TEA

dustry has been deluged by your protests, that at your insistence even the technical decisions of the Government's own Forest Products Laboratory have been submitted to a re-check by a university of your choice in your own local area and, in brief. vou have come so near deafening all of us'with your outcries that most of us have had to buy ear plugs so we-could hear ourselves think.

But you can't eat sympathy and you can't cash congratulations, so now I brine you a third peace offeringa peace offerl ing that should be,lvorth millions of dollars to you.

I bring you news that you can,t afiord not to act on fast.

CAI,IFORNIA IUXIEER MEICHANT

I bring you news that the war over, whether the standard for drv lumber stavs Llg" or is changed 1s lrlr';-that war ls all over and there is no use doing any more fighting. While you've been doing such a great job on the political front intimidating FHA and intimidating the Department of Commerce and stirring up Congressman Roosevelt and his Small Business Committee, the dry forces have just by-passed you the way MacArthur by-passed the 100,000 Japs at Wewack. As some of you may recall, MacArthur just sailed past the Japs who were waiting for him at Wewack and land way behind them at Hollandia, and after that the 100,000 Jap soldiers bypassed at W'ewack nearly starved to death.

In somewhat the sarne way, while you've been putting up such a big fight in FHA and the Commerce Department, the dry lumber manufacturers have just by-passed you by switching to IVz" dry as a nonstandard, size.

Whether you win or not in your fight to keep l5/8't the standard, the plain fact is that by next year hardly anybody will be making l5r1g" dry, because next year almost nobody will want to buy l5/8" &y when everybody will be able to bly lt/r" dry cheaper.

So that's that. L$/e,, dry is a thing of the past, whether or not the standard stays If/st' dry or not. All the codes will accept 1t7r" dry for the same spans as I5/8" green, because the Forest Products Laboratory has supplied the technical data needed to justify that acceptance. Many FHA local offices are already passing I)/2" dry even if the FHA Commissioner in Washington is notl and the plain truth is that there is no legal way FHA can stop the :use of I\/r" dry lumber in FHA houses, because rilht now the present lumber standard recognizes the use of non-standard sizes when plainly so marked. And the U.S. Savings and Loan League, whose members finance three times as many new homes as FHAin fact, they finance more than half the houses in which green lumber has up to now been used-has not only accepted Ir/2" dry i it has advised all its members in writing to recommend the use oL ll/2" dry to all the builders whose houses they finance.

So, as I've now said twice before, that's that. l1/e" dry is dead, and there's no use fighting any more about it. The beginning of wisdom is to know when to stop fighting, so you might as well call off Senator Morse and Congresswoman Green and Con' gressman Roosevelt this morning and start planning how you can best adjust your business to the reality oI lr/2" dry and stop worrying about the ghost of I5/8" dry.

'fo that end, I'm going to ofier four suggestions:

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First,I'd. call off the civil war right here and now before it gets any more publicity. Li/e" dry lumber is a dead issue now, whether the American standard stays l1/"tt or changes to Ir/2", All the publicity you give the green-vs.-dry battle will just be bad news.

Second,, I'd make as long a list as you can make of the many uses for which green lunrber is just as good as dry lumber, and when you make your peace with the rest of the lumber industry I'd insist that one of the first articles of the peace settlement should be their promise to give green lurnber what the radio people call equal time and to promote green lumber lor use where green lumber belongs just as hard as they promote dry lumber when dry lurnber is worth its higher cost.

Third. I would repeat to you the best of all political advice"If you can't beat 'em, join oem." I'm pretty sure that in the next few years the market for dry lumber will grow faster than the market for green lumber, so it should be smart for as many of you as possible to get over into tle dry lumber market and put in drying equipment yourselves. Iom told that drying equipment for three earloads a day can cost as little as $50,000, and I can't think of a

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And, finally, I would urge you just as strongly as I possibly can to close ranks with the rest of the lumber industry to fight the battle of wooddry wood and green wood togetheragainst the new industries lhat are now challenging wood's age-old eminence as the one best material for homebuilding.

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