Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-04-10
Lieut.. Ivory Writes
Interesting Letter

Supply Office, 53rd Field artillery
Brigade, Meslay du Maine, France.
March 18th, 1919.
William H. Sullivan, Vice-President
and General Manager Great South
ern Lumber Company, Bogalusa:
Dear Sir-Thank you very much
for your kind attention to my request
for Bogalusa Brand Booklets for Mr..
Nadrew and Mr.. Gautier. The let
ter arrived in advance Of the books.
/ note what you say in, regard to the
future prospects of the lumber in
dustry and wonder if the. American
lumber manufacturers do not antiei-
pate a large amount of business in
supplying materials for the rebuild
ing Of Northern France. / have had
that in mind ever since coming over
here and have made few observa-
lions which / beg leave to present to
you.
French building are invariably
built Of masonry, and that usually
stone. All the houses, the barns,
even the smallest outhouses are built
of stone. They are rooted with tile
or slate, sometimes thatch in the
country, and have stone or brick tile
floors. Even the dwellings are more
often floored With tile than with
wood. The partitions are likewise
constructed of tile or plaster with a
light wood reinforcement. In fact,
the only place wood is used is in the
doors, window frames and stairways.
The villages consist of clusters of
stone buildings, built one against the
other. There is seldom any fire de-
partment and even less of water
system. These houses are heated, if
heated at all, by open fireplaces, in
which wood is burned. These condi-
dition would lead to fires if inflam-
mable materials were used, and the
people know it, still / have never seer
a fire in France
There are some very good wood,
workers in the country, but they
usually cut their materials by hanC
out of the rough. l have never seer
a modern lumber yard over here anC
know that these people have no con
ception of large stock Of lumber
cut to all dimensions, and manufac
tured in many forms ready for use
In fact, they know nothing abou-
building houses entirely of wood
They believe that they would be ex
cessively dear and so they would, il
comparison with stone in previous
times.
have talked with diffent mer
about the matter of rebuilding
France with wood, and they agret
with me that it would be the mos
expedient method, still they are al
ways skeptical. They usually ask i
wood houses are not cold, if they d.
not burn down often, and if the!
do not decay quickly. They want tx
know how they are built and how
they are heated with open chimneys
They believe it would take quite /:
long time to build house, and so i
would if the lumber was brought t.
the building site in the log and ther
cut and hewn out by hand, as have
often seen done here. These people
have never seen wood used where
masonry can possibly be employed
and seem unable to think in terms OF
wooden houses.
These facts and many others leac
me to believe that large amount OF
propaganda work is going to be nee
essary among the people of the de-
vastated regions before lumber viii
come into its greatest demand. This
propaganda work should take the
form Of booklets showing exterior
and interior pictures Of ordinary