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By A. E. Ferguson Americqn Lumber d Treating Compcny, Los Angeles Address given before the cmnucl convention ol the Ccrlilomicr Retcil Lumbennen'g Associction" Ocrklcrnd, October 26-28, 1939

I am glad to have an opportunity to talk to the lumber merchants of California. I think of merchants as people who perform services beyond the routine in a sales transaction. The nature of the lumber and building materials business calls for many services both before and after the actual sale itself. The lumber merchant surely does his part in giving special aids and helps to his trade. When we fully qualify as merchants we have reason indeed to be proud of it, as it means more than just buying and selling.

I note by the program, and am reminded by your genial chairman, that I am to talk to you a few minutes about "Treated Lumber-Its lJses and Economies."

I am told that occasionally the listed titles and subjects for talks as printed on programs are not thereafter to be referred to, but on this occasion I hope to at least stay close to the subject and leave with you some thoughts about "Longer Lasting Lumber."

The desire to build substantially is an ever-present human impulse. A review of industrial history contains many improvements in products and materials-all desiened to serve better. You are all acquainted with the improved standards now offered in stainless steel, aluminum, chromium plate, copper alloys, galvanizing, higher strength and waterproof cements, and many other materials that we see. and use from day to day. In all of these we see the expression of a desire to have things last longer. In the wood preserving business we make our contribution in extending the life of wood. We hope you feel we are rendering a worthwhite sen'ice rvhen we offer "conservation by preservation."

The uses for preservatively treated wood are, of course, many and varied. In your individual businesses you have an opportunity to observe the variety of uses and requirements for lumber that originate with your particular trade. There is a good guide that will help you and your customer when you may be considerinq the subject. "The Economical Use of Treated Lumber," The guide to proper use is an honest question and a,n honest answer as to the expected service life of the installation. What does your customer expect in the way of service life when he is buy- ing lumber for a particular purpose ? An honest answer to what is expected will help you and your customer decide when and where.

f have a story about a farmer who sold his hogs. As he returned home, a neighbor met him at the cross roads.

"We11, f see you took your hogs to town.,, ttYes.tt t'Yes.t' ttYes.t'

"Did you sell them ?"

"Did you get a good price?"

"Did you get as much as you expected?"

"No. but I didn't think I would when I went to town." While it is sometimes difficult to give people all they expect, we know that a piece of pnoperly pressure treated lumber or timber, protected for a long service life against decay and termite attack, does give real satisfaction. It will give longer life than most customers €xpect.

I wish to develop uses for pressure treated lumber in your mind by the question, "What portions of frame structures usually need repair first?" Perhaps we miglit not all agree on the answer, but many of us would perhaps say in general, "substructures."

Appropriate uses are in those portions of buildings and structures that are near the ground, moist and damp. Good usage includes structural items that are in contact with masonry or perhaps with other timbers-items such as posts, girders, joists, subflooring.

Treated lumber is wisely used in any portion of buildings or structures that are supject to the hazard of' premature.damage by decay or insects. I refer to those items that are frequently damaged and replaced before the remainder of the building is beginning to show deterioration, and before the end of the expected service period is reached.

In general, such services are found in and around warehouses, docks, loading platforms, factories, industrial structures of all types, as well as homes and dwellings. Other economic uses for treated lumber are found iri outdoor, structures such as corrals, fences, arbors, lath houses, signboards and markers, and many other similar requirements.

The names of the individual uses or pieces such as posts, girders, sills, etc., are not the principal thought that I would leave with you. I seek to leave an idea-the idea that there are many uses for preservatively treated lumberwhere a longer lasting lumber is needed to give full satisfaction to the user; where the customer changed products because of lack of a sufficient factor of permanence in his lumber installations; where he does not place a repeat order because his clothes lines post rotted, or his wood gate came apart at the joint because of decay; where the service condition that you know about in advance subjects the piece to a hazard of decay or termite damage.

Of all the materials used for construction purposes in this country, none has been more widely used than rvood. We in the lumber industry are proud of the natural qualities of wood and know it can maintain a front-line position in competition with other construction materials.

We also know many services have been lost to wood by reason of fbilure to give satisfactory service under certain conditions.

