Sudden fS Ghristenson

Hoguiam

Hulbert

Villapa

Braach Ofices:

SEATTLE

STBAMBRS

Annie Chrirtcnron I

Edwif ChrilrcnroD

Catherine G. Suddco

Eleanor Chrirtenroo

PORTLAND

200 Henry Bldg.

Henderson Says Lumber Prices Have Been Too High

A meeting of the Lumber and Timber Products Defense Committee was held in Washington, D. C., January 23. This was the first meeting of the committee since its organization last August when at the request of the National Defense Advisory Commission the various lumber industry groups were invited to organize an industry committee to cooperate in the national defense program.

M. L. Fleishel, chairman of the Committee, presided and Leon Henderson, Defense Commissioner in charge of Price Stabilization, addressed the Committee.

Mr. Henderson declared that lumber prices are too high and held over the industry that threat of government price fixing if the situation he pictured failed to be adjusted satisfactorily.

In opening the discussion, Mr. Fleishel stated that within a very short space of time the Government required delivery of the enormous quantity of more than one and onehalf billion feet of lumber, which came immediately on the heels of an increased demand from private industry, resulting in forcing lumber production to the highest point , in eleven years. This was accentuated by the large number of buildings of a standard design requiring unusually large amounts of relatively few sizes and grades of lumber and with occasional ,exception all this was specified to be dry lumber. Undoubtedly higher prices were paid for some lumber than woud have been paid if delivery dates could have been better adjusted to the actual needs and if rush bidding and rush deliveries could have been avoided.

We urged a system of centralized invitation and bidding procedure, Mr. Fleishel continued, and we believe that the lower prices the War Department has secured since the month of October have been largely due to thii system of centralized buying. He also discussed conditions in Southern Pine lumber.

Mr. Henderson declared he had lots of figures on the lumber industry, but that the "main thing is that lumber prices have'been just too high... They are too high in terms of maintaining the degree of stability within this economic system operating at an ever-increasing level and with the serious demands for production that are being made on it and are likely to be made on it in the future, by, first, the increase of the United States Government's own demands as represented by the new budget, and second, as represented by the British and other requirements, and third, which is highly important, the Pressure for acceleration of the time of delivery of these things. . .

"As far as I am concerned, I have had all the argument and all the explanation and all the excuse that I need, and a damned sight more as far as the price condition is concerned. . .

"Acting on my suggestion, which was certainly concurred in by the Presidqnt and certainly supported by the experience of the War Industries Board, we have undertaken to leave as much of the decision as is possible in the hands of the organized structure of industries, and we have been very successful up to date with practically all of them. In the few cases that we haven't, where the government has had to institute some action, we have gotten what we

Celotex1941 Lumber Dealet Convention Exhibit

Representative of the distinctive exhibit to be seen at 1941 lumber dealer association conventions is this display of The Celotex Corporation, which demonstrates application of Celotex structural insulation by an actual full scale cross section of a wall. The side panels display Celotex interior finishes, roofing and gypsum products.

Los Angeles Hoo-Hoo Club Meets

Los Angeles Hoo-Hoo Club No. 2 met at the Mona Lisa Cafe, Los Angeles, Wednesday noon, February 5.

Jack Ivey of Los Angeles, field representative of the Red Cedar Shingle Bureau, showed the Bureau's new all-color, all-talking motion picture travelogue, "The Land of the Totem," which was enthusiastically received by the large gathering.

The next meeting will be held Wednesday noon, March 5, and A. W. Donovan of Hobbs Wall Lumber Co. will be chairman. Roy Stanton, chairman of the golf committee, announces that a golf tournament will be held in a few weeks.

wanted for the government, and we got it at fair prices.

"We can get lumber. The government can get all the lumber it wants by fixing a price and having the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy forbid any buyers paying in excess of that amount; then, if not enough is offered, by using the Selective Service Act, which is nothing but an euphonious title for the draft act, for drafting lumber for camps the same way as you draft young men for camps. As far as f am concerned, if we don't get the lumber, I am going to make that kind of recommenda.tion.

"There is certainly one way to keep prices from going up and you don't have to have a conspiracy, and that is for the people who have the stuff to offer it at decent prices. That is all that has to be done in the situation. You don't have to enter into any conspiracy. . I donrt believe that you have to run the risk of any violation of a consent decree now outstanding. .

"I am not going to make a request, I am merely going to say I have only one test as to whether or not things are going right in this industry as far as I am concerned, and that is whether we have reasonable prices maintained for reasonable lengths of time so that producers may have the opportunity and the assurance of stabiity in their estimate of their costs."

West Coast Annual Meeting

Maintenance of the normal channels of West Coast lumber trade in the wake of the heavy flood of emergency defense requirements in the last half of L94O was the major problem before the members of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association in their annual meeting at Tacoma, Wash., on Friday, January 31.

The morning session was given over to Association stockholders, for reports from officers, election of l94L district trustees, and a panel discussion on specific industry problems.

In the afternoon session, lumber trade promotion and forestry held the stage, with Chairman O. R. Miller, of the WCLA Trade Extension Committee, and George L. Drake, Chairman, Joint Committee on Forest Conservation, presiding. L. J. Markwardt, in charge of Timber Mechanics, U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wis., discussed "Lumber-A Material in Modern Engineering," and Stewart Holbrook, lumberjack author and lecturer, talked on "Madison's llouse of Magic," a discussion on the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory. A showing of the new sound film in color of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., "Trees and Homes" ended the afternoon session.

At the dinner meeting in the evening, Arthur B. Langlie, Governor of the state of Washington, and Reno Odlin, president, Puget Sound National Bank of Tacoma, were the guest speakers. C. H. Kreienbaum, WCLA vice-president for Washington, presided as toastmaster.

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