Dealers Hear How to t'survive Tomorrow's Market"

A three-pronged program designed to help lumber and building products dealers ttSurvive Tomorrow's Market" was detailed to more than 450 delesates at the NRLDA Building Nlaterials Exposition. Each phase of the program is planned for dealer application in future months.

"I believe our future is bright and opportunities greater than ever before in our history," said C. W. Nortz, Executive Secretary of the Mountain States Lumber Dealers Association. 'oPost World War II dealers were basically warehousemen for carpenters . . . but today most dealers are devoting considerable time to other markets such as consumers, do-it-yourself, home improvement, package selling, land development, components, etc. Because of this change, the necessity for informed management has become more important than ever and, without it, we are faced with the possibility that we cannot survive in the competitive period that we are in and probably will remain in for a number of years to come."

Nortz introduced a Standardized Accounting System to dealers "as the first uniformed method of obtaining facts necessary for management to make decisions on merchandising, pricing, sales promotion and other problems. Developed in cooperation with Ernst & Ernst, national accounting firm, the new program will be available to dealers early in 1963. It will consist of an operational accounting manual, special two-day seminars and provision for establishment of the system in local yards by accounting firms.

"With this system we will have for the first time industry statistics which can be used for comparison purposes," Nortz told his audience. "A dealer will be able to see what it costs to service a particular type of customer, and then adjust his prices accordingly."

The Standardized Accounting System can be set up as a manual method and easily converted to electronic handling, or can be established as an electronic system at the outset.

"I predict that within ten years every existing Iumber dealer will be using data processing equipment of varying degrees of complexity," said M. K. Peterson, Masonite Corp. "It behooves all dealers to be as knowledgable as possible on this subject so that when the opportune time comes, data processing equipment can be installed."

Phase two of the special program presented at the Building Materials Exposition was detailed by Carroll O'Rourke, Weyerhaeuser, Tacoma,

Stressing the need for sound advertising and promotion in the retail lumber industry, O'Rourke presented an outline of a soon-to-be-written manual which will guide dealers in preparation and placement of advertising, merchandising, publicity, printed materials, manufacturers' helps and other special promotions.

Phase three of the program was introduced by Joseph O'Neil, publisher of BUILDING MATERIALS MERCHANDISER, Chicago, who told dealers that adequate training of dealer employees is a must for survival. ooAbout SOrio oI the yards in the country conduct some type of educational program at the present time," reported O'Neil, "and with plans now being formulated we hope this percentage will increase substantially in the immediate future."

Teaching machines, one means of conveying more instruction to dealer personnel, were explained at the meeting. A sHde presentation detailed various typei of units now on the market, their cost and their application.

"Educational programs being developed by NRLDA in cooperation with -unufu"turers from our industry and Purdue University can be expected to put personnel training on an economical and must basis for all dealers throughout the countrv.', explained O'Neil. "Some o[ these couid well be correspondence courses which could be easily utilized."

TAGGING CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY HAS BRIGHTER FUTURE, TUMBER DEATERS TOII)

Behind its brave front, the nation's huge construction industry is more than a little sick; and while eventual recovery is indicated, its condition is likely to get somewhat worse before it gets better, according to Dr. Ceorge Cline Smith, speaking at a meeting of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association.

Dr. Smith, nationally known economist, is a senior partner in the firm of MacKayShields Economics, Inc., New York. He based his predictions on these facts:

First, there has been ahnost no real growth in the physical volume of construcsince 1955, despite an increase of 2lmillion in our population.

Second, construction costs have continued to inflate more rapidly than most sectors of the economy, principally in wage rates.

The result has been constant erowth in the inflated dollar total of construction, despite relative stagnation in the real need for building materials and services; this fictitious growth has misled producers into continued increases in capacity.

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(The quick way to say: Prefinished Philippine Mahogany Plywood)

QUESTION: How do you offer top quality prefinished lauan at a price that really makes sales?

