Younger Deqlers Seffing Pcrce in Lumber lndustry, Directors Are Told qr rhe NR.LDA Spring Meering

Younger men in management are setting a fast pace in the retail lumber industry, better communications have been established between dealers and manufacturers, the FHA is going to serve dealers and small builders more effectively than ever, and Operation Home Improvement, already successful beyond expectations, is sure to continne into 1957.

Those were some of the more impressive facts brought out at the Spring meeting of the board of directors of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association held in Washington during May, plus the report that NRLDA's 1956 Exposition already is sure to be a smashing success.

President R. A. Schaub said that the industry, sparked by the energy and imagination of the younger men who gradually have assumed increasingly responsible places in their companies since World War II, has developed an inspiring atmosphere of aggressiveness and efficiency.

"Working alongside the industry's veterans, these youngsters are finding no lack of markets, thanks to the continuing strong demand for materials and the promotional force of programs such as Operation Home Impi-ovement," Mr. Schaub said.

"The enthusiasm of these younger men can't be stopped. They don't wait for business to come to them; they go out after it to an extent previously unknown in th,is industry."

Mr. Schaub also reported that communications between dealers and manufacturers have been greatly improved as a result of a series of meetings held by the association's officers and a group of leading producers and because of relationships growing out of NRLDA's Exposition.

"As a result of great improvements i,n education, merchandising, and mechanical handling, our industry is some years ahead of many other retail groups that still are beset by serious problems. We lumber dealers are well on our way to a real improvement in operating results," Mr. Schaub added.

H. R. Northup, executive vice-president, stated that Congress was expected to pass reasonably good legislation in the field of housing but that more than the usual number of legislative headaches were being encountered because 1956 is an election year. He said that NRLDA has not joined other groups which are trying to keep the FHA and VA housing programs completely separate and instead would favor merging the functions of the two agencies so as to resuit in just one set of specifications and inspections.

Mr. Northup paid a tribute to the t$'o top men in FHApast NRLDA Presidents Norman P. Mason and C. B. Sw'eet-for making FHA work smoothly and serving the interests of dealeri better than ever.

He said that the appointment of the nerv l\faterials Handling committee in NRLDA will result in improved teamwork betr,veen dealers, suppliers and others, and will be mutually profitable for all.

Northup also stated that NRLDA would build, in con- nection with its forthcoming Exposition, a home that rvould meet the specifications developed at the recent Women's Congress on Housing and that a top-flight architect would be retained to design the home.

The association's treasurer, H. W. Blackstock, reported that the organization's finances were in sound condition and within the budget, except for the expenditure on Operation Home fmprovement.

J. H. Else, legislative counsel, said that Congress was expected to approve a $3500 upper limit for T.itle I repair and modernization loans, together witl-r a S-year amorttzation period, but thar prospects were not too encouraging for removal of the 6-month waiting period on Title I loans.

In cooperation with other retail groups, NRLDA also has renewed its objections to proposed Federal wage-hour amendments which would extend minimum wage coverage to retailers, Mr. Else said. He urged individual dealers to make known their opposition to both the Davis-Baco,n and wage-hour amendments.

Don Campbell, chairman of the Standards committee, expressed regret that west coast lumber manufacturers had seen fit to start marketing fu,, boards without prior consultation with their customers, the dealers. He urged the adoption of minimum size standards of lumber, and said they should be "built upon scientific data for area use."

Phil Creden, Exposition chairman, said that the 1956 Building Products Exposition to be held December 10 to 13 in Chicago already is over the top financially and is certain to be bigger and better than either of its predecessors.

He predicted that the Materials Handling Clinic, to be conducted entirely under roof in Chicago's immense International Amphitheatre, will be the greatest event of its kind ever staged and that the other dealer clinics also will be outstanding in quality and interest.

Other major attractions for dealers, he said, will be a full-dress retail store, complete to the last detail, in which a score of building products manufacturers are cooperating, and clinics on component construction, and other timely subjects.

Martin C. Dwyer, Exposition director, reported that plans ll'ere being perfected for assuring an unprecedented attendance of dealers from all sections of the country ancl said the number of exhibitors already was near a record, at this early date-five months before opening day.

Paul Shoemaker, vice-president of the Nlasonite Corporation, then reported that manufactu-rers \\rere deeply impressed with the mercl.randising progress that the retail lumber industry had been making and predicted that manufacturers generally would assist dealers in preparing the NRLDA Display Panels rvhich are the subject of one of the five \\rorkshop programs.

FHA Commissioner Mason said that his agency to concentrate on doing a better job for small

(Continued on Page 56) intends builders,

These pages will be devoted to quotations of a political sha1aqfq1-some old, some new, some by famous thinkers, some by lesser lights. The opinions expressed are those of their authors only.

>k ,< * f can remember when every big political campaign, and especially the conventions, were studded with silvertongued speakers who took the stars down from the heavens in iheir eloquent enthusiasm. Woe is me,'how we have rbtrograded into oratorical mediocrity. Here we have 160 million people, and only one orator worthy of the name. And, since he isn't politicking, we have nothing to look forward to along that line. The ,name, of course, is MacArthur. As the saying goes, he ..ain't talking.', *€ t< t<

Listen, politicians, to the words of Socrates: ,,No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest: yet everyone thinks hi.mself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades-Governrnent."

