S. Williams, Live Wire Shingle Man, to Market Stained Shingles

J. S. Williams, formerly secretary of the Shingle Branch of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association at Seattle and until recently sales manager for the Grays Harbor Shingle Company at Aberdeen; Wash., has formed the Williams Stained Shingle Company with headquarters at Vancouver. Wash., and is preparing to supplythe trade with shinglesstained any color you want them-in carload, less than carload or cargo lots.

'cBill" Williams. as he is known'fromi o,ne end. of th,e country to the other, is one of the real live and urpg{ndcoming individuals connected with the shingle business and he is bound to make a success of his newt v.enture just the same as he has made a success of every other enterorise with which he has been hooked up. He really -", t.sponsible for the growth and development of the Rite Grade movem,ent among the shingle manufacturers, and put over the extensive advertising and merchandising campaigns that brought Western red cedar shingles to the for.ceful ancl favorable attention of the shingle consuming public of the entire country.

The idea of staining shingles at the mill has been getting some careful and thoughtful consideration on the part of the manuJacturers in last year or so and "Bill" is the first to jump in and make capi[al of a wholly promising and hopeful situation. In discussing his plans he says: lVe will place on the market an entirely stained shingle in all of the popular shades and colors. The type of staining machines we will use, will effect such saving of labor in the staining process, that a roof or sidewall can be erected with our entirely stained shingles at no additional cost over the unstained shingle with the stain applied after laying, by brush treatment; and of course the serviceability of the entirely stained shingle will be greatly superior.

The next question that probably occurs to you is "What brand of stain are we going to use?" I believe with regard to stains the same as with shingles, that the best stain available is much the cheaper in utrtimate ,cost, and the slight additional cost of the best stain is many times offset by its longer life. So we are going to use only the best.

There is little doubt in my mind that the stained shingle business of this coun'try is still in its infancy, and that as the real value and beauty of the stained shingle home is made known to the building public that this business will increase greatly. In the far ea.st, it is my opinion that it is the beauty of the stained shingle which is one of the largest factors in popularizing the small home, and attracting city flat dwellers out to the suburbs to "homes of their own."

We are adopting the principle of "100 per cent Retail Dealer Distribution" in its entirety, feeling that the needs of the home builder and our own needs can best be served through this channel of distribution.

O'ne of the things we are counting on to' add to the success of our cornpany is a strong "dealer help-ful-ness" plan, whi,ch will help to "pull" the shingles out of our customer's yard. As a nucleus to this end, we will probably feature three and four color bill posters. Of course the educational features of the plan will be,well looked after too, in order to insure our product being properly used.

Hardwood Imports Reported

According to compilations just completed by the Los Angeles Harbor Conmission, receipts of 'foreign hardw,oods and hardwoods ,brought around from, the Atlantic Coast by water, aggregated 1,240,909 feet, of which 117,166 feet represen'ted the shipments from the Atlantic side; lO5,620 from Guatemala,2ffi,@3 feet from the Phillipines, 765,620 feet from Japan and 52,000 feet from C'osta Rica. Most hardwood used in California comes, of course, from the interior of the United States and is moved by rail.