FHA Campaign Big Opportunity, Says H. \(/. Cole

Below is printed in full a letter written September 15, 1934, from Washington, D. C., by H.W. Cole, president of the California Redwood Association, and executive officer of the Redwood Division of the Lumber Code Authority, on the subject of the possibilities for increased sales as a result of the FHA campaign.

"On Thursday, the 13th, with Mr. Chaffee I attended a meeting called by the Federal Housing Administration at the Willard Hotel. There were present probablr 250 men from all over the country, and representing all the varied building materials industries.

"While Mr. James A. Moftett, the Administrator, was not present, he was represented by five Deputy Administrators who went in detail into the various features of the Administration Housing Campaign, to sell the idea of house repairs and new house building to the public; and I must say they put on a good and convincing story.

"Personally, since I read the Federal Housing Act I have been rather cold on the probability that it would meet with any general favorable reaction from the public. I am frank t(. say that after the meeting on Thursday, and some examinations prior to that day on the extensiveness and contemplated aggressiveness of the Governmental programme, I changed my mind.

"The class of men Mr. Mofiett has enlisted in his Department is just different from any other Governmental group that we have run across here. Ther appear to have gone into the housing improvement aspect of the building programme in a thoroughly business like way, and have outlined a programme which was endorsed apparently by every man who attended the meeting.

"The story is too long to cover within the confines of a letter, but the mass of literature that is being placed in the hands of every lumbef manufacturer in the country will tell our people very clearly and vividly what it is proposed to do. If the enthusiastic acceptan.ce of the programme by the men who attended the meeting is any indication of the acceptance of that programme by the public, there can be no doubt about its being a success.

"The building materials organizations, as well as companies furnishing fixed housing equipment, with headquarters in the East, have in quite a large number already laid their plans to take advantage of the Government campaign. The Johns-Manville Company have had quite a number of men working with the Administrator, while philip Carey Company, General Electric, American Radiator, and the concrete companies have had numbers of men here for some time, and some of these people already have issued great quantities of high class advertising matter. If a large amount of money is going to be spent on household repairs and equipment there is going to be strenuous competition lmong the industries for that money.

"I have asked Mr. H. B. Northrup, who the National Lumber Manufacturers Association has in the Administration office representing the lumber and millwork industry, to forward to all our Sales Managers on the Cqast, in Chicago and in New York, a ,complete set of Federal Housing Administration literature. I suggest that this literature be read over carefully, and that each man, after studying it, draws his own conclusions as to the possibilities involved for the marketing of Redwood products. I feel there never was a more favorable opportunity to increase the sales of Redwood throughout the country; and if the campaigu on the whole is successful to the extent of only a fraction of present indications, there will be more business ofiered inside of six months or a year than the mills will be able to handle, I believe.

Booth-Kelly Douglae Fir, the Association grade and trade mark ccrtify to your customcri thc quality of the stock you handle. Buildera quit gueceing about what they'rc buying, arrd buy wherc they know what they'rc getting.

"There will be public meetings in every city of any size in the United States very shortly at which programmes will be presented very much along the line of the one at the Thursday meeting. I take the liberty of making a very special request that all the Redwood people, from the principals down, make it a point to attend one of these meetings."