Editorial)

comes about as near to knowing his stufi as any man we ever knew.

"There is no limit to the size plywood will some day be made," said Charlie to us a generation ago. Let's see how that statement worked out. Up in the plywood country recently the government wanted extra-long plywood for boat building. So a plywood plant made and delivered to the governmeirt contractor's trucks and trailers sheets of soli.d plywod, 46 feet long five feet wide, and one inch thick-waterproofed plywood. The length seems terrific, doesn't it? Yet the plywood folks can make it just as rnuch longer as anyone wants. The problem with plywood longer than that, of course, is delivery. They delivered this 46 foot stufr on trucks and trailers. But that is about as long as it can be handled. ff some way could be found to get it to where it wps needed they could rhake it one hundred feet, or even one thousand feet long. There is no limit. They simply take regular sheets of plywood, scarf the ends, slap some glue on them, run them through a machine, and they are perfectly jointed. If you want more length, just add more sheets.

Not long since we wrote in these columns about the great airplane that Howard Hughes is buitding out of Birch wood in California. That Birch is brought to the plant in thin sheets, glued, laminated, and built into plywood sheets some of them one hundred feet long, right there on the job. They are using the electric process of lamination. They glue the sheets of wood together, put electrodes on either side, turn on the juice, and presto! They have sheets of wood as solid as metal and as strong as fate. When they wairt to make long stuff they scarf the ends (which means cutting those ends on an angle), then glue the ends, slap them together, and put the electric juice to them. The ends join quickly and perfectly until death do them part.

Those are just examples of what is being done, and what can be done. But they show that Charlie Buckner a generation ago could see these things coming. He made numerous prophecies in those days in other directions, about the various things that plywood would some day do. Well, it does them all now.

Now Charlie says that lamination by the electric method is here for sure, and that there is absolutely no limit on what will be done in that direc,tion. When you apply heat to the outside of wet wood the problem, as all men know, is to preserve the quality and character of the wood because the natural thing is for the outside to dry faster ;than the inside, thus causing checking, warping, and other wooden ills. But when'you put electrodes to both sides or ends of a piece of wet wood, every bit of that wood from center to surface gets the heat at the same time, thus eliminating those dangers Likewise it is done very quickly. Likewise, furthermore, when the wood is dry the electric juice has no further effect on the wood. Dry wood is a non-conductor. But in wet wood the moisture conducts the electricity through the fiber. When rthe moisture is gone, the electric current no longer penetrates.

Charlie says you can saw a piece of green tree limb, put an electrode on each end of the green wood, turn on the electricity, and in a couple of minutes the wood is bone dry. So he thinks the future of wood drying in that way is likervise a certainty.

And going back to the method now being used for making plywood sheets of any length desired, Charlie says that one of the improvements in the manufacture of all lumber that is coming in the near future is what he calls "spot welding" of wood. We will be able to weld the ends, the edges, the sides of boards together and make lumber as long and as wide as we please. We will be able to cut out de- fective parts of boards, and spot-weld pieces of clear board in its place. For years the makers of boxes and crates have been able to cut out bad knots and replace them with good wood. In the days to come they will weld a piece of wood into a hole, leaving a perfect surface.

Don't say it's silly. It's smart and it's practical. That's what Charlie Buckner says, and the guy that contradicts Charlie's predictions and opinions about plywood is just sticking his neck out.

Want to bet?

Glenn Fogleman, manager of The California Door Co., Los Angeles, left November 24 on a 30-day trip to Washington, D. C. He is a member of the informal industry advisory committee of the stock millwork jobbing industry, representing Zone 10. He is accompanied by Mrs. Fogleman and they will spend Christmas with their daughter and son-in-law, Lieutenant and Mrs. J. E. Laurance, and their grandchildren. Lieut. Laurance is in the U. S. Naval Reserve, Bureau of Aeronautics.

Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Mr. Fogleman will complete 25 years' service with The California Door Company on December 15.

Lieut. Farrier Penberthy recently visited his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Penberthy of Penberthy Lumber Co. He was on a short leave on delayed orders, and is now attached to the loth Troop Carrier Command A. A. F.

