Hordwod Plywood lnstitute Elects Officers, Dedicotes Building

Washington, D.C.-Two new officers and three directors were elected by the Hardwood Plywood Institute, national ri W€f€ eleCte0 Dy tne flafOWOOG rIyIlt/OOq InStlIUfe, Ilaf,lultal association of hardwood plywood manufacturers, at the In- stitute's annual meeting held here February 18-20. Elected

' president of the trade association was S. M. (Sam) Nickey,

Jr., Memphis, Tenn. The new vice-president of the Institute is Carl D. Wheeler, manager of the Hardwood Plywood 1S Larl lJ. \ry neeler, or tne l:larqwooo rly division of Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Savannah, Ga. : Newlv elected to the Institute's board of directors were

Verne L. Toussaint, Beaumont, Miss.; Harry C. Fidler,

North Troy, Vermont, and Norman Mclnnis, Jr., Stockton,

Alabama. The retiring president of the Institute, Donald H. Gott, general sales ria.taget of the Roddis Plywood Corporation, Marshfield, Wis., was also elected to a three-year ' ierm on the Board. Continuing in office will be Clark E.

. McDonald, secretary-treasurer and managing director of the organization.

Senator Strom Thurmond (D.-S.C.) was the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Hardwood Plywood

Institute. He advocated a strong national-defense posture and a sound fiscal policy "to defend ourselves from both i,i armed attack and bankruptcy." i - H. continued: "The extent of the decliie depends a great F ' He decline great deal on what we get in the way of a housing bill and when we get it. One of the most important items in the legislation (and one which has been approved by both the House and the Senate in separate bills) is an increase in the interest rate on VA-guaranteed home loans to Sr/a/o. This alone could make a difference of as much as 100,000 starts. It is also hoped that Congress will liberalize FHA down-payment requirements and increase the maximum mortgage which FHA can insure . However, even if we get a favorable housing bill, which I think we will, I expect a decline in starts during 1959."

,' A representative of the National Association of Home '' Builders, Ken Burrows, addressed Institute members on "The Economic Outlook in Housing." After pointing out :that "nothing in the figures now indicates that things will change dramatically during the coming year," Mr. Burrows i;"s*id that he expected a decline in housing starts in 1959.

Other speakers at the three-day HPI meeting included Attorney William Durkin, who discussed expecte_d t1x legislation in this session of Congress; Mortimer Doyle, exlcutive vice-president of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, who explained the National Wood Promotion Program currently underway; Maurice Collins, ex- motron -yrogram unoerway; wraurlce uolllns, ecutive secretary of the National Institute of Wood Kitchen Cabinets. who described the present-day kitchen market and Cabinets, present-day the types of woods and finishes preferred by consumers, and R-obert N. Hawes, general counsel of the Hardwood and Robert general Plywood Institute, who discussed the action recently taken ,Hlywoocl Instrtute, who dtscussed taKen by HPI in appealing to the United States Tariff Commission as an "injured domestic industry" under the Escape an lnJureo oomestlc lnousrl Clause of the Trade Agreements Act.

The dedication of a new $70,000 headquarters building was the highlight of the annual meeting of the Hardwood Plywood Institute. The building, located in nearby Arlington, Virginia, will house the administrative offices of the Institute as well as a completely equipped, modern woodtechnology laboratory. The new structure, which covers 4,000 square feet, was specifically designed as a showplace for the many decorative and functional uses of plywood and plywood products in modern architecture. Although basically of masonry construction, the building uses plywogd extensively to contribute warmth and luxury to the interior and to provide decorative details for the exferior.

The bffice spaces are completely paneled in attractive American hardwood plywoods, the floors are all plywood-