What's Ahead fior Lumber Dealets

A CITATION, A PREDICTION AND A PROMISE

The Citation

If anyone deserves an E Flag, you, the lumber dealers, do. For when there was more demand for building products than there was supply, you were cooperative and understanding. \U7hen you could obtain only a lruction of the materials you wanted, you made the most of what you got.

And we know yoa know that the people of Celotex strained every efiort to shLe limited materials faidy with all dealerc. In trying times, we tribd..

The Promise

As volume increases, we will supply you with an integrated sales promotional campaign. It will be one of the most complete educational, merchandising and selling programs in Celotex history ! That's why you'Il find post-.aar . as pre-utar it will pay you to feature the leaderCelotex Building Products.

2. THE PREDICTION

The immediate months ahead will not be ones of unlimited supplies. There will be a gradual transition from scarcity to plenty but the "plenty" cantt happen overnight.

As each month passes, however, you'll see more and more Celotex Building Products returning to the "Available Now" list.

I champ at the bit

For that moment ecstatic, When Khaki returns, To a trunk in the attic; And out on the street r saw a small group "r:.: "1.,.r,". to the center of the street, moving toward the picket line, and one of them shouted: "We are ex-service men. and we want to work." A great roar greeted them, and they hustled back to the safe side where a great audience watched the show of anarchy. I couldn't help wondering what they thought of the popular war song-"This is worth fighting for?"

I'11 see millions and millions, Of checkered and pin-striped, And shark-skinned civilians.

Fishback.

They're here now. The streets are filled with them. Every train brings them home from the release stations all over the country. In his wonderful speech at the fall of Japan, General MacArthur said: "They're coming home. Take care of them." Well. a lot of them are here. But are we taking care of them? As I read the papers every day, I wonder.

I stood at a safe airt",i". lr,.* o,r,", day and watched a mob scene outside a film studio where an army of men refused entrance to would-be workers. They turned over cars and trucks, smashed the windows, and the men inside got hurt. Men who tried to get through the line were manhandled. Many went to hospitals.

"And Jesus said to an.lrjol violence to no man, and be content with your wages.' " (Luke, Chapter 3, Verse 14.) ***

And nobody even suggests that those who got hurt trying to get through that line of men to their work were not within their lawful and constitutional rights.

Which reminds me thal a* *..0 of December lOth has been set aside as "Bill of Rights Week." Whatever became of that bill, anyway?

As this is being written there is gathered in Washington a conference called by the President to try and work out a plan to cure the present'and threatened tidal wave of labor troubles. The biggest trouble is that they are trying to make a horse fit a harness, whereas -""rrriirrg the hai- ness to the horse has long been considered the proper procedure'

The problem is simply stated, as follows: "How can business and industry pay wages higher than the inflated wages of war times, without raising prices on the products of that labor, and still get by in the postwar highly competitive world?" Simple, isn't it? Many men, including our President, say it can be done. But he was only in business once, and went broke, so he is probably not a competent authority. Business men generally say that it can't. Storm clouds lower while the thing is being fought out, and reconversion is stopped dead in its tracks.

What is worst of all, n:";"*1"", the only thing on top of God's green earth that can ever develop safe and sound postwar prosperity for all deserving people, is stymied. Most of the voices that are raised the loudest today with regard to our economic situation, voice the opinion that high wages, rather than high production is the road to greater purchasing power. Since time began, those who would lift themselves by their bootstraps without regard to the processes of the law of gravity, have been highly vocal. It is true today. Cut production, and you cut pur' chasing power, regardless of the wage level. All sound thinkers agree to that. It is those who have the sound without the thinking, who declare otherwise.

This is, of course, ". :";":ic justification for a fat wage boost for all. It is simply the effort before mentioned, of trying to make a horse fit a harness. It is political appeasement and nothing else. And it is a long step on that downward path-the highway of inflationwhich leads to disaster and despair. Those who clamor for things that can not be safely done-don't care. Yet they are the ones who would suffer most if inflation came.

