THE CALIFOR}-IIA LUMBERMERCHANT

How Lumber Looks

The Western Pine Association for the week ended March 26, lI4 mills reporting, gave orders as 57,107,000 feet, shiprnents 54,031,000 feet, and production 50,953,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 215,268,000 feet.

The California Redwood Association for the month of February, 1949, trvelve companies reporting, g?v€ orders received as 25,399,000 feet, shipments 26,680,m0 feet, and production 37,169,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the month totaled 37.418,000 feet.

The Southern Pine Association for the week ended March 26,87 units (110 mills) reporting, gave orders as 16,565,000 feet, shipments 16,287,000 feet, and production 15,994,000 feet. Orders on hand at the end of the week totaled 44.383.000 feet.

The West Coast Lumbermen's Association for the week ended March 19, 165 mills reporting, gave orders as 107,855,000 feet, shipments 93,938,000 feet, and production 100,669,000 feet. Unfilled orders at the end of the week totaled 464.866.000 feet.

For the week ended March 26, 165 mills reporting, gave orders as 98,345,000 feet, shipments 107,286,000 feet, and production 104,464,W0 feet. Unfilled orders at the end of the week totaled 455.189.000 feet.

Ponderosa Pine Announces Expanded Product Promotion Program

Continuing its long-range promotional plans, and building on the success of eight years of continuous effort, Ponderosa Pine Woodwork announces a greatly expandecl product promotion program for the current year.

Details of the program were revealed at the recent annual meeting of Ponderosa Pine Woodwork in Chicago.

The mzLin objective of the program is to place even greater emphasis on the quality and merits of well-manufactured stock pine woodwork. To attain this objective. the Association has approved a considerably increased advertising and publicity schedule and budget, including color advertising in national magazines reaching the con-

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OBTAI

SACRAMENTO. OAKLAND FRESNO

California Builders Supply Co.

SAN DIEGO

T. M. Cobb Co.

LOS ANGELES

Back Panel Company

T. M. Cobb Co.

Davidson Plywood & Yeneer Co.

Bessonette & Eckstrom, Inc.

RIVERSIDE

Cresmer Mfg. Co.

L.

PACIFIC CO.

COAST DISTRIBUTORS

1949 bids fair to be the year 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, tne are making Uou, the Celoter d,ealer, the keg figure i,n the whole prograrn.

In a series of smashing 2-eAGE spREADs that will appear in rsn sAruRDAy EvENrNc POST, BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, SUCCESSr'UL FARMING, eROGRESSTVE FARMrn, and other leading magazines-Celotex will tell millions of Americans that theg not onl,g can but should bui.Id or remodel now!

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 eustomer 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 tie i,n eftecti,uelg in Aour own local aduerti,si,ng and at the poi,nt 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 !

"Even the Gods love jokes."

* * * -Plato

Last fall I heard a story that I got a great laugh out of. ft was the one about the guy with two fiied eggs on top of his head and a strip of bacon over each ear who came to the psychiatrist and said-"I want to talk to you about my brother."

:1. {. *

No, it wasn't my story, and f have no idea where it came from, but the first time I saw it printed was when f ran it as a Favorite Story in this journal. And how it spread ! Within two weeks it was being flashqd back and forth all over the country on big radio programs. After three months it still goes on. Only a few days ago Red Skelton pulled it on his program, changing the food items a bit. I understand a majority of radio programs have used it.

:8**

I thought of that when f saw the following rhyme in "Southern fndustrial Editor" : We shot a gag into the air, It was reprinted everywhere; In some house organ next we read it, The Wall Street Journal got the credit. But, let them lift it if .they please, We stole it from old Sophocles, Who, in turn, beyond a doubt, Swiped it somewhere, and sent it out. *{.*

I used to get mighty peeved years ago when I'd see Favorite Stories from this journal or from my books of stories showing up in Readers Digest, Wall Street Journal, and other national publications, always over the name of some other person or publication. But I got used to it. Stories,. like a gambler's money, have no home. And so long as they make people laugh, what difference does it really make? The laugh's the thing! {.r8*

