192 



SELLING LUMBER 



The Time 

 Has Come 

 for Action. 



New Speci- 

 fications for 

 Laying 

 Shingles. 



We had the best of the argument from a dozen different angles, 

 but we sat tight and said nothing., partly because we were un- 

 organized, and partly because there is not the enormous gross 

 profit in our product which alone makes possible an expensive and 

 unending advertising campaign such as the substitute manufacturer 

 wages constantly. 



The thing has finally gone so far that we are compelled to 

 do something ; inasmuch as some of the cities have been induced to 

 pass ordinances prohibiting the use of the shingle, and the fire 

 insurance people are working with the substitute manufacturer to 

 put us out of business altogether on the shingle proposition. What 

 we lack more than anything else is statistics compiled by some 

 capable and unbiased agency such as might be established by the 

 Government for instance, and which would not only ascertain the 

 facts, but publish them. 



Fortunately it is easy to demonstrate the comparative fire- 

 resisting and wearing qualities of properly made shingles, properly 

 laid, and of the composition stuff urged as a safe substitute ; and 

 it is easy to point out what constitutes a properly made shingle and 

 how it should be laid and treated. 



Tentative specifications covering all of this have recently 

 been adopted by the grading committee of the Southern Pine As- 

 sociation, copies of which have been distributed among you, and we 

 will refer to these in detail in a few minutes ; we ask that you 

 study these specifications carefully, and give us the benefit of 

 your suggestions, also that you aid us by giving this information trie 

 widest possible publicity, that the consuming public may know ex- 

 actly what to demand in the way of shingles, and methods of roof 

 construction. The paint manufacturers are co-operating with us 

 and will put on the market suitable mineral paints properly labeled, 

 while the engineering department of the Association and the Forest 

 Products Laboratory are working out formulae for chemical treat- 

 merits which we believe will be equally effective in making shingles 

 fire-resistant, and to a higher degree than is or ever can be true 

 of rags and paper covered with tar. 



Our specifications covering the manufacture of shingles and 

 the construction of shingle roofs rest upon careful inquiry, ex- 

 perimentation and observation ; we believe them to be sound and 

 adequate ; they provide for shingles of thickness and width de- 

 signed to make a tight and durable roof when properly laid, one in 

 which shingles will not curl or crack, and which when properly 



