Woyne Mullin Tolks on Future of Lumber lnduslry to the Seosoning Associqtion Men

Wayne Mullin, president of the Mullin Lumber Company yards, Los Angeles, and president of the Southern California Retail Lumber Association in the 1955-56 and 1956-57 terms, was the featured speaker at the December 6 meeting of the Southern California Lumber Seasoning Association at the invitation of Secretary-Treasurer Robert P. Inglis' The members and guests enjoyed a very fine steak dinner at the site of the meeting, Swally's Key Club, in downtown L. A., after which the meeting was called to order by President Herb Geisenheyner at 8:15 p.m.

Bob Inglis told of the progress being made on the EMC Study locally, as well as those being made by Harvey Smith. It appears that good coverage is being made throughout the Pacific Coast arba and Inglis expressed much appreciation to Smith for his fine efforts in aiding this cause. ft was announced that the next annual West Coast Dry Kiln Conference will be at Eugene, Ore., May 15-17, and members were urged to start making their plans now to attend the big event of the year.

President Geisenheyner introduced next the speaker of the evening, Dealer Mullin, whose talk to the seasoning men included the following highlights in Mr. Mullin's always fluent and excellent style:

"I appreciate being invited here tonight. Thanks to Bob Inglis for his invitation. I feel like a babe lost in the woods -for I'm just a retail lumberman with a very simple knowl; edge of the problems involved in this industry. Here I am mixed up with a group of wood technologists. You have taken a great chance in asking me to be with you and right now I feel quite alone here on my feet.

"The invitation was not to me as a speaker-for Iew lumbermen are coherent and certainly I am not among those few. The invitation was extended because I happen to be President of the SCRLA-a group 'of 275 retail lumber yards and 104 suppliers to those yards. The President of this rather large group is apt to give men like Bob Inglis a wrong' impression-for the President is seldom a big shot. In my case, I had to be in this retail lumber business 33 years before they got around to electing me their President -sort of down to the 'dregs in the barrel.'

"Your Association impresses me. Our Association covers the broad field of retail distribution. Yours takes in the specialized field of improving the quality of lumber distributed by our members. In some ways' we can be envious of the work you do. You men are cr€ators, for you take a raw material and perfect it. You are producers, too. We retailers should know you