Evening star., 1924-04-21
INDUSTRIES SHOW
PRODUCTION SLUMP
Major Operations in Widely Sep
arated Areas Indicating Slight
ly Less Activity.
MERCHANTS BUYINGS SMALL
Decrease in Employment in Sec
tiops Noted.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, April 21.-Reports
from widely separated sections OF TINS
country indicate that peak production
in several major industries has been
passed for the time being at least
Coal, automobiles. lumber, cement
sugar and textiles have shown
slump recently, although in each case
the falling off has been slight In COM
parison with production IN other good
years. The first indication of the
trend has been the slackening in car
Ioadings Forward buying in large
quantities has become almost obso-
lete in some lines of business. Mer-
chants buy in small lots and depend
on the common carriers to land their
purchases promptly at the freight ele-
vators. Consequently u drop in pur-
chases is Immediately reflected in the
freight cars loaded.
The latest reports on employment
in Detroit, the surest barometer o1
the automobile industry. show fur
ther drop of 652 workers to 2S6,976.
This compares with 225.oS1 at this
high mark reached this year in Feb
ruary The Pcre Marquette road
which handles considerable raw ma
terial for the automobile factories. as
we'll as the finished machines loaded
and received from connections only
25.6G7 cars from April l to April 10.
inclusive. This compares with 29.O43
for the corresponding period or last
year and with %. 900 for the corre-
spending period OF last month.
Auto Sales Notable Exception.
In spite of these facts. automobile
sales are showing an increase, with
nearly all the larger producing COM
panies reporting improvement since
the first week of the month. The to-
tai Ford sales are expected to reach
23j,000 by May |, and Dodge weekly
sales passed the 5000 mark for the
first time in the history of the COM
pany in the period ended April II.
Slack ening in some iron and steel
lines has produced curtailment in BIZ
luminous coal. and in Missouri, Ar
kansas. Texas Oklahoma. Kentucky
and Kansas thousands are idle and
other thousands are working only
part time. As has been pointed out
ip these columns, there are approx
mately 100000 more workers in the
bituminouS mines than are required
to produce a normal supply and there
are hundreds more mines prepared to
for emergencies.
Lumber Production suffers.
Lumber production has suffered
slightly. but neither the lumber men
and millers Of the west coast. the cot
ton men of the south or the manu-
facturerS of the east take seriously
the danger that Jaran will offer any
retaliat tion for exclusion measures by
refusal to buy American goods and
products. 1t is pointed out that
Japan has not Yet recovered from the
effects Of the earthquake of last Sep
tember. The country is still in urgent
need Of lumber and steel products,
wooden textiles and other American
goods
Cotton men declared today that the
oriental market for raw cotton will
not be affected Any boycott could
scarcely be applied to material which
Japan needs to keep her own cotton
textile mills busy. especially since
the finished product of those factories
is sold largely in the United States.
Japanese silk Situation.
The japanese silk producers also
are dependent largely on the Ameri
can silk manufacturers to buy the
product of the Japanese silk worms.
The silk houses in the neighborhood
of New York have cut production
materially. and it is estimated that
for the first half of this month there
were only 800 bales shipped from
the Japanese ports. Silk manufac-
turers indicated today their disbelief
that Japan would take any action
which would cramp this market even
more severely.