San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-14
OUTLOOK IN SHOE
TRADE is BRIGHT
FOR THIS YEAR
Three Pairs Made For Every
Person in u. S: in
1922
Ry j. G. ROYIE.

Copyright 1923. by The San Antonio Light.
New York, Jan. 1S.-The fact that
the ultimate consumer contemplates buy
ing a new pair of shoes may be deeply
locked in his own breast but the re-
taller knows it, the jobber knows It,
the manufacturers know it and all are
preparing accordingly.
They have to feel it, not hear it
because the squeak has been taken out
of the neaw pair of shoes, just as the
packers have muffled out the squeal of
the dying hog.
Everybody in the shoe business feels
better because the range between raw
hide prices and finished leather prices
has disappeared. Packer hides have re
CcdCd = IL to IL cents per pound
or about l. per cent from their recent
high. Texas steers, native cows, brand
cd cows, country hides, have dropped
accordingly. The reason is clear.
Tanners have shown that hides at
their recent highs have been quoted GO
rer cent above the figures for last
March. Since leather prices have not
thNAllCNu az u AlAt paw NAAN ANeAhAANa
consumers have refused to follow the
market upward. The hide market there
fore has broken and has revised its
schedule downward.
The hide and leather markets there
fore are now in closer accord than for
many months and shoe factories both in
New England and in the Middle West
are working not only at capacity, but
are employing night shifts to meet their
requirements. The sterilization in the
leather trade has removed the last re-
naming obstacle to capacity production
in the shoe factories.
Productin figures show that three
pairs of shoes were made for every
man, woman and child in the United
States in 1922. They may squeak, but
the buyers are not squeaIins and TOUR
pairs are forecast for 1923.
Never have road building operations
been so heavy in any winter as at
present. Money in plenty is available
in dozens of states and machinery ana
supplies are in acute demand for this
rurnose. One of the big steel COM
panics of Youngstown has been inform
cd that steel requirements for this pur-
rose will total a greater tonnage than
ever before.
Under the urge Of DR.. Miller Reese
Hutchinson, head Of the Cotton Growers,
Association. bill has been introduced
into Congress. recommending that cal
cium arscnatc, the main weapon
against the boil wocvil, be placed on the
free list. The main dependence Of the
cotton growers, however, is on the in
creased activities Of the shelters Of the
West, which produce white arscnate as
by-proIuct and the arsenical ores OF
Utah. which it is hoped may be brought
to the rescue of cotton growers,
Oh production has increased IN the
last week in every field in the United
States. The electrical equipment con-
Germs cannot at present keep pace with
orders. The Western Electric. Com
pany. recognizing the fact, has bought
new factory sites in the East, but the
announcement that the New York Tele-
phone Company alone is prepared to
srcnd S55.OOO,OOO in the current year
for extension and that the Illinois Tele-
phone Company may duplicate those i'm
provements have made it doubtful if the
electrical concerns can fulfill orders
without at least some delay.