UIANC Monogement Workshop

Ocl. 3-6

The Lumber Merchants Association of Northern California will conduct a new Dealer Management Workshop for owners and top management of its membership October 3 through the 6th at Rickey's Studio Inn in Palo Alto.

Jack F. Pomeroy, association executive vice-president, says that with the hustle and bustle of the better-thanusual business and help shortage of the vacation period, many dealers are apt to have overlooked the normal details of management, the excessive costs of some expenses, the jobs that were lost, and-the continual growth of unsolved problems and the birth of new ones.

The association feels that NOW is the time for lumber merchants to seriously appraise their past and preselrt operations and to take steps to insure that they are ready for the future.

The Management Workshop, Pomeroy says, is designed to help'lhose dealers who know that the future depends on them, and not alone on general economic conditions.

Attendance at this conference will provide an opportunity, not otherwise available, for retailers to compare operations, analyze and resolve mutual problems, receive authoritative nation-wide reports of new business and profitstimulating practices, and to exchange ideas.

Registration to the Management Workshop is open to Lumber Merchant Association members only.

SCRIAPlqns Speciol Meering

In its policy of greater service to its active and associate members, the Southern California Retail Lumber Association is contemplating holding a special one or two-day meeting of its associate members and the lumber and allied products dealers of Southern California. The time would probably be late January 1956, between the Fall Conference November 9-11 in Palm Springs and the 39th annual meeting and trade show at the Ambassador hotel April lGlZ, for this discussion and solution of common problems.

The SCRLA feels such a meeting u'ould be both productive and beneficial. Tlie plans are still in the talking stage and the association is feeling out the membership on suggestions for a meeting place for several hundred delegates, the topics they rvould like on the agenda, the names of producers, wholesalers and retailers whom it is felt would do a bangup job of leading discussions, making talks or conducting the meeting.

RexGlqrk Joins Sun Lumber Co. October I qs Generol Monoger

llomer H. Burnaby, executive vice-president and general manager of Sun Lumber Company, 1800 Wilmington Road, San Pedro, Calif., announces that Rex Clark will become associated with Sun Lumber as general manager effective October 1. Clark was executive vice-president of the Chas. R. Nelson Company of San Francisco, and general manag'er of Consolidated Lumber Company of Los Angeles, until his recent resignation there September 1.

rHE STUNNING front of lhe new. dacenlrolized Speedwoy yord of the Corbett Lumber Co. in Tucson is shown ot loft in o night view, below: store interior; the gondolo disploys were mode by rhe M&D Compony, Alhombra, Colif., for rhe reloil building mcteriols slore.

The Yqrd follows the customers

Tucson Brclnch Meets Trqde Decentrqlizqtion

Find out where your building materials customers are moving-then open a branch yard nearby to service them.

That was the policy of the J. Knox Corbett Lumber Company, pioneer lumber retailer of Tucson, Arizona, which has opened a new branch yard at 4545 Iiast Speedway there to catch its customers who are "decentralizing." The recently opened retail store and lumberyard augments Corbett's downtown location.

But when Corbett's executed this policy, they went a giant step farther than some dealers with secondary, suburban locations, and erected one of the most unusual, but practical, building materials stores yet built. A handsome example of post-and-beam construction, the Speedway yard was designed to attract the attention of automob.ile traffic on a heavily traveled street.

Laminated beams and a staggered roofline were used by the architect, Gordon Luepke, AIA, to assure an attentiongetting effect. The more than 70 feet of glass along the side and front, combined with dramatic interior lighting, mean that store merchandise is clearly visible to automobile passenger-customers for a considerable distance.

The spacious 30-car parking lot also faces the oncoming traffic, not only enticing many to stop but also assuring a view of the retail store from a long approach.

Of modern design, the main building is of red brick construction, with glass used liberally. The main store contains 2,800 square feet of display and office space. It is completely air conditioned. The storage buildings and warehouses contain an additional 8,000 square feet of space. Adjacent to the store is a 67,000-square foot lumberyard. The Speedway branch vuill offer all of the services of the parent company, with some additional lines including electrical ancl plumbing supplies.

Although its unusual construction and design give its owners a plus value in commanding attention, the modern-looking store cost little more than one of conventional design. Its owners estimate the cost of construction of the buildings at the new location at $100,000.

Corbett's Founded in Tucson in 1890

The main yard of the J. Knox Corbett Lumber Company occupies a full city block near downtown Tucson at Sixth Avenue and 7th Street, where it was opened in 1930 and has been operating steadily. This was the last general expansion, at a cost of $50,000, until the present branch yard was opened tiris summer.

The company was established in Tucson in 1890 by the late J. Knox Corbett at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and the railroad tracks. In the same year his brother, W. J. Corbett, started a hardware store in Tucson. On the death of W. J. Corbett in 1919, H. S. Corbett, who had become manager of his father's lumber company in i910, bought out his uncle's hardware company, merged the two firms, and since then has managed both enterprises under the J. Knox Corbett name.

The company is the oldest building material dealer in Arizona. H. S. "Hi" Corbett is president of the firm today, and his son, J. Knox Corbett II, the first grandson of the founder, is vice-president. The present Knox Corbett is also the current president of the Arizona Retail Lumber and Builders Supply Association, Inc., Phoenix, Ariz, W. A. Bell is secretary-treasurer of the company.

Two grandsons of the pioneer Corbetts will operate the (Continued on Page 18)

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PIYWEAVE REDWOOD

Gaudentius, the amazing Roman who built the Colosseum and the many-arched stone'bridges across the rivers of the Roman Empire, was not an architect. He did not know how to figure the mechanical laws of stress supposed to be necessary to build such structures so that they would stay up. He just went ahead and built them. He was what is called "a natural."

