AVAItABtE WITHOUT PRIORITY

Swartwout UE]ITILOUUER

Mcrde by Ventilcrtion Speciclirts

For forty years, Swartwout Ventilators have been standard in industry.

One Piece Fr--'e Construction

Flange (or flashing) and face are stamped from one sheet. Louvers are welded into place, eliminating leakage.

No Wood Fr-ing Necesscrrl'

Punched holes in side flanges of Nos. 2 and 3 are IB' spaced, permitting nailing into normal studding construction. Saves material and carpenter time.

Wectherprool cmd Insect kool

Louver pitch follows approved angle for excluding all weather. Welded construction and unique flashing arrangement prevents leakage. Framed insect screen quickly accessible for removal

Pqcked in pcrirs. Shipping ccrtons oI6 pcirs

Ccrried in Stock by

6527 San Fernando Rd.

GI,ENDALE I, CALIF.

Cllapman 5-2Om

The gifted author urer, Lewis Browne, was comthe world to thb great need for

But the comparison might well be drawn today to illustrate the disparity between the supply and the demand for building materials. A "mighty draught" indeed. And a thirst mightier than most of us can understand, even as we study it. For the supply of building materials today is absolutely and utterly swallowed up by the incessant and swelling demand, in much the same way that a cup of water disappears when poured over the summer sands of the desert.

It is difficutt not to U" J."i""i by the present situation. Looking at the empty warehouses, the empty yards, the empty stores, the empty shelves, and the empty bins, we naturally wonder whether it is because the demand for all this stuff is so great, or because the supply is so small? The fact that there seems to be no improvement in the situation adds to the confusion. The jobbers, the dealers, the distributors, the builders have no stocks of building materials and there seems little chance of early relief.

So I sat myself down with a man well equipped and located to knorr the ansqrers to this building material pluzzle. He is Mr. Art Seavey, a sales executive for that world famous concern, Johns-Manville, which makes practically everything you can think of in the line of building materials outside of lumber and lumber products. And I asked him two questions. First, how does the volume of J-M products compare with their volume before the war? Second, how does your present supply compare with the needs of your customers?

I had an old friend who always used to start an opinion by declaring: "Remember, I'm a man of few, but honest words." Well, this Art Seavey proved to be that same sort of man, and he gave me the answers to my two questions quickly and exactly. Answering my first question, he said that the total of J-M products today is fully THREE HUNDRED PER CENT GREATER THAN IT WAS IN 1939. Which means that they make four times as much building material of all sorts as they did just before the war was started'

And his reply to my second guestion was lhat this tremendous volume of J-M products enables them to supply just about EIGHT PER CENT OF THE STUFF THEIR TRADE ASKS THEM FOR. They are able to let their customers have about one-twelfth of the goods they beg for, with all their multiplied:up*ply.

I think those facts on J-M products will give us a measuring stick with which we may come to a better understanding of what goes on in the building world. Read the newspapers from one end of the country to the other and you would be quickly convinced that the big building trouble is the LOW SUPPLY of building materials. Whereas the fact seems to be that the present demand is so great that it dwarfs the supply, in spite of the fact that the supply itself is of gigantic proportions. If the Johns-Manville figures are fair samples of the generbl situation, then it is not under-production but rather over-demand that creates our present building material

The same figures and facts do not apply to the production of lumber, and building materials made from wood. Lumber facts have been discussed in these columns continually for the past couple of years, and it is well understood that conditions affecting lumber production differ completely from conditions surrounding the manufacture and distribution of roofing, insulation materials, wall boards, sheathing, siding, etc. Since the end of the war, while production of lumber has been showing decline, the production of these other materials has been rapidly increasing in volume. And while there is little chance for any material increase in the production of lumber, there is vast opportunity for improvement in those building industries that are not limited for their raw materials to growing trees; or harassed by the varied and many conditions that directly affect the lumber*business.

Reminds me of the famous old story of the little colored boy sitting at the edge of a big melon'patch and eating his way into the heart of a great big, ripe, juicy watermelon. He had been at it for hours, and the melon was not more than half eaten, when the little fellow finally gave up, moved away from the remains of the melon, and just sat there rubbing his tummy and gasping for breath. Someone said to him "What's the matter, Mose, too much melon?" And the little fellow said:* "Nossuh. Not enough niggah."

