A Very Speciol Announcement

T THE TOP OF this page, as well as on the double front cover and throuehout this issue, you will see for the very first time, the new name we have chosen for the masazine.

The new name is Western Lumber & Building Materials MERCHANT, a logical outgrowth from the old California Lumber Merchant name that graced our cover for more than 45 years.

But we are still the same informal bunch so we hope you will just go on calling us rHE MERcHANT as before. As a matter of fact, we tried to set up the nameplate, or flag as it's called in the business, so that it's easily read: THE MERCHANT.

While we may be sporting a new name from now on, we want to stress that the contents of the magazine will be changed only to improve the magazine, just as we have always done. The same people will keep doing the same things to continually improve the magazine for you.

As you can imagine, it was no easy job to decide to change a name that had earned immense prestige and was known throughout the West. But that was part of the problem that we had with the old name. People all over the western states wanted to identify with the magazine, but the word California made it kind of tough for them. The same with the word lumber. Even though all of us have a very soft spot in our hearts for the lore and legend of the lumber industry, business demands have urged us all into many other fields, often selling materials that we once might have looked at strangely.

So we decided to take the big step. We had worked hard the past few years to update the magazine and improve its news gathering facilities and reporting, so it really didn't make sense to keep the old name, especially as it was no longer accurate.

The choice of a new name was anything but easy. As a matter of fact, we agonized over it until one night at about eleven o'clock we just decided the heck with it we'll call it Clyde.

But little by little the pieces began to fall into place and the name we ended up with makes a lot of sense. The first word, the western part, was t}e easiest as we circulate all over the west. So we had to have that. Same with the last, we wanted to still be called THE MERcHAxr. But those words, lurrrber & building materials, which seem so obvious now, were pretty hard in coming. We can't think now why we had the problems, but we had'em. We tried to think of a word that would encompass the whole business. That was the trouble, there isn't one. The phrase, Lumber & Building Materials comes the closest, so we chose it.

We have our full name and we're mighty proud of it. But if it is all the same with you, please keep calling us THE IVTERcHANT. After 45 years we're kind of used to it.