T\(/ENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

As reported in The California Lumber Merchant July 1,1931

This issue contains an article by Leroy H. Stanton of Los Angeles in which he discusses what the business depression has done to the hardwood lumber industry of the Pacific Coast. He recommends a harder fight against substitutes.

, The Pacific Lumber Company of San Francisco makes enthusiastic announcement of its important new product, Redwood bark fiber, being shipped in bales for many uses.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued an injunction against 39 Western Pine mills, forbidding them to use the title "White Pine" to designate Ponderosa Pine, the latter being a yellow rather than a true white Pine. Hearings in this case have been in progress for two years and now end with the decision against the Pine manufacturers. The California White & Sugar Pine Assn. thus gets a body blow.

In this issue a strong effort is made to present the optimistic side of the bad lumber market, prominent men in the industry discussing conditions in a number of pages of signed articles:

T. B. Lawrence, Los Angeles, of the Lawrence-Philips Lumber Co., writes about wholesale lumber conditions; J. J. Halloran, Phoenix, reports on lumber marketing in Arizona; Walter G. Scrim, Los Angeles, reports on Philippine mahogany; D. C. Essley, manager of the California Retail Lumbermen's Association, writes about retail conditions; Carl C. Crow, Portland, writes about Northwest lumber conditions; W. B. Laughead, Red River Lumber Co., Westwood, Calif., writes on the Pine situation; S. J. Sharp, California Redwood Association,.writes from the Redwood viewpoint; Frederic S. Palmer, Santa Fe Lumber Company, San Francisco, writes about the Pine situation from the wholesaler's viewpoint. The entire effort of these various writers and of the editorials in the same issue is to promote a more optimistic thought condition in the industry.

34 Years Ago

The CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT was 34 years old on July 1, 1956. Our first issue went into the mail on that date, 1922. The following firms ran advertising in the first issue, and are still with us:

W. E. Cooper Lumber Co., Los Angeles

Ifolmes Eureka Lumber Company, San Francisco

Long-Bell Lumber Company, Kansas City, Mo.

Santa Fe Lumber Company, San Francisco

Union Lumber Company, San Francisco

Wendling-Nathan Lumber Company, San Francisco

Never missing from these columns for any month since we started are Cooper, Santa Fe and WendlingNathan.

Three large Southern California retail lumber firms announce a merger: the L. W. Blinn Lumber Company, the Russ Lumber & Mill Company, and the Patten-Davies Lumber Company, all of Los Angeles. They take the name of Patten-Blinn Lumber Company, u'ith general offices in Los Angeles and Henry S. Patten, president.

Announcement is made that lumber production in California has reached the lowest level in a great many years.

Seven Tacoma, Wash., milling concerns have formed a sales agency called the Tacoma Lumber Sales Agency, and A. C. Penberthy, Los Angeles, has been named Southern California sales manager.

New SBA Loon Procedure

Wendell B. Barnes, administrator of the Small Business Administration, in a move to expedite processing of loan applications by his agency, has authorized 7l of its branch offices to approve loans in which the government advances up to $15,000. The agency's regional offices inciude San Francisco, and Los Angeles, Calif.