How Lumber Looks

Western building activity in October, 1939, as measured by permits lrom 92 cities in eleven western states, Honolulu, and British Columbia, recorded a gain over the previous month, but was slightly lower than that of October, 1938, according to the Western Monthly Building Survey prepared by H. R. Baker & Co., of San Francisco. Total permit valne for the 92 reporting cities was $23,494,M8, 8.26 per cent higher than September's $15,351,099, but 6.35 per cent smaller than the $25,087,69 showing for October 1938.

Los Angeles continued in first place with a total perrnit value of $5,654,730, a figure fractionally ahead of the previous month, but $970,992 lower than the comparable month last year. San Francisco in second place with $1,634,749 sho.wed a moderate gain over the previous month, and was 9lo99ly followed by Seattle, which n'ith permits totaling $1,198,000 reported broad increases both over September, 1939, and October, 1938. Oakland jumped from fifth place to fourth, and was closely followed by Portland, Oregon, Denver, Colorado, and Long Beach and San Diego, California. in that order.

Duringthe week ended November 11,515 mills produced 239,977,W feet of hardwoods and softwoods combined, shipped 2D,O24,000 feet, and booked orders of 183,678,000 feet, according to the the National Lumber Manufacturers Association.

Revised figures for the preceding week, 525 mills report- ing, were production 243,374,W feet, shipments 257,?Ol,W feet, and orders 194,2O3,000 feet.

Lumber orders reported for the week ended November 11 by 438 softwood mills totaled 172,727,On feet, shipments were 2L6,722,000 feet, and prodttction was 2D,238,Ufi feei. Reports from 96 hardwood mills for the same week gave new business as 10,951,000 feet, shipments 12,302,ffO Ieet, anrl production L0,739p00 feet.

The Western the rveek ended feet, shipmentsfeet. Orders on 320,000 feet.

Pine Association, 125 mills reporting for November 18, gave orders as 55,191,000 76,434,W feet, and production 80,913,000 hand at the end of the week totaled 2Q,-

The Southern Pine Association for the week ended November 18, 13O mills reporting, gave orders as 28,4'D,Ufi feet, shipments 33,390,000 feet, and production 33,439,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 89,261,000 feet.

Lumber receipts at Los Angeles Harbor for the week ended November 25, still not quite recovered from the Marine Firemen's strike, totaled 6,395,000 feet, as compared with 3,655,000 feet the week preceding.

The coastwise strike of the Marine Firemen's Union against lumber schooner operators ended November 18 with the signing of a work agreement and return of about 400 union members to the 6O vessels tied up in the ten-day dispute.

"The turkey was almost a nervous wreck, A sad and disconsolate creature, Thanksgiving was always a pain in the neck, And now it's a double feature."-Geo. E Phair.

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The double Thanksgiving this year has been the butt of more jokes, naturally, than any other thing that has happened in a long time. For the past month every radio program has centered on it. Some of the gags have been awfully funy. Someone said to Jack Benny: ,,I'll bet you don't even know when Thanksgiving is," and Benny replied, "who does?" Charlie McCarthy said to someone else on his program, "When will we be out of here?" The fellow answered "about Thanksgiving." Charlie said ,,be more specific." And the Governor of Oklahoma, in setting the Thanksgiving date in that state for November 30 said: "Thirty days hath Septembei, April, June, and November, all the rest have thirty-one, until we hear from Washington." And so they went on and on. They called Nov. 30th "Thanksgiving," and Nov. 23rd Franksgiving.

Speaking of good gags, to me the best of the whole year is that of the comedian W. C. Fields (I love his stuff, anyway) when he said: "Never smarten up a chump." He is the man who made, "Never give a sucker an even break" a national byword.

And then, of course, a;ri *:" the woman who, when asked if there was any insanity in her family replied that her husband thought he was boss of the house.

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The other day nearly a million voters in California went to the polls and cast their votes in favor of a proposal that, had it carried, would have destroyed the State just as certainly and completely as though the Pacific Ocean had swept in and engulfed it. The measure lost, it is true. But the very fact that so many citizens voted for such a thing is something to give a guy goose pimples and start shivers running up and down his spine.

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Here is a remark once made by Thomas Jefferson that you won't hear quoted by any of the speakers in Congress: "ff the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour."

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There is one virtue which no man or woman in business should neglect to cultivate. It is GRACIOUSNDSS. A service rendered with graciousness is magnified until it seems-as indeed it is-a far greater service. Graciousness is not toadyism. ft isn't fawning on superiors and condescending to inferiors. True graciousness is NOT an assumed thing, put on and off like a garment. It is courtesy, kindliness, helpfulness, and understanding.

Dr. H. H. Bennett, Chief of the Soil Conservation Service, conducted an experiment in North Carolina that effectively demonstrated the protection a forest gives to the soil, and the soil damage done by forest fires. Two practically identical woodland plots were selected, one of which was burned off every year, while the other was not. Over a six year period the burned plot has shed 100 times as much water as the unburned, and the soil losses have been 800 times as great.

Wood fiber and .orn*,,rJ"rl iriirr,"." business associates, following closely on the near relationship of bacon and eggs. The layman scarcely realizes that it requires 250 pounds of sulphur to make every ton of sulphite wood pulp, and that of the total sulphur consumed in this country l8.5Vo helps to make wood pulp.

Recent figures indicate that 27 million American families have radios in their homes, and at least three,fourths of them listeri to radio programs every day. Radio experts say that the average family uses its radio more than five hours daily. People spend more time listening to radios now than at any other occupation except sleeping and working, and the radio totals threaten the work totals.

"To be a good fri"r,d,'l -rrra* John Drinkwater, "is a mark of sterling quality; but to be a particularly gracious friend is.to add to that a'charming elegance."

Lumbermen sometimes b";"; the fact that theirs are (Continued on Page 8)