World War Two had a dragged out ending, taking many days to bring about what the blowing of a horn did automatically in 1918. The chief reason, the Germans, with all their faults, are human, think logically. The Japs have a lot of monkey in their mentalities. *d<*

There are great physical differences between the endings of the two great wars. When we finished World War One we found ourselves rich, powerful, possessed of great quantities of everything we had any need of to take up the paths of peace. We had money galore, a debt so small that we soon nearly wiped it out, and we had plenty of the comforts and necessities of life. We had some feeding of starving people to look after in Europe, but that was comparatively small, and we did it skilfully, practically, and intelligently. Then we turned our eyes homeward to what looked like a bright and glorious future. There was nothing ahead of. us to be afraid of, so far as our human eyes could see. ***

This time it is far different. We have spent three hundred billions of dollars on the war. We have mortgaged our future, and the future of our children for generations to come. Our pantry is empty. Our shelves are empty. Our bins are empty. Our warehouses are empty. Our clothes closets are pretty bare. We have unlimited possibilities of recovery, however. We have our limitless agricultural fields. We have the greatest industrial plant ever devised, ready to be reconverted into peacetime things. We have a great, intelligent, courageous people. We still have the ability to finance anything we wish to undertake. But there are a couple of billion people scattered over the world most of whom seem to be looking to us alone for every sort of help. Our position is difiEcult-worrisome. We can't let the world go hungry, naked, and troubled. But the size of the job makes us wake up from t:"Y sleep at night, gasping.

We are nothing like as carefree and confident of our future happiness and prosperity as we were in 1919. We have finished a long and terrible struggle; but we all know that we have a terrific if less bloody one, staring us in the face. We have need of all our courage, and all our skill, to work our way through the troubles that beset our footsteps. We have. troubles at home, radicalism lifts its head higher every day, and we have a right to be "sore afraid" at some of the things we hear, and see and read.

In the lumber and buildinJin;ustries there is likewise a vast difference between now and at the beginning of 1919. At that time we had plenty of lumber and of all other building materials. Today the lumber slate is clean. So is that of most other building materials. We have the greatest job of building, rebuilding, repairing, remodeling to do that was ever dreamed of. All we need is the building materials. iWe will have plenty of men as they come from the army, navy, and war plants.

The First World War ended on November llth, 1918. Just two days later the government remov,ed all building restrictions up to ten thousand dollar units; and ten days later, on November 23rd,,it removed all restrictions of every character on building and on building materials.

On November 22nd and 23rd, 1918, a called mass meeting of the entire lumber industry was held in Chicago. It was the biggest meeting of the kind in lumber history. They came from every district and stat'e, and the problems of peace were thoroughly threshed out at that time, and an understanding of the situation arrived at that could have been done in no other way. The lumber folks went home from that meeting, "raring to go."

How rapidly the "n"rr|."* ".1-, ,. made removing the shackles of war from the lumber and building industry this (Continued on Page 10)

Plywood

Wall Boards

Super Harborite

Cernent Asbestos Board

Tempered and Untempered Hardboards

Doors

Expansion Joints

Caulhing Compounds

Adhesives

Insulations

Asphalt Roofing and Shingles

Sisalkraft

Nails and Wire

Corrugated Iron

Stucco and Poultry

Netting

Hardware and Screen Cloth

BUII.DING SPE CIAT,TIES

*As limitation ord,ers are lifted or modified, u)hich will permit construction materials to flow ntore t'reely through the dealers, we vrill.d,o or.t.r best to take care of your requirements.

