New Britain herald., 1923-03-02
BABSONS SURVEY
in CENTRAL WEST


| tSontnued from flrst fhse}
100000. For the current month o
1923 the car loadings will show flg
ures over Is per cent greater posi-
bly, final figures will show an in
crease of 100000 cars. Moreover, o
this increase only 10000 were of al
increase in coal loadings. In othe
words, II the car loadings OF the cur
rent month are 100000 only abou
100000 of these will be coal car
compared with over 100000 coal car
loaded during the same period II
1922. This shows that the great in
crease Is In building materials, LIVE
stock, merchandise. etc, there beinl
no appreciable change in grain cal
loadings 1t is true that these figure!
apply to the entire country; but pro
portonally they also apply to this
section of which Chicago is the cen
ter.
Big Increases Noted.
THE middle cities and states are
recording increases of from 10 to 81
per cent over year ago. South Bend
Indiana. leads compared with last
year, but Des Moines, Iowa; Peoria
! Illinois and Kalamazoo, Michigan, are
! closely catching up. indianapolis
and Terre Haute are not doing as well
| as they should do. owing to some I'M
known reason. The largest cities OF
| this section--such as Chicago, st
| Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee--are
reporting about the same as last year
| ,;,,ly Il; ,e J,A ta 30
lag of the large cities; but others be-
lieve that the medium sized cities are
due for a much larger proportional
growth. I am inclined to this belief
II so, the best opportunities during
the next few years will be in the me-
dunn sized cities which have better
available labor. lower rents, and
pleasanter living conditions. The
heavy increase in railroad freight
rates and the development of good
roads should also help the medium
sized city.
No Motor Saturation Yet.
1.-THE automotive industry which is
largely located in this section con-
tinues to thrive. Many talk about
this industry reaching point of satu-
ration. Of course, it will some day;
but when that time comes it will re-
ouire fully as many persons as are
now engaged in the industry to sup
ply the cars and parts needed for re-
placements in order to keep the
market saturated. 1t is true that
some of the smaller companies will
be forced out of business and all
companies will tend to build lighter
and cheaper cars, but the industry as
a whole will continue prosperous for
many years to come. This means
much to Michigan, Illinois and In
diana. 1928 will be a good automo-
bile year.
This section tributary to Chicago
is also profiting from the great resi-
dental building boom now on
throughout the country. have al
ready referred to the cause of this
boom-namely. the exodus Of people
from the cities to suburbs and the
country due to the convenieace of the
automobile. The first Industries TO
benefit from the building boom were
the cement and brick pfople. then
the lumber and steel intetests began
to prosper. Now the copper. paints
and other industries are picking up.
This sequence is invariably tfue--.al-
though when the boom eliminates
and the turn downward comes the
cement and brick people viii be ihe
first TO feel the decline. The new
roads in process of construction are
also temporarily helping this section,
I fear that some of the Sec
tons will not feel so prosperous when
the time comes to pay off the road
bonds which they are now SO freely
issuing.
Furniture Comes Last.
THE last great industry to benefit
from a building boom is the furni-
ture industry. After q house is built, |
new furniture is always purchased, |
even though the family moves from
some other house. Now nearly four
fifths of the furniture manufactured |
in the United States is made in this |
Industrial West I forecast great
activity for this industry during
1928. There is liable to be even a
furniture shortage. Those who con-
template buying new furniture during |
1923 should make their purchases at
once. The industry is not one that |
can quickly expand. 1t also is very |
dependent upon transportation which |
is liable to congestion throughout the |
year. Remember that there are few
err miles of railroad in our country
today than there were ten years ago. |
Terminals are becoming more con-
yested every year and Industries,
which, like furniture-are SO very
dependent upon the railroads, should |
count upon this unfavorable factor.
This is also true of the paper indus
try, which is thriving in this section
and which is continually becoming a
greater factor in its prosperity.
Agriculture Next Week.
81 have said nothing about the
agricultural outlook for this section
because I shall treat it in detail next
week, when discussing the purely
agricultural states. Suffice to say, l /
found IL improving and very much
better than wear AFRO Tho u-irar