During the war, uu"irri" ir"J pron*-aking advantages which no longer exist. Most businesses had one great customer-the War Effort-who was in a hurry for production and said "damn the cost." There was no advertising to pay for, no salesmanship to finance, no bad debts to charge off, no prices to shave, no c6mpetition to meet in the price or quality field. It was War Time with all its profit opportunities. All that has changed as business goes into civilian channels again. It wiU take brains, and ingenuity, and great care, and effort, to run a business from now on. During the war, a business couldn't fail if it wanted to. From

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(Continued from Page 8) ' now on, failure is always a probability. Business must be run in business fashion, or not at all. It cannot do things with its cost system, just because someone wants it to.

No man, not even an. l"rrl"a-or most successful in the past, can possibly foresee what lies ahead of business today, what will be the effects of all the new elements that enter a postwar economy. He must play safe. Maury Maverick, Small War Plants Corporation Chairman, says that the only chance for full employment in the reconversion period is through the coming into existence of more than a million small new businesses. Sounds logical, too. But can you, look about you and even imagine millions of men willing to gamble their money in new businesses with all the hazards that appa.rently face such enterprises today? What we see and read and hear is enough to make investors crawl under the bed and hide, "1",Ta on a long, long fishing trip.

Loud calls are heard all over the lands to get rid of the alphabets and give them back to the children. But the bureaus hold on tight. And most Americans were shocked to learn from Senator Byrd, that the number of civilian employes of the Government in Washington has increased largely since the war ended, although many agencies and bureaus were supposed to be done away with. An increase of nearly one hundred thousand in one month was noted. Which did not simplify the work of the War Chests throughout the copntry this fall, or of the loan drives either.

But though heavy clouds hang low over the world still, thankful let us all be this month because our boys ari no longer facing death on all the seven seas and on all the

San Frcncisco Hoo-Hoo Club Will Hold Luncheon Nov. 27

San Francisco FIoo-Hoo Club will hold its monthly luncheon at the Concert Room, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, on Tuesday, November 27, at 12:19 p.m. Adjournment will be at I :29 p.m. sharp.

The Club will hold a Christmas luncheon at noon oir December 20, also in the Concert Room of the Palace Hotel.

continents. That makes us light of heart. Now, if we can just got those kids back home, (I've still got a couple "over there"), we can handle and settle all these lesser matters. ***

Thanksgiving approaches. Among the many things we have to be thankful for is the fact that we will have but one Thanksgiving Day this year. ***

And now ADVERTISING returns from her long vacation. Welcome her, you business folks ! For 3he is the million-tongued salesman, the show window of industry, the voice of commerce.

And, let us never ,o, ".-JrrrJnt forget that in our time the greatest, the grandest, the noblest army in history fought, not to enslave, buq to free men; not to destroy, but to save; not for themselves, but for others; not for conquest, but for conscience; not for ourselves alone, but for every land and every race. With courage, with enthusiasm, with devotion never excelled; with an exaltation and purity of purpose never before equalled, this army fought the battle of free men wherever they might be. Disheartened by no defeat; discouraged by no set-back; appalled by no danger, they neither paused nor swerved'until the enemies of mankind had struck their flag-laid down their arms. Never let us forget, even momentarily, the debt we owe the men who wore our uniform in this last awful war. For that- debt, we can never repay. There is no language that can express our gratitude, our love. These brave, incomparable men fulfilled all our dreams, realized all our hopes. We can but stand in humble silence, and feel what words have never told<an never tell.

Ncrmed Ycrd McncAer

Fred Longl,'r'orth'will manage the new yard of the National Lumber Co. at Chula Vista. The company recently purchased the plant from R. J. Welton, who operated it as the Victory Lumber Co., and they will run it under the name of National Lumber Co. Mr. Longworth has been in the Army the past two years, and prior to that was assistant manager of the National Lumber Co. at National City.