Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

J. H. Peterson, whooperates a lumber yard in San Diego, California, and who for years was a nationally known lumber retailer in Ohio, pens a little editorial in a small house organ he issues to his trade, one that lots of people can grab a germ of wisdom from. He titles it "How I Beat the Stock Market a Year Ago." He says that instead of playing the market, like most people, he bought a lot and built a home for himself and family.

"stocks crashed, at u p"lti. -i" orr, and while other unfortunates were covering margins, my wiie and I were having the pleasure of covering OUR piece of ground with OUR home. Thefe has been no crash in this investment, no heartaches, no worries, no decrease in value-but on the other hand an increase in happiness and the joy of living."

Then, says Mr. petersol,'" n""" been in the retail lumber business for the past fifteen years, during which time I have sold materials for the homes of countless individuals; yet in all my experience I HAVE NEVER MET ONE WHO LATER ADVISED ME THAT HIS INVESTMENT IN HIS HOME TURNED OUT TO BE A POOR ONE. 'Cheaper to rent than to build?' Blah! Don't take this advice from renters and stock brokers, but 'Ask the man who owns one."'

Great stuff, and wise ;; ;t true logic att the way through. About twenty million of our population had gone frothy at the mouth with insane enthusiasm engaged in the sad business oftrying to get something for nothing over the stock market route. And it's hard to teach them. A majority are still waiting for the tide to turn so people can again make fortunes that they don't earn by guessing which way the ticker is going to jump.

They are worse tt a' ti" 1"."1, ,"-oer dealers who are "waiting for business to pick up" and who are doing no more to make it pick up than they were during the years when the high tide washed business automatically to their door. But they aren't all that way. One of the wisest and best retail lumbermen f know, good old Kennett Hudson, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, in a recent friendly letter says, "the lumber business is not going to improve until we fellows in the lumber business get in and make it better." Amen'

Still getting letters on the October I Vagabond Editorials in which I urged the lumber dealers to create some business to give employment to tte sawmill rmemployd even if they wouldn't do so for thcrnsclves. A letter from tbat 6ne thinking man, Ernest \f,foods, of Kansas City, Secretary of The Southwestera Lumbermcn's Association, says: "I want to commend your editorid in thc October I issue as the best medicine the industry has bgcn ofrered since tte depression set in."

A New Yorker who has established himself as a business oracle and adviser of business men, recently made the following philosophical pronousscNncnt: "Unemployment gives the wage worker a chance to rest and get in physical condition for the next pull. Man develop spiritually during periods of depression. Ask any preacher, pricst, or rabbi. UnemploSrment has its spiritud and intellectual value." Friends, when a reward is offered for tte rno6t inane ald senseless remark made during the ycar f930 I wish to offer the above as my entry, with no chance of anyone else even getting a draw.

As a matter of fact, one of the worst signs on tte business horizon of late years has been the dcvelopment of a number of these alleged business prophets and oraclcs, and the impression their stuff has made upon businesa mco and business things. Wq have developed out of quasi-intclligcot and often unsuccessful individuals an aggregation of irrcpressible meddlers who sell to tte world highly attcnuated joblots of folderol and pure blah at high rates; wc find mcn who never ran a pqanut stand successfully telling successful and practical men how to run their business-and getting a hearing. Proving what Barnum said, t'hat people, eren smart business men, like to bc fooled.

In numerous cities of the land today lurnbermen havc laid aside their business afrairs and givcn their time and their efrorts to help put over their locd Communig Chest. A great work. If anyone tries to tell you that the world isn't growing better, think of the Commrmity Chcst as dernonstrable proof that it is. I want to tdl you that this is tte first generation in the history of civilization that could have had a Community Chest. It is thc 6rst time in hurnan history that busy men and womm have laid down tteir own burdens and given tteir time and money and cffort to a highly intelligent plan of caring for the needy. It is tbe first generation in human history wbcn peoplc assumed t'heir stewardship of the helpless in such admirablc fashion. The plan will continue to spread.

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