TIAB PAINT..rAnothcr Buitding Material Pointr with Pride...(An Editorial)

When you get to telling about building materials that have done a swell job in the war effort, the folks that make paint speak up in loud and definite tones about what their product has done and is doing. And by the time they get done pointing with pride to their accomplishments you realize that the fellow who gets the top award has just naturally got paint to beat. For truly, paint is hot stuff.

They have just opened to the public in Washinglon, D. C., an exhibit in the Hotel Statler that they call "Paint at'War," in which it is demonstrated that paint is really a warrior bold. The National Paint, Varnish & Lacquer Association sponsors the show. Ernest T. Trigg is president of the Association, and paint's greatest booster in his own right.

This exhibit demonstrates that paint has done more than just operate its factories to capacity in order to fill orders for paint. When the government started its all-out production for war, paint got a call that brought that industry right up on its toes, and kept it there. What they wanted of paint (they meaning the army and navy and all sidelines of the war effort) was entirely new paints, with new characteristics and virtues, capable of meeting and beating conditions hitherto unheard of in that industry. New techniques were needed to meet new climatic conditions. The Polar regions needed one kind of paint, the desert needed another, the Western Pacific still another, and besides that there were still others. They needed paint to improve the science of camouflage, to replace critical war materials of various sorts that were no longer available.

But that wasn't all the new and different and startling things that the pain't producers were called upon to do through the medium of their engineers, their chemists, their laboratories, and their tryout departments. Heavens no ! The following are a few of the important undertakings they found thrust uPon them:

Develop a preservative film with average tolerance of one ten-thousan'dth of an inch to make possible the con- version from brass to steel shell cases, thus saving enormous quantities of brass and copper.

Develop for tanks and other military equipment a lusterless drab enamel with low specular reflection, which scatters light and thus eliminates revealing glints that the enemy might see.

Develop bomb coatings capable of withstanding all possible exposures including immersion for 18 hours in cold water without fading softening, checking, or changingcolor, or acquiring any sheen that might attract attention of enemy airmen.

Develop a paint to coat the cans of .food the army uses, so that they will blend with 'the terrain and thus tell no tales to the enemy overhead.

Develop a paint communication code whereby difrerent color paints are used on packing cases to denote the destination of the shipments, and even to show the contents.

Development of three different types of de-icing compounds which help prevent formation of ice on the wings of a plane.

Development of new types of paint for ships' bottoms which conserve fuel consumption, increase speed, and drastically reduce number of cleanings of ships' bottoms.

Develop matching colors for Navy subs varying from green and grey to near black, to match the waters in which they operate.

The above are just a few of the unusual things that paint was called upon to do to help the army and navy. They did them all. The paint industry was wonderfully converted from peace to war, and the job of development and then of producing the goods has been accomplished without a single setback. It would be difficult to overestimate the number of billions of units of military equipment and supply that have been given paint protection since the war started. Few things from planes to packages go unpainted.

When paint takes the warpath, it means business.

Sellers of poles and piling produced in western United States have been authorized to add a mark-up of 25' per cent, rather than 10 per cent, to basic maximum prices in sales of the two items in less-than-carload lots, the Office of Price Administration announced.

The 10 per cent mark-up, which the 25 per cent mark-up replaces, was authorized August 2 of. this year when spe- cific dollars-and-cents ceilings for Western poles and piling,became effective. At that time, OPA set the markup at 10 per cent-the customary mark-up allowed for retail type sales by a lumber mill-pending further price study. Since August 2 it has been determined that a larger mark-up is required.

The 25 per cent mark-up, OPA said, is expected to make poles and piling available for l.c.l. sales.

"Failure to allow at least a 25 per cent mark-up would seriously threaten the supplying of less-than-carload orders in several districts where new and localized war activities require the material in smaller-than-ordinary quantities,,, OPA added. "The measure also will insure continuance of needed l.c.l. supply service to transportation, communication and utility companies."

Poles today are used chiefly for telephone, telegraph and electric light overhead line construction.

Piling is used principally in the construction of bridges, docks, shipyards, and buildings in locations where solid foundation footing otherwise is not obtainable.

The largest sellers of poles and piling in l.c.l. amounts are treating plants which apply preserva,tives to the two iterqs to prevent decay. The most frequent purchasers in l.c.l. Iots are railroad and other transportation concerns, telephone, telegraph and electric power companies, and war'construction contraciors.

The new mark-up is applicable to l.c.l. sales of poles and piling produced in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, certain counties in Oklahoma and Texas, and in Mexico and Canada.

OPA also announced that in sales of less than truckload of poles or piling, the minimum transpor,tation charge of a 10,00Gpound shipment by private truck may be made, regardless of the weight of the shipment. previously only transportation for the exact weight of the shipment could be charged the buyers.

In a furrther price action, a specific addition of. 7rl cents per pole is established for any additional branding or marking beyond the manufacturei's brand showing fear mark, and class and length of pole for which there is no charge. Previously additional branding maximums were on a percentage ,basis, permitting charges ranging from 5 cents to around 4O cents per pole.

In a price change in another Western primary forest product, OPA announced an increase of. 6r/a cents each f.rom Sft cen'ts in the ceiling for one-inch by 3-inch by l8-inch mine wedges. The increase places these wedges on the same cents-per-board-foot basis as other mine wedges.

The one-inch by 3-inch by l8-inch wedges, used in shoring up mine walls and ceilings, are essential in mining, and because the old ceiling was on a lower board-foot basis than other wedges, there was a possibility that production of this size wedge might be stopped.

(Foregoing price changes made in Amendment No. 2 to Revised Maximum Price Regulation No. 284 (Western Primary Forest Products), and became efiective November 27,1943).

.Victor J. Herrman, formerly manager of Tilden Lumber Co., Berkeley, and for the past several years with Santa Fe Lumber Co., San Francisco, is now associated with Albert A. Kelley, wholesale lumber dealer. Alameda.

The AA-1 preference rating has been made available to producers of moulding and laminating plastic products, the WPB announces, by placing such producers on Schedule 1 of CMP Regulation 5 and removing them from Schedule II.

Involving 1683 residential units, Southern. California lending institutions filed applications during October with the Federal Housing Administration for mortgage insur_ ance totaling more than $11 million. Approximately $9 mil_ lion of this volume represents applications for insurance on mortgages for new war housing construction, and is 50 per cent greater than the total for October, 1942.