THE CALIFOR}IIA LUMBERMERCHANT How lrumber lloolrs

Lumber shipments of 418 mills reporting to the National Lumber Trade Barometer, National Lumber Manufacturers Association, were 4.6 per cent above production for the week ended February 19, 1949. In the same week new orders of these mills were L6.4 per cent above production. Unfilled order files of the reporting mills amount to 37 per cent of stocks. For reporting softwood mills unfilled orders are equivalent to 25 days' production at the current rate, and gross stocks are equivalent to 66 days'production. For the year-to-date, shipments of reporting identical mills were 3.2 per cent above production; orders were 16.2 per cent above production.

Compared to the average corresponding week oT 19351939, production of reporting mills was 41,2 per cent above; shipments were 27.4 per cent above ; orders were 42.4 per cent above. Compared to the corresponding week in 1948, production of reporting mills was 25.0 per cent below; shipments were 24.2 per cent below, and new orders were 15.3 per cent below.

The Western Pine Association for the week ended February 26, 109 mills reporting, gave orders as 47,682,0ffi f.eet, shipments 45,450,m0 feet, and production 41,212,000 f.eet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 190,173,000 feet.

The California Redwood Association for the January, 1949, twelve companies reporting, gave ceived as 29,980,000 feet, shipments production 36,016,000 feet. Orders on the month totaled 39,141,000 feet.

29,950,U0 feet, and hand at the end of

The Southern Pine Association for the week ended February 19,81 units (103 mills) reporting, gave orders as 12,798,Offi feet, shipments 13,998,000 feet, and production 15,211,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 35,706,000 feet.

The West Coast Lumbermen's Association for the (Continued on Page 50) week

OBTAINABLE

SACRAMENTO

California Builders Supply Co.

SAN DIEGO

T. M. Cobb Co.

LOS ANGELES

Baclt Panel Company

T. M. Cobb Co.

Davidson Plywood & Ven eer Co.

Bessonette & Eckstrom, Inc.

RIVERSIDE ffiffi,r.F.qiffi

Cresmer Mfg. Co.

1949.tras fair to be the ye.ar of decision for the building industry. Everyone knows there is a big job to be done if the high level of building activity is to be sustained and advanced.

Celoter has made i,ts deci,si,onl As our contribution to the cause, we are going all out in '49 with the greatest advertising and sales promotion campaign in Celotex history.

And ue are making Aou, the Celoter d.ealer, the keg figure in the whole prograrn.

In a series of smashing 2-eAGr spREADs that will appear in rnn sATURDAv EvENrNc POST, BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, SUCCESSFUL FARMING, eROGRESSM FARMUn, and other leading magazines-Celotex will tell millions of Americans that theg not only can but shoul.d builil or remodel nout!

And in every big advertisement, Celotex is spotlighting Aou as the man to see for helpful information, dependable guidance, and all the necessary materials.

Think what great prestige this powerful Celotex advertising will build for you in your community. It will increase customer traffic in your place of business, and help you sell not only more Celotex products but more of everything you handle.

But remember, to cash in fully on the sales-building power of this sensational campaign, gou must ti.e i,n effecti,uelg in A our oun local adu erti.si.ng and at the point of sale. Celotex makes it easy for you to do this by providing mats for newspaper ads, and other tie-in material. The more energetically and consistently you use this material, the more you will benefit.

Yes, Celotex is on the march in full force in 1949. We feel certain that you, the Celotex dealers of America, will join with us-and that together, we will forge ahead to a new level of achievement and prosperity for the building industry and ourselves !

