NEWS tsR[EFS

"Better than nothing" was the seneral reaction to the Nixon Administration plan to pump sorne life into the ailing housing industry through subsidies and related measures s&ls in Ca, Az. and Nv. will get $800 million as part of the $10.3 billion total to help finance more housing....

The flow of $$ from the s&ls is reallv beeinning to show in latest fisures. h-urtinel in turn, the flow oi money td finance housing . . new high returns in other money market securities are expected to conlinue Pressure on the -s&ls' ability to lend $$ tor housIng...'

A mixed picture develoPed from April housing start figures: starts up luvo, annual rate down 25% fram last year while bldg. permits for future construction itid tOEo . . . Commerce Secretary Frederick Dent described the zigzagging as "somewhat puzzling....

The prime rate, at Press time, was between ll VzVo ' ll3/q%o, and some sources were predicting ir had peaked, but after its recent easy move thru old barriers to new record highs, most seers were skittish -about making definite pronouncements

Paraphrasing the Watergate tapes, some wags explained all was due to (unintelligible) and if not, then (expletive deletefi heavy construction in April, _ac- cording to F.W. Dodg6, offset the weak housing market and showed a 2% gain over '73 in total value of contracts for new construction....

Lousiana-Pacific is building a $l million sawmill at Crescent Mills, Ca., on the same site as their planing and dry kiln facilities States Veneer, Eugene, Or., has finished their new $l million layup plant, expanding their overall capacity by 5OVo ....

Pope & Talbot has announced a $13.8 million capital expansion program for 1974 for new and expanded wood and wood products mfg. facilities; they recently opened their new $10 mitlion Oakridge, Or., sawmill ....

Standard Dry Woll Products plans a new plant for Newark. Ca., to make coatings, plasters. patching and restoration materiafs .... Union Pacifc RR has placed orders for its 1975 locomotive and car buying programs totaling more than $l54million....

Fibreboard Corp is refunding $2.5 million in price overcharges to its customers as a result of an IRS review of their pricing practices during Phases 2 and 3 .... Oregon Paciftc Industries is having a June 23 0pen House at their new Wilsonville.0r., warehouse ..

The National Wood Products Committee is a new organization that seeks to bring about changes in several ways that the Defense Supply Agency of the fed. gov. deals with the wood products industry; Carsten Johnson, Kennedy-Johnson Lumber, Inc.. Mt. Lake Terrace, Wa., is the chairman....

Atkins, Kroll & Co., 68-yearold San Francisco import-export firm, has been sold to Inchcape & Co., a London-based trading {irm. for an undisclosed amount of cash; newly named pres. of A.K. is Peter B. Mackey, replacing retiring John B. Mackinlay .'. . Appli""d Surfaces div. is h newly-formed part of Building Moterial Distributors, Inc., Stockton. Ca.: John Martin is headingthediv.....

The Reliable Lumber Co. team placed 3rd in the nation at the recent AAU nt'1. basketball championships; sponsored by the Rosemead. Ca.. dealer and sparkplugged by Reliable's v.p., Jerry Higman, who also is player/gen. mgr., they even beat tne'nlrieo Foices Ali-Stars; 2 of their players made the AAU AllAmericanteam....

Homeowners Emporium has opened its 3rd store, in Montebello, Ca., with appropriate ceremonies E&E Lumber's Home Center has opened in north Marysville, Wa., near Everett .... A.C. Houston Co. nlans a new home center for Silver City, N.M., location still undecided....

Buckinghatn Lwnber, Sheridan, Wy., hopes to complete its new bldg. by late summer or earfy fall -.... Truckee Tahoe Lumher Co. has opened a new 3, 200 sq. ft. office and added dry storage at their Truckee, Ca., yard Cashway Plywood of Ro.seburg has opened a new store there, it has 3 others in Oregon

Lumberjack's True Value Home Center is a new store Santa Cruz Lumber Co. plans to open in Cupertino, Ca. this summer; their 4th store, it will have 10,000 sq. ft. outside, 20,000 inside Chas. C. Meek Ca. is completing a new office bldg. at its Redding, Ca.,yard....

Wickes'new San Marcos, Ca., store has 40,000 sq. ft., employs 23, was built and stocked at a cost of more than $500,000 . . . Laguna Beach Lumber Co., Laguna Beach, Ca., has run into parking hassles in its attempt to move out of downtown to a Laguna Canyon site Buiiinston Norihern has finally revealed it paid $1.25 million for Arden Lumber Co., Colville, Wa., that it acquired last Nov.

Total merchant wholesale sales in '73 reached $365 billion; that's a billion bucks a day .... Mar. lumber production dipped 2.7Vo from the previous mo. and 6.4Vo below the year-ago fig. another bill to convert the U.S. to metrics crashed in the House, but one is stillalive in the Senate.