Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-24
NATIONS BUSINESS
DECLARED SOUND
Leaders Report Industry Is
Now Facing Period
of Progress.
BY ]. C. ROYLE.
Special Correspondent Of The Star.

special correspondent OF The Star.
NEW YORK, January 24.-Business
has burned up the wires this week with
messages to the old home town saving,
I'm coming back" It was surprising
how many business men looked UP and
remarked, why, We didn't know you
had been away" Indications are mul.
tiplying that the check to business
progress in recent months has been due
to sentiment and psychology rather
than to physical and actual conditions.
Today there seems small doubt about
the fact that business is on its way
back. Employment is speeding up, as
is shown by ofacial reports to the De-
partment of Labor. The reports to Sec
rotary OF Commerce Lamont point to a
construction year involving between
$4,000, 900, 900 and $4,000, 100000.
Evidence Of Progress.
Representatives of group of so trade
associations got together in Washington
and said, in effect, that one of the best
things they could do to help the BUSH
ness situation was to spend a half a
million in advertising to advise the
country of real conditions.
The automobile manufacturers, whom
everybody had been regarding with a
feeling OF pity, are speeding up produc-
ton and finding customers to take the
output promptly off their hands.
Throughout the period when depression
was supposed to exist it now is apparent
that Detroit, the motor capital main
tanned a decidedly fair volume of en-
ployment and activity.
The steel mills are steadily bringing
their outputs back toward the peaks at
tanned in the Fall of 1929. Naturally,
they stand to benefit to an extraordi-
nary extent by reason of the spur to
construction
The oil industry is still under re-
stra1nt. There are huge supplies in
Oklahoma and California which are
shut in But the future of the industry
over long pull is as bright or brighter
than ever 1t was.
Power Plants.
The power plants Of the Nation are
turning out more current than at this
time last year and undoubtedly estab-
lished o new record in 1929 by pro-
ducing current to the extent of ap-
proximately q hundred billion kilowatt
hours, as compared with 78,849, SIS, 600
kilowatt hours in 1928, the previous
high mark.
Car loadings are of slightly as COM
pared with 1929, but requirements as
outlined by the regional shippers advis-
DRY boards seem likely to bring them
back to a high basis within few weeks
The anthracite industry is more active
than 1t was, but the bituminouS coal
mines are, many Of them, still in din
Guilty.
Indications are not lacking that the
railroads are preparing for new efforts
toward consultations along the general
lines indicated by the Interstate Com
merce Commission. This is shown by
the new moves by the Baltimore &
Ohio, the dissociating of the Delaware
& Hudson from its coal holdings, and
the acquisition of q trucking line in
New York City by the Van Sweringens
who control the Erie and to whom the
Delaware, Lackawanna g. Western has
been assigned.
Retail Sales Good.
Machinery manufacturers still are
well supplied with untitled o-ders and
the demand is not likely to drop OF.
The agricultural machinery nanufac-
turers are recording excellent sales and
so are the railroad equipment men. It
is still far too early to forecast crop
conditions. The situation Of the cotton
growers Of the South, however, Is far
from satisfactory.
Retail sales are maintaining q steady
pace, with a somewhat remarkable
volume Of apparel passing into the
hands of consumers. The shoe and
leather industry Is still uneasy, largely
because of tariff uncertainty.