V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

Gus Russell, of San Francisco, wired me: .,When do you think the lumber business will show improvement?', I wired back: "I look for definite improvement in October." lle answered: "Thanks. What year?"

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Someone sends me an epigram which reads: ,,There are twenty-six snountains in Colorado higher than pike's peak, but who can name one of them? It certainly pays to advertise." I'm not so sure that Pikes Peak deserves as much credit for its advertising, as for its selection of a location. If Pike's Peak had laid out its claim where some of the other twenty-six are, it would never have been heard of either'

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My recent editorial utterances in this column urging the lumber dealer to take up seriously as his own job the termite fight in his locality, and duggesting to the creosoting industry that it should become more active in that direction also, stirred up a lot of correspondence. Some of my friends who make and market a termite antidote other than creosote, want it understood that creosote isn't the only certain and dependable ant killer.

I never supposed trr"l it ir"r. *, mentioned it because in the Government Bulletins I read on the subject of tertnites creosote was the only material mentioned specifically by the Government chemists for this purpose. And it seerled to me and still does that the creosote industry .could well give this matter their direct attention, since the protection of wood is their particular business in life, and they have the means and the opportunity for such 'work.

There ARE other specific methods of termite exterrnination and prevention which my lumber friends tell me have proven entirely satisfactory after long and intelligent use and experimentation. Personally I don,t care WHAT the lumber dealer uses to help fight the termites, but it is my conviction that every lumber dealer-or at least one lumber dealer in every town-SHOULD be equipped with materials, and with practical information for the public use, for protecting the buildings of that town against the destructive efforts of this enemy of wood.

And it is likewise my very definite conviction that the lumber dealers of every town should use their best efforts to see that the builders and building owners of such town are NOT victimized by people pretending to apply termite protection, whose efforts and materials used are entirely unfit for the purpose. Government chemists have found very few things that they can honestly recommend as practical for termite fighting. And it is a known fact that thousands upon thousands of home owners have paid good money for alleged termite treatf,nents that are totally useless and ineffectual. rF*r|

The 4 L Lumber News, published by the Loyal Legion of Loggers & Lumbermen at Po?tland, Oregon, editorially calls for a repeal of the Sherman Act. There is much sense to what they say. Things have changed since the days when the Sherman Act was passed to protect our citizenship from the gobbling tricks of trusts. f'No two or more men," it says, "shall conspire together to fix prices orlimitor restrict competition, either directly or indirectly."

And today in Oklahoma and Texas the State Governments are using the militia for the purpose of reducing competition, restrictin! the production, and raising the price of oil. Just how can the Sherman Act ever be called upon again to perform its functions wherf we proclaim martial law for the specific purpose of violating its prohibitions? If it can be done by one man or group of men, surely it is not forbidden to others.

The lumber industry * ," **r".ondition than oil. The plea of conserving our natural resources is much more definite and provable, than with oil. For all we know there may be an inexhaustible supply of oil within this earth-but we KNOW how limited are our trees. yet the lumbermen are scared to death to even think of doing for lumber, what is being done for oil.

The Sherman Act *i, "rJ."u lo nro.u", the rank and file of our citizenship-the poor man in particular. And in times like these he is the very fellow who is being choked to death and starved by its inhibitions. Concluding its remarks, the 4 L Lumber News pertinently says: ..Congress will be in session again before long and one of the matters it must face is unemployment; A repeal of the Sherman Act, or at least such changes as will allow industries to direct their business in an orderly, civilized manner, would be a long step in filling the dinner pail that has been more or less empty for the past two years." We say Amen.

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