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THE CALIFOR}*IIA LUMBERMERCHANT JackDionne,prtlislw'

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How Lumber Looks

Lumber shipments of 5lil mills reportirrs to the National Lumber Trade Barometer in the rveek ended October 15 were 7.Zoy', below production and orders n'ere 15.8/o belo'iv. Production rose 5.8/a above the preceding u'eek and shipments were 4.2/o above; neu' orders \\rere 2.9a/o al:ove the week ended October B but rvere 14.6a/o below the similar 1954 rveek.

National production of lumber totaled an estimated 3,653,000,000 bf in August, a hike of 2Alb over July and 24/o greater than August 1954, reported the National Lumber Manufacturers Assn. Softrvood shipments and orders were 2/o less than production, rvhile hardwood shipments and orders were lS/a above production. Gross mill stocks as of Aug. 31 were 7/o less than a year ago. In the year's first eight months, lumber production -i as 7Aa/o over 1954, and both shipments and orders have exceeded production.

West Coast Lumbermen'.s Assn. reported for 151 operating mills in the rn'eek ended Oct. 15: production, 117,620,960 feet; shipments, 148,236,982 feet (8.0/o under production); orders, 95,836,911 f"eet (18.5/o under procluction). For the year to date, shipments were O.l/c, over and orders were I.6/o under production.

The rveekly average of lumber production at the Douglas fir region sawmills during September was 188,054,000 bf, or 100.4o/o of the 1950-54 average, reported Harris E. Smith, secretary, WCLA. Orders averaged 152,324,0W bf, shipments 172,120,Un bf. The inclustry's unfilled order file at the end of September stoocl at 679,6AC,000 bf, gross stocks at 918.886.000 bf.

ln This lssue

SCRLA Polm Springs Conference Shoping Up. Hqmmond Piqns New Yord Neor Disneylond. Vogobond Editoriols.

Northern Merchonts' Moncrgement \y'orkshop

See Huge Remodeling Mcrket for Deolers in '56. My Fovorite Story.

Son Jooquin Hoo-Hoo Froii.c ot Fresno. "No Money Down"-An Editoriol

How Alert Deolers Cosh In on Christmos. 'Operotion: Home Improvement' Gets Up Siecrm. 25 Yeors Ago.

Fun-Fqcts-Filosophy Woodwork Institute Meets in L. A. Ccrlif., Ariz. Building Permits for Sept.

\iVestern Pine Association reported for ll4 mills in the u,eek ended C)ctober 15: prodr.rction,91,655,00O feet; shipments, 83,930,000 feet; orders,75,361,C00 feet. Orders rvere slightly above the previous rveek endecl Oct. 8 but 9.8/o trnder the similar 1954 rveek. Orders were l7.6Vo below production in the current rveek. For the year to date, orders were 7/a, shipments rvere l0/o, and production was l2/o greater than 1954.

Southern Pine Association reported lor l2l mills in the rveek ended Octol>er l5:production, 19,733,000 feet; ship(Continued on Page 72)

SCRLA Polm Springs Meet to Be Shot-in-Arm for Member Decrlers

A stimulating and lively session is now being arranged by Executive Vice-President Orrie W. Hamilton for the 1955 Dealer Conference of the Southern California Retail Lumber Assn. in Palm Springs this month. The annual fall meeting for owners and principals of retail yards will be held at t:re popular El Mirador on November 9 and 10. It will be two jampacked days and nights of important and timely business, but the social side, with plenty of entertainment for the ladies, is not being overlooked. President Wayne F. Mullin will preside at the conference.

The association has invited Jack Doscher, whom Mullin and Hamilton met at the recent national dealer exposition in Cleveland, to attend its fall conference this month as featured speaker. Doscher has been loaned by Life magazine to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce to direct. the building materials dealers' powerful new sales tool, "Operation Home Improvement," on a full-time basis in 1956. Another highlight of the conference will be personal reports from several Southern California dealers who attended it of their observations of the NRLDA Exposition October 11-14. These will be brief analyses of dealer reactions.

