I DO E H FLUS oRs

THE FrlrE$T QUATTTY D00R

MA]I U FACTU RE II . PRICE II C(IIIIPETITIU E tY

OBTAI NABLE AT THE FOLLO\flNG JOBBERS=

SACRAMENTO . OAKLAND . FRESNO

California Builders Supply Co.

SAN DIEGO

T. M. Cobb Co.

LOS ANGELES

Back Panel Company

T. M. Cobb Co.

Davidson Plywood & Yeneer Co.

Bessonette & Eckstrom, lnc.

RIVERSIDE

Cr"m", Mfg. Co.

L. J. CARR & CO. I SACRAMENTO

PACIFIC COAST DISTRIBUTORS

More Facts About Tornado Damage at Warren, Ark.-Bradley Shipping Flooring

The storm struck at 5 :45 in the afternoon of Monday, January 3rd. Fifteen minutes earlier the crew rvould have been in tl-re plant and the casualties r,vould have been terrific. As it rn.as the death toll in the town was close to 50, some of whom rvere lumber workers, and the number of injured was in the hundreds.

The tornado, traveling Southwest to Northeast, was 100 to 150 yards n'ide, and crushed everything in its path, and in addition there rvas much damage. fartl.rer away caused by flying debris. The storm crossed the Bradley plant diagonally, completely demolishing the machine shop, the scluare-edge strip flooring unit, the cut-up factory's glue room and warehouse, the lumber cooling sheds, the boiler room, the engine room, the Diesel plant, the fuel houses, the auto vehicle shop and garages, and severly damaged the cut-up factory, dry kilns, and sawmill proper. The office building, planing mill, and other buildings north of the plant were practically undamaged.

A terrific rain that immediately follorved the tornado savecl a lot more damage by putting out fires in many parts of the plant. The sawdust pile burned for many days after the storm.

The January 15th issue of THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT told of the great damage done the sawmill plant of the Bradley Lumber Company, at Warren, Arkansas, by a tornado. Here are some further details :

A late report from Vice President R. W. Hanly brings gratifying ner,vs. With an electric power hook-up from the outside, Bradley is already operating their pre-finished hardwood flooring department, and shipments of that product are already being made. Other units of the plant will be placed in operation as quickly as possible, but in the meantime they are making and shipping hardwood flooring.

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Every now and then I read some remark of General Bradley's, and find wisdom and novel thinking, like the one above. I am convinced that he is one of the WISEST men in public life in this nation. And this at a time when mediocre thinking is the almost universal rule in public Places'

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The thought he expressed in the sentence quoted above, is apparently in line with that which caused that great and wise American of earlier days, Ben Franklin, to rise to his feet one time and utter a brave and magnificent speech. Franklin was a man much of whose fame was built on his ability to think great thoughts in time of great need, backed by the courage to utter them.

In the middle of June, irt, *" Constitutional Convention had almost completely bogged down in the midst of its mighty deliberations. Confusion was general. So, rising to his feet on the morning of June 16th, Ben Franklin addressed himself to George Washington, and this is what he said: "Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attention and continual reasoning with each other, is methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of human understanding.

"In this situation of th: *r.ltbrr, trying as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of the truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can arise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.'

"I firmly believe tti"; "ia i"rlo orrr."e that without His concurrent aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word, down to future ages. And what is worse' mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate circumstance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, conquest. I beg leave to move: that hereafter prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business."

The motion carried. "." "r""*in had the same thought in mind in making that motion that General Bradley must have had when he said that we live in an age of nuclear giants, and ethical infants. We accomplish mighty deeds; scientifically and physically we pierce the heavens and bring back discoveries that fairly shake the earth. But ethically we make no progress. Throughout all of World War Two and the vital conferences that follorved, we approached our gigantic problems as thoroughly dependent upon our own mental skill and wisdom as did the Godless Russians. Maybe that's why they skinned the hell out of us at every step of the road. Believing in no greater power that they might turn to, ihe Russians looked for none other than their own brute strength. Mostly, we did the same. We needed Ben Franklin to remind us of the availability of Omnipotent Help; that Help we have so long proclaimed our belief in. But Ben was not here. And so far the Godless men seem to have all the best of it in their head-on competition against our so-called Christian nation. "Ethical infants," says General Bradley. It's food for thought'

Abraham Lincoln *""*.nlrolrghly saturated with the belief that when men depend solely upon their own human strength and wisdom in time of war, they court destruction. He said that during the horror and the travail of the long years of the Civil War, he went frequently to his knees "because there was nowhere else to go." His thinking was exactly in line with that of Franklin when he made the speech quoted above. To seek leadership in the realms of science is a vital and wholly praiseworthy ambition. But Franklin and Lincoln wanted us to remember the Power that made the nuclear power in the first place. Why not turn to the real Boss Man when the hauling gets heavy? That was what Franklin said to Washington. A couple of mighty good men to remember in times like we face today.

Now, having thus far discussed the need for more religion in politics-and in politicians-let's talk about business and politics for a bit. President Truman has spoken on the state of the union, and has likewise sent Congress his budget-the greatest by far in peacetime history. First, let us recall the fact that in 1916 our national debt was slightly more than one billion dollars. This year Mr. Truman estimates that it will cost about five and one-half