The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-19
BUSINESS SLUMP
 LESS MARKED
Overproduction, Not Con- sumption Decline, Held
 Responsible For Loss

NEW YORK, May 1S--(By Asso- ciated Press. )-In a week during which uncertainties regarding the legislative situation at Washington reduced specu- latiye activities to q minimum, reports concerning current industrial operations added little in the way of de6nitcness to judgments of the usiness outlook. In the main, the story told was one of q continued decline in production, al- though it was pointed out that the slackening is now becoming less mark ed than in recent weeks. Perhaps the most commonly accepted theory is that which holds that overproduction during the early months of the year rather than any marked falling off in consumption is responsible for the present recession. Those who subscribe to this theory be- lieve that the situation as between de- mand and supply gradually is fighting itself.
 Car Loadings Jump
 One index which went against the general trend was that embodied in the statistics of railroad carloadings. Aft CT having fallen away for about two months, and after having shown slight gain in the previous week, loadings in- creased rather smartly in the week end ed May and reached total of 914.O0O cars. With five exceptions, this total is the highest for the year. While the total is 47,000 below that for the same week last year, the decrease is entirely explained by the slump in coal traffic Loadings of merchandise and less than carload freight continue to run ahead of a year ago.
 In the steel industry production still IS falling off, though current curtail- ments are comparatively small. The mills are not stocked with products and the steel which had been delivered dur ing the last few months is believed to be going into consumption rapidly. There are no signs that the iron and steel markets are about to turn. On the other hand it is realized that manufac- turers are less inclined to go in for general price cutting than before the war for the reason that large existing capacity would make it more difficult to advance prices once they have been low. cred.
 Auto Production Off
 Automobile production for April was l Oe~@4sOOO @puSoCllBCE CdISy l1lS GOulDdF ing with 34S,000 in March and 344 ,OO( in April of last year. Truck produc tion held up somewhat better, The fig ures confirm previous, reports of curtail ment in the high schedules which were adopted early in the year. Taking the first four months as whole 152,O0O more passenger cars were produced this year than last. Competition for safes is keen, but some manufacturers are talk ing of increasing prices to compensate for their lower ,production schedules. In the cotton textile industry the census bureaus report on mill con- sumption during April shows that the curtailment of earlier mo?ths has con tinued. The reduction is rot, however, as large as some reports suggested. Tax ings in April amou4ted to 480,000 bales, which is only 4,000 bales less than those of March,. They compare with 576,000 bales in April of last year. The price of the staple itself has remained fairly steady; moving principally in response to the lead furnished by the Liverpool market and to weather reports from the south.
 Commodity prices as a whole con- tinue to display an easy tone. The bu- reau of labor's index for April de- clined 115 per cent as compared with March and now stands AS per cent above the 1913 average. A, year ago it was 50 per cent above the pre-war average
 Money continued plentiful and cheap, dropping to 3 per cent on the stock exchange and being obtainable at 4 and A on time. The federal reserve state ments revealed further contraction in discounts and fresh additions to gold re- serves.