EDITORIAL

Turn On or Drop Out

I T this time of the year, we always begin to a r wonder how many of those New Year's resolutions phrased in ringing terms and enobled by firm, if temporary, resolve, will still enjoy even lip service on February first.

Not many, probably, will live to see the springtimq let alone another year.

But there is one resolution every good businessman should make and plan to keep. Be fast, flexible and energetic enough to change with the swiftly shifting conditions in business, realizing that to ignore or postpone change is tantamount to failure, whether it comes today or next year.

Most everyone would agree with the necessity to change habits and keep up with new ideas. The rub comes that despite all the fine talk and sage nods of the head, nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. They agree that change is vital, that they are, or will, do all that is needed. And what happens? Same as before. Nothing, absolutely nothing.

The hard fact is that this business, at all levels, has been remarkably resistant to change. Not to talk of change, but to actually getting off the dime and doing the hard work that brings in the bucks.

The automobile industry, for example, has frequently been lambasted for making changes for change sake, for planned obsolescence and other, similar so-called sins.

Critics charge that they change frequently, moving the tail light up a little this year, down a little next year and accomplishing nothing in the advance of automotive design. Which is all true, but the charges do not show much comprehension of the function of business. What the car people are doing through change, is making a profit. Which is, after all, the reason for the whole thins in the first place.

Alfred P. Sloan, former General Motors president and the man most responsible for making GM the biggest business in the world, said, in effect, our business is making a return on our stockholder's money. we'll do whatever is necessary to make that return. Contrast that thinking with- what you all too often hear in this business.

Contrast also the profit and loss statements. The auto industry is setting record earnings. And the lumber and building materials industry? We know the answer to that one all too well.

Whether you write down your resolutions, or just run them past your mind's eye, remember the most important of them all. Don't drop out mentally when someone suggests doing something other than what you've done for the last .,-pt""tr y"u... That change may bring something new that scares you a little, that looks like more work than vou care to do, but it will also confer a benefit. it,ll bring you dollars and we venture that vou could get to like having more than you have nlw. Make sense ?

Stick Together

E-tOR THOSE of you who feel thar we are all in r this together, we would like to say a word about trade associations.

And that word is join. Because if we don,t set together and work out our problems together, thlen we all can look forward to government control.

Enough said?

SERIES: FEATHER RIVER SCENES

Nikkel's Quality Forest Products come from the fabulous River Country

Feather

Three Nikkel plants producing "Feather" soft pine and "silver Feather" white fir are located in the Feather River Country. The area is known for its high quality sugar pine, ponderosa pine, and white fir. Photo shows an early settler's cattle shed in Indian Valley in the northeast portion of California's Plumas National Forest. lt's near the site where pioneer Peter Lassen established the first trading post in the area in 1850. Just over Evans Peak in the background is Honey Lake, where Lassen was later shot from ambush while gold prospecting.

Suppliers ol "Feather Soft" Pine and "Silver Feather" White Fir