Manufacturers Urged to Promote Building of Low-Cost Homes

"Passage of the amendments to the National Housing Act will mean more than anything else to the lumber industry, and we expect it to provide the stimulus for a good volume of small homes building," stated Dr. Wilson Compton, secretary-manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, in an address at the annual meeting of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, held at Tacoma, January X3.

Col. W. B. Greeley, secretary-manager of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, reviewed the work of the Association and advised the members to become "Minute Men" in their own communities in a "Build Now" campaign, saying in part:

"Almost all the economic prophets of the land agree that active resumption of home building will 'break' some time in 1938. But this 'break' will not come like the steam calliope and grand parade opening a circus. It will start with a little revival of confidence and the building of two or three houses in your own town. It will come from the grass-roots of America. When the towns and farms make up their minds to do a little more building, and that little begins to mount like springs flowing together in a stream, we will start an upward spiral; first, in public thinking and confidence, then in demand for materials, then employment. And economic recovery will be on its way."

T. V. Larsen, of Noti, Ore., presided at the morning session, and in his remarks counseled the adoption by lumber manufacturers of the aggressive sales methods of their competitors.

E. W. Demarest, Pacific National Lumber Co., Tacoma, presided at the afternoon session.

Corydon Wagner, Tacoma, trade promotion chairman, conducted the session on that topic. He introduced several of the men actively engaged in association engineering, designing and promotion work.

These included J. E. Mackie, manager, San Francisco office, National Lumber Manufacturers Association; A. C. Horner, manager, Western Timber Structures, San Francisco; T. C. Combs, West Coast field engineer, Los Angeles; Clyde Makutchan, chief building inspector, Los Angeles; Harry J. Uhl, secretary, Timber Engineering Co., Washington, D. C., and C. R. French, of the National Association, Washington, D. C.

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