V.gabond Editoriafs

By Jack Dionne

We hauled off and "recognized" Russia in order to sell them some goods. Now we find that they aren't going to buy the goods anyway. Selling a sacred thing for a mess of potage was not confined to Bible days.

Some man with a gift for words describes the antics of the Brain Trust et al as "watching a bunch of merry martinets trifle with all the laws of nature and of the universe." That's telling'em, fat lady.

He who would o. o"ni*J ",1 *r' the resounding acclaim of his fellow men and women, can do so very easily. All he needs to do is seek about until he discovers what the other fellow wants to do, and then go ahead and advise him to do it. It is not a noble method of procedure, perhaps, but it is truly the royal road to popularity.

Pride keeps many a -"J "; oJo,,'"r, straight. For pride is a fortress not only impregnable, but unassailable.

I was reading the ".n"r:";oJ"o*u of the gieat animals of prehistoric times. They always intrigue me. But the thought came to me as I looked at the pictures of those huge things whose footsteps formerly thundered over this earth-why aren't they here today? The ants, and the bees, and the insects who also knew the world at that time, are still with us. But the giants are gone. Do you suppose it was because their brains failed to keep up with the growth of their bodies, and they died for lack of intelligent meeting of their problems? Or were they too dumb to cooperate, and so died for want of coordinated effort?

Speaking of our -ou".rl-l*J,", and divorcing and remarrying in double-swift time, do any of you good folks know what the New Testament says about divorce? Few of you, in all probability. Well, if you want to know, go look for yourself. Try Chapter 10, Verses 11 and 12 of the Book of Mark. And if you doubt the authority of Mark, you will find the same thing exactly in Matthew and Luke. You will discover that divorces generally may be legal, but they're not Biblical by a whole lot.

As I have frequently remarked before in this column, people talk a lot about the Biblical laws, but nobody reads them. Our Legisatures write laws for divorce on any number of grounds; but Jesus Christ says it can't be done ex- cept on one ground. And they write Blue Sunday laws for keeping the Sabbath and Jesus Christ never kept it and never told anyone else to do so. If you think He ever did, read His story and His words. our penitentiaries "r" r;"J*;h beardless youths, whose parents neglected to spank them on time.

Well, folks, on9 of the notable changes that has taken place in the last year is the fact that the railroads are again carrying more people than are the banks. We got so for awhile that the banks were carrying everybody, and the railroads practically nobody. But the banks have squeezed nearly all their borrowers off their books, and the railroads have gone back to carrying capacity passenger loads. Which is a mighty good sign.

To see a problem clearly, get on a higher plane and look at it from abcve; like going up to the top of the tallbst building to view a city.

*+,i

' Sorneone tells of seeing a sign at the entrance of a small wooded park in a small town, that read: ,,NO PARKIN OR NOTHIN.''

*:t*

Talk about coincidences ! Not long ago in a radio talk I told about a fellow from Buffalo telling me that it was so cold in the neighboring town of Tonawanda that they didn't use the snow till it was two years old. A few days later I got a nice letter from a family in Tonawanda, New york, saying that they had heard the program and the story, and confirming the report that it really fS rather chilly in Tonawanda.

It all depends in this *:nJ o,l*no*" ox is being gored. A state legislator told me the other day about getting a wire from one of his ranching constituents, that read: ,,you can do what you please about that tax on wool-I've done sold my sheep."

:Frt* f sat at dinner the other night with several highly intelligent men, who, after their meal, chose to philosophize. And they talked of evolution. And there was one there who spoke highly of that particular school of thought. But the others thundered against it. And I just sat, and listened, and pondered. What a choice they present to us, these' two opposite schools of thought. Either I must believe that I belong to a race that started with two perfect humans, h"ppy, hopeful, knowing neither storm' disease, trouble, sorrow, taxes, or politics, and has worked down to the short-lived, trouble-drowned race of humans that I see about me today; or I must believe that I belong to a race that started with a skull-less vertebrae' and worked upward to this enormously irnproved human level of which I am a specimen. Which seems best? The one that started so humbly, and now amounts to so much; or the one that started so perfectly, and is now so far removed from perfection ? r< :r :F

Of course, I have no choice. As Popeye says-"I Yam what I Yam." And likewise, whatever I came from, is something I have no power to change. But if I had my choice, and could say which line of parentage I would choose, would I elect to be a descendant of the perfect Adam 'and Eve whose race has fallen so low I or would I prefer to believe that my progenitor was a skull-less vertebrae, and that my race has been struggling onward and upward to the present time, with the angels of faith, and of hope, and of progress beckoning them on? Would I rather have the future of my race ahead of me than behind me? Tough choice, I calls it. ***

Understand, I'm not worrying about it. I don't presume to say just when, or how, or where, or in what shape men

Frank Adams Visits Coast

Frank R. Adams, of Chicago, Eastern sales manager, The Pacifi,c Lumber Co., San Francisco, has just left San Francisco after spending 10 days at the company's mill at S'cotia and about a week at the main office. Mr. Adams traveled West over the northern route and returned by way of New Orleans' first appeared on this earth. I know we've been here for countless centuries and ages, and we haven't even started to solve the tariff question yet, or come to an understanding of the monetary situation. And if we can't settle the small problems, how can u/e expect to handle the big ones?

L. J. CARR VISTTS L. A.

L. J. Carr, sales managet, Buzard-Burkhart Pine Co., San Francisco, re'cently spent a week in Los Angeles on business.

The farthest I would care to delve into the future would be to discover when we are going to get going strong again in the lumber business. Tell me that, and I'll let you keep all your other previous information. The lumber business is undoubtedly on the up; but it's a slow march, any way you look at it, and there is such tremendous room for improvement that you can't blame a guy for being restless. ***

"Business is better" seems to be the slogan echoing from all of the retail lumber conventions that are taking place in all parts of the country. The morale is higher, the smile is easier, the convention delegate is filled with hope, and it is hope based on the tinkle of the cash in the old cash register.

And fond hopes for 1935 are also being sounded from all the convention halls. Everyone tells of the great NEED for new buildings and for building improvements in HIS territory; and with the prospect of ready cash and credit with which to finance these needs, most dealers can see a' business swing upward that may reach his yard any day' and continue indefinitelY.

Takes To The Air

Floyd Elliott, manager of the San Francis'co offi'ce of Schafer Bros. Lumber & Shingle Co', returned from a business trip to Los Angeles on February 7 by the air route, traveling by United Air Lines' direct plane which tnakes the trip in two hours and seven minutes.

Gus Hoover Visits Mill

A. L. "Gus" Ifoover, Los Angeles, Southern California representative of The Pacific Lumber Co', returned February 2 from a lGday trip to the company's sawmill at Scotia and main office in San Francisco.