Gus Russell Digests Bowles Home Building Figures

Gus Russell, Santa Fe Lumber Company, San Francisco, is good with a pencil. So, when he read Chester Bowles (OPA) figures on home construction in The Saturday Evening Post recently, in which Mr. Bowles told the world all about the home building industry, he took that pencil and 'ivent to checking Bowles' figures. Mr. Russell, in a letter, has this to say about those figures as distinguished from facts :

"In this article Mr. Bowles said that houses to be built will range in price as follows:

72/o are to be over $7,500.

2l/o are to be from $5,000 to $7,500.

53%% are to be under $5,000.

13%% are to be under $2,000.

Two F'lying ONeills Back In Lumber Business

Lt. W. H. (Bill) O'Neill, Jr., who received his discharge from the l2th Air Force, in which he piloted a B-25, September 25, is again associated with his father, W. H. O'Neill, Sr., in the O'Neill Lumber Co., San Francisco.

Kenneth O'Neill, who recently rejoined the firm following his discharge, was a lieutenant in the 8th Air Force, and was shot down over Germany February 9, on his 26th mission and liberated from a German prison camp April 20.

Gilmore, a lieutenant in the 14th Air Force, is an adjutant, stationed in China.

Richard, fourth member of the family in the Air Force, is an instructor in celestial navigation at Clovis Air Field, Clovis, N. M.

New Yard In Scn Frcncisco

R. E. (Dick) Mussallem, who has been a salesman for Smith Lumber Co., San Francisco, for the past 10 years, has opened a lumber yard in San Francisco, located on Jerrold Avenue at Quint Street. The telephone number is Mlssion D9Z

The new yard will be operated under the name of Dicknsons Lumber Co.

"Assuming the gentleman to be right the average would be $4,895 per house.

"Then he states that 4,5@,0C0 people would be employed to build 1,250,000 homes per year. With mechanics wages ranging around $12 per day it is certainly safe to assume that the 4,500,000 people will draw down a minimum of $2,000 per year which, according to my book, figures nine billion dollars.

"Now if 1,250,000 homes are to have a labor cost of nine billion dollars, the average labor cost per home will be $7,2m, while the average home to be built says Mr. Bowles, is going to cost $4,895. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO UNDERSTAND THESE FIGURES. BUT IT HELPS SOME."

Mckes Yard Improvements

The Eagle Ro,ck Lumber Co., Eagle Rock, has just completed extensive yard improvements. 15,000 square feet of blacktop has been laid and 5,00O feet of granite paving by the Hohnan & Powell Co. The paving gives the yard a neat, clean appearance and is proving to be a great convenience. Lumber bins and piles are being re-arranged together with sand and gravel pens. Emil Swanson is the owner.

Makes Hole-in-One

Bill Ream, George E. Ream Company, Los Angeles, made a hole-in-one on the 15th hole, 185 yards, at the Santa Anita Golf Course, Arcadia, on Sunday, September 23. Bill is highly elated over getting an ace, and no doubt the golf ball will be preserved, mounted, and kept with his many other trophies.

A. B. Griswold Visits Coqst

Arthur B. Griswold, who was manager of the San Francisco office of C. D. Johnson Lumber Corporation for many years, recently spent a few days in San Francisco. He also visited Portland. He made the trip by plane, and returned September 28 to his home in Mandeville, La.