That pistol packin' mama, Is every singer's queen; But what I'm tryin' to figure Is she Wac, Wave, or Marine?

**tf

Speaking of Marines (and who, these days, does not speak of the Marines), there was one who was ambushed in a Pacific island jungle by a whole mess of Japs, and killed twenty of them in hand-to-hand confict. But when his pals got to hirn he was so goofy from his hurts that he couldn't even remember what part of Texas he came frorn tt*

This is a true story, I am told. An enlisted man who was allowed only limited service and refused all opportunity to get into the actual fighting, said "ff f can't go any other way, f'll go by bottle." So, while serving in his limited capacity in the arrny, he has given to the blood bank fourteen times.

**:F

Those service women in their attractive uniforms were a novelty for a time, but there are so many of them now that they've become part oI the scenery. On the streets of San Francisco there seem to be nearl5r as many women in uniform as there are men-and the men are legion. But the other day I saw a demonstration of women in uniform that really made me stop and stare. It was a whole company of Wacs; and they were all Chinese girls. They were impressive, neat, trim, bright-faced women all of them. An unusually large number of them wore glasses. ***

The kids at school are learning, Their ABC's these days; But Mom and Pa must stay at home, And learn their OPA's.

*rf:f

They sent us to school when we were kids to learn the three R's, Readin', Ritin'and'Rithmatic. And then we grew up and found ourselves learning the three R's all over, but this time they were a new group,-Regulation, Restriction, and Regimentation.

*'**

Speaking of OPA, I'm sure that uncounted millions of American people opening their newspapers a few days back read with satisfaction and a whole lot of "I told you so's,, the report of a special committee of Congress on the results of their investigation of OPA. What they said couldn't have been rnore cornpletey prejudicial to OPA, and be said in nice words. They found that OPA has been unlawfulty and arrogantly usurping the powers of the courts of the land, utilizing "unauthorized powers to legislate by regulation " and investing itself in powers never authorized by any law. The condemnation of the committee was Ororough and complete. They referred to OPA regulations as "absurd, illegal, and useless," so that the average citizen found it itmpossible to comply with them.

*rft

That was music to the soul of many a man and woman who has been asking worriedly whether the Americ?n n8ture has been so changed and American manhood so stultified that they will continue to stand speechless and actionless in the face of things that they know all too well to be entirely and absolutely wrong. Everyone knows that OPA has abrogated to itself powers that the law never gave it, just as so many other of the arrogant bureaus are writing into their regulations and interpretations things that change completely the law passed by Congress. But here is one instance where it looks like the worm is about to tuflL There will be rnore than one hundred and thirty million people sympathizing with that Congressional report. Only the job-loving, power-hunting bureaucrats will be agin iL

*rtrt

The labor situation now comes in for 4 share of our attention. f saw a big sign hanging in the window of a small cafe the other day, that read: "Congenial employer, 7 years in this location, would like to engage services of a dishwasher. Salary $1872 per year, plus laundry and our delectable meals." The catch in that sign is that they wantcd to hire a dishwasher by the year. They say n6ng qf 1f,d'r stay more than 48 hours TlI":"

But I saw another gign in another eating place that was attracting lots of attention, too. It read: "This place will be closed the day of Hitler's funeral."

*rlrt

Some wag once said that even a clock that won't run is right twice every day. I'm leaning on that philosophy in my war predictions. I'm one of those terrible guys who thinks the German end of the war will soon be over, and keeps setting the date. Twice I've selected the date wheo I thought it would be over, and twice I've had to pay ofr. (I made some small wagers at long odds, see?) But I'll keep on predicting, and sooner or later the thing will catch up with me, and make my prediction come true.

