South ern California Lumber Conditions

Bv C. J. Laushlin Secretory, Southern California \ilholesole Lumber Association, Los Angeles

The Los Angeles City building permits, up to and including December 2, L941, amounted to $81,393,728, as compared with $74,688,,+00 for the entire year of 1940, and $74,790,911 for the entire year of 1939.

Fir cargoes, arriving here, to December 6, I94I, amounted to 908,555,000 feet, and for the same period irl 1940, were 712,248,ON, showing an increase of almost 2,000,000 feet.

There has been a definite increase in building permits, which have offset in a remarkable wav. the increase in receipts. The Los Angeles City building permits do not include a large percentage of increases in small homes in the airplane production areas; and without doubt, will constitute an enonnous increase in building construction outside the ordinary Los Angeles City department. The fact that I am listing only Los Angeles City building permits means that the general area not being included in the total figures is of invaluable importance-the reason for this being that outside of Los Angeles City there is an immense amount of construction which is not included.

The fact that the small home construction is a predominant factor in the industrial districts should indicate that our lumber business for 1942 can very easily exceed our past years' activity. The growth of these areas is phenomenal and the changes in plans for the increase in production are more or less of a military secret in view of the war situation. Mechanics, carpenters, and the like, must be hou,sed, and to make this expedient, they must be situated near their work-which again calls for homes somewhere in the vicinity of construction areas.

This explains in part why we have such a large amount of unsold lumber on the dock-because we are a defense area, lumber is being poured into our market to fill our defense needs-and although it is coming too fast, I believe it will begin moving at a rapid speed, and believe, too, that with the possible exception of the year 1923, 1942 will show the largest year in Southern California lumber history.

There is no way in the present war program to predict what the 1942 building program will produce, but hazarding a wild g'uess, I believe that either by rail or water, Southern California will see enlarged consumption of lumber, because we have one of the largest productive areas for war and civilian production in the entire United States.