ANSWER: Talk with Getz Bros., prefinished lauan specialists I G/R starts with carefully inspected all hardwood materials - face, core and back are Philippine Mahogany. Next an Acrylic, tempered sealer coat is applied and followed with a polish sanding I Another rigid inspection is made before panels qualify for G/R's exclusive petro-chemical, resin-reinforced top coat. Smooth V-Grooves are applied through embossing-no cutting or core weakening-and the entire panel receives another high-speed buffing I A final inspection and G/R Lauan is on its way to you, packed 100 pieces per unit, steel strapped, edges protected and loaded on skids. Sound good? It is. Get all the details from your Getz Bros. representative.

Ask your Getz representatiue about Phitippine Mahogany lumber and other plywood prod.ucts from the Fat East

If lumber could talk, I feel that it would say something like this: I came from a tree that stood majestic on a hillside. I stood sentinel there when the forests of this great land were untouched by the hand of the woodsman.

I reared my two top branches into the glory of the sunlight by day, and drank deep in the dews of evening. Generations passed while still I grew; and further generations have come and gone since I.became one of the big trees of the forest. I seemed to be a thing apart, a thing eternal, so slow and watchful seemed the hand of Providence that fashioned me.

The flowers of many springtimes came, and bloomed, and died, and were no more; yet I was changeless. The grasses on the hill-

BY JACK DIONNE

side came forth through countless springs, grew, withered, died and disappeared. Yet I remained. The wintry blasts blew futile against my towering strength; the gentle summer breezes fanned my lazy boughs; and autumn colors through endless Indian summers bedecked the woods around me. And still I stood, unchanged, and unimpressed.

Then one day there came men with axe and saw; and I fell, crashing my full length upon the ground where my shadow had fallen for ages. The tragedy of my dismemberment and disruption followed. Today, I, who stood upon the hillside while generations came and disappeared, and whose children and children's children followed that sel{-same path, am only Lumber.

My destiny is to go out into the world piecemeal, that men may fashion me into places of shelter. That is my fate. But to those men who tore me from my place in the sun and flung me prostrate with their devices; who ruthlessly tore down the mighty bulk that the wings of God had beat against for centuries, I would say these things:

Mony compleie kitchens ond fine cobinet instollotions ore disployed ot our showroom. The lotest in design, they ore the result of the best thinking by experls in the fields. Drop in ond see why wood cobinetry is your best bet.

Working in coniunction with federol, stote ond locol ogencies, SCACM hos, for the first fime, esioblished three bosic quolity grodes of cobinets . . . stondord, medium ond premium which gives the buyer o wide ronge of selection in terms of styles ond budgeis.

Our seol is our members pledge of Quolity, Economy ond Soti#ocfion

$outhern fialifornia Association of Cabinet |l|anufacturers

For

Honor me for what I have been, and for what I will be. Send me not lightly or thoughtlessly forth into the world without a chosen mission. God never built me through all those years and preserved me from all those countless storms, without an AIMa PLAN. He surely had some great work for me to do. Therefore you, who have humbled me, find me that mission. See that the sons of men know well of the mighty usefulness that God Himself has built into my thews and sinews. Send me forth, not a vagrant or a maverick; 6r, ,garve'. for me the fitting destiny thai my strength and worth deserve".

Say to the sons of me. that the Mighty Power that reared me through the ages has'tempered me to do the work of ages; that I may well be trusted to. shelter and protect men and their possessions as eternally as I stood upon my former hillside.

THAT is my plea. Respect me. Direct me. Introduce me fittingly. Give me proud work to do. I DESERVE IT.

I am grateful to Don Blanding for writing the following little verse. I like it very much. I shall keep it around. When we get a world where a considerable portion of our people live, and laugh and understanfl-sen'1 it be swell ?

Do not carve on stone or wood, 'oHe was honest" or t'He was good.t'

Write in smoke on a vagrant breeze

Seven words, and the words are these: (T'elling all that a volume could) o'He lived-he laughed-and he understood."