The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-17
COLD WEATHER
DELAYS SPRING
RETAIL ORDERS
Store Executives Act With
Caution, Business
Week Says.
Times Specin!

NEW YORK, Feb. 15.-"An old
fashioned winter may be all right
for coal, fuel, oil. electric power.
gas and railroad transportation,
but it's getting to be a bit tiresome
to the fellows making a living by
selling cars, or producing them,"
Business Week declares in its issue
today.
While retailers have been
pleased to clear shelves of winter
goods, they have been hard put to
know what to do about ordering
spring goods" the magazine said.
Most of them have been cautious.
At the same time. store executives
have been cheered up by the way
the public takes hold of merchan-
disc whenever the weather permits.
The Business Week index contin-
ues to explore the region about II
per cent of normal, but should take
an upward turn before long.
THE merchandise premium busl-
ness has gained sharply since The
death OF the NRA. Last years
business amounted to $350000, 900,
while 1886 is conservativeIy placed
at $400,000,000. Prominent premium
buyers in the market now Tor
spring and summer campaigns IN
cIude food, soap, tobacco. brewery
and home equipment firms.
Steel Output Headed Up
Department store sales for jan
uary ran 7 per cent ahead of last
year for the country as a whole, and
several regions surpassed the ma
tional average. Steel production
was at better rate than the weekly
records disclosed, and is now headed
upward.
Motor production and sales COM
pared favorably with some of the
best years on record. Employment
in factories probably showed no
more than the usual seasonal de-
cline. Nearly twice as many tele-
phones were installed last month as
year ago.
CONSTRUCTION in 81 states fell %
per cent below the unusual Deem
Der peak, which represented new
high in the recovery. But it was 105
per cent better than year ago, with
nonresidential construction booming
ITS per cent ahead of a year ago as
many companies added new factory
facilities or modernized old ones.
Residential contracts finished the
month 81 per cent ahead of January.
1885.
New Financing Service
"Construction costs took a jump
in January and continued rising in
February after the signing of new
contracts for labor and two success
sive increases in wholesale lumber
prices. Engineering NeWS-Record
index rose to 201.2 per cent of the
1913 average early this month, COM
pared with 1895 per cent in Janu-
airy and 1949 per cent in December.
Commercial Investment Trust is
providing a new financing service
under which used car loans will be
based on a percentage of the off,
cial blue book value of each trade
in. Facilities for financing the sale
of used cars of recent vintage on
terms approXimating the newly eS-
tabliShed rates for new cars are
also provided.
Railroads Improve
Machine tool distributors said
that early February sales Jagged a
bit from January levels, chiefly be-
cause the cold weather interrupted
deliveries and slowed up the &C
tivity of consumers.
Railroads are beginning to buy
black ink again after three years
of deficits. The net operating in
come in 1885 for las Glass I roads
passed the $500, 100000 mark for the
first time since 1881.
Motor assemblies by all COM
panies except Ford last month
numbered 276,350 units, 35 per cent
ahead of a year ago, but IA per cent
under December. For these COM
panies, this was the best January on
record, but it is doubtful whether
the addition of the Ford assemblies
will lift the January total above the
422,538 of January, 1929. February
will fall below January, and March
will show a substantial gain