Vagabond Editoriafs

Bv Jack Dionne

Just got through reading editorialp in a well known financial magazine. The writer commented on the fact that, "leading motor car companies are reporting boom sales while the building industry lags." Readers of this .oio*r, will recall that I d.iscussed the activities of the motor car industry in this column thirty days ago, calling attention to the fact that those wise men who make automobiles had shoved their new models and their auto shows three months forward in order to get the jump on everyone else in grabbing the loose change developed through huge Governmental expenditures. The figures and facts already show, you see, that they guessed right.

{3 {. :F

There IS a pick-up in building. But compared with the sale of new cars the sale of new buildings is scarcely deserving of mention. Yet the building industry has had behind it all the help and all the publicity that the Federal Government could offer. Every agency of Government has been praying for the building industry to go into such a boom season as would make a great dent in unemployment ranks. Right today business reports of every sort out of Washington express the hope and belief that buitding will spring into the gap, and knock the top off of the mountain of unemployment.

***

The same financial paper I just mentioned expresses the conviction that the reason why auto industry booms while building lags is a contrast of effort. The writer of that editorial reports seeing an estimated one hundred shacks in a day's drive, each possessing a garage and a car. He opines that finding a five hundred dollar automobile with a fifty dollar shack is nothing uncommon in the territory through which he drove.

{.!t*

"fn the old days," says this writer, "a coming young man got his name on a land contract for home or farm as soon as he could. Today he rents his house but gets his name on a car contract as soon as he is able."

*tF!C f am not typing these facts and opinions with any hope that by any sort of magic the lumber industry can suddenly contrive ways and means to meet the competition of the automobile industry. It isn't either reasonable or possible. Neither do f mean to criticize the lumber industry or the building industry for failing to keep up with such competi- tion. If there were no more producing units in the building industry than there are in the motor car industry, we might do it. But as it is, we can only do our best. It is to urge the building industry and the lumber industry to do its best, that I quote the words of this financial writer. d€*tr lVe have not really lagged so sadly as some may think in developing newer and better homes. The Fair at Chicago demonstrated beyond question that the model homes shown there were second to nothing-not even to the fan dancers-when it came to attracting attention, and providing wonderment. For people-men and women alikejust LOVE tg look at new homes and at new things in home construction and improvement. The building industry is really prepared to make tremendous forward strides in furnishing this nation with rnore delightful and comfortable homes in the next decade. And of course there was never a time when there was so great a need. ..A mighty draught for a mightier thirst," as Lewis Browne so delightfully words it, (although speaking of something else, entirely). rF{r*

The wonderful appeal of the new motor car is something easy to understand. We have come to a new way of living in America, which is the greatest infuence in aiding the motor car manufacturers to sell boom cars in bum times. We have come to live in our cars more than we do in our homes. But that doesn't mean that we are going to quit building new homes, does it?

We may not be wearing out our homes quite as fast as we used to two generations ago because of the fact that we spend less time in them, but certain it is that we are and have for the past fifteen years been wearing them out a lot faster than we have been replacing them. And we have come to an era of living which calls for ne\ rer and better things in home and everywhere else.

There is nothing to it, folks, but the lumber industry has got to get busy rnerchandising. Not "go back to merchandising." Not being a truthless fatterer f am not going to try and make believe that the lumber industry ever really got down to anything like its merchandising possibilities. It did NOT. But it WAS improving all the time up to

(Continued on Page 8)

right in the thick o[ itl

When you see a quiet, meditative man waiting his turn in your oftc+his eyes on the ceiling-it's Dick Johnson, PALCO BARK salesman for California. Not are his eyes on the ceiling in idle gesture.

For Dick is thinking about the million ceilings in California homes that need a 'rShielding Blanket" of PALCO BARK to keep heat and cold where they belong. All of which means extra business for the lumber dealer. If opportunity presents' Dick will show you the new, illustrated folder that tells all about the PALCO "Shielding Blankettt in a language home owners can understand.

So next time Dick comes in, dontt let him get sidetracked on septic tanks, poultry specialties or any of his other hobbies. Let him tell you about these another timeright now you ought to know more about PALCO BARK for house insulation.