A Good Business Sermon

By lach Dionne

I had a letter the other day from George J. Orgood, the famous door manufactuner of Tacoma, Washingtoq written for the purpose of congratulating me on the leading editorial in a recent issue, headed-"Thie Funny Lumber Business.tt It was one of those rt6ysy-pro. duction or under-selling" editorialr.

Mr. Osgood remarked that "We gure are due for an old fashioned revival or this lumber business of ours is doomed." Then he made the following suggestion for another buriness tennon:

"For ten years past, every business magazine has been telling producers the advantages of mass production, showing them that volume output and attendant low cogtc is the remedy for all the ills the industry has ever rufiered frdm. W.e have had it rubbed in tlrat corts must be cut, but there has been no empharis on the truth that the first item of anyonets coct should be a fair intereat return on the investment, nor on the fact that if one operator has an edge on cocts and proceeds to book more than his fair share of the total amount of available businesc that he cannot long en-

W. G. SCRIM VISITS NORTHWEST ON PHILIPPINE MAHOGANY BUSINESS

Walter G. Scrim, of Los Angeles, the well known importer and distributor of Philippine Mahogany, has just returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest, where he visited Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and other poin,ts. He reported that the most interesting recent development that he knows of in the Philippine Mahogany game is the fac,t that the great Wheeler-Osgood Company, of Tacoma, Washington, are now starting to manufacture stock doors of Philippine, bringing in the logs from the Islands, and slicing their own veneer at their big Tacoma plants. Mr. Scrim considers that this will be a big advertisement for Philippine, but more than that, itwill sell a lot of Philippine Mahogany trim, since most people who install the doors will want to trim the room in the same materials.

joy a profit, no matter what his coat may be. If we could get the idea of cooperation as it exists in the ranka of sorre of our competitors furnishing cubstitutes for lumber, into o,ur systema,'and could get out of them our present idea of price competition, the lumber game would be on the road to salvation."

It DOES reem that thig is a good basis for a business Eermon, so ltve iust gone ahead and let lf4n Oogood preach it himself.

There is one correction I want to make to his remarks. He says "every busineee maga- dtre." I know of two that haven't been feeding the producers any thought of that kind, evei. Ever since wetve been publiehing wetve been trying to tell the manufacturerc that the pyoducing end is the comparatively unimport. ant end of the lumber business; that it doesntt require much braing to make lumber, but it sure requires plenty of them to create a marlret for lumber. We still hold to that thought. Make people want your rtuff, and the production end will take care of itself. Show me a man who can SELL lumber, and I'll ahow you a thousand who can make it for him.

Sawmill Destroyed By Fire

Fire of undetermined origin completely destroyed the mill of the South Prairie Lumber Co., at South Prairie, 31 miles southeast of Tacoma, Wash., August 26th. The loss is estimated at $100,@0.

E. BACAGLIO NOW MANAGER AT NOVATO

Mr. Chas. Lund, general nranager of the Hess Lumber Co., which operates a string of retail yards in Northern California, announces thatMr.E. Bacaglio has been promoted to manag'er of their yard at Novato.

Harold Knapp A California Visitor

Harold Knapp, Chicago, assistant sales manager of the Celotex Co., is a California visitor. Mr. Knapp was formerly manag'er of the Chicago office for the Unlon Lumber Co., the well known Redwood manufacturers.