Evening star., 1939-05-07
Uncle SONS Lorder Is
Well Stocked
BIZ Frederic J. Haskin.

fingers while he secretly gloats, but the
more normal human being prefers to
think about what he possesses that he
can use. He likes to contemplate the
food in his larder, the tools Of his craft,
the goods he has finished and ready for
trade and the materials in hand with
which to 60 forward with his craft.
Periodically Uncle Sam takes stock OF
such material things. He has just nm
ished an inventory which shows that the
United States now has on hand $100l4,-
33o,0O0 worth Of such useful and con-
sumable goods. This figure does not
represent the national wealth by any
means. That is a far greater figure run
ming to about $3.50 000, 900, 900 and in
cludes the value of mountain and plain,
Of field and forest and all the buildings,
great and small, which have been erected
by men, the railroads, the canals, the
dams and every other item Of wealth.
This inventory includes only the imme-
diate usable things. A year ago the
figure was only $8,470,9 900.
Nor does this figure include things
which already have passed into use, even
the very durable things such as machin-
cry. The catalogue is one of new goods,
still in the hands of manufacturers. 1t
does not include vast stores of raw mate
rials in the hands Of original producers,
such as the grain and animals on farms.
minerals in the mines and trees in the
forest, nor what is in the stores. Only
the goods, finished, together with the
raw materials for fabrication which are
in the hands of manufacturers are
listed.
The largest single item is made up of
iron and steel and their products. This
amounts to s1,579 1903 0O0 Next comes
machinery Of all sorts with figure OF
sl,518, 8,2850O0; third, food valued at
sl,359,6O7 900, and then textiles and their
products worth sl,131 349, ,000 These are
the items which show inventories over
81 100000 of goods ready to suppl
the needs Of a great Nation.
The thrifty homemaker looks first t.
the larder to see how much food Is or
hand. Uncle Sam finds that his larde.
Is well stocked and the stores are MOI
likely to run out. Bakers have on hand
$54 ,768,0O0 worth of bread and othe-
bakery products This, like most othc.
food items, is one which changes con-
stantly as the product is perishable S,
the figure can be taken as an approx
mate average. The supply has beer
about the same for year And there
SIS 1888 900 worth of butter to 60 with l..
Further, there is $115,0OOOOO worth O.
flour and allied grain mill products or
hand. The single item of macaroni an,
spaghetti amounts to $3639, 900 and ths
quantity. should the strands be laid en-
to end would extend to the moon or thr
back Of beyond or some such distan-
place.
In the meat refrigerator there f.
ready $l84 4,344,000 worth of all kinds O.
meat from SQUAD to hot dogs. In tho
sugar bin is found $52,020,00 worth O.
beet sugar and $74,460. 900 worth Of the
cane product. There is $14,000,000 worth
OF Ice cream on hand and any imagina-
tive child can entertain itself by trying
to f1gure out how many cones that woulG
make. The soft drinks ready are valued
at $13,833 900, and If one wants something
stronger there can be found $143 1868 900
worth of distilled liquors, $5l.2l70O0
worth of beer and other malt beverage
$24 900 in blended and rectifiel.
drinks and s25, 1903 900 worth Of wine.
Waiting ready are $98, 1855 900 worth Of
cigarettes and $35, 5,522, 900 worth of cigars
while $26 1874 900 in smoking and chewing
tobacco and snuff is on hand in the fac
tories over and above what already is in
the stores. Nor is the country likely to
run out Of chewing gum with a reserve
OF $136l2, 900 ready at call. The confec-
tionery stock is $29, 900 900.
For clothing one finds $l07s7e 900
worth Of boots and shoes inventoried,
while stocks of mems and boys clothing
amount to $80,717,0O0. Women's clothing
is valued at only $11224,000. This item
Is small compared with the mems cloth
Ing because, while manufacturers can be
falrly certain that men are not suddenly
going into silk hose and doublets or take
any similar mad departure, they can
scarcely tell for day where the women's
styles are going to jump. In an hour
some Partisan or New York fashion lead
er might bring out q number which
would make the garments on hand un-
salable to all save those who do not care.
Not so much can be done with coats, SO
there are $35 900 900 Of them on hand.
That this is gasoline age is well ex-
empl1fed by the fact that stocks of
petroleum refinery products on hand are
worth $426y078,000. This is by far the
largest single item in the entire national
inventory. While some gasoline, of
course, Is used to run stationary engines
IN factories and elsewhere and clean
gloves, the overwhelming preponderance
Is fuel for automobiles. The next big.
gest item in the national inventory of
manufacturers on hand is motor vehicles
The figure is $28s, ,s7S, 900 and to this
should be added $1e4, ,670 900 for autono-
bile bodies and extra parts on hand
waiting around the corner for the next
smash and resultant repair Job. And
only little while ago, in terms Of the
lives of millions Of living people, the
words automobile and gasoline were I'M
known; the automobile was something IN
the future and gasoline was regarded as
waste product, which was poured into
streams to get rid Of itself.