The best laugh that has come out of Washington of late I found in one of George Dixon's columns. You recall that last year Truman stumped the countiy denouncing the 80th Congress, and demanding that it be voted out. Dixon says he understands the President is going to stump the country again this year TO GET THE,80TH CONGRESS BA.K'

A story that made the rounds many years ago is again in circulation. A man who was going back to Russia for a visit told his friend that he would write him abotrt condi- tions there. If he wrote in black ink, what he said was true. If in red ink, it was false. This to get around the censors. A month later the friend got a letter from Russia. It was in black ink. He painted a wonderful picture of the happiness and prosperity of the Russians under Stdin. They had everything men and women could desire, he said. And then he added a postscript: "The only thing you can't find here is red ink." *t*

Speaking of Russia, I heard Martin Dies talk about Communism the other 'rlay. And when he recited the history of Stalin from a petty thief and convict to the most brutal and cold-blooded murderer in all the history of the world, the destroyer of many millions of his own people in cold blood, I couldn't help repeating to myself the words that were so well advertised in this country last year: "Good old Joe ! I like Joe !" :1.**

I read in the Los Angeles papers recently about an old lvoman whose home was foreclosed and taken from her to settle a debt that started out as only eight dollars and ninety cents. In Texas that couldn't happen. It would be absolutely and entirely impossible. It wouldn't make ariy difference whether she owed eight dollars, or eight thousand dollars, or eight million dollars, no,one could take her home away from her for debt. The fundamental laws of Texas won't allow it. They passed that law a hundred years ago for the protection of women in their own homesteads, and it still stands. I think it's one of the wisest state laws ever put on a statute book. It may be truly said that in Texas a woman's home is her fortress from which no claim of debt can dispossess her.

Music and politics seem to go hand in hand in these here days. New York's famous Mayor, Jimmy Walker, burst into the limelight when he wrote and started the nation humming a love song-"Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May." Jimmy Davis got himself elected Governor of Louisiana when he wrote and started to sing-"You Are My Sunshine." A band and a bunch of pleasing singers did much to make Lee O'Daniel Governor and Senator from Texas. His singing is said to have elected Glenn Taylor Senator from Idaho. Jack B. Tenney, gifted pianist and music writer, is running for Mayor of Los Angeles right now. I{e is the author of some pretty tunes, latest of which was "Mexicali Rose." And don't forget, we've got a very capable piano player in the White House' original slogan that reads: "All of the news, most of the time-Most of the news, all of the time." Nobody can say that isn't conservative. And a sign on the front of a smali city factory reads: "Peddlers beware ! We shoot every tenth peddler ! The ninth one just left !"

**:B

Let us now speak of taxes. (What a horrible subject.) Leon G. Halden, teacher of government in one of the big universities, figures that income taxes have increased 782 per cent since 1933. And our government is now asking an increase in billions of income taxes, together with muli tiplied new billions of payroll taxes for enlarged sociai security and socialized medicine.

Fred Allen, radio "o-i, ir, lrrrro.rn"ing his retirement from radio, says that he gave 39 radio shows last year; and 3l of them went for taxes. Why work so hard, he says?

As this is being written President Truman says we must still pass a tax law providing over four billions in new income taxes. However, Senator George, of Georgia, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate's top tax expert says that the only thing that would be likely to cause a depression in this country this year would be the passage of such a tax bill. A slight difference of opinion. My guess-there ain't going to be no new income taxes this year. Add the proposed new payroll taxes for social purposes to the proposed four billion dollar income tax, and you would see a scramble for the cyclone cellar on the part of employers and*investors.

