PECKYCEDflR

holes. Specified widths and lengths up to 16'provide economies in both installation time and reduction in waste. When your customers demand "somethingout-of-the-ordinary", remember LamLoc Pecky Cedar. Call or write for full color literahrre and samples. Ed Fountain Lumber Company, 6218 South Hooper Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90001, (213) 583-1381. (7 74) 97 2-9107

ED FOUNTAIN LUMBER COMPANY

DAVID CUTLER editor-publ isher

Those who ignore the lessons of history. .

T HIS month is the 50th anniversary of the I stock market crash of October 29, 1929 that began the Great Depression. Even today, a half century later, its effects are still with us in many ways. Much current debate centers on the possibility of a return to those terrible days.

A few numbers will serve to illustrate its awesome severity. The stock price index fell from 210 in 1929 to 30 by 1932; commodity prices dropped 400fti industrial production was halved; unemployment by 1932 had hit 250/0, in a time when a far higher percentage were heads-of-households than today. Between 1930- 1940, 8,872 banks failed in the U.S., or 43o/o of those in existence at the start of the decade.

Despite all the current talk, there is no real way of knowing whether we will or will not be condemned to repeat the searing experience of a depression. We can only go ahead and hope circumstances avoid a replay.

We don't expect a major depression tn America, although some of the gloomier economists make a strong enough case to make one wonder. But should we be unfortunate enough to have it happen again, we won't be too surprised. Whenever anyone tells us that man has learned so well from past mistakes that there is no chance of ever committing the same errors again, we have to look at that kind of thinking with a questioning eye. Mankind's history is packed with example after example of the same stupid mistakes being made over and over again.

There is nothing any of us can do individually in either our personal or business lives to prevent a depression: we can only try to position ourselves to either avoid its effects or cope with it as best we can.

The prudent among us will always include the possibility of a repeat performance when planning major projects and preparing for the future.