D&B Surveys Businessmen crnd Finds Higher Soles, Profits, Prices Expected in Early'57

Continued high levels of net sales, net profits and employment, together with higher selling prices, are indicated for the first quarter of 1957 as compared with the first quartdr of 1956, according to the Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., quarterly Survey of Business Men's Expectation, conducted over the period, September 24-October 5, 1956, with a random cross-section of. 1597 executives of larger and medium-sized manufacturers, wholesalers, ancl retailers across the country.

The survey shows that 6O/o of all business executives viewed expect higher sales for the first quarter of 1957 compared with the same period this year; 34% expect no change from the generally high level of this year's first quarter sales, and 6/o anticipate lower sales volume for their businesses.

At the same time, 43/o of. those interviewed expect higher net profits; 5l/o anticipate no change, and 6/a look for lower profits for the first quarter of. 1957 compared with the first quarter of 1956.

New Terms for FHA's Loqns

Minute Man news release No. 26 of the NRLDA is intended to stimulate a larger demand for home improvements by explaining the new terms for FHA's Title I repair and modernization loans.

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"Barney" Bates, publicity director for the California Redwood Assn., returned to San Francisco Oct. 31 from a Z-week business trin in the midwest.

Fred Loesch, manager of the Specialty Sales division for E. J. Stanton & Son, Los Angeles, spent some bucks last month to get a buck on a 3-week hunting trip to l\{ontana and Idaho.

Recent Las Vegas visitors were Wendell and Mrs. "Lucky Buck" Paquette. Besides winning'contes.ts and shooting holes-in-one, Wendell operates Lumber Sales Co. in San Francisco.

John C. Stark, retired lumberman, and his wife Edna, former character actress in the movies, celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary last month at the home of Los Angeles friends in a dinner partv for 40 guests. The Starks, who nolv live in San Clemente, were married in Collinsville, Okla., and have lived in California since 1922, coming to the Southland from Berkeley in 1932 and living until recently in Hollyrvood.

Roy E. James, ,commission lumberman in San Marino, Calif., has recently received word that his son, Frank B. James, serving as Air Attacire in London, was promoted to Brigadier-General. As a lieutenant-colonel in the last war, he was in command of the first P-38 fighter group over enemy territory and, after some 30 missions, was promoted to colonel and assigned to the staff of Gen, Doolittle; during the last years of the war he u.as chief of operations of the 8th Air Force. Since the rvar he has served in several different assignments, including 18 months as Air Attache at Moscow and 18 months with the Air Force in Germany. For th.e past two years he served in the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Young James is a graduate of Huntington Park High, UCLA, and the AFTC, Kelley Field, San Antonio.

AGAIN, for the 45th yea4 JOFN \f. KOEHL & SON, INC., is huppy to be able to wish the Season's Greetings to the friends and customers and all the fne folk who make our progress possible year af.ter year by their approval of the GUARANTEED \U(/OOD PRODUCTS we have always furnished through the Retail Lumber Dealer exclusively. FORTY-FM YEARS OF SERVICE gives us the know-how to properly supply your 'WOOD \nNDO$(/S, $7OOD SASFtr, WOOD DOORS and CUSTOMMADE MOVABLE SHUTTERS-an$ it is our Continuing Guarantee to furnish you QUATITY MATERIALS under the selfsame fair dealing that we have always maintained and is our keystone into the future. So, for the forty-fifth season, it is our sincere pleasure to once more wish You and Yours-"A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS A GLOTT/ING, GOOD NE\Ur YEAR."

Since l9l2

WOOD RESEARCH TABORATORY DEVETOPS PROCESS TO PuI QUATITY SURFACE ON IOW.GRADE TUMBER

You may soon see a new kind of lumber on the marketa low-grade, less expensive grade of wood that has been dressed in a smooth, clear weatherproof jacket so you can hardly tell it from high-grade lumber, reports House & Home, magazine of. the homebuilding industry.

For painted house siding and n.rany other applications, says the magazinc, it will be possible to use this new type of board exactly as you r,voulcl the best gracle lumber.

The magic for giving a presentable appearance to wood with defects like knotholes, pitch pockets and small splits, House & Home explains, consists of a new weatherproof overlay of resin-treated paper that is permanently glued over low-grade lumber by means of a special process. "Odd, narrow widths of low-quality wood can be edge-glued together, then overlaid to give a clear, smooth surface," says the magazine. "This process neatly masks defects, gives an excellent base for paint and cuts woocl shrinkage antl swelling 25-40%."

This new development, jnst announced by Department of Agriculture Forcst Products Laboratory scientists, according to the magazine, may be the answer to the increasing scarcity of high quality forest timber, since thousands of acres of second and later growths-where trees are smaller than virgin timber-can become a reacly source of high-grade lumber.

"In line with standard Forest Products Laboratory procedure," IIouse & Home reports, "the new overlay process is unpatented. Like other Forest Products developments, the invention is available to any U.S. wood producer who wants io make the overlays cotnmercially. Several big firms arc reported already interested so the first overlays may be on the market in the near future.

"Forest Products L,aboratory experts think tlic biggest potential for overlays will be as house siding. Exposure tests in Wisconsin show that overlaid boards stand up against the punishing effect of northern winters as well as high-grade lurnbers do.

"Other uses may include overlays for exterior trim and for interior finishing like painted cabinet partitions, shelving and paneling," it says.

The only drawback with ovcrlays, saicl Forest Products I-aboratory officials, is that you cannot see hidden knots or other defects, and this may cause occasional nailing problenrs. For the same reason, the overlaid board cannot be surface-planned. But this limitation can be minimized by using standard thickNESSCS.

Over'lays are not ncw-, the llouse & llonre report points out. Special paper overlays for plywood have been in use since World War II. The first ones were developed by Forest Products I-aboratory scientists in 1942. But the latest process is the first that can be used in practical fashion for ordinary lumber.

Orange, Calif.-Permits have been issued for a 44-home residential tract at the northrvest corner of Collins avenue and Handy street;homes are r.alued at $11,0O0 and $12,000.