***

Good old Joe Stalin. First he hetped the German High Command straighten out their line several hundred times; and now it looks like he's going to help a lot of those homc- sick Germen soldiers gct aU the way back to Berlin for christmas'

Trying to pass one of those new white pennies for a dime causes lots of embarrassment these days. But as far as that goes it's sort of embarrassing when you try to buy anything to speak of with a real dime. The story is getting a big play about the lady at the fruit and vegetable stand who, when her turn came, asked for two pears. The man handed them to her and said "Forty cents." She looked rather shocked, then handed him half a dollar and said: "Keep the change. I ate a grape while I was waiting." tl.**

Another Marine story is going the rounds. Two Marine aviators were forced down in the ocean, and were foating around in a rubber raft, when an enemy subrnarine surfaced close to them, and an officer ordered t\em to surrender and come aboard. One of them whispered to the other: "Act like we're going to su.rrender, and then when we get close to the sub, t"t" t"**t**

A story in a recent issue of The Saturday Evening Post concerning the trials of small business in this country, got a lot of reading from the lumber folks because much of the talk was about lumber problems. ft was good stuff. Most of it was true and logical, and related facts. But in one important phase the writer was wrong. He got the figures from Washington that have been printed many times before, concerning the thousands upon thousands of idle sawmills. And they are not true. There are not thousands of idle sawmills. As a matter of fact there are practically no idle mills that have a right to be listed as mills. I don't know a single saw:r:,ill idle that could or should be listed as a genuine nr,ill. I've written that before in these columns. And it's true.

Tho.se figures are based on the tremendous number of vory small sawmills that sprang into existence as a result of the enthusiastic war-made lumber market of the past few years. They came and went like the fowers that bloom in the spring, tra la. They, for the most part, had nothing on which to base their claim to being sawmills other than the desire to make some money cutting lumber. They had neither timber nor finances. And they soon folded their tents. But every time that happened someone statistically inclined listed it as a sawrnill that was closed down, and a potential maker of much-needed lumber if its problems could be ironed out. When, in fact, it was nothing of the kind. There are some that are not entirely on the hopeless side, that is true, but for the most part they had no business starting, and had no choice 0",'.a.:r"1.

But nothing in this world could possibly be done to rejuvenate and bring back into lurnber cutting activity the large majority of those mills. They remind me of the goofy rhyme of a few years back:

Yesterday upon the stair, f saw a m:rn who wasn't there;

He wasn't there again today;

Why in Hell don't he go away?

(Continued gn Page 10)

Continuous operation maintaitrs production ct Westwood. War demands hcve the right oI wcy but Red River's resecrch cnd plcrnning will provide improved products and seryice when peqce restores normal trcde.

.?A['L BI'NYAN'S" PRODUSfS

SoIt Ponderosa cmd Sugcn Plne LT,IUBEN MOT'IDING PI.NilOOD VENETIAN BIJIID STATS

. (Continued from Page 9)

Only in this case those who hear the figures of closed mills and do not understand the facts of the situation ask eagerly what can be done to get those mills going again. The answer is, nothing. You will understand that for the most part I am speaking of ttre lumber industry in the Southern states where most of these alleged shut-down mills are located. Small mills do not come and go in the lumber industry of the West like they do in the South. lfiills have to be too big, have too much equipment, have timber actually in sight. In the So{th for tfre past several years a man gets.hold of a smdl jag of second-growth Pine, Btarts a mill and hopes that the land owners of the district will bring him in logs to keep the mill running. Perhaps they do for a short time, and then the end comes.

But that isn't all. B""l :;" of commercial timber, small though the tract may be, knows the value of those trces to the lumber industry. Competition between the mills has forced the price of Southern Pine stumpage to unheard-of-heights. Second-growth Yellow Pine is like solid gold on the market today. So high is stumpage that only the best and most efficient mills can pay going prices and sell their lumber under the ceiling and at a profit. So the mills that cut their own trees can do well under the present setup. But the small and inefficient mill that has to pay ten to fifteen dollars a thousand for small timber on the stunp, then has to log it and manufacture it, just can't get under the ceiling. Which brings up another much-talked of subject; the black market in lumber, most of which is accomplished by up-grading.

