Evening star., 1924-05-10
INDUSTRIES TO RUN
AT STEADIER PACE
Evidence Develops Showing De-
cline in Automobile Production
and Building Operations.
NORMAL LEVELS NOW IS AIM
Financiers and Business Factors
Want Breathing Spell.
BY j. C. ROYLE.
Spatcb to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, May 1o.-There is
ample evidence today that two of the
have run at wild speed for months
past have slowed to a steadier pace.
Dispatches received in the last tw en-
tyfour hours from various sections
show that the foot has been lifted
from the throttle of automobile pro-
duction, which has been running wide
open In the building industry in
Vestors have begun to cease putting
up money and builders have slack
ened putting up dwellings, in conse-
quence.
1t is of the utmost Importance to
note, however, that while activity
year, it has not dropped below nor
NAL levels and there is reason to be-
lieye that il will not
Autotmobile manufacturers and
bankers connected with the industry
have apparently become resigned to
the conclusion that there must be a
breathing spell between now and fall
in production of 1924 models to allow
sales to catch up. They indicate that
the trend of sales, which has affected
90 per cent of the makers, cannot be
escaped by the remaining 40 per cent
for any considerable time.
Average OUTPUT Maintained.
In the Detroit district, the curtail-
ment so far has not cut the produc-
ton of the leading makers below the
average output of 1928 although the in
duStry has grown so fast in the last
eighteen months that even those en-
gagged in il are prone to overlook that
RPnlaraYnanto @ far bAa tod
to absorb a tremendous number of cars
and II is an established fact that those
VINO have owned cars are most unlikely
TO get along without an automobile if
they can secure one.
But automobile executives feel that
sales will follow the general trend of
industry as whole and are content to
SIT tight for few weeks and await
developments. They know by expert
ence that in a given period there is
Just so much absorptiye power for
automobiles and If demand does not ex-
press itself in one quarter of. the year
1t is bound to do so in another.
FIoater Type of worker LOSES.
The floater type of worker is the one
who has suffered most from the breath
cut most drasticaIly are giving regu-
lars about four days work a week but
the larger employers. such as Ford
Dodge. Hudson and Studebaker, who
are SUN running regular forces full
time, have let the fioafers go in consid-
erabie numbers and are not replacing
them.
The building industry is decidedly
not alarmed at the curtailment of
now work in some sections Building
has been rushed at san unheard of
pace for some years. Nearly $50, 600
100000 has been spent in new con-
struction. Costs mounted and
bonuses to workers were the rule
yestors and builders feel that since
some of the housing shortage has
been filled the industry is entering a
cycle of activity more nearly ap-
preaching normal
This they declare will tend TO
stabilize both costs and rents and
remove some of the more dangerous
speculative factors which now threat
en-. Latest reports indicate loss of
II per cent as compared with the
spring of 1923 for the country as a
whole outside New York city. The
latter city showed a big gain, as did
Detroit. and smaller increases were
reported in Cincinnati, Seattle, Den
YER Oakland and Columbus but most
of the other cities of Importance reg
istered losses These losses were
most apparent i'll the central and
western states.
Radical Reduction Not Feared.
Building material men do not an
ticipate any radical reduction in the
prices of their products, however:
They say that these prices are fixed
in large degree by labor, transporta-
ton. taxation and other factors out
side of the immediate demand which
make marked reductions improbable.
Elections are not usually regarded
with JOY by material producers, but
the voting this week in Berkeley,
Calf, brought joy to the lumber men.
At the Berkeley election wooden
shingles ran neck and neck with
President Coolidge and a measure
was passed permitting their use on
specified types of building. This had
which grew out of a controversy
over the cause of the disastrous fire
in Berkeley a year ago, in which the
loss totaled SS,000,o00.