fttilitory Housing Builders Form Notionol Trqde Associotion

Washington, D.C.-A new national trade association to represent builders of family housing for service personnel and dependents on military installations throughout the United States will be known as The Military Housing Association. The new organization is headed by Texas contractor llenry E. Williams, Jr., whose Dallas firm of Williams & Dunlap has built nearly 3,000 military housing units in Kansas, Texas and Louisiana.

The Association opened its national headquarters on Sept. 26, at 1737 De Sales St., N.W., Washington 6, D.C., with Williams as president, Ralph Kaul of Mclean, Va., as vice-president, Los Angeles builder Elias Miller as secretary-treasurer, and Austin, Texas, attorney Jake Jacobsen as general counsel.

\.Viiliams said the primary objective of the Association is to obtain a sweeping reform of the existing military.housing program, the so-called Capehart Program, and the esta6tistrrient of fair and workible procedures which could save millions of dollars for the taxpayers as well as for the builders engaged in constructing this housing.

He charged that blunders by military administrators, many of them completely unfamiliar with !9qs_i1g 9on- struition, have resulted in a log-jam of $150,000,000 .to $200,000,000 in unsettled claims against the government by

Aluminum Pre-Fqbs Now?

The nation's biggest home manufacturer, National Ilomes Corp., says its higher-prlced line sells faster than lower-cost models. Last year, most popula,r model was a 900-square'foot unit. Hottest rumor, unconfirmed, has a, large aluminum compa,ny buying up Na,tional stock ln quantity. IIMA' incidentally, is reatlying plans for an "All Components Research Ilouse." Prime objective is to demonstrate that a manufactured home can be built easier a,nd at less cost than one built conventionally or with lumberyard-type components. ilim Pease, ilr., of Pease Woodwork Co., Hamilton, Ohio' is ha,ndling the project.

contractors who have performed their work but are unable to collect their money.

"The basic fault in the program, which threatens financial disaster for hundreds of reputable businessmen who entered the program in good faith, lies in the fact that military arrthorities have arbitrarily taken control of the program away from the civilian Federal Housing Administration," Williams said.

"This high-handed procedure," he said, "is in direct defiance of the expressed will of Congress which. stipulated when it passed the so-called Capehart military housing bill in 1955 that responsibility for the program should rest with the FHA."

More than 90,000 of the 120,000 units authorized under the Capehart bill already have been completed. Mgrtgages on these units are insured by the FHA and paid by the Defense Department out of the quarters allowances provided for military families.

Williams said there is an urgent need for the establishment of equitable processing, claims and inspection procedures. Hi said that present inspections by military officials without previous housing experience have resulted in excessive costs to the taxpayer, far above the cost of comparable civilian housing.

Williams said the new Association's Washington counsel will be Andrew P. Murphy, Jr., former legislative representative for the National Association of Home Builders, with Robert F. Loftus, until recently public relations director for NAHB, as public relations counsel to the MHA.

-Nafional Forest Producls Week . , . October | 6'22-

September | 960 Conslruction Expenditures to $5.3 Billion

The value of totaf new construction put-in-place in September 1960 amounted to $5.3 billion, according to preliminary estimates of the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. The September 1960 seasonally adiusted annual rate of total new construction was $55.4 biliion, l/o more than the equivalent annual rate in August 1960 and about the same level as in September 1959.

Spending for construction of private residential buildings in September 1960 amounted to $2.0 billion, 1/o less than in August 1960 and 13/o less than in September 1959. The September 1960 seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending fof total private construction and for private residential buildings was $38.9 billion and $21.7 billion, respectively.

In the first nine months of 1960, the cumulative value of total private residential expenditures was $16.5 billion, 9/o less than in the comparable period of 1959.

Hervey Favllla of the Norco Lumber Company was confined to his home several September days with a leg injury but his wife Mary, who minded the retail yard in his absence, reported he was progressing well.

Paul Kent, Hollywood wholesaler, introduced Jlm Mace of the California Department of Forestry as speaker at a recent meeting of the Hollyrvood I{iwanis Club. Kent was chairman of the day and Mace gave an excellent talk on conservation.

