Hoo-Hoo Annual --- Sept. 7 - 9

The Kansas City Hoo-Hoo Club will be host to the HooHoo International Convention which will be held in Kansas City September 7-9, inclusive. The committee in charge of arrangements, headed by J. N. Daniels, of the Daniels Lumber Company promises visiting and local Hoo-Hoos a program of entertainment and inspiration which should make the 1949 convention one to be long remembered.

Headquarters will be established at the President Hotel, where registration activities will start on the afternoon of September 7. The following morning, September B, there will be a business session and then a luncheon. The afternoon session will include talks by Roy Wenzlick, well known economist and business forecaster and Dave Livingston, farmer-humorist of lowa whose subject will be "Piddlers, Peddlers and Salesmen." Both of these speakers have appeared many times at gatherings of lumbermen and their contributions to the convention program, both serious and humorous, should make this session outstanding. In the evening, following a cocktail hour which will give everyone an opportunity to greet old friends and make new friends, there will be a Con'catenation followed by a dinner.

The activities of the second day of the convention, September 9, will start with a business session followed by a joint luncheon at which Hoo-Hoos and their wives will be guests. There will be an afternoon business session and the high point of the Convention entertainment will be the banquet in the evening. Tom Collins, of Kansas City, internationally known for his wit, humor and philosophy will be the speaker.

B. F. Springer of Milwaukee, secretary of the International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, will be in charge of the business sessions.

Mr. Daniels, general chairman, has recruited an able committee to handle the details of the Convention. fncluded in the committee are the following: vice-chairman, Cliff Schorling, Renfro Lumber Company; finance committee, Anton K. Westh, Noll Welty Lumber Co.; program committee, Arthur Brink, Tri-State Lumber and Shingle Co.; entertainment committee, Alan Flint, southwestern Lumbermen's Association; hotel reservations, Ted Becker, Frank Paxton Lumber Co., concatenation, C. C. Barnes, Badger Lumber Co. Mrs. Charles Goodrum has been chosen head of the Ladies Committee.

LeRoy H. Stanton Sr., Los Angeles, Snark of the Uni:

Kanrat City Hoo-Hoo Club No. 43 Invites You

To All Hoo-Hoo Delegates and All Hoo-Hoo Brothers:

Greetings !

July 29, t949

Kansas City extends the welcoming hand to all Hoo-Hoo to come to the Heart of America. In addition to the delegates, we extend an invitation to all of you to attend the 1949 Convention-the 58th Annual. We suggest that you put Kansas City on your vacation itinerary, September 8 and 9, t949.

Good old-fashioned hospitality awaits you. Our committees have been working with but one objective; to bring Hoo-Hoo together, to bask in the sunshine of Hoo-Hoo fellowship and fraternalism.

With outside distractions cut to the minimum, there will be two solid days devoted to the business of Hoo-Hoo, but plenty of time to renew and make new friendships. The serious sessions will be nicely blended with hours of fun and frolic Tor members and their ladies.

As General Chairman of the Convention, it is an honor and a pleasure to invite all of you. Your host, Kansas City Hoo-Hoo Club Number 43, is prepared to prove that The Heart of America will impress and endear itself to you, as the ideal spot for the 58th Annual.

Cordially and fraternally yours,

For The Kansas City Hoo-Hoo Club No. 43

J. N. Daniels, 8637 General Convention Chairman verse, says: "I hope to see there every member of the Supreme Nine, every State Deputy Snark, and all the Vicegerent Snarks who can possibly make it. Then each Club should have its official delegates all lined up and prompted as to their part in the convention, and we do hope all these with as many of the officers and members of the Clubs who can do so will be on hand. It will be an inspiration for every attendant, and for those who have never been before it will be educational as they get inside information on the working of our fine Fraternal Order. lx4 to lt72

"Kansas City is a central location. Let's converge on it in great numbers and really swamp the city with HooHoo buttons and badges, song's, yells, and enthusiasm, and when we do, the press will blazon to the world what we are doing for the lumber industry and the general good of humanity.

