/Wood From Four Corners

Reprinted From Moreland Magazine

Step through a doorway from a marble hall or formal rotunda into fhe quiet sanctuary o.f some inner office, reading room or library. What comfortable relief the new surroundings afford! Or do they? Perhaps your is the reverse reaction.

You may have sauntered easily into the warm, welcome atmosphere of an office done in an informal motive of golden oak paneling, with furnishings to match. Or did you hesitate at sight of the austere mien displayed in the setting of a carvid rosewood high-backed chair placed against a wall of mahogan-v? By association of color with circumstance you react.to one shade of woodwork in a different manner than you do to another-they seem to have personality for you. They charm or distress you, attract or est hardwoods are used for fine wood-working today. The marketing of this wood from the standing timber to the finished product maybe said to be a modern problem I solved through the medium of power-driven methods of transportation, and that problem is vastly magnified through the general use of the power-driven wood-planting methods of manufacture. So today we enjoy the beautiful simplicity of modern interior paneling, floors and interior trimming-mill-dressed to enhance the natural beauties of the woodgrain.

Thus, what is lacking in sheer points of artistic accomplishment, from the standpoint of medieval hand-carving, is atoned for by the bringing to modern hardwood-working the resources of distant lands. Typical of the enterprises repel you. And like some persons, some woods by lack of any personality are not even noticed.

As wood in its various forms and uses has entered so much into vour life and surroundings so has it for all men from early times. The Wood Age came before the Stone Age, some archaeologists assert. They have found crude but well-preserved specimens of wooden implements of early man in that treasure chest of antiquity, Egypt; although early wood products are less celebrated than stonework because less durable and, hence, the array of early examples extant, less pretentious. Primitive man, to say nothing of his more civilized successor, fashioned designs on the wooden articles he rvas accustomed to handle. Often he found the task so interesting and the material so workable that his zest for self-expression frequently rendered the implement he was making less effrcient, even usetress.

Wood craftsmanship rose to the sublime heights of immortal art in the last half of the fifteenth century. Equipped with only four necessary implements-gouge, chisel, "V"tool and mallet. the super-artisans of that golden age wiought their masterpieces on the choir stalls, beams and wall panelings of Gothic cathedrals.

As in the days of the finest wood carving, only the choic- devoted to importing and marketing hardwood is the Western Hardwood Lumber Company, at Los Angeles. Within the kilns or store-houses of this firm is maintained a normal stock of 7,000,@0 board feet of hardwood, which comes to the yards from many parts of the world.

From Brazil and Argentina balsa and mahogany are obtained. From Japan the buyers obtain oak and birch. To Central America they go for the heaviest of woods, lignum vitae and a rich-grained mahogany. Various species of walnut are receivqd from France, Italy, and Turkey. Elephants help to bring out of the thick forests of Siam the heavy teak. An excellent hardwood called Philippine mahogany comes from the islands of that name. Africa sends mahogany and ebony, whilefrom the Mississippi valley come the domestic oak, maple, ash, gum and black walnut to add variety to the elaborate foreign collection.

Deliveries are made to all points in Southern California, necessitating the study of the most efficient methods of transportation. This firm was one of the first to adopt the motoi truck, and the second Moreland ever built 'was purchased by them. Recently their standardized Moreland fleet was augmented by a "Limited" equipped with pneumatic tires.