A White Christmas

By Philip M. Cropo Western Pine Associcrtion, Portlond, Oregon

It was only a few years ago just before Christmas when thoughts of good ,cheer ordinarily inspired byits significance lost all prospect of early realization and were shoved into the background of consciousness by the blasts of enemy bombs falling on our own territory and among our own people. During those days of participation in a conflict for which we had long been destined, the dream of a White Christmas was often in people's thoughts. It became popular as a song, and was talked of in friendly social gatherings; longingly discussed in the quiet hours of family life at home; choked out in the tortured utterances of parting loved ones; and proclaimed with finality by our lads on far-flung battlefields as they rammed oily rags through rifle barrels to make sure, that it was not too long coming about. It isn't just a lot of snow blanketing the earth at Yuletide, it is all the good that Christmas has come to stand for and symbolize in our minds, school, comradeship, a chance to play on the team; living conditions favoring unfettered development of personality; the privilege of accomplishing social and economic progress through individual initiative and enterprise; the opportunity to have a home and loving family, to provide them the essentials of life and a reasonable amount of its pleasures.

Men of the armed services rvanted to go home because it meant a return to their r,vay of life, the best way of life. Bureaucracy had long been a part of it but its evils were little known primarily because the system had not achieved enough influence in enough of our lives to warrant widespread evaluation. Until the war it was a slorv-growing thing moving stealthily behind the mask of temporary gains it had bought for many, and multifarious promises of a Utopian future for all. War necessitated the expansion of bureaucracy into a fully-developed stage and at war's end there were many in tl-re system who had no desire to see its stature diminished. So the matter was turned over to the "brains" rvho reasoned that since men of the armed services lvant to return home above everything, they will therefore need homes to return to. Do they have homes to return to? Many of them certainly do not, there was a housing deficiency before the war, practically no civilian housing was built during the war, there have been great population shifts, there will be further population shifts. Then they nudged one another and said, after the manner of G.L's who developed the expression, "Brother, this is it ! We have found the goose with a golden egg, so now we'll take the goose out and put it before the people." Then with fanfare from ten thousand desks, each with two or three neat piles of applications for permission to perfornr some small act in life, ten thousand trumpets blared to the people that our boys are coming home, but they don't have homes, so we will build them homes, we'll build a million of 'em in the first year. To do this, they said, "We will of course keep many controls in effect and add some new ones to make sure that we do not have a situation of too many, too few or too little, too soon."

Meanwhile industry and private enterprise set about producing materials for homes and building them as best they could under the restrictions imposed by government that made operating conditions cumbersome, the future uncertain and kept normal channels of distribution distorted beyond all recognition. Many homes were started but only a few completed compared with the wild promises that came from Washington. There were material shortages, black markets, green lumber, and the feeble cries of reds and pinks. All the while bureaucrats carried the torch for their system. The people were all wrong', they said, but not the system. It is much better, they insisted, to have a price ceiling and not be able to get things because they are not available than it is to be without a price ceiling and not be able to get things because the price is too high; but the claims of glory and the promises of great things to come were continued in abundance.

The people want to do a job and in spite of all restrictions have been steadily wearing away the barriers to full production and maximum achievement. The Western Pine industry will ship more lumber in 1946 than in any other peacetime year, around 5% billion feet, during a period when stocks have been lower than at any other time in the industry's history. A large percentage of this production is going into the building of homes. Retail lumber dealers have carried on unceasing efforts to get lumber and other materials channeled into the construction of houses. Building contractors likewise have carried on an all-out effort towards the same goal. From all these exertions have come some results. Heavy production has narrowed the gap between supply and demand, there are fewer scarce items and few items are as scarce as they were earlier. We have rounded the far turn and are preparing now for the drive in the stretch. We have seen bureaucracy infull bloom and we don't like the color of its petals. We have known for some time that it is not government by the people. Now we know it is not government for the people with the best interests of the whole society it represents as its principal objective. Rather bureaucracy has revealed itself as a governme.nt in which society must be changed to fit a presupposed pattern before efficient functioning of the system, and indeed the welfare ofits proponents, can be achieved. The people by their vote have spoken out against any system that fosters black markets, they have spoken out against the reds and the pinks. They have not relinquished the dream of a White Christmas and have not slackened their strides in that direction. So it is that we now stand closer to realization of this ideal than ever before.

As controls are being lifted it seems a fitting time to affirm the aims of our Western Pine industry towards (Continued on Page 26) reits