Arizona republican., 1920-08-12
process of treating gum.
 Gum Saves MahoQany

Gum Saves Mahogany
 Gum is used for legs and other parts of a piece where the grain of the ma hogany would not show anyway. Gum takes the same polish as the mahogany top and no one but connoisseur would detect the difference. Manufacturers claim that to make a piece of furniture of solid mahogany is as great waste of valuable wood as 1t was for the Cubans to lay solid mahogany railroad ties which they did until the extrav- agance of it was explained to them
 Mahogany is shipped to us in large quantities from the tropics, where 1t is apparently plentiful. Our domestic hard woods. on the other hand-hick- ory maple, walnut, ash and others are being turned into tables and side boards so fast that they are rapidly reaching extinction. The forest service warns the country that for every four feet of timber cut only one foot is be- ing replaced by new growth.
 Black walnut, for instance, has be- come so scarce that the government has to advertise for it and hunt out single trees when it was needed for gun stocks and airpalne material. Even then it could not be obtained in any thing like sufficient amounts. As black walnut is one of the best woods for furniture, there is a substantial for tune for the patient investor who will
 
 forty years for them to grow large enough to be cut profitably.
 Planting more timber is the only way to offset the huge inroads made yearly into the supply. Our virgin forests Of hard wood have shrunk back from the coasts and lumber centers to inaccess- ible regions where the mills cannot fol- low. Transportation of lumber is rap idly becoming g. large item in furniture prices.
 Besides transportation. labor Is an- other big factor in turning the S3.9o bureau into a S25 article. Empioyes al these factories claim that in the past they have been paid lower than work men in other industries. Since the war, however, their wages have increased about 50 per cent more than have the wages in any other industry, so that any discrepancy that existed has been practically removed.
 Wages of men in the lumber mills have advanced to a point where many find it convenient to work a few days and then knock off long enough tc spend their money in the nearest city The demand for their services is SC great that they know there is no danger of being out of work when they want it
 Don't Break Your Mirror
 An item which affects only certain pieces of furniture is the glass fol mirrors. A piece of glass which used to cost about $4 now brings S11, and the price is still rising. It seems thai there have been six big manufacturers who supplied the furniture trade witI mirrors. Recently they have been able to handle only so per cent of the de- mand, and now three of the six com panfes have decided to make glass fol automobiles instead of house furnish ings. There will be no room for doubt as to the bad luck of breaking a mirror if you have to buy Q new one
 Any reader who expects to buy 2 piece of furniture in the next few year. will be glad to know that there is al | least one thing that has a tendency to keeping down the price of house fur nishings. This is standardization. You remember how the government got the shoe manufacturers to cut down the number of styles they produced Well the furniture makers decided on sim
 liar plan.
 In the old times manufacturers had to bid for contracts, and the retailers had to bid for public favor. by contfn- ually offering novelties in furniture 1 The extreme styles which were the re- suit or this system required extra pIau- hing and extra labor, and then the stock could rarely be sold out before the style changed.
 But when the lumber shortage began 10 be really felt, and labor became scarce. not enough furniture could be produced to meet the demand. This turn in affairs proved a charter of in- dependence for the furniture business since It was no longer necessary to cater to caprice in order to drum UT trade. Instead of turning out a dozer 1 styles of beds or desks all more or less l freal1y. the manufacturers agreed tc simplify patterns and to cease striving ] for variety.
 This has meant a Hull in the vogue ir l Chippendale chairs with their compli cated legs and i'll the other elaborate kinds of period furniture. In their stead makers favor such patterns as tho 1 Queen Anne style, which is simple and I still has the desirable period effect ] There are so many different factories l that even with patterns cut down tc one-fourth as many as before the wal there is still great variety of stock or view in any large furnishing store
 It is predicted that our woodless rl- i ture will produce some captain of in vention who will devise a single piecS i of furniture that can be used for 6 bed, kitchen table and victrola, or some other combination on the order of . ltrick pocket knife. It may take us som, | time to get used tc super simplicity 1T i the home and coDlinatio1 furniture
 would be an intermediate step.