Random Editorial Ramblings

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By Jack Dionne

; "Why not keep our homes as up-to-date as our automG. biles ?" asks Forbes Magazine of business in a liner. etJitorial. Oh ! Mr. Forbes ! If you could get that idea into the minds, and then into the operations of the lumber industry, this would be the most'prosperous of all basic industries. Hard times would be gone forever, if we werb keeping the . homes of the land as up-to-date as the automobiles; if we were continually and eternally selling the public new ideas and new building things to modernize their homes; if we were thinking and planning and merchandising as the automobile people are merchandising. But we aren't. We aren't even starting at it.

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Mr. Jones buys a new car. Sixty days later the maker of that same car has a new model on the market. There are little changes here and there, little niceties in the new car that were not in the old, things that catch the eye and create desire. And Jones WANTS THAT NEW MODEL. His own car isn't even broken in yet. ft possesses all the good qualities that caused him to buy it. BUT HE WANTS

TIIAT NEW CAR. And THAT is the craving that is making the automobile business the marvel that it is. And complete lack of any such thinking, planning, and merchandising, keeps the lumber O_""tl"t: :rmong the also-rans.

This fellow Jones probably lives in a home that is ten to twenty years old. It is probably just exactly like it was the day he bought it, with very fenr improvements. IT IS JUST AS FAR BEHIND THE TIMES PROBABLY AS AN AUTOMOBILE BUILT WHEN THE HOUSE WAS. Jones doesn't think of that. He thinks NEW AUTOMOBILE IDEAS because the automobile people keep a .continual parade of new things passing before him, dazzling him, rousing his craving for such things, appealing continually to his dollars.for exchange. He lives in the 1915 model home because no one is making him think HOME IMPROVEMENT.. No one is showing him HOME IMPROVEMENTS. No one is telling his wife the wonderful little things that could be done to her home to make it more homelike, more practical, more liveable, more loveable to her, savingher steps and effort, giving her new pride in her dwelling. ***

If the lumber industry had any coordinated brains, it would invest its trade- extension money in a tremendous campaign to do just what Mr. Forbes juggest"--ake the homes of this land as modern as the automobiles, and keep them that way. It CAN be done. It wouldn't even be difficult. The need is so great, the opportunity hinges ,on that great human interest-HOME-that it would start easily, and gather momentum like the*proverbial snowball.

"V/hy don't the lumber dealers follow that advice?" asked a lumber manufacturer, when I talk that idea to him. Rats ! Do you think the automobile business is thriving because the dealer is selling the public on automobiles? Is that it? Or is it because away back at the very foundations of the industry, they are preparing, and thinking, an6 financing, and building this great merchandising campaign? Engineers work tirelessly and continuously, giving their genius to CREATING NEW IDEAS THAT WILL APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC CRAVING FOR 'NEWER AND

MORE COLORFUL THINGS. The thing is all donei when it reaches the dealer. All he has to dJis couple up' with it, and grab the great tide of business. No, friend, it, isn't the dealer's job to "1" Ihi"* industry.

If such thinking, such preparing, such engineering ef. fort, such creative genius, such financing and such mer. chandising, were found in the lumber industry, it would get up and fly. Enough money is being spent for trade extensi,on, work in the country to do the trick. But it isn't being spent that way. Following successful examples is not one of the wise traits of the lumber industry. We aren't any nearer. meeting this automobile competition today than we were fifteen years ago. And the fifteen million 1910 model homes in the United States continue to be 1910 model. We could have a prosperous year without selling a single new building, if we lived up to our*op*poTunities. But we won't.

So let's talk of something else. Laminated lumber, for instance. Somehow, that thing has a great appeal to me, as one department of the industry that is sure progressing. They are making beautiful boards as wide as five feetstout, perfect, beautifully grained. In thousands of ways will such boards be used, where without them there would be cutting, and matching and fitting and nailing and splicing in an effort to secure a great, smooth, stout wooden surface. There is certainly a great future to that business. The low value materials make up the core, the beautiful grain finish is the surface, and usefulness and beauty are the result'

In California wood is being put to a great and good use in heavy surface indoor foors, and that industry should be followed everywhere. California uses Redwood blocks, which have no resinous or other sappy contents. Not only the great factories and warehouses are putting in these foors and using them with great success, but many other buildings, such as country club and golf club locker rooms, where such a floor is ideal for golf shoe nails.

My personal opinion is that the Philippine Mahogany case was rather crudely handled, all around. They went through all those long hearings, and, so far as I can discover by skipping through the testimony, no one ever seemed to think of what seems to a business mind to be the most important question at issue, and one that should have been settled FIRST, namely, are there species of the Mahogany family in the Philippines? I won't state positively that that question was never brought up, but I can't find that it ever was. It's true that the particular species they were most interested in do not claim to be Meliaceae. But if there ARE species of Meliaceae in the Philippincs' that is, if there ARE Philippine Mahoganies, then it would be impossible to outlaw the term "Philippine M3hogany". And since it would require a botanial expert, with lenses, etc., to tell the difference between many of these woods that ARE and those that are NOT of that family; and since the average lumber buyer has not such botanist in his organization, the effort to separate Meliaceae from nonMeliaceae would be too great for anyone to tackle. We now believe that there. are a great number of Meliaceae trees in (Continued on Page 8.)