Lest these and other statements now and heretofore made on the subject of the supply and demand of building materials lead you to believe that balancing the two is as hopeless as our national job of balancing the budget, let me say that I am NOT of that opinion. We ARE catching (Continued on Page 10)

Approximately 50 O .'OOO feet of

Arriving toward end of Septernber

Lrumber n/n" ,,"(! _l o"ngths lO, to 24, Cants 6" and thicker) '

Go.

355 Bayshore Blvd. San Francisco 24 'ii

ATwater 0151 : ::

(Continued from Page 8) up on our building needs, and the terrific production and supply of materials WILL in the not too distant future cut.down the demand to where the contest will not be so one-sided as at present. And, remember this; when we start to catch up on that demand, we will catch up fast. Then, the next thing we know, we will suddenly discover that the wo m has turned, and stocks-on-hand witl begin to appear here, there, and then everywhere. This building material demand seems insatiable for the moment. But it is like an empty stomach. When you first start to fill that void the demand for food is ravenous. But each rnouthful cuts down the pressure, and pretty soon the demand for food slows up rapidly. And so will the demand for bqilding materials; Watch and see. Which doesn't alter the fact that for the present they are mighty, Tt*lV*n*U to get.

And now, for fear you rnay be feeling too good or too optimistic, let me hand you a little stuff that will make you mad. You guessed it. It's about OPA; that dear, dear OPA that all businessmen love so well. The New York Sun sent a reporter to investigate and report on the PROPAGANDA SECTION of OPA, and he prints some interesting-if maddening-facts. He says that since V-J Day this Section has taken 77 new full-time employees, which is reported to be the largest in history, or i4 any government department. Seventy-seven new rrren justto hand out bull to the public about OPA. Says this reporter, the Propaganda Section averages six general press releases every day, besides two local releases through one thousand nine hundred price boards; uses around six hundred radio stations every week; makes its own films for free distribution to theatres; uses all fo,rms of advertising;. prepares infation

Huntingrton Tcrylor Named Mcncrger

OI Globe Lumber Compcrny

Huntington Taylor, well known lumberman, has been appointed manager of the Globe Lumber Company, Los Angeles, succeeding Guy W. Male, who resigned.

Mr. Taylor was rnanager of the Crater Lake Lumber Co., Sprague River, Oregon, for l0 years. He was with the War Production Board for several years during the war. He spent one year in Washington, and two years in the Portland office. In this work his knowledge of Pine manufacturing made him a \rery valuable man to the WPB.

coufses for schools. He says that this Propag'anda Section has 572 employees, who cost the taxpayers $3,724,590 for direct expenses, over three million dollars for prlnting and binding, nearly six million dollars for postage, a grand total of more than twelve million dollars annually. And, no matter how thin they slice it, Propaganda is still baloney. And they talk about cutting "T.T"r;

Got a laugh out of a remark by an old sawmill friend of mine. We were talking abo,ut lumber conditions, of course, and 'he remarked: "As long as the sawmill business has existed it was always said that there were two things no mill ever had enough of : power and shed-room. Well, some of them may still be short of power, but shed-room is something that gvery qill in the country now has a surplus of." And when you come to think of it, that was one statement full of gospel truth. Many times in the last couple of years I have heard a mill man say: "I nevqr knew how many big sheds we had until I saw them all empty." **rt

Heard a retail lumber friend of mine making a talk the other day on the subject of "Sidelines for the retail lumber yard," and he closed his remarks with this story: A New York author bought a farm in Northern New York State. He wanted a good, quiet place to write his books, and his wife agreed that the farm would be a grand place for their children to run loose and get the fresh air and sunshine. The day they moved to the farm, the author got to talking to a neighbor. The farmer said to him: "What are you planning to raise on your farm?" The author thought a moment, and then said: "Children." The farmer chewed a straw as he considered the matter. and then answered: "Up this way we sorta look on that as a sideline."

New Prelcrb Plcrnt In Burbank

The General Palrel Corp. of America has purchased from the War Assets Corp., for a consideration of nearly $800,000, a large building in the former wartime plant of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in Burbank for conversion into a factory for mass production of prefabricated homes.

Employing 450 persons, the new enterprise expects to reach heavy production around Jan. 1, 1947, it is understood. The company is headed by Carl Dahlberg, nephew of B. G. Dahlberg, president of the Celotex Corp. and chairman of the board o; General Panel Corp.

LOS