Suffice it to say that the little mill that has to pay the going price for Yellow Pine stumpage and the going wages for labor, cannot in his inefficient mill, manufacture lumber and sell it at the ceiling price, and get by. Therefore innu.merable casualties in this class, even where timber is available. Such a mill must either quit, or go into the black market. Most of them have quit. But there are no reputable lumber manufacturers operating in the black market. Operating under terrific difficulties the sound sawmill men of the South and elsewhere are hitting the ball harder than ever in their lives, and turning every possibte trick to turn out lumber for Uncle Sam, while scrapping for a margin of profit for themselves. But when someone tells you about those ten thousand idle sawmills, you can tell them there just ain't no such animal. All genuine mills are operating; with just enough exceptions a: OT"" the rule.

When historians list the outstanding victories of 1943, they will undoubtedly mention John L. Lewis. He battled the government, the press, and most of the people all through the year. He was criticized and vilified as few Americans have ever been. It seemed as though the tide of recrimination would destroy him. The government told him what he must do "or else." He didn't do it, and he didn't "else" either. He stuck to his guns, and when the smoke of battle cleared a\pay recently it was found that he had gotten all he asked for; some say he got even more. Everyone got hurt except John. The mine owners, innocent victims, sufrered the loss of their properties through most of the year. The public will suffer through increased coal prices. The government sufrered through complete loss of face. John evidently knew all the time that the gun pointed at his head wasn't loaded- Either that or the gun-holder had pardysis of the trigger finger. Many lessons may be learned from the John L. Lewis battle of 1943, not the least important of which is, never pull a gun unless you've got the nerve to use it.

Paul E. (Ed) Kent, son of Paul Kent, who is associated with E. U. Wheelock, Inc., Los Angeles, was graduated as a pilot with the rank of Lieutenant at Williams Field, Chandler, Ariz., November 3. He is now completing his training for night flying.

Ed is a godson of Mr. Wheelock, who takes a great interest in his career.

If you shoul'd happen to be a friend of Harry Vincent, and on December 3, 1943, should happen to see or call him, just say-"Hello, Veteran." Because on that day "Smiling" Harry Vincent will celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of his association with the E. K. Wood Lumber Company. He'Jined up" with that excellent lumber concern at Bellingham, Wash., December 3, 1908, and has been with them ever since, for many years Vice President and General Manager, at San Francisco.

The annual Christmas party of East Bay Hoo-Hoo Club No. 39 will be held in the Leamington Bowl, Hotel Leamington, Oakland, on Friday evening, December 17. Dinner will be served at 6:39 p.m.

Bill Chatham has charge of the program and promises a first class show. A large attendance of members and guests is expected.

J. B. (Jack) Bishop, sales manager of Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., Klamath Falls, Ore., recently spent a week in Los Angeles on business for his firm. He was accompanied on the trip by his wife.

Mr. Bishop succeeded W. A. Constans, who was sales manager for Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. at Klamath Falls for 13 years, and is now general manager of Anglo California Lumber Co., wholesale lumber distributors, Los Angeles.

At this time when the saving of time is such a vital factor in war housing construction, Whtieler Osgood, the largest manufacturer of doors in America, has developed a brand new type door designed by the company's stafi of engineers to save installation time.

"Tru-Sized" doors, as the new product is called, are tailor-made to exact book measurements. They are delivered on a job ready to install without sawing or planing. TruSized doors are made without the usual overhang allowed for protection in handling,'and excess length that has to be sawed off to make a door fit. Instead, the new doors are manufactured to fit perfectly. Necessary protection for shipping is provided by plywood scufiers, which are easily removed just before the doors are installed.

Another time-saving feature is that Tru-Sized doors can be ordered completely machined for standard locks and hinges. A guide sheet for specifying measurements for machining is available from Wheeler Osgood Sales Corporation, Tacoma, Wash.

For strength and durability, Tru-Sized doors are made of old-growth Douglas Fir, which is highly resistant to marring. Only heartwood, vertical grain Fir is used, and this fine wood can be finished in a variety of ways-painted, stained or finished natural.

War housing projects are taking most of the present supply of these new doors, but limited quantities are available .for other essential uses.