Your Association Activities

Opening remarks by President E. C. Parker at the Annual Meeting of the Southern California Retail Lumber Association

This is the 35th Annual Convention of this association. The association was originally formed in 1913 by a group of prominent lumbermen in Southern California. It was organized for the purpose of doing everything that could legally be done to help the lumber industry, and that is still the policy. After a few years it was thought wise to extend this association to cover the rn'hole state, and this was done under the name of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association and functioned in that way for about twenty years. The problems in the North and in the South gradually became so different that in the early years of the last war, in about 1942, the association again functioned only in Southern California, from Tehachapi mountains and Santa Barbara south to the Mexican border. Lumber conditions from Bakersfield north are as difterent from those to the south as the difference could be in any tr,vo states.

Your association is a strong supporter of the National Retail Lumbermen's Association, and Park Arnold and Orrie Hamilton are on their Board of Directors. The functions of the National is to watch national legislation which might be against the interests of retail lumbermen, and to advise with and inform the many Federal control agencies of the problems of the retail lumber industry. One of the reasons for the recent liberalization of restrictions on building has been on account of the continuous and persistent efforts of Mr. Northup, the Natronal Secretary. At each session of the California State Legislature, bills are introduced which are against the interest of our industry, and rvhen necessary, our association has a representative at Sacramento. Most laws are general in nature, and ofifrcials have much leeway in the administration of same. For instance, a few months ago, your Secretary and two industry men made two or three trips to Sacramento and in conjunction with a committee from Northern California, got changes in a proposed load binding regulation that saved every retail lumber man hundreds of dollars. Then too, your Secretary, with the association attorney, went to Sacramento on several occasions and got changes made in certain other administrative regulations, which saved practically all lumber dealers in Southern California more than his dues to this association for six or seven years. There are many things that an administrative offrcial can rightfully do for an association representing an industry that he cannot do for an individual company.

Your association feels that a knowledge of the cost of cioing business in our industry would be most helpful to lumber dealers, and lve are now conducting such a survey through the offices of a large national auditing firm. The association gets our a weekly letter giving among other things the production and sales of lumber in the North West-a most helpful item in trying to judge what the market on lumber may do. At considerable expense the various regulations and orders of the Federal control agencies are copied mailed to members. Also many other facts and useful information are compiled and given to members. The association has a compensation and accident and a

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Madcme de Stcrel Describes Ncpoleon

Far from being reassured from seeing Bonaparte often, he always intimated me more and more. I felt vaguely that no emotional feeling could infuence him. He regards a human creature as a fact or a thing, but not as an existence like his own. He feels no more hate than love. For him there is no one but himself. All other creatures are mere ciphers. The force of his will cdnsists in the imperturbable callulations of his egotism; he is an excellent chess player whose opponent is all human kind, whom he intends to checkmate. His success is due as much to the qualities he lacks as to the talents he possesses. Neither pity, nor sympathy, nor religion, nor attachment to any idea whatsoever would have power to turn him from his path. He has the same devotion to his own interests that a good man has to virtue: if the object were noble his persistency would be admirable.

A Red Red Rose

By Robert Burns

O my luve is like a re{ red rose, That's newly sprung in June,

O -y luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass

So deep in love am I; And I will love thee still, my dear, Till all the seas gang dry.

Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt, wi' the sun; I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel a while, And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.

How Ccrn You Ever Be Bored?

If you want never to be bored, start asking questions, and wait for answers. Harvard's famous geolbgist of many years ago, Professor Nathaniel Shaler, used to say to students in his studY:

"Gentlemen, between the chair where I am sitting, and that fireplace, there are a hundred thousand more unar"*"r"d questions than all the problems solved by all the scientists since time began."

One of those students, Ellery Sedgwick, says that stuck in his mind. ft was what helped him to make a great editor. He says: "It brought you up hard against the realization of man's place in the universal scheme. You saw yourself standing on the isthmus which divides the microcosm of the illimitably gieat from the microcosm of the immeasurably small. Wonder, the beginning of wisdom, stole over you.

"There's the secret. Surrender to that feeling of wonder. Be thankful. Appreciate the infinite variety life offers you. Seek goodness and beauty in all persons and things and share your discoveries."

-From "The Spice Caravan."

Wrong Party

"Get my bag at once," shouted a doctor to his young lady daughter.

"Why, dad," she asked, "What's the dither?"

"A fellow just phoned who says he can't live without me," explained the doctor, grabbing his hat.

His daughter heaved a vast sigh of relief.

"Hold it, dad," she said quietly; "I think that call was for me."

The Calilorniq Poppy

The golden poppy is God's gold, The gold that lifts, nor weighs us down, The gold that knows no miser's hold, The gold that banks not in the town, But singing, laughing, freely spills

Its hoard far up the haPPy hills; Far up, far down, at every turnWhat beggar has not gold to burn?

-Joaquin Miller.

The AboundingrLile

No one has success until he has the abounding life. This is made of the many-fold activity of energy, enthusiasm, and gladness. It is to spring to meet the day with the thrill of being alive. It is to go forth to meet the morning in an ecstasy of joy. It is to realize the oneness of humanity in true spiritual sympathy.-Lillian

Whiting.

Some Bump

A tourist wanted to see some typical Western mountain scenery, so he hired a car and driver in Denver. He told the driver to show him the best lot of scenery he could in two hours time, since that was his time limit.

It was a hair-raising experience, the car careening over mountain roads at high speed, as the driver sought to give him his money's worth in the time alloted. It was rough going a lot of the way.

When the visitor was paying his bill at the end of the two hours, he thought he'd be a little sarcastic, so he said:

"What was a bump we hit about an hour ago?"

The driver got his drift, and was equal to the occasion. He said:

'"O, that was the Continental Divide."