(Continued from Page 8) time, remains to be seen. There is no possibility that all restrictions and regulations could be removed as quickly as they were in 1918. Conditions would never permit it. Price and other controls will undoubtedly persist until it is safe to get rid of them. But many building restrictions are going quicklY'

* :r x

Unlike most other war industries, the lumber industry and most of the other building material production industries, need no reconversion of production units. There is great opportunity for speedy reconversion of the industry for that reason. The mills and factories were ready to cut civilian products on an hour's notice. **+

Today the business man is watching every turn of the busincss.wheel to see what is happening. He is keeping up will alt changes in rules and regulations that have to do with his business. These changes have been coming fast, and they will be coming still faster. The great national business machine is up, eager, alert, and fairly chafing at the bit, every man eager to get back into high gear in the business groove. Surely if we do not successfully tide over the switch from war to peace, it will not be from want of enthusiasm on the part of the business men of the nation. They want to get back full tilt into business as it used to be, with every opportunity for investing their wits and their energies in worthwhile fashion. The day of }he practical man, of the high-geared working man, of the keen-witted business man, is back. It has been on a long, long vacation. But it is here again. It will be worth watching.

*r<t<

Every foot of building material that can be made available for civilian use, will go flying into buildings. There is need for all that can be had for months and for years to come. EVERY

Single Capable Building Worker The Armed Forces Can Release Can Find Splendid Employment

IN THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES IF THE MATERIALS FOR CONSTRUCTION ARE TO BE HAD. That is the only limitation. The possibilities are so great and the developments will be so continuous, that we must watch closely every move. The next year will be the busiest year in building history. It will probably*be*the most trying.

As this is written the lumber business is a mad scramble. Worlds of war orders have been cancelled, most of them by wire. Many of them have b'een retained. How many will stand, how many will fall, remains to be seen as every department and agency of the war effort examines its order files and its stock piles and checks them against possible future needs. From the time the radio announced the capitulation of Japan the telephones of the sawmills have rung almost continuously by lumber buyers wanting lumber. Quite a difficult job for the mills determining what they have and will have to sell. Every day brings developments. The labor problem at this moment takes precedence over all others. Getting millions of men who have been making from two to five times as much wages as they ever did before, back into the peace picture, is some job.

*:f:f

Talked to a boy who is working in a great shipyard, and has been for two years. He left the farm where he was making forty dollars a month and board, and started at $45.00 a week in the shipyard. He learned a lot and is now in the one hundred dollar a week bracket. I asked him what he is going to -do when they let him off the shipyaril payroll. He said he was going to the farm. That surprised me. But he said all the farm boys he knew in the shipyard were going to do the same. IIe said he would miss the big paycheck, but he was tired of living uncomfortably in a hole in the wall, and tired of the regimentation that naturally prevails in a great industrial plant. He said he would feel like a rnan getting out of jail when he hit the farm again. I hope millions of farm boys feel that same way. It would help reconversion a lot. Seems to me his attitude is easy to understand. A farm job will be mighty restful after the strange driving conditions of the shipyard.

*,f{<

The biggest problem connected with postwar labor is one not often mentioned. It was well pointed out by a young man with an army flyer's insignia and a captain's bars, and many overseas ribbons and things. He had been watching a conspicuous example of the indifference and inefficiency of a sales person. IIe remarked aloud, with a good soldierly smile: "Won't it be wonderful when people have to start earning their wages again?" He was talking of the millions upon millions of lazy, indifferent, rude, impractical, stupid, "don't you know there's a war on" type of people who have been holding overpaid jobs because there was no one else to be had. Where does the "jobs for all" program fit them? And they are everywhere, in everything.

President Truman t" J.;"J a touch of genius in the able and abrupt manner in which he has bien slashing the shackles of war from the wrists of the people. That he senses their mental attitude is clear, and their mental attitude favors freedom from restrictions at the earliest possible moment. Take Lend Lease. One day the ballyhoo boys in Washington are telling us Lend Lease is vital and must continue. The next day Truman killed it dead. Since the waste of billions through Lend Lease will no doubt be a political weapon next year, his prompt action is wise politically as well as otherwise. One day our meat markets are empty and no relief in sight. The next day we are told meat rationing rapidly approaches an end. His frankness and willingness to tell the truth about these situations wins him friends. We are going back toward normal things at a tremendous rate, and Truman is doing the ordering.