The Gelolex Corporolion Ghicogo 3, lllinois

Build Sfrong for the Future . Build with CrET-oTEX

Building Materiats

INSUTATING BUITDING BOARDS ASPHALT COATED INSUTATING SHEATHING INSULATING TATH

INSUTATING INTERIOR FINISHES . ROCK WOOT INSULATION PRODUCTS TRIPLE-SEAT ROOFING

GYPSUM WATLBOARD . GYPSUM TATH, PLASTER CEMESTO . INSUTATING SIDTNGS

ACOUSTI-CEIOTEX FTEXCETL EXPANSION JOINTS HARD BOARD

Wonder what Will would say if he could be here today to see how great has grown the part of the check book in our foreign policy? For that matter, Will would probably swoon like a swan if he could see the part the check book plays in our entire governmental operations. The national check book already takes care of vast numbers of our people here at home, and uncounted millions abroad; and present plans would increase that coverage enormously. Solve all problems with money ! That has been our national anthem since 1933.

Trying to stifle history because the men are dead, certainly demonstrates a strange and perverted understanding of history. For history is simply the story of men who are dead, and trying to prevent free discussion of the works of men iecently dead just because they ARE dead, is plain silly, and besides, it won t w*ork

Referring again to the first paragraph above, what we need in this country today is some of the diplomacy that George Kao tells about in his little book on Chinese wit and humor. He says: "After the death of the consort of the King of Ch'i, there were seven rivals for the position. Wishing to know which of the seven the King favored most, the Duke of Hsueh presented the King with seven pieces of jade, one of them surpassing all the others in beauty and quality. On the following day he spotted the lady that wore the finest piece of jade and recommended her to the King as his new consort."

Speaking of diplomacy, we Americans certainly learn little of that fine art from our recent Presidents, as witness the gentle name that Mr. Truman applied in public to one of his critics. A storm of public wrath has followed that colossal error by a man in his position. But, though I offer no excuse and suggest no defense for the "SOB" remark, it is at least better than sending the object of his wrath a German Iron Cross, like Roosevelt did, or sending the Income Tax men around to'check his books and scare him to death as was common practice in the New Deal era. Neither method of meeting criticism is entitled to serious defense. Truman's method Ir T"T forthright, that's all.

We hear much and read more about our public debt, but seldom stop to wonder who we owe all that money to. According to the last statistics f read on that subject, we owe 27 per cent to individuals; 26 per cent to comrnercial banks; 14 per cent to insurance companies and mutual savings banks; 14 per cent to government agencies and trust funds; 11 per cent to corporations, state and local governments; and 8 per cent to federal reserve banks. Much of the public debt to individuals is in the form of savings bonds; about 75 million persons have bought about 50 billions of dollars worth of these bonds. The basic method of carrying practically all the debt is through bonds, mostly of the tort* ,";.-*variety.

Just to try and get an idea of this debt and cost of government business, let us consider the words of Secretary of the Treasury Snyder, who, in a recent address in Washington, told a group of newspaper men at the National Press Club that the Treasury must collect ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS EVERY DAY just to meet current expenses. How would you, dear reader, like to have to run a collection agency of that size?

Herbert Hoover has, with Truman approval, been planning and is now recommending streamlining the federal government to create economy and develop efficiency. He says that taxation in this country has now reached the saturation point. Yet, if the Truman spending program now before Congress, goes through, taxes will be much heavier. David Lawrence in U. S. News and World Report estimates that Mr. Truman's social security plan alone 'would cost the taxpayer about 5.5 per cent of his salary per year, which, added to his 20 per cent income tax, would take more than one fourth of his salary in deducts (money earned but never received). * *

Senator Byrd's latest estimate of the federal payroll shows that during 1948 civilian employes of the executive departments increased at the rate of 297 per day, of 109,000 for the year (election year). The total federal civilian employes at the time of that guess was 2,103,000, according to the Census Bureau. At the same time the Bureau estimated that there were 962,000 employes of state governments, and 3,OQ9,000 employes of local governments, a total of 6,074,000 names o"*"tt**o*""rnment payrolls.

The controller general of the United States, testified with reg'ard to Herbert Hoover's plan for reorganization, as follows: "If this fails we might as well close up shop for good with regard to our hopes of ever reducing the size of this government or eliminating waste, extravagance, or useless functions. Government bureaucracy has become a modern Frankenstein, bigger than the Congress which created it,