Among the other noted speakers so far arranged for the conference are H. V. Simpson, West Coast Lumbermen's Assh., who will give a progress report on the lumber grading changes; Paul Hollenbeck, Lumber Service Co., Burbank, who spoke last month at the Oklahoma Lumbermen's Assn. convention; H. B. Sanders, Los Angeles manager' Price, Waterhouse & Co., on inventory control; Joseph K. Horton, Horton, Foote & Co., on dealers' rights and responsibilities under the law, and Dick Ross of Johnson & Higgins, and John Over, Argonaut Insurance Co., who will participate in the Safety Progress report of the SCRLA's safety program and make the safety awards. There will be a question-and-answer period follolving each talk for the enlightenment of all dealers.

Prominent Dealers in Panel Clinics

Orrie Hamilton is planning as a special highlight of the fall conference some clinics on Modern Store and Yard Layout, 1956 Merchandising and Advertising, and Business Management. Prominent members of tl-re association will form the panels for these clinic discussions and will cover all current retail yard problems. Yard and store plans, as well as color slides of outstanding operations, will be shown on a new projector the SCRLA is buying for the occasion.

Dealers who have agreed to sit on the panels include

L. A. Beckstrom, Arcadia Lumber Co.; Al Carlson, Chino Lumber Co.; Frank Doepker, Mullin Lumber Co., North Hollyrvood yard; Jay Gold, Neiman-Reed Lumber Co., Van Nuys; Dave Hill, credit manager, Owens Parki Lumber Co., Los Angeles; Herschell G. Larrick, Sr., Lumber & Builders Supply Co., Solana Beach; Carr E. McCauleY, Ontario Lumber & Hardware Co.; Russ McCoy, McCoy Lumber Co., Hemet; K. G. Stalder, Center Lumber Co., Riverside, and John Sullivan, Western Lumber Co. of San Diego.

Hal A. Brown, Woodhead Lumber Co., Los Angeles, vice-president of the association, rvill conduct a question-

wErcoME !

In this issue, we welcome these new advertisers into the family of California Lumber "Merchant-isers": Artesia Door Co., Inc. (Page 9).

rvill lead the discussions from the floor.

Secretary-Manager Hamilton- plans a big time for the vvives of the association's members at El Mirador, all the facilities of which will be available to the dealer conference. Besides participating in the annual banquet, they rvill enjoy the western style dinner-dance. Special events for the girls include cards and "coffee punch," a fashion show, swimming exhibition, a poolside luncheon and a guided shopping tour in the Springs.

Hommond Buys New Reroil Yord Sire Neor Disneylond

Hammond Lumber Company has purchased a Sf-acre retail lumberyard site near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in Orange county. The new location is one mile west of the Santa Ana river and three miles south of Disneyland, midway betrveen Garden Grove and Santa Ana.

A Wx56'office and store building, and a 62'xI60' lumber and building materials shed, similar to the company's facilities at Van Nuys, will be constrttcted as soon as the site is cleared. Rail shipments of lumber and other building materials will be unloaded from a 475-l<>ot spur track which rvill be built into the yard from the adjacent Pacific Electric railway.

Hammond has served Orange county builders in the past from its large inventories at Terminal Island and Los Angeles yards. The completion of the new yard will make it possible for the company to give improved service to this fast-growing area.

Fred Soyre Elecred President Of Sterling Lumber Compqny

Frederick L. Sayre has been elected presideht and general manager of Sterling Lumber Company, headquarters Oakland. He succeeds Frank Duttle, rvho retired to his ranch October 7 following 33 years at the reins of the big Sterling Lumber operation.

Fred Sayre had formerly been secretary-treasurer of the Sterling corporation, and has been a member of the firm for the past 40 years.

Other new officers include H. C. Edmonds, vice-president, and Sabin W. Carr, secretary-treasurer.

Socromento's Col-Ero Lumber Co. Bought by J. E. Schneider

Sacramento.-The Cal-Era Lumber Company, 6438 Folsom Blvd., has been sold by Manuel Jacinto toJ. E. Schneider for a reported price of $130,000. The nerv owner, an apartment-house owner here, said changes would be made in the appearance and operations of the retail store.

