The Washington herald., 1922-06-25
MOTOR INDUSTRY
PLANTS BREAK ALL
OUTPUT RECORDS
Cleveland Bank Report
Shows Enormous Auto
Production.

Continued Improvement In gen
eral business conditions is reported
by the Cleveland Trust Company in
its midmonth Business Bulletin for
June. According to the bank there
is little ground for the fear. felt by
some, that relapse may take place
this summer. Some slackening in
the rate of Improvement may oc-
cur in July and August. but this
would be a normal development,
for midsummer has always been a.
period for slowing down in Ameri-
can business.
Building construction is boom
ing throughout the country" says
the Bulletin. Iron and steel pro-
duction Is rapidly rising. The au-
tomobile industry Is breaking all
previous records. Employment is
improving. Commercial failures
are decreasing. both in number and
in the amount of their liabilities.
Commodity prices are advancing.
Interest rates are low and still
falling. The security markets are
active and the prices of stocks and
bonds rose during May.
Among factors which might be
seriously effective in reducing bust
ness activity, the existing coal and
textile strikes, and the threatened
railroad strikes are the most i'm
portant. Nevertheless. II now seems
probable that solutions for these
difficulties will be found and that
the Improvement now under way
will continue with no more than
normal seasonal hesitation during
the summer months. One impor-
tant reason for believing that con-
ditions will continue to improve is
that the recent reports on agri-
cultural conditions throughout this
country indicate that new crops
are doing we'll and promise better
than average yield.
Big Auto Production.
During May $4,000 passenger
cars and trucks were shipped by
automobile factories. This is an
almost incredibly great output. II
production at this rate should be
continued for three years 1t would
double the number of cars in ex-
istence. More cars were produced
last month than in the first four
teen years that the automobile in
dustry was in existence. Up to
1912 there were never as many
cars built in any entire year as
were turned out last month.
THE great activity in automo-
bile output now promises to con-
tinue well into the summer and
fall. Few firms can give prompt
delivery, and orders for some
models are now being booked for
October delivery. One noteworthy
difference between present condi-
tions and those that maintained a
year ago is that then sales of Ford
cars were twice as numerous as
those of all other makes combined,
while now the sales of other cars
are as great as those of Fords.
This is true despite the fact that
Ford sales are breaking all pre-
yious records. II reflects the very
rapid recovery of general business.
Employment conditions continue
to improve in Cleveland. The i'm
provement began to be apparent
early in January and has continued
without interruption since that
time. Returns from industrial es-
Z. blishments indicate that the num-
her of workers is steadily increas-
ing. and reports of relief agencies
show that the period OF acute un-
employment has passed.
'"The coal strike is beginning to
loom up as a genuine threat against
the continued expansion of opera
tions in iron and steel.