Evening star., 1937-04-02
STOCKS TUMBLE
|. AFTER ROOSEVELT
CR|T|C|zES PRICES
Steel, Copper Quotations
Far Too High, Presi-
dent Asserts.
U. S. TO CUT BUYING
OF DURABLE GOODS
Stress to Be Put on Consumer
Commodities-Every Division
of Market Is Down.
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Associated Press.
President Roosevelt told a press
conference today that prices of durable
goods, such as steel and copper, we're
far too high. He added the time
had come for the Government to dis
courage Federal expenditures for sucn
goods and to encourage expenditures
for consumer goods.
The New York stock market .ook
immediate cognizance of the Presi-
dents criticism by a wave of selling
which forced prices of shares down
by from 81 to IS in a few minutes.
Steels, coppers, rubbers and rails
led the doUnswing and we're joined
by every division of the market. So
heavy was trading that the ticker
tape was behind the floor quotations.
by as much as four minutes at times.
At the lows some support appeared
and toward the third hour of trading
prices made some modest :ecoverie5.
BY that time the ticker tape hao
caught up with floor trading.
Bonds Not So Hard Hit.
The bond market was not so quick
IN its reaction. United States Gov
ernment loans, which had dropped in
the morning only to rally moderately
later, continued at about the same
level. Corporation issues were gen.
orally lower throughout the morn
ing session.
In the New York Commodity Ex-
change copper futures dropped more
than one-fourth cent a pound, and
rubber futures, which had rallied
from previous recession, again
slipped lower Cotton futures sold
off by from s1.20 to sl4O a bale.
The Presidents lengthy informal
statement on the present trend of
prices was prompted by query as to
his position on future public works
expenditures.
He said he told the five House DEM
ocrats who called on him yesterday
to discuss the P. w. A., that future
Federal public works expenditures
should go, not for steel bridges and
other such permanent structures, but
for channel dredging and earthen
dams.
Expenditures for the latter projects,
the President said, would give
larger purchasing power for consumer
goods. He added there was too great
a spiral of heavy goods prices, and
that this, judged by past experience,
constituted danger signal.
Mr.. Roosevelt pointed out steel had
increased in price about Sc ton. He
said that this was two or three times
larger than the wage lcrease recently
approved by the industry.
He said foreign naval building also
had run up production of domestic
STEEL
Sees Copper at Cents or 6 Cents.
Many mines, Mr.. Roosevelt said,
could turn out opper for S or 6 cents
a pound, and that mines like Ana
conda could make profit at 8 or 9
cents, yet that commodity was selling
now at "18 or 10 cents"
His conclusion was that this pushed
up the price of all things into which
copper enters, or primarily durable
goods.
The President said everybody who
had been reviewing the economic Sit
uation was agreed that the present in
crease in production in heavy indus
tries was growing more rapidly than
the output of consumer goods.
Judging by past experience, he said
that constituted a danger sign be-
cause every time it happened there
was falling off in both consumer
and durable goods in period of from
II to 18 months.
That means, the President told the