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NRTDA's O'llolley Points Out Deoler Problems on Tolk Tour

(Continued from Page 12) in the country during the summertime. Carrier, York, Ice Machine-all the big companies have done their experi- menting here. But what did they do? They woke up not long ago and found that in the competition of trying to get business, their whole marketing procedure was -wrong. They were shipping much of this expensive equipment on a sight draft bill of lading, which wasn't a healthy thing. Now they are taking steps to clean up the mess.

I think we all realize that we must do our part in pro- moting the use of lumber and lumber products. What I would like to. know is-what are you men doing about it?

I know that \A/alter Leuthold, past president of National Lumber Manufacturers Association, was very much interested in getting something done. They had quite a meeting in Washington last November, and I think they are. waking up, and let's hope it is not too late.

Your cuslomers will wont this hqndsome' low-cost Rifi Grqin poneling. lts rich, dcrk brown "loqsled" Vgrooves give rooms o nqlurql wqrmth. Cqll us todoy for prices ond delivery.

. Lumber wholesalers have developed a couple of committees. One is the "Committee of Inquiring N4inds" to try and do something from that end. We in the retail business started a few years ago to get many of the manufactuiers, especially in lumber products, not necessarily lumber, to work out an advertising calendar with us. When we called them to Washington, they all thought, "Oh, this is a matter of the retailers putting their hands'out to the manufacturers for money for some program." They were astounded when we told them we didn't want any money-all we wanted was cooperation,

We simply must get together and do a better job, and r,r'e realize it. So we have put out an advertising Calendar. Products are advertised during the time of year when they will sell best. Of course, it does very little good to tali< about shade screen in the middle of winter, so we advertise that about April or May, when it starts to warm up. During certain months we advertise paint, and certain months gar-- den e.quipment, and so on. This is a step in the right direction.

Many retail lumber dealers in the country are ready, willing and able to help you-it is just a question of laying out a program to help you with your sales. If you will pardon a personal experience-I tried my best to help Bill Laing get a job for an all-steel lumber mill which had burneil down. We tried to get it changed from steel and I got the owner, the president of the company, to admit they should change it, .but their engineers were steel people and they had to re-do the whole thing in steel.

The retail lumber dealer can work with you on insurance. He knows all the local people in his community, and the lumber dealer is usually well respected, and can do a real job for you.

I suspect that you find now, 12 years after the war, that you are in this position. You will find yourselves spending a lot of time working up your manufacturing problems and getting your engineering lined up. What are you going to do about sales? There is a lot we can do. I realized this when I was in the aircraft scheduling unit at Wright Field. I found out a little something about the wooden plane program and the glider program. At the time, the airclaft scheduling unit was made up of the Army, the Navy, the War Production Board, and a British Commission. O.K.the British over there at the field really poked fun at us because their mosquito bomber-all wood ^and many laminated parts-was one of the finest planes in World War II. Then why couldn't we do a job? Well, there are a lot of reasons which I won't, bore you with, and many of you know much more about it than I do. But we knew fhat they had metal engineers who were working on wooden gliders, wooden planes, and things like that, and it was a disgrace to our industry.

I think glue-laminated construction has one of the brightest futures of the whole lumber industry' It is up to ,t.ito you rnen here, to us in the retail. game, and to all the others connected with the lumber industry, to have a long-range plan of selling, marketing and merchandising our products to the best advantage.

One of the cuises in our busin-ess today is speed, along with taking the lowest bid. We have forgotte-l. how to sell quality. Tiro weeks ago, the local paper headlined a story about'a 2 million dollar school which was falling apart before it was a year old. This did not concern wooden trusses-steel beams were pulling away from the masonry' bricks pulling away from metal door frames, etc' It is _my opinion that the material is not faulty-it is the speed in which it was thrown together and by whom-the low subbidders, who were probably losing money.

It points out this very salient fact-that your.merchandisine program must include the selling, advertising, and prom-otionlf quality. Take, for example, the FHA story.

A couple of years ago, the FHA Administrator was a banker, and those of us in the business could see the way the things were developing. Large tracts were springing up all over the country, and the builder-the real builder-was getting out of the business, and financial manipulators and hnd developers were taking hold. Quality started dropping and dropping. It was getting to be a "black eye" for the entire industry. Then Norman Mason, who is a retail lumber dealer, took over as head of the FHA. One of the first things he did was to send out a directive to all the FHA offices that they had to recognize quality in their appraisals. Within the past month, other directives have gone out. You have probably read about them. Some of the money restrictions are being relaxed only when certain conditions of quality are met. Even out in this part of the country, they are- recognizing that with Proper refrigeration, air conditioning in a house that is properly insulated, it saves money in the long run because there isn't a lot of upkeep

- WhotesateT I M B E n S aung

o Douglqs Fir in sizes 24" x24" o Ploner copocity for surfocing lo 24" x24"

Remnont focilities for resowing to 34" x34" l0 we can't find it .we'll moke it