More About The Southern Colifornicr Old Timers

On Wednesday morning, April 21, at the annttal convention of the Southern California Retail Lumber Association, the day started with a breakfast for the "Oldsters" in the retail lumber industry in the area, presided over eloquently by E. C. Parker, of Los Angeles, as reported in the May 15 issue of THE CALIFORNIA I-UMBER MERCHANT.

In a recent issue of his association bulletin that follorved the convention, Orrie W. Hamilton revierved that breakfast in a way that deserves reprinting on account of the more detailed remarks concerning the heroes of the event. The bulletin says :

The breakfast meeting honoring the "Oldsters" in the retail lumber industry in Southern California proved to be the most interesting business session at the lumbermen's 37th annual meeting and trade show. The highlights of the meeting, attended by 105 top lumber executives, was the greeting of the retail lumber dealers rn'ho have been and are now actively engaged in the retail lumber business in this area for approximately 50 years or more, and thought-provoking talks by tn,o otttstanding lumber executir.'es. Everett C. Parker, l'ast Presiclent, Southern Califorr-ria Retail Lumber Association, officiated at this delightful meeting. The follorving are a few of Mr. Parker's opening remarks:

"This meeting is a continuation of our monthly meetings lvhich rve have been holding' now for about t'lvo years. We u'ould have had this meeting a couple of u'eeks ago if it hadn't been for this Convention. These monthly meetings have done a whole lot for the industry. For instance, we have had the help of Frank Rickinger in our car loading program l'hich has made it cheaper and also safer for you to unload cars of lumber. Then too, we have had a gradirlg committee rvhich has done a lot of rvork, but still there is a lot more u,ork to do largely because the West Coast Lumbermen's Association has more or less run into a little difficulty concerning it. Horvever, we are rvorking on the grade manipulation problem and hope to have an early solution. It is commonll- called the 'salting process' and all of you knorv that it is very serious. Then t<lo, as you knolv, this industry needs stabilization. There seems to be no other way that anyone can think of, that is-any practical rvay, for us to do anything about stabilization except to have these friendly monthly meetings. If, however, any of you know any otl.rer t'av to arrive at stabilization, rve rvoulcl like to knorv rvhat it is. In that regard, the cost stlrveys which are made out by our Association have shou'n that in 1951 and 1952, on the average, all the lumber dealer in Southern California made and lvas able to keep out for himself after taxes u,as right at 17"o. There .lvas a tremendous volume which rve had in 1953 and although the cost survey has not yet been issued, there is no doubt that the record for 1953 rvill be little if any better, so stabilization is necessary. I lr''ould like to ask this question. Isn't it about time that all lumber dealers in Southern California or their representatives make it a point to come to these monthly meetings to see if something cannot be done to help our industry?

"We have the Old Timers here today. They knorv from experience, these Olcl Timers do, that the experience of the past three years n'ill pass, and that l'e t'ill soon or at some time or other be on higher ground, and, as Dr. McFarland saicl yesterclav. "the ltusiness elevator goes up and it goes do\\,n," ancl I might sav that the lttmber industry is on an elevator going dorvn in the past three years. These Old Timers will also knolv that in the past 50 years that just about half of those years have been good years and just about half have been not so good or from bad to poor. These Old Timers, I think, can argue with me about the good years. It 'n'ould be m1' opinion the good vears in the lumber industry in Southern California for the last 50 years have been as follon's: from 1904 to 1907 inclusive, then 1911 and 1912, then 1920, 1921, 1922, 7923 and 1924, then 1936 and 1937 rvere relatively good only because we had had the sales depression ahead of that. Then we had the years from 1940 to 1948 inclusive, rvhich were good years. Then we had 1950. That makes about

(Contirrued on Page 47)