The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1920-08-19
HOMES EXPERT
VISITS KENOSHA
Ralph Human Urges More
Building While Build
ing. Is Good.
mo DROP IN PRICES"

"Stop playing hide-and-seek with
rent profteers and get home Of your
own. Don't put off until tomorrow the
house you can build for less today"
This is the advice offered to Keno
shans by Ralph Human, formerly on
the staff of the Evening News but now
in charge of the Retail Service Bureau
of the National Lumber Manufactur-
ers' association and editor of the
Retail Lumber Merchandiser," peri
odical that has won enviable praise
from trade paper critics throughout
the United States.
/ Mr.. Human is now spending a
few days in Kenosha as the guest
of Mr.. and Mrs. Harry Brown at their
home on South street.
An Authority on Lumber.
The exKenoshan knows the lumber
game from shingle-wood to solid ma
hogany. For years he was manager
of retail lumber firm. From this ex-
perience he gathered a knowledge Of
woods and the market for them which
is invaluable to him in his present
work Later he became a newspaper
man and learned to tell in laymans
language the things he knew about the
! building business. The unusual com
bination has made him a master
builder, an authority on homes.
After an extended tour of the east
ern states and the middlet west, on
which he has studied building condi-
tions. from every conceivable angle,
Mr. Human said today:
Needed residences and other build
/ ings should be built now Building
material prices are probably lower to-
day than they will be later, and build
ing labor just now seems inclined
to give a fair days work for a
fair days wage.
"The recent wave of price cutting"
he continued, "has unquestionably
caused many people to defer building
thinking that similar reductions would
take place in the prices of building
materials. There is little likelihood
of this, first, because lumber dealers
in general did not advance their selling
prices to the full extent of the market
advances, and secondly because with
! the adjustments already made, lumber
is as low-priced comparatively as any
commodity on the market today.
Lumber prices therefore can be ex-
pected to decline only as the general
price level of all commodities de-
/ clines."
History Repeating Itself.
In proof of his prophecies, Mr.. Hin
man cited the post-bellum period of the
Civil War. He showed that immedi-
ately following the surrender of Lee
in '65 prices in lumber and the like
behaved just as they have now; and
that in '73, eight years after the close
of the war they were only six per
cent lower than the highest price
reached in '66.
To-day we have the same condi-
tions," he declared, "only they are in
tensifed. With the country's building
program so far behind that all exist
ing facilities will be kept working
overtime for many years to return to
normal, any man who expects building
costs to be lower in the near future
is an optimist indeed"
Merchandise Gives Sound Advice.
In the current issue of his paper,
"The Retail Lumber Merchandiser, ?
Mr.. Hinman Celebrates the same idea a
little more pointedly when he writes
Homecoming is more important
today than ever before and it is a
sound business proposition just as it
has always been. This is a period of
the greatest earnings the country has
ever known. With many it is also a
period of most reckless spending.
Others are laying the foundation of
future prosperity by making start
on home owning. Owning home is
at once an anchor for the present and
a safeguard for the future. 1t is
everyman's~ privilege now"