1918 HILL & lers MORTON, lNc. 7948

Wholeso of Wesf Coost lumber Products General Officc

Dennison St. Whorf

Phone ANdover l-1O77

FRESNO, CALIF.

Indurtry Breaks Construction Records

When Controls Lifted

Taxes have added $1,155 into the cost of an $8,000 house since 194O, Norman P. Mason, president of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association told the Master Builders of Iowa, members of the Associated General Contractors of America, meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, December 17.

"In the cost of an $8,000 house there is approximately $2,136 that must be used to pay taxes at present rates," Mr. Mason pointed out. "Free gf taxes, this $8,000 house would cost $5,864 and at 1940 tax rates would cost $6,845. Between 1940 and 1947, $1,155 in taxes has been added to bring the cost of this house up to $8,000."

In dollar volume home construction is not the largest element, Mr. Mason said. But like the mythical tail that wags the dog, the prominence given home building not only in the publicity in the public press but in the Halls of Congress presehts a problem that has afiected every phase of construction. Housing is the key-log in the jam.

Part of the problem is an actual scarcity of adequate homes in the right places and part of the problern is the flood of misleading propaganda from public housers and social planners in and out of government.

The fact is, once freed of government controls and regulations last May, the industry took less than 60 days to start breaking all construction records. July with 80,000 homes started; August with 83,000 starts; September with 92,ffi0 starts and October with 92,000 starts, simply means that for one-third of the year a free industry was able to build over one-third of a million homes.

Practical Study of Lumber Grading

An authentic and practical study of lumber grading is contained in an 86-page booklet, "The Fundamentals of Good Lumber Manufacturing and Grading Practice," re-cently publ.ished by the West Coast Bureau of Grades and Inspection.

Intended to supply basic information of value to all persons engaged in the manufacture of lumber, the booklet was prepared by Howard L. Brown, general superintendent of the West Coast Bureau, and one of the country's leading authorities on lumber grading.

Well illustrated, the booklet gives a full account of the grader and his duties, and describes in detail the characteristics and irregularities which result in the segregation of lumber into various grades. Specific grading rules are dealt with only in a general way.

Reviewers have described the booklet as a "must". for executives as well as all mill personne!. Price of the booklet is fifty cents. Copies may be obtained by writing the West Coast Bureau of Lumber Grades and Inspection, 1410 S. W. Morrison Street, Portland 5, Oregon.

On Vccation Trip

Ed Fountain, Ed Fountain Lumber Co., Los Angeles, and Mrs. Fountain, are on a vacation trip to Mexico, Guatemala, and Yucatan. They will be away about six weeks.

Visits Los Angeles

F. A. Vollstedt, Vbllstedt-Kerr Lumber Co., McMinnville, Oregon, was a recent Los Angeles visitor. C. P. Henry & Co., Los Angeles, represents his firm in Southern California