Evening star., 1937-05-19
LUXURY BUYING
MAINTAINS RISE
Holds Well Above 1886 De.
spite Some Lag in
Other Lines.
BY EDWARD C. STONE.

of 1O.9 per cent for all retail trade,
the public bought 80 per cent more
furs, 235 per cent more luggage, 32.2
per cent more household furniture
and "a per cent more jewelry in the
first quarter of 1887 than in the cor
responding period year ago, at 236
department stores covered by the cur
rent survey of prosperity goods" buy
ing, made by the Northwestern Ma
tional Life Insurance co.
A rapidly mounting proportion Of
this luxury and semi-luxury buying is
being financed on installments; the
ratio of time purchases has already far
outstripped that of 1929. Time sales
were 81 per cent of total department
store trade in 1929 hit depression
low Of sos per cent in 1882, rebounded
to new high record of 93 per cent
In 1886, and are currently running
close to - per cent of total department
store volume, the report states.
Retail prices have slowed their rise
in recent weeks; the fear of outrun-
ming consumer gains in income is tend
ing to restrict sharp price advances,
the report observes.
Trade Statistics Holding Up.
''No sign of the expected start of a
seasonal decline in general business
activity has yet appeared in trade sta
tistics," according to the current issue
of the Financial World. "The durable
goods industries, as matter Of fact,
have recently been showing new ad-
vances and now appear to be oper-
ating-in the aggregation the high
est levels attained in the current re-
covery movement" continues the in
yestment weekly.
But now orders, particularly in the
steel industry where reliable statistics
are available, in recent weeks have
been coming in at much slower rate
than prevailed several months ago
Nevertheless, the current quarter is
sufficiently advanced to permit the
opinion that corporate earnings for
this period will make very satisfactory
comparisons with the results of the
preceding quarter and of the second
quarter of last year.
so far as the third quarter is con-
cerned, this normally is the sloWest
period of the year, and present lndl-
cations are that coming weeks will
see some seasonal recession from cur
rent high levels of general business
activity. A decline to the levels estab-
UShed year ago is not expected"
Safe Deposit Drive Planned.
Banks and safe deposit companies
throughout the United States can
employ advertising to rent their mil
lions of vacant safe deposit boxes,
William Haas, chairman of joint
advertising committee working in con-
junction with the National Safe De-
posit Advisory Council. said in New
York today in revealing that the
councils Executive Committee unani-
mously adopted a resolution approx
ing plan for a cooperative radio
advertising campaign. This plan was
submitted by McCannErickson, Inc,
New York advertising agency, at the
National Safe Deposit Convention
which also adopted a similar resolu-
ton at its recent session in Washing
ton.
Transfer Firm Votes Dividend.
Directors of Smiths Transfer &
Storage Co., 1913 U street, have de-
clared a So dividend on the outstand-
ing stock, the regular quarterly meet
ing of the directors being held yester-
day. John H. Simon of the Wayne
Kendrick Co., was elected to the board
of directors. The president and gen.
eral manager of the company is Ar
thur Clarendon Smith.
Washington bankers will find a
number of new instructors on the
faculty of the Rutgers University
Graduate School of Banking when
they reach New Brunswick. They in
clude Kenneth c. Bell, second vice
president, Chase National Bank; w.
Randolph Burgess, New York Federal
Bank; William A. Irwin, Washington
College economist; Albert S. Keister,
University of North Carolina, and
William H. Neal, vice president Wa
chovia Bank & Trust Co., Winston
Salem, N. C.
Modernized Banking Urged.
Urging the use of research in the
banking field, Thomas C. Boushal,
president of the Morris Plan Bank of
Virginia, told Group w of the Vir-
ginia Bankers Association that bank
ers cannot hope for continuing prog
ress and profit unless banking be mod
ernized in keeping Tith other activi-
ties of business, government and So
ciety. THE T-model type OF banking"
he said, cannot hope for continued
public acceptance in a day of stream
lined economics
Stewart Mcdonald, Federal housing
administrator, today announced that
j. M. Dagger, special assistant to Mar
riner S. Eccles, chairman of the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, had been appointed financial
adviser to the Federal Housing Admin
istration. He will enter on his new
duties Immediately, with Offices in
Washington and New York.
Mr.. Dagger, who is 43 and native
OF Baltimore, was financial assistant
to Frank c. Walker when the latter
was executive director of the National
Emergency Council and chairman Of
the Presidents Committee on Hous-
ing, which developed the program
. under which the Federal Housing Ad-
ministration was established by Con-
gress in 1884.
Bankers Plan Joint Session.
Members of the f1duciaries' section
and the auditors section of the Dis
trict Bankers Association will hold
q joint meeting tomorrow evening at
the La Fayette Hotel starting with
dinner at 6 O'Clock, at which Millard
S. Yeatman of the Hamilton National
Bank and chairman OF the auditors
section will preside
The guest speaker will be w. T.
Vandoren, vice president and cashier
of the Liberty National Bank, who will
discuss Maintenance of Proper Rec
ords Together With Audit and Exam
nations of Trust Departments. The