SELLINGLUMBER 183 



and well. The lumber substitute people have been busy, and the 

 lumber men suddenly awakened and have been awake ever since, 

 and have been busy with their campaigns of publicity, education 

 and service, and the people have profited thereby. I for one, am 

 glad of it, for I certainly am strongly against the cheap, gaudy, 

 flimsy substitutes now on the market. Let us build homes again, 

 not houses. As you drive about does not the solid, substantial old 

 home look good, with its wide comfortable porch, and the air of 

 comfort, and even the old wooden gate, says, "come in and sit 

 down and be comfortable," and the beautiful interiors with the 

 wonderful mouldings and fireplace of the days of long ago? They 

 were built for homes and not houses. 



A great deal of the blame of ^ bi^b cost of building is 

 placed on lumber. You hear more of the high cost of lumber than 

 of any other material. This is unfair to lumber. The American 

 Lumberman says that competent authorities estimate that in a Hi h Cogt 

 wooden building, the. cost of lumber is approximately 20 per cent of Building" 

 of the cost of the building complete. Then for the increased price to L U mber 

 of lumber to make a building cost 25 per cent more, there will have Prices. 

 to be an advance in the price of lumber of 125 per cent, and no one, 

 even in the wildest dreams of fancy, can imagine that there will 

 be any such advance, and further says that there is much for the 

 lumber industry to do in acquainting the people with the real facts 

 pertaining to the industry. 



I would also recommend that the public be made acquainted 

 with your standard sizes of lumber. The local contractor is criticised 

 severely and the architect cussed for permitting the use of 2x4's 

 that are only 1^x3^, or joists that are supposed to be 2x10 and User Should 

 are only I^x9^ ; and hardly that. You may not know, but the giz^of C1 

 average owner imagines, as soon as the material is hauled on the Lumber. 

 job, that he is being robbed from the start, and it takes some very 

 soft handling to bring him back into line. The public should 

 know this, as it hurts the dealer, the builder and the architect. We 

 get enough complaints as to quality, without looking for com- 

 plaints as to size. 



I believe the lumber dealer should interest himself in the bet- 

 terment of .housing work, especially in the rural districts. The |Home 

 farmer is a large consumer of lumber. They are buying the latest Building 

 farm machinery and automobiles. They are building huge barns ?J e ^ tc 

 and cribs, and making every effort to improve farm conditions, Country, 

 but they have neglected their houses. The Minnesota commission 



