Vagabond Editorials

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It looks like the Red Cedar Shingle makers of the Northwest have made more actual progress in the past few months than in the previous decade. Under the banner of the Red Cedar Shingle Bureau more than g5 per cent of the shingle production of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia have joined their "Certified Shingle" movement, to manufacture and guarantee a better shingle than ever before, and throw into the discard the old line of thin. flat grain shingles that have done more than all other things to destroy the wooden rnl.r*t_" b*usiness.

They now manufacture 100 per cent edge grain and 100 per cent heartwood shingles, and label them as such. Fre. quent inspection to keep the product of each mill up to standard, and methodical, intelligent supervision of the entire industry enrolled under this movement, are the order of the day. The thing is going good. Higher classification of such shingles by the Fire Underwriters, and elirnination from the building code of the National Board of Fire Underwriters of the.usual clause prohibiting the use of such shingles within city limits, were among the benefits prom_ ised, besides the innumerable natural benefits of mat<ing better shingles and standing tehind them.

One of the effects of the campaign has been a strength_ ening of the price of flat grain shingles, because of their present scarcity. This was natural. AII these Certified Shingles are packed square pack. Now the shingle industry meets all the requirements of Commercial Standard C. S. 31-31 as issued by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. If they stick together they may make something of the

S. M. HAUPTMAN BACK FROM NORTHWEST TRIP

S. M. Hauptman, president of the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co., San Frlncisco, returned October lZ from an extended trip to the company's mills and offices in the Northwest.

Red Cedar Shingle industry yet. On the old basis it looked Iike a disappearing industry.

Everything that a rr"-J", ir"Ju ""u" isn,t lumber. But there are evidently people who fail to realize that. A lumber dealer writes that a colored girl came into his ofEce the other day and asked: "Is dis de lumbe'ya'd?" Being informed that it was she said: "Ah wants some ob dat white lumbe'what looks lak flour". It was fifteen cents worth of LIME she was after.

A roofing tile made from Red Cedar is one of the newest products of the shingle districts of the Northwest. It makes a very beautiful roof, and an entirely practical one. It might become a great seller, properly merchandised.

A very intelligent lumberman friend of mine is seriously engaged at the present time in experimenting with a fire proofing effort for wood. ft is a liquid, is applied by dipping the wood, and has tremendous impregnation through simple dipping. So far as he has gone he makes wood entirely impervious to ignition. A blow torch applied to wood that contains his treatment, will char away, but will not ignite.

Talk about important things that might be done for the lumber industry ! Find a way to make wood fire proof and you have done more for the industry than all other efrorts at progress combined. Let us hope that my lumber friend, mentioned above, has found the way. It would indeed be a life-giving draught for a suffering industry.

E. A. MIDDLETON VISITS S. F.

E. A. Middleton, superintendent of the Anderson & Middleton. Lumber Co., Aberdeen, Wash., recently visited San Francisco where' he conferred with his firm,s California sales agents, W. R. Chamberlin & Co.