*Jack Berry, national coordinator of National Forest Products Week, started the Week off in fine style as best man at the wedding of Santa tr'e Lumber's Paul Clarke to Barbara Beny in Watsonville, Oct. 15, the eve of NFPW. The marriage took place at the home of Barbara's sister, the wife of Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Gilbert Perry, who performed the ceremony, while another Berry, Senator Swlft Berry (Amador county), g'ave the bride away. Paul and the new Mrs. Clarke flew to New York and are now enjoying a Caribbean honeymoon cruise.

The Sept. 27 society section of The Los Ang'eles Examiner contained a photo of Mrs. Teny Mullln, wife of the Tarzana and Northridge lumber dealer; her mother, Mrs. Herbert T. Kalmus, and Mrs. iloseph K. Ilorton, wife of the legal counsel of the Southern California Retail Lumber Assn., at a meeting launching the Bel-Air Federated Republican Women's Club. The organizational tea was held at the home of Mrs. Kalmus. Mrs. Horton is president of the new group for the Nixon-Lodge ticket.

Bob Hoberle, manager of the GeorgiaPaciflc Corp. South Pasadena plant, left Oct. 72 for some deer-hunting around Monticello, Utah. He has three "tags" and hopes to bag the limit during his 2-week stay.

Charlie l/Vilson, owner of the Woodside Lumber Co., San F rancisco, proudly reports that Eudora l)eloge is now associated with the firm and keeping things in trim during his many business trips. Eudora, as her friends will recall, originally cut her industry teeth with the old Cords Lumber Company and, more recently, had been with Hedlund Lumber Sales.

Hobbs Wall's I)on Bufldn, railfan and locomotive enthusiast, was seen tending the trains with the other kids at the L. A. County F air in Pomona last month.

Bob McDonnell, well-known vice-president of Mahogany Importing Co. the past several years, announces he is leaving the South Pasadena firm on November 1 to establish a new business in the hardwood import-export field and will notify his customers through these columns when his new offices and services are established.

Jlm Pierce, former secretary-treasurer of Pacific Manufacturing Co., Santa Clara, signed on Sept. 1 with Paramino Lumber Co. as an outside salesman for the San F'rancisco firm. A native of Santa Clara and-UC graduate, Jim entered the lumber business under his dad, the late Lester Pierce, former president of Pacific.

Carl Gavotto, San Diego wholesaler, was a recent visitor at the Maple Bros. plant in Whittier.

'Sully" Sulllva,n, executive of Ray Hill Lumber Co., Los Angeles, is touring the Orient from Japan to Manila on procurement for the firm. He will return early in November.

"Ilank" Zwart, head of H. Zwart & Company, Los Angeles import-export firm, is spending part of October in Europe on

Pn^ooo/o

procurement. He flew the North Pole route to the Scandinavian countries and the Continent,

Larry Owen, Hallinan Mackin veep, took in the Western Pine Assn. meeting in Portland, Sept. 14-16, aJter two weeks in the Seattle-Vancouver area on business.

Popular Frank llelly, formerly with Koppers Co., Inc., is now covering the territory for Duke Timber Construction Co., Inc., Costa Mesa.

Baseball-minded Ha,rry White, Long Beach wholesaler, covered the World Series this year. He played with the Pacific Coast League a few years ago and the game is still in his blood.

George lllnkle, general manager, and Charles Albors, purchasing agent, of Consolidated Lumber Co., Wilmington, made a mill trip to Oregon for a week early this month on procurement for the big yard's wholesale customers.

Frank Tate, formerly associated with l'remont Lumber Co., is now operating the Almaden Lumber Company in San Jose.

John Osgood of the Robert S. Osgood wholesale lumber family in L.A., took the tribe on a western vacation last month. John and Mary Anne covered the. Coast with Scotty, Bobby and "J-Tucker," who refused to eat at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco because he didn't want to remove his shoes, but it's to be hoped that John's fellow officers of the Imported Hardwood Plywood Assn. there don't get wind of it.