You no doubt think of many specific instances where a decayed timber, a rotted piece of lumber, a termite damaged frame, has caused our lumber customer to look elsewhere for something to serve his needs. Since, as previously mentioned, you are close to these individual examples in your daily contait, and since the list is not so important as the general idea, I deal largely with the principle of good use rather than to name services.

The desirability of having certain long life in important structural members under any frame building is apparent for two reasons:

1. The cost of replacement is excessive-usually many times the cost of the material.

2. Structural change in certain members due to decay or damage by termites causes damage in other sections of the building. The building settles in an uneven manner--down in one corner; the floors become uneven-all perhaps chargeable to the partial failure of one or rriore important members in the substructure.

You use insulation to protect against temperature changes. We sometimes refer to treated lumber as protecting that part of the building that is insulated from point or points of contact where decay may set in. In general, these danger points are where wood comes in contact with masonry, is on or near the ground, or for any reason is in a servic€ condition where moisture is present on one or more faces or where for any reason wood is subject to the hazard of premature damage and failure by the natural wood-destroying agencies.

As a good merchant, a good counsellor for your client, we want you to know that pressure treated lumber is, for all practical purposes, a permanent piece of construction material. With that background the individual application. the proper use becomes in many cases obvious.

If a user is dissatisfied with the several replacements he may have made, there is a wood product that will give him a longer life and at a cost less than the several competing durable items that he may turn to.

Dissatisfaction on the part of wood users-that is, dissatisfaction due to too short a service life-always invites change, and in the change we may lose to the wood substitute. 'We can prevent some changes for the reasons just mentioned by offering lumber that will last as long as the customer expects.

As I have said before, we all know how it is frequently difficult to give people all they expect. It is, however, a matter of record that railroads have service records covering millions of ties, charts of service life greater by many years than that originally anticipated. So, it may be truly said they secured results better than they anticipated or expected.

The saving which the railroads realized by wood preservation led to the use of treated wood by other large industries. A great amount of treated timber is being used for telephone, telegraph, and power poles, docks, piers, wharves, posts, highway bridges, mine timbers, etc. Few industries in this country today use wood for construction purposes that do not preserve a considerable part of it.

We have, by past effort, eliminated much waste in the manufacturing of forest products, in its distribution and use. Likewise, we can eliminate a great waste in the consuming field through treatment.

It has been variously estimated that the annual loss of forest products due to decay and termite damage approximates t/5 to I/6 ol the annual lumber cut. Whether we agree with the estimator as to the accuracy of these figrures. we are all aware that there is an enormous economic waste due to natural wood-destroying agencies, and the economy-should even a small portion of this total be treated-is apparent.

Damage to seasoned. finished wood products, materials in place, causes relatively greater economic loss. Where the products are damaged after being put in place, the cost of replacement involves additional loss of labor and time, as well as the cost of the unit itself.

Simple figures illustrate the economy in the use of treated lumber. Thev illustrate also what it costs not to tuse it.

Where the customer expects and needs long time service -do you have any doubt about what he should have and rvhether you can sell him?

It is a conservative premise to state that pressure tr'eated wood will give three to four times the service life of an untreated piece of wood subject to the exposure and hazard from rot, decay, fungus growth and termite damage.

If large consumers of preserved wood, such as railroads and public utilitie's, have benefited by the economy through its use, is there not an equal or proportionately great saving for the smaller consumer?

Are there not many lumber services well known to each of you where it is economical to use "Longer Lasting Lumber ?"

W. H. ENLOW WITH C & S LUMBER CO.

W. H. Enlow, well known retail lumberman who was for many years manager of the Hammond Lumber Company's yard at Watsonville, Calif., is now manager of the C & S Lumber Company, 520 Long Beach Boulevard, Compton.

We Carry A

Urges Discrimination Against Pacific Coast Ports to Canal Tone be Removed

The Pacific Coast Cement fnstitute, Los Angeles, in a letter to the California representatives in Congress, urges that Congressional intervention or legislation is required to remove unjust discrimination against Pacific Coast ports in order that Pacific Coast manufacturers and producers can compete for United States government business at the Panama Canal Zone.

The subjects covered in the letter are: "Steamship service from Pacifi.c Coast ports to the Panama Canal Zone to enable Pacific Coast manufacturers, producers, agriculturists, and labor to participate in the $277,000,000 appropriation approved by Congress and signed by the President of the United States on August ll, 1939, to provide for the construction of additional facilities and for supplies at the Panama Canal and to increase its capacity for future needs of inter ocean shipping.

