N. L. M. A. Holds Annual Meeting

M. L.. Fleishel. Re-elected Prasident

It[. L Floirhel

Confronted with unprecedented wartime demands for lumber products and beset with harassing production problems within the industry and growing threats of encroachment from without, the board of directors of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association at its annual meeting in Chicago last month again placed the experienced hand of Marc L. Fleishel at the helm for the coming year. Thus, in a crucial period for the nation and for the lumber industry, Mr. Fleishel was accorded the distinction of becoming NLMA's fourth-term President for the second time in its history, the first being during the first World War, 1914 to 1918, in the presidency of the late Robert H. Downman, a leading cypress manufacturer.

In the best-attended annual meeting in years, held at the Blackstone Hotel, Edmund Hayes of Portland, Oregon, was elected first vice-president; W. M. Ritter of Columbus, Ohio, was elected vice-president and treasurer; and regional vice-presidents were elected as tollows: O. R. Miller of Portland, Oregon, representing West Coast woods; J. M. Brown of Spokane, 'Washington, representing Western pine; E. M. McGowin of Chapman, Alabama, representing Southern pine; and C. L. Freiler of Canton, Mississippi, representing Southern hardwoods.

J. F. Coleman of Kinzua, Oregon, was elected president of American Forest Products Industries, an affiliated agency for the conduct of projects in research, promotion, and publicity of interest to forest products industries.

The determination of the industry to maintain a continuous flow of lumber products for the winning of the war pervaded the four-day meeting, all sessions of which, beginning Monday, November 16, were dominated by a primary preoccupation with industry actions necessary or helpful to the war effort. This concern was set forth in a report hy Dr. Compton to the Lumber & Timber Products War Committee assuring members again that "all essential needs in lumber and timber products, of our armed forces, of the Maritime Commission, and of other war agencies have been met, are being met, and will be met."

He also warned that government iumber procurement agencies may expect another "bottleneek" in lumber pro-. duction if the federal controls of forestry practices now being sought as a "war measure" by the U. S. Forest Serv- ice are imposed on the timber industries during this national crisis in war production.

While extension of the industry's conservation program continued, as in previous meetings, to command general attention, a new insistence developed that the lumber industry promptly and substantially expand its products research activities to the end that wood products may take a forward position in the expected intense post-war competition with plastics and metals. Speaker after speaker brought this subject to the fore. Definite action ensued when the AFPI Board of Directors adopted a formal resolution directing that its Executive Committee collaborate with the Board of Directors of Timber Engineering Company to formulate concrete plans to be submitted to the interested industry groups for the early esablishment of a modernly equipped and adequately staffed research laboratory for the benefit and at the service of the lumber industry.

Previously, in an overflow meeting of the NLMA Trade Promotion Committee under the chairmanship of C. R. MacPherson of Palatka, Florida, Harry G. Uhl, Teco vicepresident and manager, pointed out in a summation of the company's skyrocketing progress in supplying timber connectors and other building devices and tools this year, that Teco's progress had been built from the beginning' on a solid foundation of research, and that this research was being continued and expanded.

For every three dollars Teco has spent in sales and engineering promotion work, Mr. Uhl said, it has spent one dollar in timber engineering design and research. ReBearch work, he said, is now being conducted at the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Washington Llniversity, and Pennsylvania State College. Teco also participated in the San Francisco Treasure Island tests. To date, some 29 U. S. and foreign universities have tested timber connectors. Research plans for 1943 include a program of wood products development, including improved methods of fastening wood to wood and to other materials, glues, laminated framing, and compregnated wbod.

At the same meeting, a general discussion of laminated (Continued on Page 20)