Evening star., 1922-12-23
CHRISTMAS SALES
BEATALL RECORDS
Business Estimated From IL
to 19 Per Cent Heavier Than
in Any Previous Year.
RAILROADS ARE SWAEf
Heavy Textile Orders Assured for
1923-Shoe and Hat Makers
Are Extra Busy.
RAILROADS ARE SWAE
BY J. c. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEN YORK, December 23.-The
chanting wheels Of industry dropped
to lower and a slower note today
in anticipation Of the holiday. Retail
trade. however, swung into the cui-
minaeion of the greatest rush OF
Christmas buying the United States
has ever known. Accurate estimates.
which, however. cannot be confirmed
until the sales today are added UP,
indicate that business has been from
IL to Is per cent heavier than in any
, previous year.
tremendous part of this business
has been done by mai and the mail
order houses have had the heaviest
sales in their history. Before the re-
tail stores reopen next Tuesday mer-
chants will be fully prepared to FOL
| low up this rush of business and in
dications are plainly app"rent that
the post holiday buying will be well
above the average Of recent years.
Railroads Taxed to Utmost.
Railroads In every section today
were taxed to the utmost to handle
the rush of holiday traffic. passenger
! as well as freight. The car shortage
| Is slowly decreasing, but still stands
! at well over 100000 cars. in spite of
heavy new purchases by carriers and
| increased activity in the repair shops.
/ The banked fires of the industr' r'ai
! plants will again be under forced
draft next Tuesday and the steel
! mills and automobile plants in every
section will continue on schedules
| which closely approach peak opera
| tions. The president of the Pierce
Arrow Motor Car Company today pre-
, dicted that the company would in 1929
; double the sales made this year. The
! orders now flowing into the Offices of
| the steel companies show plainly that
! other automobile manufacturers hold
| this same belief in regard to their
products and are taking steps to NEE t
| the demand they are sure is coming.
! Big Textile Orders Ahead.
Textile mills are preparing for re-
, newed activity after January ]. Sales
! of cotton cloths in the last week have
been of good proportions and have
E, indicated plainly that there will be
an increase in mill orders after the
/ turn of the year. Buying throughout
i the great middle western territory
| has been particularly heavy.
| Merchants. however. are not delud-
| ing themselves as to the width OF
profit margins. They expect keen
competition and are preparing to hold
! OOWu overhead III every possible way
! to meet 1t. The arrangement just
completed. by which four great stores
! in Boston. Pittsburgh. Chicago and
ST. Louis will combine for the inter
change of merchandising analysis
compiled from the methods and opera
! tions of each, was plainly formed
| with that object in view.
Furniture Makers Rushed.
Nearly every furniture plant in the
United States Is making plans for in
creased output as a result of recent
! sales. The great difficulty in this.
however. Is inability to secure skilled
workers; Inspection OF grocers'
Of canned fruit were light and pack
ers confidently expect a larger move
ment Of their products after the open
ing of the New Year The pack all
over the country has been heavy be-
cause growers were forced by car
/ shortage to divert shipments which
normally would have gone to the
fresh fruit markets to the packing
plants.
Short Holiday Shutdowns-
Shoe and hat factories will be closed
as brief space as possible in the
next ten days. because each industry
Is booked well ahead and in the
middle west orders are such that ope-
rations at better than rated capacity
are a necessity.
Men active in the building industry
today predicted that the building OF
homes and construction of industrial
/ plants would not be checked for the
next three years. They asserted. how
; ever. that in their opinion the build
! ing of apartment houses had passed
| its peak.
Copyright, 1922,