332 



SELLING LUMBER 



The Service 

 to Be 

 Extended 



Special 

 Articles 

 Boosting 

 the Industry 



Little Malice 

 in Printed 

 Attacks 



of advertising cuts for dealers' use will be extended, and the 

 co-operative service increased and elaborated. In its effort to 

 foster the spirit of co-operation between the Southern Yellow Pine 

 manufacturer and the retail lumber dealer, the Association recently 

 entertained at southern Yellow Pine mills, representatives of a 

 number of retail dealers' associations, giving these visitors an op- 

 portunity to study methods of logging, and the manufacture, grad- 

 ing and shipping of Southern Pine. That these dealers were im- 

 pressed by what the Association members were striving to accom- 

 plish in eliminating misunderstandings and disagreements between 

 manufacturer and retailer was evidenced by the visiting dealers 

 asserting, unanimously and entirely on their own initiative, that 

 their future business would, when possible, be given to manufac- 

 turers identified with the Southern Pine Association. 



The fourth division of the Association's publicity campaign 

 the dissemination of special articles concerning Southern Pine and 

 the Southern lumber industry has been unique in the annals of 

 advertising in some respects. We all know that the attitude of the 

 public prints toward lumber and lumber industry has been anything 

 but friendly in years past, judged by the thousands of uncompli- 

 mentary and harmful statements that have found their way into 

 print. Newspapers and magazines of wide circulation and influ- 

 ence seemed to take a vicious delight in maligning lumber, glibly 

 referring to the "lumber trust," "the exorbitant prices charged for 

 lumber," "the devastation of the forests by the ruthless lumber 

 interests," "the reckless fire hazard in building with wood" all 

 of the misstatements and abuse made familiar by constant repeti- 

 tion. A friendly comment about the product or the industry was 

 so rare as to be sensational, to lumbermen at least. So persistent 

 and long continued had been this attitude of publishers that every 

 one connected with the lumber industry had concluded that the 

 press was unalterably "agin" lumber. 



The Association's advertising department early in the publicity 

 campaign undertook to remedy this state of affairs, at least in 

 some degree. The results were surprising. It was found that 

 many newspapers and magazines were antagonistic to lumber solely 

 because that attitude seemed the popular and proper one; others 

 gave space to unjust abuse of lumber because no one had ever 

 appeared to defend lumber. The Association advertising depart- 

 ment soon was convinced that there was little malice in the printed 



