The Texas Mohair Weekly (Rocksprings, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, March 8, 1946 Page: 4 of 8
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PAGE POUR
Th* Texu Mohair Weekly and The Rockspring* Record
FRIDAY MARCH 8TH*. VM
Why Don’t We Have Lumber
FOR HOME BUILDING?
There are plenty of trees, plenty of lumber
mills, but very little lumber for Home Build-
ing. WHY?
Here are the simple facts behind the lumber
shortage—these facts are stopping Home
Building:
1. Over 50 per cent of our lumber was cut by
small mills. Thousands of these mills were
put out of business during the war by OPA
ceiling prices. OPA still clings to wartime
policies and these mills are still out of
business.
2. OPA’s blind ‘‘hold the line" policies, plus
lack of enforcement, have led to the develop-
ment of a huge Black Market in lumber.
“Black Market" lumber is lumber that costs
the people more money than they would pay
if lumber were flowing to them through the
normal channels of distribution—the retail
lumber dealer.
3. Wartime ceiling prices made it profitable
for the lumber manufacturer to cut sizes of
lumber suitable for war uses, but not suitable
for home construction. As OPA continues
this unrealistic policy, manufacturers con-
tinues this unrealistic policy, manufactur-
ers continue to cut lumber sizes which are
unsuitable for home construction. In some
cases premium prices granted by OPA en-
couraged production of lumber not ttsbale
for Home Building. Proper peacetime ad-
justments have not yet been made to en-
couraged production of lumber not usable
lumber such as flooring, ceiling, siding, mill-
work, plywood—all essential items in home
construction. This situation affects all lum-
ber production.
4. The manufacturers of lumber have been pro-
vided with a hidden premium on export
lumber. The OPA has made it more profi-
table to produce lumber for export to foreign
countries than to produce lumber for home
construction.
These are merely examples from the lum-
ber field which indicate the type of OPA action
that is blocking the production of home build-
ing materials in many fields.
The fact remains that homes cannot be built
by any industry or Government agency with-
out materials.
Homes cannot be built without lumber—
whether that home be wood frame, brick, con-
crete, or stone.
The lumber and building material dealers,
and the contractors of the nation can build all
the homes needed—if they have the materials.
But the flow of materials must be unblocked.
Only increased production of building mater-
ials can solve the so-called housing problem
and the unrealistic pricing policy of OPA is
the biggest present block to increased pro-
duction !
Any government program that does not
FIRST remove the obstacles blocking produc-
tion of materials will simply add additional
difficulties to the problem facing the building
industry.
OVALITY
NATIONAL RETAIL LUMBER DEALERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, D. C.
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Hutt, J. W. The Texas Mohair Weekly (Rocksprings, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, March 8, 1946, newspaper, March 8, 1946; Rocksprings, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1129568/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .