Shevlin Pine Sales Gompany

It was Ogden Nash, who wrote: "God rest you, merry innocents, While innocence endures, A sweeter Christmas than we to ours May you bequeath to yours.

That seems unusually pertinent this Christmas. For truly, we are unable to bequeath to the youngsters this year a particularly merry situation. Surely they will be able to do better when their turn comes

"Adirondack" Murray ;r;" *thir "ppu"ling Christmas thought:

"Ah, friends, dear friends, as years go on and heads get gray, how fast the guests go!

Touch hands, touch hands, with those who stay.

Forget, forgive, for who may say that Christmas day may ever corne to host or guest again?

Touch hands ! Touch hands !" :F**

Some signs of light: OPA recently announced that it would issue revises of all lumber orders, translating them into plain and understandable words and terms, leaving out the legal phraseolog"y, and making it possible for the ordinary business man to be certain what they meant, without calling in a lawyer who would likewise be confused. We have pleaded for such a change in recent issues of this column.

Another sign of sunshine for lumber dealers: Ben Alexander, WPB Lumber Coordinator, testifying before the Senatorial Truman Committee the other day, expressed the opinion that the country will shortly have plenty of ordinary construction lumber. We've been uttering that opinion here also, in spite of occasional published figures to the contrary. That we must necessarily be catching up on the building of big army camps, and that the units that have already trained four million men can be used to train the others that are to come, just stands to reason.

Great and continual nrrirratl"Jof lumber are going to be needed for the rest of the war efort, but it will turn to more largely specialized items, and the gigantic demand for common lumber to build barracks and warehouses galore, will eventually terminate. And Mr. Alexander says it will be soon'

Folks, Christmas ain't what it used to be in the lumber business. Not this Christmas, at any rate. During what we used to call normal times all sawmills closed down for anywhere from one to four weeks for repairs, rehabilitation, etc., for that was the chosen time of the year to put the mills in shape for another year. This year most mills will close for Christmas day, only. Donald Nelson, head of WPB, has called on industry to rest that day, even though they rest no other day. :frt*

It looks reasonable that as ordinary building ltunber becomes less desirable for Government uses and therefore in line for civilian building, there will be softening of the building restrictions and prohibitions, to the end thit the housing and shelter of our l3O,(X)0,000 people may be kept in decent order for the duration. Something of that sort may reasonably be expected by spring. Many thousands

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(Continued from Page 6) of men who will now be dropped from the WpA rolls, men who cannot handle war jobs, can pull a saw or drivc a nail, and thus help keep their families alive, and help keep the roofs over our heads. Remember, all our men canrt do shipyard or industrial plant work. l.**

So far as the sawmills of the nation are concerned, there is no change in the situation. There is a hectic demand for everything they can cut, just as there has been for many months past. The great maw of war swallows up their boards and planks like a hungry dragon, and cries for more. The mill man has many problems, such as labor, rationing, priorities, tires, gasoline, etc. In the South the countless small mills that rushed into being during the early part of this year, are being thinned out considerably, according to reliable reports. The rising price of stumpage, the scarcity of labor, the tire, gasoline, and equipment situation, and the price ceiling-all these things are concentrating to make it hard for him to run. The big mills will have a problem next March lSth-paying their income tax. The average small mill won't be bothered much that way.

Here is a rationing ,tol, lrr"i is guaranteed true: Joe Richards, a sawmill friend of mine, swears that a colored woman came to him the other day, a big bag of sugar in her arms, and said: "Mr. Joe, how much longer is de rn case you who *" J"rrltrrl abort the matter, think the income tax is something new, I would remind you that the great philosopher Plato, who lived from 427 to 347 Before Christ, wrote: "lll/hen there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income." Looks like they tried to shave it down as far as possible, even in those days, the just man sticking out his chin and writing the check, and the sly guy calling in a tax expert to find him a loophole.

Guv'ment gwine to make us buy all dis "ogrti', Shoand plenty of others like her-thought the half pound per week per person was a MUST buy order. It reminils us of little Ike Ginsberg who asked his father: "Papa, where do the Gentiles get all this money we take away from them?"

During the days of V"il"f rJrge, Trro-as paine wrotc those famous words: "These are the times that try men's souls." You can change that word "try" to "fry" and bring the thing right up to date. ***

Paine also wrote at that time, this little known verse: "From the east to the west blow the trumpets to arms ! Through the land let the sound of it fee; Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer, fn defense of our Liberty Tree."