Random Editorial Ramblings

By Jack Dionne

Signs of the times. A well known lumber executive said to me the other day: "We have twelve people in our office fo*e and ten of thern that I know of are buying some bonds or other and paying for them by the month." That doesnlt look like a bad.sign. It means a stout disposition to save rather than waste, and in time those bonds can be used to buy homes.

If we could induce everyone whd is playing the stock market to cut it out and buy good bonds as an invdstment, it wouldn't be long before business generally would improve mightily. It's the millions of people who are playing the market on margin that are retiring completely from all other sorts of investment activities, and making business bad for sound business generally. But how to stop them? That's the qucstion that hasn't been answered yet. In the meantime it's sure hurtin8 *the lumber business.

And, when you talk about business being bad, don't fail to consider the lumbelr journal business. One weekly gone monthly, one weekly gone semi-monthly, one semi-monthly gone monthly, one paper gone out of business entirely, and with the remainder business is thinner than it has ever been in their history. It is a fortunate lumber journal that has 60 per cent of the income it had a few years ago.

And in this case it requires no Sherlock Holmes to ferret out the principal trouble. The trade extension campaign of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association was the punch below the belt that put the lumber journals down for the count. Thrce years ago they put over a million dollar a year budget to be paid by the subscribing mills at ten cents per thousand on production. The campaign is to run five ye{rrs. The men who put it over were honest and earnest. They thought it was a big thing for the lumber in'dustrY'*:r*:fi

The lumber journals helped a lot. It was no easy matter, signing up those mills for that ten cents. In many ,cases they used everything but dynamite. I wrote and talked strenuously and enthusiastically for the proposition. The Good Book says that "Where vision lacketh the people perish". We lacked the vision to see in advance what it was going to do to us. If wdd known we'd have been throwing brickbats instead of bouquets at the proposition; distributing poison rather than propaganda. But we didn't know.

**rFrl.

As soon as the call for funds came a world of mills began looking around to sde where they could save some of this ten celrts. The lumber journals proved to be a large part of the answer. Some mills cut out some of their trade journal advertising, to apply on their National contribu- tion. Some mills used a broad-ax. IN MY PERSONAL OPINION FULLY ONE HALF OF THE ENTIRE NA. TIONAL TRADE EXTENSION CAMPAIGN FUND IS COMING FROM THE REVENUES AND PROS. PECTIVE REVENUES OF THE TRADE PRESS.

.And that's only half of it. The National started in to advertise wood. They hired a big national advertising agency that knows little of lumber, to handle the campaign. They are buying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of space from consumer magazt"ir. * * ,r.

Now, a campaign to the consumer would fall far short of success unless it is tied up with the lumber trade itself. To get the lumber dealer who must sell this stock to the consumer, lined up with the campaign, is just as necessary, just as essential as to get to the consumer. So HERE, we optimists told ourselves, is where we get some of our lost revenues back. A small part, at least. The National is going to have to reach the dealer to tie up with its consumer camPaign' :r * * ,k

And it IS. Don't doubt it. Every mail brings to the editorial desks of the trade press reams of propaganda copy about the trade extension campaign. It's all ready for release. We don't have to do a thing but furnish the ink, the type, the paper, the overhead, the postage, to distribute it. Cash? Not a dime! Hundreds of thousands to the consumer magazines that wouldn't give lumber a kind word or a pleasant look. Not a dime to the lumber journals who are furnishing just as important a part of the trade extension car4paign as the consumer magazines. ,t*,t*

Laugh that off, friends of mine! I've tried, but the laugh won't come. Of course, the advertising agency that gets hundreds of dollars commission for writing a consumer magazine ad, and perhaps a five dollar bill for writing a lumber journal ad, doesn't write many of the latter. But wasn't there someone in that deal somewhere to raise the question of a square deal for the*lumber journals?

The lumber journals were the friends of the Trade Extension Campaign when it was in the making. Wise rnen would have preserved that friendship and cooperation. If the rumbles I've heard of late are any indication, the National can ill afford to be wasteful of friends, particularly such potent ones as the lumber press. Which concludes this chapter.

A well known sash, door, and millwork firm of Southern California, has adopted the policy of giving one week's vacation at full pay to all employes, regardless of how

(Continued on Page 8)