Matters of Particular News Interest \(/hen The California Lumber Merchant Was Starting

Los Angeles harbor was doing a terrific business early in the year 1922. For the three months preceding July first when'IHE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT started business, the following were the water receipts from the harbor : lumber 199,332,932 feet ; lath, 48,147,867 pieces ; Shingles, 40,000,000 pieces; shakes, 431,000 pieces; ties,. 160,000 pieces, a total equivalent of over 221,}ffi,W board feet of lumber. During that time 105,000 feet of lumber came into the harbor from Guatemala; 110,000 feet from Philippine Islands; and 635,000 feet from Japan. Japanese Oak was then very popular in California.

At this time Jack a ;"r;, *J", pr"riaent of the San Joaquin Valley Lumbermen's Club, Frank Minard was Secretary, and J. G. Martin was Treasurer. ***

Harry S. Fuller, Lodi, was Vicegerent Snark of the Sacrainento district of Hoo-Hoo.

David Woodhead *".*t,.1*"rlnt Snurt of the Los Angeles district of Hoo-Hoo, and the Club held weekly luncheons.

Fred Hamilton was Vicegerent Snark of the San Diego Hoo-Hoo district, and the Club held regular weeklv luncheons. ***

Parson Peter Simpkin was Supreme Chaplin of Hoo-Hoo fnternational, and made his home in Santa Monica.

C. A. Smith, th. tounJ"., rl'u. in .t u.g" of operations of the C. A. Smith Lumber Company, at Coos Bay, Oregon. The story was that Mr. Smith moved to California fiom Chicago, and brought with him $29,000,000 in cash which he invested in the lumber industry in California. He is reputed to have lost that fortune.

California, at this,i-"]nuJju.l O..o-" nationally noted as a hardu'ood consuming state. From every part of the country the manufacturers of hardwood rvere pushing their products into California. Guatemala and the Philippines rvere sending in a lot of cabinet woods, and Japan lvas shipping in plenty of Jap Oak. The battle for the California hardwood market had begun.

Major E. G. Griggs, President of the St. Paul & I-umber Company, of Tacoma, Washington,'was the Universe of Hoo-Hoo.

Percy J. Brown, of Eureka, was Vicegerent Snark for the Redwood region.

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Homer B. Maris was Vicegerent Snark for the San Francisco district of Hoo-Hoo.

Henry Riddiford *u" J""rJury of the Lumbermen,s Exchange, in Los Angeles, and made it his business to com. pile statistics regarding lumber and other wood. products in Los Angeles and the harbor.

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Dolbeer & Carson, oldest of the California Redwood manufacturers, was getting ready at this time to build a bigger and better Redwood sawmill in Humboldt County, with timber enough to keep it running for several generations.

Two famous San "rri.rr.l t,rlrl.rrrr"n had met tragic death just before this date. John R. Hanify and E. A. Christenson were drowned when a small boat in which they were riding was caught in a severe storm.

Bob Osgood came to Los Angeles just at the same time THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT started business, and opened an office for Wheeler-Osgood. ***

A. O. Nelson had just opened a sales office in Los Angeles for the Santa Fe Lumber Company.

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Fred Hamlin and Garry Bennett, two well known lumber salesmen of San Francisco, had just purchased the Pacific Mill & Timber Companv. ^;:l'k

A. C. Hamer and A. T. Show had just severed their lumber partnership and each continued in business for himself.

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The Hutchinson Lumber Company had started operations at their large new sawmill at Oroville, California, rvhere they were cutting Pine lumber, J. S. Hickok was Sales Manager.

George Stepherrson and both San Francisco and-Los

Hoo-Hoo was going strong at this time in Arizona. J. C. Light was State Counselor at Miami. Vicegerents for the state were S. S. Cornick, of Riordan, Albert W. Stacey, of Douglas, P. I. Merithew, of Phoenix.

** Charles I. White had formed a Tacoma rvholesale lumber company, the Stephenson-White Lumber Snark of Company, and had offices ir.r Angeles.

A. J. "Gus" Russr:ll, of the Santa Fe l-umber CompanLy, San Francisco, had accepted the Chairmanship of the Stater.vide Lumber Committee appointed to fight the antirvooden-shingle law to be voted on by all the voters of

California in the fall. (The lumbermen won the fight and killed the proposed lar.g that would have outlar,ved shingles.) Mr. Russell got the famous author, Peter B. Kyne to help write newspaper stuff for the lumber side of the argumeni.

New and attractive ."]t,.J "r,J .ut". rooms rvere going into lumber yards all over California. The Barr Lumbei Company, of Santa Ana, and the Modesto Lumber Company, at Modesto, were building such additions at this time' * :k *

F. L. Morgan was Secretary-Treasurer, and William T. Davies, President of the Southern California Retail Lum_ ber Dealers Association. * * ,<

Carpenters and other building unionists rvere out on strike at Bakersfield at this time.

J. C. Light, of Miami, u,as president, and. J. H. Wood, of Lowell, was Secretary of the Arizona Retail Lumber Dealers Association. A big two day convention rvas held in June, 7922.

