Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

If you want an interesting slant at the lumber situation in Southern California, get a load of this. The writer went into a big lumber yard in Los Angeles the other day, and the manager was placing an order for one car of trro by fours, with the stipulation that it must come from the harbor the next day. He told me he had to have them at once to fill some bills, and didn't have any two by fours left on his yard. Just imagine what might happen if they ever started filling in stocks. And they claim that is not iust a local but a national situation.

In Muskegon, Michigan, the whole city recently organized for a week a "bust the buyer's strike" movement, and everyone went out and did their fall shopping as though the events of the past year had never been heard of. Wonder how we could induce the nation to try that on building materials?

That lumber friend of mine I told about in this column last issue was on the right track. If those who have the means to do their shopping and their buying normally would get out and do so, itirould help business ever;rwhere. But you meet many men who talk nothing but hard times to their associates and their families, who have plenty of this world's goods, and with whom that line is utter rot. In the same way we meet men every day who blame the stock market for their alleged'inability to buy normally, who never lost a dime in*the*market. It's just an excuse.

As a matter of fact this is an ideal time for shopping, for buying, and for investing. Values of all sorts are away down. Your shopping or. investing dollar is worth a whole lot more than it was a year ago. You can really get some' thing for a dollar now, all the way from candy to homes. It's a grand time to build, to invest, and to replenish your wardrobe. As soon as demand gets better, prices will be higher'

Speaking of investments, there was never a time in the history of the lumber industry when there were such wonderful opportunities for timber investrnents as there are today. And, like in all other markets, no one u/ants to buy. The minute the lumber market shows signs of health' timber values will rise, and the bargains will be ofr the bargain counter. The man who ever intends to invest money in standing timber should get out and do it today. He will never live to see the time a dollar will buy as much in commercial trees as it will right this minute. Yet timber buyers are like lumber buyers. They will wait until the price goes rocketing upward, and then rush fur to buy. But his. tory proves that the red moncy ir made by mco who bavc the vision and courage buying whcq thingt ero dcprcsrcd. The mob always buys on thc rising martet; thc risc mco on the depressed. t a +. t!i!}

Much timber is bcing offcred for salc at reduccd pticcs today that couldn't have becn bought at any pricc tro yan ago. And no possible investmcot wiU bring ttc tc'hrrn ovcr a term of years trhat a wise timbcr investmcot ril|. I)o't let anyone sell you short on thc lunbcr in&utry. Soc of these days it will be boming and blooing again iurt like it used to do, and the minutc it docs tinb6 now bcg' ging for buyers will go up 50 pcr ocot in vduc. Anil 50 per cent is a good return on any invcstmmt.

Not in years has any editciat in thb column broqgbt such enthusiastic praise as that of Octobcr f. In tbat i!.uc we dropped all othcr subjects of disetrsdon od rugcd thc retail lumber industry to get out and creatc sonc dclrald for lumber, to the cnd that thc tngic unanploymcot gitue' tion among thc mills of the cotmtry nigt't bc abetcd ar much as possible bcfore wintcr actuelly anivcs. Wc could fill a large part of this issuc rcprindng booct lcttcrs' lcrc we so inclined.

They came from lumber manufacturers in tbc Wcat ud Soutfi, and from retail lumbcrmcq ir rrrtny districts. OnG retailer wrote: "I have just rcturncd frm r trip throug! the mills in the#istrict Conditicr at trc nilb at the manufacturing centers arc vct:/ sa4 indccd- Itl hct' the contemplation of sami spoilcd my vacatim trip. Tha mills are absolutely'hetplcss; thcy cannot rcll thc lunbctdirect to our custorners-thcir burincss must c@c thtough us; we are t'he men on tbe 6ring linc, and if cvcry rct ilct would put forth spccid efrorts to originstc brrincss ftoD hidden sources, that *ist in cvcry tcfiitort, it tould toshc a vast difference to the mill follr."

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A great manufacturer of lurnbcr up in finnaota tritc. to sugg$t that wc might do wcll to rqlcat tbrt cditcid in each issue for ttc next fce montls. .A Southcrn Elollfacturer says it was worth aye'aft advertiriry to hirn. No complaints have yet arrivcd.

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There are thirty-five thousand rctail lumbcmco in thc United States. If each one of them would scll one rninirnurr :

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