T lutlefnor{ lutct THEV ,,'(WESED THEWHEEL... The B E RKOT Lumber Carrier IT PAYS FOR ITSELF

September 1961. After adjustment for seasonal variation, private nonfarm starts were at an annual rate of 1,284,000 units, 15 percent below the August rate of ],511,000 units and 6 percent below the September 1961 rate of 1,365,000.

Private housing starts in Septem'ber 1962 were lower than August in all regions. After adjustment for seasonal variation, private starts were down 18, 29, lI, and 6 percent in the North east, North Central region, South, and West, respectively.

Building permit authorizations for new privately owned housing units, on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, were up 4 percent in September 1962 over the preceding month. In September, the 10,000 places with local building permit systems authorized the construction oI 94,367 new private units, equivalent to a season' ally adjusted annual rate of 1,172,000 units. In August, these places authorized the construction of 110,208 new private units, equivalent to 1,123,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis. The seasonal adjustment of the building permit statistics takes into account the number of working days per month'

The demand for hardwood pulp chips appears to be increasing in the Pacific Northwest. Several hardwood mills have installed debarking equipment, in order to sell clean slabs and edgings for chipping. One or more hardwood sawmills have added chippers to their equipment. One plant in southwestern Washington chips alder logs which are below saw-log grade.

DIRECT SHIPMENTS of: Reliabfe Service Ponderosa Pine . Sugar Pine . White Fir Incense Cedar and Engelmann Spruce

Southern Pine Views

(Continued lrom Page 34) expect that this will be done. The proponents of the new plan point out tlrat provisions have been included to require nonstandard green lumber to be stamped "greeno" and that it also provides that all structural lumber be grade marked. There is no basis ,rpon *[i.h the green prs. can be made to grade mark their ir, or tequii'ild ttr'ideiitif fonstdnitard lumber, if the order does not require grade marking. While it is quite all right for lumber to be required to be grade marked in purchase specifications or standards, it would be illegal for this to be made mandatory in grading rules.

With regard to uniform names, we have gathered that a big part of the present confusion in the market place results from the sale of some Western species under the same grade name but graded according to difierent grading rules with wide variations in quality. At least, this is what we are told by retailers and others around the country. Under the NLMA plan, it would not be only a few Western species that would be in this untenable position but all softwoods. While NLMA releases state that grade requirements for all softwoods have been made uniformo this is not so because no progress whatever has been made in bring- ing about comparability in the quality of the difierent softwoods for these grades.

There has been no reduction in the number of grades although this was one of the announced goals. It has been argued that there are at present 157 difierent grades and species of lumber available to cqnfuse the architect and consumer, but this reference is misleading. The grade simplification program is supposed to cover only grades cnd itoms,qsd in reeid€stifll pqs*nretio& ind in this category tti" liioe"f Nllite proposals do not contemplate any reduction in the num'ber of grades. There are innumerable inconsistencies, including a proposed name of "Special" for the highest quality of dimension, while "Special" is the lowest proposed grade of finish. It also is true that in Southern Pine we have a Spe. cial grade of wide-ring dimension that is below our regular No. 2 grade of dimension. So how in the world would it be possible for a lumberman-to say nothing of the layman-to know what 'oSpecial" in 8/4 lumber means?

From the very beginning, the Southern Pine representatives on the NLMA Committee have stressed that this grade simplification program was being undertaken too hastily. As it now stands, it contributes nothing in the way of standardization and possesses great potential dangers because of features that are contrary to all past con- cepts of efiective'lumber standards. We do not say that this program,should be permanently abandoned, but on tlie contrary have urged that efiorts be continued to improve and coordinate the practices of the various divisions of the industry and perhaps ultimately we can come up with something in the way of a satisfactory uniform national grading system. ln my opinion, the time has arrived when the industry must clean its house or else. I feel the manufacturers should work with retailers, wholesalers and interested speci. fying groups, including government departments, in developing size iind quality stand. ards that will meet present-day consumer needs and enable lumber to meet the com. petition of the many other materials that now are trying to displace it in all markets. The Southern Pine industry stands ready and willing to cooperate fully in any such move.

Every industry today is highly standardiz{ T_ er.e ucs I. tine when lumber qcou. pied a leading place in this field. The initiation of the American Lumber Standards program some forty years ago was a progressive move that went far in providing an effective formula for coordinating practices in the different softwood regions. Gradually, these ground rules have been thrown aside by some divisions of the industry to gain competitive advantages.

Riolto, Colifornio

Phone TRinily 7-2@1