Timothy G. Turner Discusses Earthquakes and How to Build for Protection Against Them

A signed article in the Los Angeles Times, written by Timothy G. Turner, one of the regular columnists of that paper, is packed full of interesting reading on the subject of construction. Not just everyday construction, but construction that will protect against earthquakes. As Mr. Turner says, no earthquakes occur Tor a while, and people forget about them, and in their building devices and choices of materials they do things that they will sure regret should a real quake come along. Wood, of course, is the surest material from which to build earthquake protected structures. In the Los Angeles area, little thought is being given this matter, says Mr. Turner. But let him tell it. His article follows:

"ff Los Angeles should have an earthquake, a really good earthquake, it would do two things. It would remind us of how foolish we have been not to build for it, and it would thin out the population quite a bit.

"After the Long Beach earthquake in 1933 the roads were filled with tourists all heading east. A tourist in California is a stranger who has money.

"That earthquake was a great blow to the Board of Education. You would drive for miles and the only buildings you would see demolished were schools. It seemed that a school just couldn't stand up in that earthquake, but business houses, apartment houses, saloons and bowling alleys stood up pretty well except in the worst sections along the beach.

"After the Long Beach earthquake, which shook us up in Los Angeles pretty well (it shook me down seven flights of stairs in 45 seconds) they talked a long time about ordinances to prevent earthquake damage and injury to people.

"Practically nothing was done. (Don't pay any attention to me, I am the office cynic).

"Building against earthquakes is very simple. It is to have the building tied together, not made in units. A wooden building and a steel frame building are tied together. Brick, concrete blocks, tile roofs are units, and when they get a shake they fall to pieces. That is only common sense. But the architects will talk your arm off about lateral stress and fuid bases and f don't know what all.

"There should be nothing on buildings that may be shaken off and fall on people in the streets. But Los Angeles buildings are covered with 'such things-ornaments of concrete, brick cornices and electric signs. Some of these, often concrete statuaryt ztl directly over the entrances to buildings so they would fall on people rushing into the streets.

"That's all right with me because f won't rush into the street come the next earthquake. f will stay where I am. At least I will not go into the street until the temblors have apparently ended. The ceiling may fall, but you will find me under the arch of a doorway for that very reason.

"This tactic is specially important if you are in a brick btiilding, that is, a building of bricks held together with mortar. Some buildings have a facing of brick on concrete which is safe enough. An ordinary brick wall falls outward if the sway of the buildings is that way.

"ft is best to wait until that happqns and then walk over the bricks. The interior of a well-constructed building holds in ordinary quakes.

"Another suggestion about what to do in an earthquake: If you are in bed, stay in bed. In the earthquake in Messina it was noted that people who stayed in bed fared best. When the floors of the houses collapsed they had a cushion to Tall on. So if there is an earthquake rush and get into bed.

"Of course we may not have an ordinary but a fi,rstclass quake in Los Angeles. fn recent times Southern California has only had minor quakes. A hundred years or so ago there was one down here that knocked the cattle down in the fields and broke their legs.

"The earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 was not really a first-class quake, but it was bad one. I meant to say the fire that shook San Francisco in 1906. We never were as silly as that down here.

"The San Francisco earthquake and fire killed not many more than 500 people. That wirs small pumpkins for modern earthquakes. One in 1923 in Tokyo and Yokohama killed more than 90,000 people; one in Quetta, India, in 1935, more than 50,000; one in Chile in 1939 some 50,000, and one in the city of Erzingan in Northern Turkey in 1935 killed 100,000.

"Then there was the famous earthquake in Lisbon in 1755. It came of a Sunday morning when the people were in church and many of the 100,000 killed lost their lives by having the churches fall on them. That was a tough one for the theologians to explain. It led to a controversy between intellectuals in France and led Voltaire to write his immortal satire 'Candide'."

Hoo-Hoo Club No. 39 Will Hold Chrisrmas Pcrty December 16

The annual Christmas Party of Hoo-Hoo Club No. 39 will be held at the Moose City Club, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, on Thursday evening, December 16. As usual a big crowd is expected to be there for the festivities.

Ed LaFranchi is chairman of the Christmas Party committee.

Attended NH.DA Convention

George Adams, Noah Adams Lumber Co., Walnut Grove, Calif., president, Lumber Merchantg Association of Northern California; J. H. Kirk, Kirk Lumber & Building Materials, Santa Maria, vice president, and Jack Pomeroy, executive vice president of the Association, attended the annual convention of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association, held in Miami Beach, Florida, November 8 to 11. Thev returned November 15.

Business Men Should Copy Eugene Field

One of the great human arts is letter writing. Modern business has come to understand horv important a part the writing of wise and interesting letters can play in business building. Splendid business successes have been built many times largely upon the willingness and ability of the business man to write remembered letters. Regardless of the line of business a man follows, the rvriting of successful letters can play a vital part.

One of the great letter writers of American history, was the poet, Eugene Field. So well did he follow this important part of his life, that Elbert Hubbard, wrote this about him:

"He had a great heart. He WAS a friend. He lived every day so that he loved and was loved in return. And his greatest works of friendship were the letters he wrote his friends. Here you find a new thought, f believe. This great man'd greatest claim to friend-making was based on the friendly letters he frequently 'n'rote. So, let us consider a description of those letters; for in letter writing most men are woefully weak.

"His letters breathed kindness, appreciation, truth, understanding. A man who received one of these letters would no more part with it than he would with a portrait of his mother. Each letter bore an element of joy; a message of wisdom; a jigger of wit to give the wisdom flavor. Each letter was short. When he rvas through, the letter ended. No postscripts. He never preached. His letters never 'called you down.' They called you UP. Up into the sunlight of friendly interest. He never uttered a gloomy thought. Only happy thoughts should be perpetuated on paper. His letters made you pleased with yourself-with the world. He came right to the point; never hid a grain of kindness under a bushel of wordy chaff. A lot of loose words turn the milk of human kindness to clabber."

Such rvas the letter-writing of Eugene Field.

Building Contractors Held Convention Want To Build An Adobe Home?

The annual convention oI the Building Contractors Association of California was held in Elks Temple, in Los Angeles, November L2th and 13th, with about 2,000 building specialists in attendance. It rvas the 25th annual meeting of this organization, and was called the 25th Anniversary Congress and Builders Conference.

Advertising and merchandising, low cost housing, mortgage financing, building codes, and zoning laws, were among the subjects discussed. The Los Angeles Ad Club assisted at the advertising discussions. It was agreed that the two big problems facing the construction industry for the next year will be mortgage financing, and good quality housing at low cost.

Organized in 1923 in Los Angeles, this Association is no'w one of the strongest in the entire nation, and affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders.

You can get advice and practical directiops on that subr ject from a new book just out of the Ward Ritchie Press, in Los Angeles, written by M. R. Harrington.

It includes careful {escription of method, photographs and drawings of details, and a reading-list of nine books written especially for those who would like to tackle the job. Anyone interested, by the way, should not fail to visit the.Southwest Museum's Casa de Adobe, a full-sized replica of an old Spanish-Californian ranch house, massive adobe walls, red tile roofs and all. Mr. Harrington's text includes a bit of history (you'll find more in some of the books he recommends), but its chief purpose is to supply practical advice, which it does admirably.

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