"Meet me in Kansas City with a 9-inch smile on your face."

*

That little verse from the Bible seems to be particularly pertinent right now to the lumber and allied industries. And notice right at the start that it says "arise."

'1.**

Plenty of older lumbermen who read thlse lines will recall the twenty years that I preached continually and never-endingly through these columns and the spoken word to the lumber industry, on the subject of merchandising. business thinking etc. At scores of lumber conventions tr have heard them shout frorn the floor when I had my skinning knife out and was taking their hides 6ff-"Qivs 'sm hell, Jack !" And I did ! ***

I talked to them about the necessity for quitting running wood mills and wood yards and getting out and advertising, selling, merchandising, displaying, doing the building thinking of the nation, and creating lumber business instead of just sitting and waiting for it to show up. I told the industry to get up off its dead end, put its brains and muscles to work, and make the lumber business live and hum'***

The thought I have at this moment is that the industry needs to catch a lot of hell right now just as much as it did in those old days; just as much as it ever did. For right now the thinking of the industry is mighty, mighty bad, and needs a whale of a lot of correcting. Here's what I mean. There is entirely too much whining and repining throughout the lumber industry and its allied industries. You'd think to listen to the remarks of the average lumberman that things had gone to Hades in a handbasket, and that things are very, very lousy in the lumber business. You get the same impression from the printed reports you read on lumber production and price statistics. **t< trF*

For several years the industry rode the crest of a very high and very artificial wave. Prices were high, good lumber was scarce, and builders had to be contented with a very poor supply of lumber, and to take the items that they could get. Nobody had any trouble selling lumber. Collection costs were zero, for everyone had cash. The lumber business from mill to retailer \ zas a merry-go-round, with prices whatever asked, and profits likewise.

Anyone outside of an asylum knew such things could not last; that they were necessarily temporary. Lumber inflation reached perilously close to the bursting point, and most thinking men feared for what might happen an-v day. Then a recession started. Prices came slowly down. With the war over and the huge war demand for lumber gone, there came a readjustment between the very high demand and the relatively low production that had prevailed for several feverish years.

***

Today the figures show that on the whole more lumber is being manufactured than is being marketed. They show that lumber is now being sold for considerably less money than a year ago, and for a long time before that. They also show that lumber is now available in both quantity and quality for all building purposes. No longer does the builder need to accept inferior or undesirable items with which to build. Once again sanity and normalcy have come to the lumber industry. There is material available immediately for all building purposes.

What I would like to U"". n"rn" to the lumber industry and its associated industries right now is that instead of griping because things are not like they were last year and the year before, they should be rejoicing and thanking God that things are as good as they are and that they now have a chance to do something for the industry. The need for housing is still great-almost overwhelming. The people of this land are prosperous. Their pockets are not as overflowing with surplus cash as they were, but there is still more money available and more being spent by the American people today than there ever was up to this recent war. ***

A splendid opportunity faces this industry. It has available and for sale a great supply of better materials than ever before, and don't forget that. Well manufactured lumber is better in quality today than ever in history. The trouble right now is that they are making more lumber and other building materials such as plywood today, than the market is automatically demanding. And what's wrong about that? {<

For five years there has been no selling done in the lumber industry. Everything came easy. Merchandising of intelligent and active character became practically unknown, simply because there was no need for any. The world took the lumber products as fast as they fell from the saws, and asked few if any questions. Brains, like muscles, become flabbyr from non-use. For several years the lumber industry has given practically no exercise to

DOUG1AS FIR

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All that is needed now is a mighty drive to induce people to use lumber that they would not otherwise buy. That's all. It's a chance for the lumber industry to use its intelligence along business creating lines. And what I want to say here and without pulling punches is that the industry is showing mighty little sign of seeing and grasping the need and the opportunity. Let me quote a little history. f have watched this industry for fifty years and f must bring this charge against it: when things start to slip and the going gets tough, instead of rising up to meet the emergency with all the intelligence that God gave it, it simply starts crawling in its hole to wait until business picks up. MAKING business pick up has never been one of its strong points.