Schneider planned to remodel the sales department, including the tool and builders hardware sections, plumbing and electrical departments. A sales division is being organized. The new management said October 1 that the fence department would be expanded. ftgm for these clinics at the conference. He

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Thus says George S. B;.;, f,r.ria"nt of little Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas, a dedicated American who makes wonderful patriotic speeches in many parts of this countr'' one of the wittiest pi"J"r l, inu.".nhy concerning the United Nations was written by the well known columnist, Bugs Baer, when he said: "Giving Moscow the ever-ready veto was like putting a light switch in a monkey cage." And how those monkeys have pulled that switch !

Chauncey Depew, American philosopher of a generation back, said: "The sheet anchor of the Ship of State is the common school. Let no youth leave school without being thoroughly grounded in the history, the principles, and the incalculable blessings of American liberty."

And someone was *".lorl qrloted as saying that "My country 'tis of thee" is still good enough for him, and he has no desire to sing "My countries 'tis of these."

Walt whitman once "itu i" ln ort"""t: "Not till the sun excludes you, will I exclude you." And Henry Ford once said to an ex-convict who had asked him for a job and wanted to tell his life's story: "f don't want to hear your story; START WHERE YOU STAND!" **

In his now-being-published memoirs, Ex-President Truman says that when F. D. Roosevelt was President, he was his own Secretary of State, of the Treasury, of War and of the Navy. He might have added that that shallow man also wanted to be his own Supreme Court, but fell a bit short on that ambition.

This is Community Chest time throughout the country. There is a famous old Irish saying about charity: "It isn't the shilling that counts, but the warmth it carries with it from your hand."

The Wall Street Journal tells about a multi-millionaire businessman who spent many minutes looking for his golf ball in the rough of the golf course. He explained: "ft may be only a 75-cent ball to you, but I had to earn $3.75 to get the 75 cents to buy it."

* * -^Ngg:rcn:rs and magazines throughout the country are Cb"nimeiiting olFhow much that very popular $64,000 tele+,+

BY JACK DIONNE

vision program has done to educate the American people on the subject of income taxes. ff a contestant wins $32,000 and then stops, he gets $17,540 after splitting with Uncle Sam. If he goes on and hits the jackpot of $64,000, he only get $9,000 more; so several winners have stopped at that point, not wishing to bet 17 thousand to 9 thousand they can go

It is reported that contestants on this program are fairly showered with advice from those who figure taxes, telling them what suckers they would be to try for the 64 thousand. A winner of the 64 thousand keeps 26,560 bucks, and gives Uncle Sam 37,440. Those who hit the 32 thousand mark, keep 17,540, and give Uncle Sam 14,460. The higher they go, of course, the bigger the tax cut. *:f*

Like the Kipling hero who "learned about women from her," the people of this country are getting a short course in practical taxation by w:y *of a television program.

So the big First National City Bank of New York City comes out with a public blast about taxes, based on the 64,000 dollar television program, declaring that this program proves once again that "confiscatory" income taxes discourage risk-taking ventures and investments of all kinds. Noting the fact that most winners of 32,009 dollars stop there, the bank says that tax rules dictate "no" answers every day to businessmen, investors, and professional people, adding: ***

"The injury is not only to the opportunities of people but also to the tax collections, since risk-taking enterprise affords the richest source of government revenues." And what, asks the bank, is Congress going to do to encourage investors to go ahead? And get this: the bank figures that in order to take home $64,000, a single person with an income of $4,000 would nav; t1Y prize of $448,711.11.

Most of the men and authorities who have recently discussed this tax situation seem to agree that the answer is to reduce Government spending, so that ambitious men and women can keep more of what thev earn. Cutting down waste and giveaways is .**1rr line toward that objective.

Before me as I write is a newspaper item, announcing that Treasury Secretary Humphrey and J. H. Hollister, United States Foreign Aid Chief, recently returned from Europe, and Humphrey said: "Practically every country in Europe is enjoying a near boom, or an actual boom." Get it? The people we have been deluging with our free billions are enjoying a boom. Wouldn't you think that a

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