"The United States government owns, controls and operates the Panama Railroad Steamship Company operating steamers between New York Harbor and Cristobal. Canal Zone, and account not having similar service from Pacific Coast ports to the Panama Canal, the limited service and rates charged by private liires make it impossible for Pacific Coast manufacturers, producers, agriculturists, etc., to compete with similar manufacturers and producers located on the Atlantic Coast who have the advantage of shipping via the United States government owned line at rates approximatel.v fifty per cent lower than those available from Pacific Coast ports, thus eliminating, account service and freight rate discriminations, Pacific Coast manufacturers and producers from competing for United States government business at the Panama Canal Zone.

"Congressional intervention or legislation is required to remove this unjust discrimination against Pacific Coast ports."

The Institute suggests that this unjust discrimination against

Pacific coast manufacturers, producers, agriculturists, etc., can be removed as follows: "fntroduce in the Senate and House of Representatives at the second session of the 76th Congress a bill subsidizing the commercial steamship lines plying from Pacific Coast ports to the Canal Zone to enable them to meet freight rates assessed by the Panama Railroad Steamship Company from Nerv York to Cristobal, Canal Zone.

"Extend the New York to Panama steamship service through to the Pacific Coast ports so that Pacific Coast manufacturers and producers could compete with similar producers and manufacturers located on the Atlantic Coast at the same rates.

"We are informed that the Maritime Commission progranl covers the construction of approximately fifty ships per year, and from steamships withdrawn from European service on account of the war and from new boats under construction, if three additional steamers could be allotted to the Panama Railroad Steamship Company plus the three they have recently constructed, these boats could be operated through to Pacific Coast ports, granting the Pacific Coast producers the same rates as apply from Atlantic ports.

"IJnder the present ten year construction program the Maritime Commission, when allotting steamers to service to Pacific Coast ports to East and West Coast ports of South America and to the West Indies, should provide in their contracts with the steamship operators that such steamers as allotted to the service indicated should carry lumber, alfalfa, cement, commissary supplies, durable goods as well as all other Pacific Coast products to the Panama Canal Zone and to the I-atin-American ports at rates not to exceed the current freight rates applying from time to time via the Panama Railroad Steamship Company, the United States owned and operated and controlled line, from New York to Canal Zone."

Port Orford Cedar

(Also lcnown as White Cedar or Lcrwaon Cypress)

News Flashes

A. J. Morley, president of the Saginaw deen, Wash., is in Los Angeles where he ter months.

Timber Co., Aberwill spend the win-

T. B. Lawrence, Lawrence-Philips Lumber Co., Los Angeles, is on a business trip in the Northwest.

A. E. Mclntosh, president of the West Oregon Lumber Co., Portland, Ore., has been spending a few days at the company's l-os Angeles office.

R. L. Joss, Whiting-Mead Co., Los Angeles, was a recent San Francisco visitor.

Glenn Hilliard, W. back from Minnesota

M. Dary Lumber Co., I-ong Beach, is where he vacationed for a month.

Harry McGahey, manag'er of the San Diego Lumber Co., San Diego, spent several days hunting in Utah and brought back a deer.

Bob Reid, manager of La Mesa, is back from Humboldt County.

Choice Lumber

Park Lumber and Investment Co., a trip to the Redw,ood region in

Tom Butcher, Home Lumber Company, Chula Vista, was A recent I-os Angeles and San Francisco visitor.

Bill Bailey, Saginaw Timber Co., Aberdeen, Wash., has been spending a few days in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

R. H. Gurney, Dixie Lumber & Supply Co., San Diego, has returned from a trip in the East.

T. M. "Ty_" Cobb of the and Mrs. Cobb spent a few Fair in the latter part of California football game at

T. M. Cobb Co., Los Angeles, days seeing the San Francisco October and saw the U.S.C.Berkelev. October 28.

Past Snark of the IJniverse R. A. Hiscox, Berkeley, has been elected a member of the Parson Simokin Memorial Association.

R. A. (Bob) Cole of Cole Sash & Door Co., Los Angeles, recently visited Tacoma, rvhere he called on a number of lumber and sash and door manufacturers- w h o lesale Hardwoods Softwoods including Douglas Fir Commons and

Redwood Clears

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