Every issue of the financial papers and those reporting Washington legislative matters, has something to say about deflation, inflation, recessions, and depressions. After reading the opinions of many Washington experts on the subject of depressions, I have come to the conclusion that most of those boys fail to understand that depressions are about ninety per cent psychological. I have never forgotten the way a smart man illustrated that fact to me one time. He said "If a theatre is filled with people, and someone smells smoke and starts hollering 'fire,' it makes no difference how big o,r small the fire is or if there is a fire or not, the slabs in the morgue are going to be piled high the next morning with the corpses of those who got frightened and rushed for the exits." I wish every man in our government at Washington could get that thought through his head. Frighten the people who meet the payrolls and who invest the money in this country, and you generate unemployment and depress values, even though business and financial conditions are sound. The business outlook is good. Take away the socialistic threats, and things will be all right'

Someone has sent me a table showing how erroneous is the idea that present taxes "soak the rich" and favor the man of small means. The table shows that in L929 a mat ried man with a $50 a week salary paid no, income tax; today he pays $191 a year. The married man making $65 a week in 1929 paid no income tax; now he pays $305 a year. In addition he pays a one per cent tax for social security; one and one-half cents a gallon tax on gasoline; 6 cents a gallon on lubricating oil; 10 cents a pound on yellow margarine; 13 cents a pack on playing cards; 10 per cent tax on electric, gas, and oil appliances, and on musical instruments, sporting goods, and radios; 20 per cent tax on amusements, furs, jewelry, toilet preparations, handbags, luggage, and many other things. If he travels he pays a heavy tax on his transportation. Then come the hidden taxes which are not seen put are very much present in practically everything he buys. Add these all up and you get a sum that would scare the average taxpayer if he were definitely conscious of them. The average small income man knows taxes are heavy, but doesn't realize how heavY'

There is a Congressman named Rich in the Lower House at Washington today whose slogan is-"Where are you going to get the money?" He asks that question frequently and continually when spending is being considered. The other day he told a Congressional committee that in our government today there are 65 bureaus and bodies that lrave to do with statistics, 29 that lend government money, 34 that have to do with the acquisition of land by the government, 16 that deal with wild life preservation, 10 that deal with government construction, and 12 with home and community planning. As the old song went-"That's the way the money goes, pop *g.T ,1" weasel."

Right now the government demands $5,580,000,000 to finance the Marshall Plan in E;urope for the next 15 months. There are many who think it should be cut down, since European conditions are reported to be greatly improved. Henry Hazlitt, special writer for the popular business lnagazine "News Week," is fighting for a sharp reduction in this European aid money. Wonder how Mississippians must have felt when Hazlitt said in this magazine that the per capita income of the state of Mississippi f.or 1947 rvas lower than that of Britain, France, Denmark, and Sweden? He notes that Washington did not rush scads of money into Mississippi. He thinks exchange control inaugurated by the European governments is what creates the dollar shortage in those lands, and thus perpetuates the need for U. S. funds.

*r<*

After hearing Churchill's masterful address the other night, a man remarked: "I consider it an honor to, live on the same planet with a man like Churchill." I got that same feeling as I listened to that speech. Not only were we listening, free, to one of the four or five greatest orators of all the ages, but likewise one of the greatest and most lion-hearted statesmxen *ot iU time. What a guy !

When he declared that only the atom bomb in the hands of the United States has saved Europe and Great Britain from direct attack by Russia, I believe he expressed the opinion of every honest, thinking American. Every time during the past three years when I heard some bell-mouthed blunderbuss in Washington talking about turning the bomb over to someone else, it made cold chills run up and down my spine. There is no other power to which that terrible weapon could be entrusted. It's bad enough to have such a responsibility ourselves. With that weapon in the hands of Russia, the darkness that knows no ending would settle down all over this world.

INTER,IOR -TYPE

Dou€las f ir Plywood ARADE B-D

D.F.PA. INSPECTED

PlyBest is a nrw cneou of Interior-type Douglas fir plywood with a face of B (solid) veneer, and a back of D veneer. All sanded both sides. For full details on PlyBase use and application, see Sweet's File, Architectural, or send for the new 1949 Basic Plywood Catalog. Write the Douglas Fir Plywood Association office nearest you: Tacoma Bldg., Tacoma 2, Wash.; 1707 Daily News Bldg., Chicago 6; 1232 Shoreham Bldg., Washington 5, D. C.; The 500 Fifth Avenue Bldg., New York City lB.

PLYBASE THICKNESSES: 3ll6t, Ut, rlo, \5', aa', and !'.

PLYBASE WIDTHS: 3O", 36", 12o ond 48".

PLYBASE LENGTHS: W 60",72',81",96', 1o8", lzo", ond lll". W