Maybe he had something of the same gift as the farm boy in the old story, who took one glance at a mighty flock of sheep crossing a field and gave their number exactly, apparently without thinking. When he was asked how he did it, he said: "I count their feet and divide by four't'

It's been a mighty long time since we've encountered a pun quite as terrific as the one Thomas Dreier printed recently. He quotes a friend as saying: "I believe in Buddha, but oleomargarine has its good points, too." (Quick, Watson, the needle.) * f see where they now have a national association of Toastmasters, who meet and practice the art of public speaking and toastmastering. I used to do a lot of that myself, and over a great number of years. f roasted and toasted thousands, and got well roasted myself at times.

Perhaps the best bit of practical advice that has come this way in a long time, is what the old man uttered on his hundredth birthday. He was asked what to say to people who, like him, wanted to live to be very old, and he said: "Tell them to keep on breathing."

I recall making a speech about thirty years ago to a great crowd of lumber folks in the Huntington Hotel, Pasa'dena. f was introduced by one George Lounsberry, one of the best. He said: "This gentleman reminds me of Abraham Lincoln. He reminds me of Lincoln in two ways; he's twice as ugly, and not half as smart."

I ran into a worse one than that still longer ago in Houston. I was engaged as speaker of the evening at a big mixed banquet, and I was prepared to knock'em cold. One of my best friends was toastmaster. He was an incurable practical joker. He ran through the program, called .-.n\.-

BY JACK DIONNE

on several for short talks, introduced some musical numbers, and then declared the dinner dismissed. HE NEVER CALLED ON ME ATALL, JUST LEF'T ME SIT. TIN& THERE. That one I* ne*v;r forgot.

One of the best toastmastering jobs that I remember well, was handled by Gus Russell, of San Francisco. The speaker of the day was the late lamented Parson Peter A. Simpkin, of national Hoo-Hoo fame. Gus''ielated how the Parson had served one congregation for a whole generation, got plenty of articles other than cash in the collection plate, and gave away most of his meager salary to charity. Said Gus: "When he left that church he had the biggest collection of pants buttons, and the smallest collection of pants, in history."*** f have read in history, and do not doubt in the least, that the greatest combination of toastmaster and orator in American history was General Sherman, of Civil War fame, and Col. Robert G. fngersoll. In the series of years following the end of the war, these two men appeared several times at great national conventions and banquets, and the combination of the eloquent general (who, outside of war times, was a college president) and the mighty orator, Ingersoll, was somethtrt*t?"r* to be forgotten.

It is related in various written histories that Abraham Lincoln went to one of those speakings and, returning home, said to his wife: "What a mighty instrument is human speech, when play*ed *Ot*a master."

Things look mighty lousy in the world right now, that's a fact, but I often take refuge and consolation in the thought that it could change for the better in the flash of an eye. f once heard Coke Stevenson, former Governor of Texas, express that thought in a short speech he was making. He said that many of the greatest events that turned the tide of history, happened in a few moments. Moses, he said, was but a few moments in the burning bush, yet those moments built civilization: Saul of Tarsus was but a few moments face to face with a certain Carpenter, on the road to Damascus, yet those moments changed the history of the world; Lincoln was but a few moments before the slave block in New Orleans, but those moments struck the shackles from millions of slaves. History, he said, overfows with such examples. Who knows, history may again change in a hurry. P*ray let it be soon !

Albert Einstein used to tell a story illustrating what diplomacy means. He said two clergymen wanted permis- sion to smoke. One of them wrote his superior and asked permission, and was refused when he simply asked if he could smoke. The other wrote his superior and asked, "May I smoke while praying?" He got permission.

In the pioneer days on the American frontier, a Presbyterian missionary always toted two big pistols wherever he went. Knowing he believed in predestination, someone asked him why he felt it necessary to go about heavily armed? He said sure he believed in predestination, so he went armed in case he might meet some hostile Indian whose time. had come.

*{<*

Seven Little Troubles came marching down the street. The cop on the corner stopped them and asked where they were going? "We are going where we are expected," said the Seven Little Troubles. Troubles are always expected. There never was one that got all dressed up and had no Place to go' *

Henry Ford said a long time ago: "To make an everincreasing quantity of goods of the best possible quality, and force them on the market; to strive for higher quality, lower costs, and lower prices; to raise wages continuously and never lower them; to see that the consumer gets the goods in such economic fashion that he gets the benefit of the low cost production."

Henry was the father of high wages. But all the things he suggested in the above-quoted paragraph fail to follow. Today wages Bo up, so costs Bo up, so prices go uP, so again wages go up to meet the high prices, and the vicious circle has become a circle indeed. Henry put in the first five-dollar day for laborers; AND MONEY WAS MONEY THEN.

)k**

Tough neighborhoods are well and tersely described in a couple of sayings going the rounds. One tells of a district where the kids were so tough that a cat with a tail had to be a tourist; and the other about the neighborhood where the cops carry their nightsticks in the'daytime.

"Don't complain," says a late adage, "about getting old. Many are denied that privilege."

If YOU have troubles, think of the poor girl who is so ugly that when she walked by the Navy yard, even the tugs stopped whistling.

los Pqdres Sqle Due to Insects

Santa Barbara, Calif.-Foresters are mapping one of the largest lumber sales in the history of Los Padres National Forest as a means of controlling pine-killing insects. The infestation has soread over 9000 acres and threatens 60,000 acres more of good timber, centered on Alamo Mountain in upper Ventura county. The timber will be removed from the largest stand of Jeffrey pine (mixed with about lWo yellow and sugar pine) in Los Padres, located in one of the few remaining undeveloped timberland recreation areas in Southern California.