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When someone suggested to Napoleon that they pray heaven for help, the Corsican dryly replied that he had found that heaven was usually on the side of the biggest army. Today he would probably amend.that and say that heaven was usually found on the side with the strongest air force.

Heard the best definitiJn Jf "*brok" man that has come my way in a long time. Fellow said he was so broke that if round-the-world tickets were selling for ten cents apiece, he couldn't even ask what time the train left.

And I rolled on the fl."l "J,hl, one. It could have been said by a lumber dealer, but in fact was the remark of a tire dealer. He was asked how he felt about the fix in which he found himself, and whether or not he could stay in business. He said he felt like a skeleton that was hanging in a Iaboratory, who remarked to another skeleton hanglng there: "You know, if we had any guts we'd get the hell out of here."

It has been well *a rl"ql"rrly "aia that ..the past is given us to build the future out of.,' But there is nothing in the past history of the lumber industry on which to predicate any very definite opinions about the status quo. And, as the colored gent said, "de status quo means de hell ob a fix we'se in."

***

The favorite poem of Abraham Lincoln which was titled "Oh Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be proud?,, held these lines: "Oh we are the same that our fathers have been, we see the same sights that our fathers have seen, we drink the same stream, and we view the same sun, and we run the same course that our fathers have run." That sentiment is decidedly outmoded. The man in the street, reading that today, would prornptly reply-..Oh, yeah?,, coming in such gobs that the industry could hardly credit the size and number of them, Harry T. Kendall wrote me and said: "Don't let it fool you; we ain,t seen nuthin' yet.,, ffow true that was. The tide of demand for lumber for thousands of Governmental and war purposes just rose until it looked like it couldn't get any bigger; and then it proceeded to keep right on rising. The number of wood using building projects having to do with the war that have been, are being, and will be constructed, if listed would require telephone number figures and no mistake. our fathers had no "*oJr,"l".J fike these. So what they learnod can be of littJe value to us now. Changes come so fast and in such number that we have almost ceased to gasp at them. This applies not only to the lumber business but to all business and to all men. Living as we are in the midst of the greatest emergency that has been known since the history of mankind began, new thoughts, new things, new events, new hopes, new doubts, new fears, come so rapidly as to be kaleidoscopic. But when they have passed into history, won't we have plenty to look back and talk about?

No efiort has been -";;, Jny puutication, and probably none ryill be made until, the thing is over, to even estimate these huge requirements. But suffice it to say that the lumber demand created by the first World War was by comparison just the proverbial shirt.tail full. They didn't know what lumber consumption meant in lgl7 and 1918. But we know now, or at least we're getting a pretty general idea.

The freeze order on -oJ oiafrl products of the softwood mills of all species throughout the country became effective May 13th. Reports from Washington indicate that there will almost certainly be some early modifications of that order. Newspaper reports from the capital said that it never was intended that the freeze order would entirely stop construction, but that reports from all parts of the country indicated that it had, and that something would be done about it.

As this is being *ritd.rf it1" I.rrr"otly reported that an amendment to Ll?l is under consideration for early issuance, which will liberalize the order to some extent by "unfreezing" certain items and grades of lumber, and possibly by enlarging the scope of exceptions to the order.

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Fulty a year ago when Government lumber orders were

To the producers .f";,;J lumber the freeze order came as something of relief. Trying to convince the civilian trade that they could not begin to manufacture what the Government needed and was demanding, and that therefore their sales to the trade for ordinary building purposes were necessarily very limited, regardless of their sympathy for their retail lumber friends, was a very difficult task When the Government just moved in and took their product, it took a lot of unpleasant pressure off the manufacturers.

Of course, it is hell on Jn" lu"i"r. It furnishes him with a thousand problems, and no one to answer any of the questions that vex him. The big question of course is, how

Iong will the freeze order prevail? It was made for sixty days. If it should terminate at the end of that time, practically all-lumber dealers would ride it out; not all, because already many lumber yards have quietly folded up, either for the duratiorq or for good. But most of them are sitting tight, trying their durndest to figure what they should do \rith their remaining stocks of lumber, what to do about a trade clamoring for building material, and what plans to make for the future. One man's guess is just as good as another's.

Natural\r, the real no""lrori i"lrro* long will it take the mills to supply what the Government needs? The structures into which most of this common lumber goes, are built with great rapidity. The present unheard-of demand cannot go on indefinitely. But so long as it DOES last, it is needless to say that the war needs must and will get all the available lumber they want, and all other needs must wait. There will be no abrupt ending of lumber purchases for war needs, because even after aU the army camps, the warehouse units, the hospitals, the dozens of other sorts of wooden units that are now being constructed have been completed, there will still be heavy lumber demand for ship materials, car materials, crating, boxing, etc., etc., etc. But this demand will not compare with the present volume, and lumber will then be released for other uses. When will this slackening in war demand for lurnber come? Ah. That's the question. We may know more about that sixty deyg from now, and by that time have some facts on which to base plans for the future. ***

At present the lumber deder is pretty well straightjacketed. The freeze order keeps him from replacing the lumber stocks he is now selling. He can still sell without restriction a number of building items, such as wall boards of all kinds, cement, brick, paint, wall paper, built-in features that he buys made-up, fencing, roofings of all kinds. He can sell all the repair materials he can find a market for. There is no limit on the amount that can be s1rcnt to repair an existing building and keep it in good order. He can sell materials he can get for additions or improvements to existing structures only up to a total cost of $500 in the city, or $1,000 on a farm. He can sell a new business building up to $5,0fi). All these depend on his being able to get materials.

The dealer will now anxiously wait for the Government to secure the lumber it wants, so that civilian building can proceed. When that time comes he will still have to work under the prevaiting building restrictions. But if there is an adequate supply of lumber and other materials available, he can make a living under those restrictions until such time as they may be changed" The present period is one of watchful and anxious waiting.