The Wilmington Morning Star

Furniture Plant

Ever since Wilmington awakened to the need for new industries to hold a fair portion of the population and business gains it made during the war there has been talk of a furniture factory as a highly desirable additional asset. It is true that with commerce reviving a furniture factory should do well here, but as Mark Twain said of the weather, everybody talks of it but nobody does anything about it.

In the meantime, Los Angeles is going out for furniture, which is the more remarkable because southern California is without timber in any quantity and lumber must be imported from a distance since the state barred redwood.

According to its own estimate and combining bedding and furniture Los Angeles stands third in the volume of furniture manufactured, topped only by New York and Chicago and itself topping Grand Rapids and High Point. In 1941 Los Angeles produced $30,000,000 worth of furniture and $12,000,000 worth of bedding. By 1947 it expects to reach a total of $60,000,000.

None of its production is high grade. The trade calls it "borax" furniture, we don't know why. The city's leading stores still import their furniture stock from the other producing centers.

When it held its last furniture mart in January, the cafeteria was fitted out with beautiful oak chairs flown from the East. Yet it is doing a thriving business, and because its people are the forward-looking type, it will reach the high goal set for next year.

If Wilmington capital were invested in a furniture plant there seems no good reason why it should not be successful, especially as it would never be necessary to resort to the "borax" type of manufacture. There is too much mahogany within easy sailing distance for veneer.

And markets are available.