The ancient philosopher, Plato, said this: .,The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector. In the early days of his power he is full of smiles, and he salutes everyone whom he meets. Has he not also another object which is that the people may be impover_ ished by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants, and therefore less likely to conspire against him?" (Remember, these were in the old daYs of Greece') * tr< >t

And Demosthenes, famous Grecian orator and politician, said: "Like the diet prescribed by doctors which neither restores the strength of the patient nor allows him to suc_ cumb, so these doles that you are now distributing neither suffice to insure your safety nor allow you to renounce them and try something else.,' (Looks like the old bov was suspicious of handouts.) * ,. {<

Abraham Lincoln once ran for the legislature in Illinois, and in his platform there were just 27 words: ,.I believe in a United States bank; I believe in a protective tariff; I believe in a system of internal improvements; and I am against human slavery.', He got elected. Is there a practical hint there for platform writers?

"If f had my way, I would gather up all the Communists and other enemies of our way of life, a,nd I would ship them out of this country, on a ship of stone, with sails of lead, over a sea of fire, with hell for its destinatien."_ Author Unknown.

BY JACK DIONNE

"A politician thinks of the next election: a statesman of the next generation.'''-James Freeman Clarke. *{<*

"ff f could not go to heaven except with a party, I would rather not go there at all."-Th*omas Jefferson.

Said Macaulay 100 years ago: "Our rulers wiil tst promote the welfare of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties-by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment; by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of Jgw, and by observing strict econo,my in every department of the state. Let the government do this; the people will assuredly do the rest." (Editor's note: Why, Mr. Mac, this istreason')

Said one patriot and politician to another (George Washington wrote it to John Adams) : "If to be venerated for benevolence, to be admired for talents, to be esteemed for patriotism, to be loved for philanthropy can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in*vain."

Woodrow Wilson said: "There is nowhere in the land any home so remote, so humble, that it may not contain the power of mind and heart and conscience to which nations yield, and history submits its processes. Nature pays no attention to aristocracy, subscribes to no creed or castes, renders fealty to no monarch or master of any name or kind. Genius is no snob. It does not run after titles or seek by preference the high circles of society. It affects humble company as well as great. It pays no special tributes to universities or learned societies or to conventional standards of greatness, but serenely chooses its own comrades, its own haunts, its own cradles, and its own life of adventure and training." (Men of political inclination might read over the above a: *:oU advantage.)

James Madison said: "An elective despotism is not the governmgnt we fough.t for, but one founded on free principles, in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced that no one can transcend their legal limits without being checked*or*restrained by the others.,,

Themistocles, the Athenian, was one of the great politicians of ancient fame. It was he who boasted that while he could not play upon any instrument (as was customary even for the great in those days), he could tell the world how to make a city grow. That boast has been quoted ever since. Chambers of Commerce for centuries have been trying to discover what it was that Themistocles knew. His mother was an alien, not born in Athens, and when spiteful women would taunt her with not being a native, she would throw back her head and reply: "Yes, but the mother of Themistocles."

IJnknown is the authoJ ", an" following fine definition of citizenship: "The world is looking for men who are not for sale: men who are sound from center to circumference; men with consciences as steady as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens totter and the earth reels; men who will tell the truth and look the world right in the eye; men who neither brag nor run, flag nor flinch; me,n who have courage without shouting it; men in whom the everlasting life runs deep, still, and strong; men who know their message and tell it, who know their business and attend to it, who know their place and fill it; men who will not lie, shirk, or dodge; men who are not too lazy to work or too proud to be poor; men who are willing to eat what they have earned, and wear what they have paid for; men who are not ashamed to say 'No' with emphasis, or to say'I can't afford it."' (As the slang phrase goes, "they don't make many of them kind no more'tt)

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter written to his grandson, said what would be perhaps unfortunate advice to politicians today: "I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Dr. Benjamin

Franklin the most amiable of men in society: 'never contradict anybody.'"

Perhaps the most influential political orator of American history was U. S. Senator Daniel Webster, who died in t852 at the age of 70. His debates in the Senate and his patriotic orations through many years of public appearances, made everlasting history. It is related that during the decades of the 1850s in the northern and border states, tens of thousands of young men memorized the patriotic words and phrases of Webster, which inspired them with patriotic fervor not to be had from lesser men. And for decades after his death quotes from Webster supplied the texts for Fourth of July speeches for millions of people everYwhere

His words that follow will live as long as Old Glory waves: "I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, mY God's, and truth's. I was born an American. I will live an American. I will die an American."

What a political platform that would make !

Southlqnd VA Loqns Top t53 Billion

More than 332,000 home loans with a total valuation of more thau $3 billion have been guaranteed for veterans by the Los Angeles regional office of the Veterans Administration since the start of its loan program following World W:"r IL