Evening star., 1932-07-12
|0UTPUT OF GOODS
| SHARPLY REDUCED
Wall Street Observers Are
Watching for Pickup in
Buying Demands.
Special Dispatch to The Star

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. July 12.-One of the
mysteries of the depression-perhaps
the greatest mystery-is the extent Of
the decline in the production and dis
tribution of goods without stimulating
demand. 1t has been carried to an un-
believable extent in the case of rail-
way freight traffic, which one authority
has estimated Is now running approx
mately at the level Of 60 years ago.
Without taking responsibility for that
calculation. it is a fact testified to by
the Department of Commerce that car
loadings are now at SO per cent OF the
average Of the years 1923 to 1925, a
period Of normal trade activity.
Truck Competition.
The railways, of course have been af-
fected by truck competition. More
amazing than the freight traffic decline
Is the falling off in the steel industry.
Here, too. one expert advises that steel
Is rusting out faster than 1t is being
replaced Now comes the trade maga-
zine, Steel, which declares that June
ingot output was at the lowest rate
since 1900, adequate only for a popu-
lation 40 per cent below today and an
age minus automobiles, radios. mechan-
ical refrigerators. steel furniture and
pipe lines"
After the close of business Saturday
the Steel Corporation gave out its un-
filled tonnage statement. 1t showed
decline for the fifteenth consecutive
month to a record low, adding another
bit of evidence to the unprecedented
inactivity. OF course, there is this to
say about these untitled tonnage fig
ures. they no longer carry the signifi-
canoe they did when transportation
was not as efficient as it is today, nor
do they mean as much in times of fall
ing commodity prices. Nevertheless,
they do testify to situation unparal-
leled 1t would seem that the time
must be near at hand when depleted
supplies of consumers would force re-
vival.
The point could be made with regard
to automobile output just as forcefully.
Cars are being junked faster than they
are being replaced. When and if pros
perity returns, that old bugaboo of the
Motor car people, the saturation point.
will no longer terrify. The buying then
will come not from those who have
| never owned cars, but from those who
temporarily have dispensed with them
! The outlook is trif1e more encourag-
ing for the automobiles. however. than
it is for the railways and for steel.
| Although production is being cur
| tailed by the manufacturers, distribu-
| ticn by the dealers to the consumers
| does not decline in the same ratio.
Passenger Car Sales.
OF interest along this line are the
! returns for sales of passenger cars dur
| ing June in seven States, all that have
| reported so far. They show an in
crease over May of 6l8 per cent
whereas the five-yesr average shows a
| seasonal decline of IT per cent from
May to June.
1t may be that We are putting tco
much reliance upon the orthodox trade
| indices which, because of changed cen
| ditions social and economic, have out
| lived their usefulness. The probabili-
| ties are that the prostration of business
| is not as complete as the charts and
the tables of the statisticians purport
to indicate The chances are also that
the first signs of revival in demand will
come from an unexpected quarter, just
as the first advances in commodity
| prices came where least anticipated,
tCopyright 1922