One of the great lumber show places of Los Angeles at this time was the retail yard of the Hammond Lumber Com_ pany on Alameda Street, of which Harry Mcleod was manager. Besides huge quantities of other materials this yard sold and shipped out an average of one million feet of lumber every working day. It was,a.most popular place for visiting lumbermen.

About 8 million feet of lumber a month rvas coming into the Port of San Diego from the North.

In the month of June, l9ZZ, came into Los Angeles Harbor at was a record for the port.

92,430,6A feet of lumber San Pedro by boat. This

Reports of the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau shorv that during the first three months of l92Z the mills of Wash_ ington, Oregon, and British Columbia shipped out 763 million feet of iumber, which is more than double the shioments during the same time in the previous year.

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Los Angeles .w'as enjoying a building boom. During the month of June, 1922, building pernrits issued in Los An_ geles totaled 910,652,000.

The Bentley-Schoeneman Lumber Company, of Glen_ dale, had just completecl a very beautiful service and sales room in their modern office.

The Portland Lumber Oregon, had just started of idleness. -

Company's big operations after mill at Portland, nearly tr,vo years

R. E. Danaher was President and C. Stowell Smith, Sec_ retary, of the California White & Sugar pine Association, which had offices in San Francisco.

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Oakland lumbermen were joining the Oakland Chanrber of Commerce in creating a "California Complete lfomes Exposition," to open in that city September first.

The orvens-Parks turlo...aoJ'nu", had just opened a new retail lumber yard on Thirty-Eighth Street near Alameda, in Los Angeles. The principals were J. C. Owens, G. W. Prince, Jr., A. S. Parks, T. B. Trimb, and Edith A. Shluglat

Long Beach *u, rru.rir,| " J",,ol"* boorn, the total building permits for the last fiscal year being more than $15,000,000.

The Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Company and the Massett Timber Company, Ltd., of British Columbia, were working on a merg'er of their interests that resulted in the bfiilding of a large sawmill at Los Angeles harbor.

Sylvester Weaver announced that he considered the asphalt roofing plant of the Weaver Roof Company, in Los Angeles, the most efficient and modern industry of its kind in the whole country.

The Fruit Growers Supply Company were operating their big new Pine sawmill at Susanville, and now completing the rest of the plant and town, such as a box factory, a club house for employees, and other units of a big institution. ***

Lumber receipts at San Francisco harbor for the first six months of 1922 including both rail and water shipments totaled 332,000,000 feet.

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Walter C. Ball had just resigned as Sales Manager for the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company to become Sales I\{anager for the J. R. Hanify Cornpany, in San Francisco.

From Don White

"\Me, at White Brothers, want to take this opportunity of congratulating you and THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT on the occasion of your 25th Anniversary in July. To us, THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT is the FINEST TRADE MAGAZINE IN EXISTENCE. Its news keeps us posted on our good customers and personal friends throughout California, and as an advertising medium we believe it has no peer. It is avidly read from cover to cover by most of your subscribers.

During the war it was my pleasure to receive copies of THE MERCHANT out in the Pacific, and f was able to keep pretty well posted on the goings and doings of my friends and acquaintances. Our best wishes for one hundred and twenty-five years of continued success." Don F. White, White Brothers. San Francisco.

At last we can see daylight. Almost a full worling crew now on the iob. The understanding and patience of retaildealers has been much appreciated. We hope to sup' ply you with more and more Redwood lumber as the situation in production and delivery continues to improve.

Under the.title "We're Saying Howdy,,, there appeared in the first issue of THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT ever printed, July first, 1922, my first editorial addressed to the lumber people of California. It scarcely seems possible-to use a worn old platitude-that it was 25 years ago that I sat here at this same desk and type- writer I am using now, to type my first remarks to the great California lumber audience. But the calendar is not to be contradicted. And the calendar says that this really IS July first,' 1947, and that we really started this journal 25 years ago.

I am going to quote freely from that first editorial, because there f stated clearly the reasons why I decided to create a California lumber journal, and the aims, ambitions and intentions of the new sheet; Judge for yourself, friends, whether or not this journal has lived up to its original promises to this industry.'There was at that time no lumber publication in California. There had been one published by one Guy Buell in San Francisco years before, but it had died with its. publisher, if I remember rightly. And when f came to California in lg?l and spent some time looking over the field, it peemed to me that here was a priceless opportunity for a regional lumber journal, because f sensed at a glance that California is in reality a lumber empire all by itself, separated in various fashions from the rest of the lumber industry of the country. And I likewise correctly guessed that a mighty building boom was headed for this area-

I was so thrilled by the prospect that I could hardly restrain my enthusiasm for getting started. I had come to California in May, 192L, to address the annual convention of the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association held that year at Fresno. I talked to them about modern merchandising for retail lumbermen, and I was enthused and amazed at the resDonse I got to my preaching of salesmanship, advertising, display rooms, doing the building thinking for the community, etc. I had been telling that story by the spoken and written word since 1910 before lumber conventions all over the country. But it seemed to me that the dealers in California showed a more pronounced interest in modernizing their lumber yards and their merchandising methods than any I had met. So a study of.the situation soon convinced me that California really needed a merchandising lumber journal, and that I wanted to be the supply agent. On July first,1922, we started publishing.