Is the lumber industry rushing to meet this present challenge? Yah, it's meeting the problem like the dog chases the bear; the dog's ahead and the bear's chasing him. The fundamental trouble with the lumber industry is that it has never considered advertising and expert merchandising as a practical part of its business. ALL OTHER INDUSTRIES DO. But not lumber. The lumber industry advertises and merchandises when times are fat. When times get thin it cuts down expenses, and advertising and selling costs come down first. Every other industry does the opposite. They take it easy when times are good, and start spending their creative money when times get bad,

Take right now. Do you know what big industry in the United States has been hurt most in the last year? The used car business. They rode the crest of the wave like the lumber and plywood folks did. Then their business went off much faster and much farther than lumber. And look at those folks now. They are advertising and selling like they never did before, spending twice as mtrch money and effort as they were spending a year or so ago. Turn on your radio day or night and here come the sales talks of the used auto advertisers, telling of the wonderful bargains, the reduced prices, the many new .services of the used car lots. Everyone who listens to the radio or reads the newspapers learns that compared to a year or so ago, used cars are the world's greatest bargains.

Does everyone in the country who listens and reads know about lumber? Does the nation know how much lower the prices of lumber are, how wonderful are the available stocks of lumber and allied building materials? Does everyone know how much better and more economically they can build and repair and remodel today than they could a year ago? Does the world know that, compared with the high tide of recent years, no industry has more to offer the public for its money than the lumber industry? Then why not? r< * *

But the lumber industry has so far shown no sign of following in the footsteps of the used car and other industries, and going out after business rbith doubled and tripled vigor, and at greatly enlarged expense. I really hate to tell this, but instead, I have heard of big associations cutting out or cutting down their advertising in the face of a weakening market. Nothing new about it. They've done it always. But can you understand such thinking? They can't be too poor to finance increased advertising and merchandising efforts because for years they have known the highest kind of a tide of prosperity. Looks to me like it's their sworn duty, now that a turn downward has come, to use some of those profits to build and sustain their business. It CAN be done. No doubt about it.

**t< when I see lumbe, nt;J"Jassociations and plywood associations cutting down their advertising and pulling in their horns in times like these, and the rest of the industry sitting around and bemoaning the fact that the lumber business is no longer an autotnatic goldmine, I could sit down and cry. And I DO mean cry. What in God's name did God give brains to the lumber industry for, if it is to duck the issue in times like these? Why, don't you know that if every man connected with this industry should get out and hit the ball in the interest of more lumber sales and uses we would have as much demand as the mills could possibly supply? Look at the market we've got to .shoot for !

The entire lumber industry, root and branch, should today be grouped together as one great working machine, going out into the highways and the byways to tell the people the truth about lumber, its availability, its usefulness, its quality, its reduced costs, its great dollar value. That's what we should be doing. Every producer should be seeking ways and means for creating some business. Every business association should be doing grouP advertising and merchandising at a higher rate than ever before, for there is a greater market to be sought after than there ever was before.

***(

'We have nearly sixty million workers making good pay at good jobs in this country right now; we have more than two hundred billion dollars in liquid savings; we have a national income of about 215 billion dollars a year; we have vast resources crying for development; we have millions upon millions of potential customers who are able to buy our products, waiting for us to sell them; we have enough work to be done, enough human needs to be served and supplied, to keep every business now in existence and others yet unborn prosperously busy for generations to come'

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For several years Providence in the shape of a great war and its aftermath poured previously unheard-of profits into the pockets of the business people of this nation, and particularly favored have been the lumbermen. But don't for God's sake let's quit because the golden flow has ceased to be automatic ! It was the job of Providence for a while to hand us prosperity. It's OUR job now to keep the good business ball rolling by the use of our brains and our money. The profits of the past few years were not given to

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