A United Woodworking Industry

Address made by C. H. White, Vice Pr€sidcnt and Gencrel Managcr, White Br,others, San Francisco, at the Annual C.onvcotbn of tf,c Milhto*

Institute of California, San Francisco, Calif., Novanbcr 21, lgt0

As an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley, my thoughts, of course, are a great deal on tomorrow's game. The experience with the University of Southern California, two weeks ago, at f,os Angeles, has stunned all true U. C. men and we are now thinking of what threats Stanford has for us. Of course you all don't go along with me on this as there are no doubt many Stanford sympathizers among you. But what I mean by mentioning tomorrow's game and the threats of Stanford, is to make you think of the threats against the rvoodworking industry. In woodworking at least there is no difference of opinion among us, lve are all boosting for one team, the woodrvorkers.

As I see it, there are two threats against the Woodrvorking Industry at the present time.

The first threat is a broad, general one: The use of substitutes for rvood. We have steel furniture, metal sash, metal card tables, and thousands of other things made of n.retal, which rvere formerly made of rvood. Here is an instance of one tlreat from this quarter: Trade Research Division of the National Association of Flat Rolled Steel Manufacturers state that the annual total tonnage of Steel used in office furniture is now 355.420; they have set as their objective seven million tons. In household furniture and equipment the present tonnage is 666,00O; their objective is eleven million. They have similar objectives on auto rvheels, bodies, shelving, bins, and so on. Personally, I think they are far too optimistic, but you can see rvhat they are driving at, and how much of a threat steel is to rvoocl.

Then we have the present grorving tendency of plaster instead of woodwork, as exemplified in the Mediterranean or Spanish type residences.

We see in every magazine, the advertisements of the linoleum and cork tile people, striving for the substitution of their goods for hardwood floors.

The first threat is, therefore, a threat of substitutes.

The second threat is more specific to us here in California, and that is the threat of Eastern competition. Distance has been ari ally to the Pacific Coast rvoodu'orking industry. We have been enjoying a sort of a splendid isolation on account 9f long hauls and high freight rates making it not entirely feasible to ship in finished trim from the East. Gradually, however, our splendid isolation has been losing its protective force. You knorv horv hardwood cloors have been shipped in. Some of the finest jobs in the largest buildings in this part of the country have Eastern hardrvood doors, even though the rest of the trim is manufactured here.

Only last month a large job of store fixtures, in the vicinity of the San Francisco Bay District, u'ent East. This was especially deplorable, because as )'ou know, the cabinet shops and planing mills have not been busy and this would have been a fine opportunity to do something for home industry. However, sad to relate, the job was given to an Eastern concern. The real cause, I have been told, is that the local bidders figured on the original specifications, and the Eastern bidders offered their stock fixtures. Great pressure was brought to bear by San Francisco Civic bodies to keep this work here, but without success. I do not know the ansrver to such a problem. Is it impossible to make stock fixtures here? You gentlemen should be able to solve this, and you will have to solve itif you do not want considerable of your business to get away from you.

On another job across the Bay, San Francisco and Oakland woodu'orkers put in bids which were lower than Eastern competitors. One of the Eastern representativeg horvever, told the board of trustees of the institution in rvhich the fixtures rvere to be installed, that it was impossible to secure on the Pacific Coast the high class oak rvhich the Eastern concern would use in their work, and it was also.impossible to secure the quality of kiln drying u'hich they would give in their finished material. This of course aroused the fighting spirit of the cabinet shops here and the San Francisco Hardwood Club wrote a letter to this institution, a public library by the way, guarienteeing the quality of the stock, and the kiln drying, and by much persuasion and hard work were able to secure the job for local manufacturers.

I mention these two instances, and there are many, many more, to show the imminence of the danger, and the realness of the threats to the woodworking industry of California.

What is the answer to these threats, and how can we avoid the re-occurrence of these things? Cannot we meke hardwood doors out here on the Coast to compete with the East? If not, why not? That is one thing the whole rvoodworking industry has to study, and rve have to study it together, cabinet shops. planing mills, retail lumber dealers, rvholesale lumber dealers, and hardrvood dealers.

I can only speak for the hardwood dealers. but I think that 1'ou gentlemen have found out that the hardwood dealers are ready, rvilling, and do work rvith the miltwork industry.

These threats to the rvoodrvorking trade are threats to the lumber industry as rvell, or even more so. They are threats to everyone whose livelihood has to do with wood. We cannot admit that it is economically unsound to manufacture rvoodwork here in California. Then, what is the reason that Eastern competitors can come right in our orvn back yards and take our business arvay?

Again referring to football, the industry is like the

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