California was at that time setting the pace for the whole world in advertising its products. Just about the time I was debating starting this journal, I picked up the Saturday Evening Post one day and, saw an ad that thrilled me. The California Peach Growers Association in a full page ad bf many colors, made this statement: ,.We paid the Curtis Publishing Company 911,000 for the privilege of telling the housewives of America how to make this wonderful shortcake." And all there was in the ad was a recipe for peach shortcake. That ad impressed me. I said to myself-"People with that much advertising enthusiasm should go strong for advertising their lumber products." That ad really helped me make up my mind.

When r discussed ,rlr*ru"J *iL trr-u"rmen in various parts of the state I got a world of encouragement from every person I talked to. So we started, and here we are, 25 years later, looking back over that term of years. We havi much to be thankful for. For 25 years we have enjoyed the goodwill, the generous friendship, and the continuous cooperation and support of the lumber industry and its associated industries in this state. THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT has, we believe, been respected and respectable throughout that long period of time. Never has there been any ill will, any misunderstanding, between this journal and the industry it serves. We have gone through some tough times together, this journal and its lumber friends. Ten years of cgntinuous depression tried the metal of journal and industry alike. Both have ridden the rapids.

I wish I might tell the California lumber industry how really and deeply grateful THE MERCHANT is for all the help and kindness of its California lumber friends. We , can only demonstrate our feelings in the matter by promising to continue in the future as we have in the past, to give this state and territory the best lumber journal we are capable of. Ed. Martin and Bill Black, and also Miss Maymme Adams, have made themselves part of the lumber industry of California through their long service as contact points between the industry and THE MERCHANT, and the industry has repaid them by the confidence, trust and; friendship that has been given them by thousands of lumbermen and lumberwomen. Thev are grateful, indeed.

In that first editorial, 25 years ago, we stated our aims and ambitions, as follows: "We hold that the primary job of the Modern Building Merchant is to do the BUILDING THINKING for his community. Therefore we will discuss the various phases of building thinking, or commercial imagination, as it is frequently called.

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"We believe that a business is frequently judged by its general appearance, and that much of its effectiveness in public service depends on its equipment. Therefore we will have much to say about the EQUIPMENT of the lumber dealer.

"fle must do their nr*"r* f.l fri" trade, furnish them with their building plans of the most practical, attractive, and satisfactory character. Therefore we will discuss the use of PLANS and PLAN SERVICE"

"FIe must properly ;pl| ni" gooa" to demonstrate their uses, because people buy building materials, not to HAVE them, but because of what they WILL BUILD and DO. So we will discuss display and service departments for retail lumbermen

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"We believe that a dealer cannot properly serve his trade unless he KNOWS his trade personally and intimately. Therefore we will discuss the pERSONAL EeUATION in business, the art of making fricnds, and the value of friendship in selling building materials. **:1.

"We know that a dealer cannot properly supply his trade with their buitding needs until he knows what those needs are. Therefore, we will discuss PROSPECT LISTS by which the dealer keeps track of the building necessities of his sales territory. ***

"ff a merchant has the ability and the equipment, and

From Walter S. Iohnson

"Heartiest congratulations on the Silver Anniversary of THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT. As a constant reader of the LUMBER MERCHANT I can frankly say that your coverage of these ever changing conditions has been most complete. Best wishes to you, and hop.ing that we will be around to congraulate you on the Golden Anniversary of your magazine." Walter S. Johnson, president, American Box Corporation, San Francisco.

knows his people and their building needs, then there is another very powerful requirement. He must ADVISE THEM of his ability to supply those needs. Therefore we will frequently discuss PUBLICITY and ADVERTISING. ***

"And when he has them ALL, he has still to make the connecting link between necessity and desire on one hand, and fulfillment on the other. Therefore we will continuously discuss the Science of Salesmanship-the most interesting of all business subjects.

"We will strive to cater to every district of California and to every branch of the industry. We will endeavor to act as the vehicle for the transportation of lumber news and ideas to and from every part of California.

"We will endeavor to spread the gospel of cooperation, and believe that there is much need for such work in California. We believe in association activities-in men getting together to help one another to the end that the public may be the better served.

"We will practically and fearlessly handle all subjects that arise affecting the lumber industry of California. And we will particularly try to invest the lumber business with the'enthusiasm we feel for it, and with the halo that the title 'I{ome Builders Of the Nation,' confers upon it." *t<i<

So said we in this column 25 years ago. We believe that in most matters we have kept our word, and lived up to our own original billing.

From Stephen Westover

"flaving been a subscriber to your publication from its initial issue your paper has been and still is a great help to anyone in the retail lumber game. Your editorials are read with great interest by me and also by -y wife who remarks that she never thought any lumberman (except me) was familiar with the works of Kahlil Gibran, whose teachings you occasionally quote." Stephen Westover, Lemon Grove Lumber Co., Lemon Grove.