Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-06
Industrial Boom
Expected 70 Top
1929 Records
$4,000, 000, 900 Of War
Orders Spur Pace
On Wide Front
BY FRANK MACMILLEN,
Associated Press Business Writer.

WarQ 10 TecO" nlgn ground III Hldily
sectors by the momentum Of over
So 600, 900, 900 of war orders, Ameri-
can industry entered its final quar-.
ter stretch this week with growing
portents that the legendary levels
Of the golden twenties may soon
be giving way to the new top marks.
A stream of investment money
sluiced in through the new issues
market to fertilize the already }ush
industrial scene, as offerings, and
registrations Of new securities in
Washington. promised to make
October the best month for new
issues since the war started.
The months total seemed likely
to reach. and possibly to surpass
considerably, the $500 100000 mark.
Men poured back into the fac
;ories and payrolls fattened. Sympto-
matte was the rise in electric power
output to the greatest total on
record. At the same time the Bell
system revealed that more tele-
phones were in use than ever before
in the country's history.
Employment Scars.
August figures from the Depart
ment of Labor, only now coming
to light, showed employment. out
side the farming industry, had
crossed the $4,000 900 mark.
Business Week" analyzing the
figures, said the growth was 400 900
during the month, and added: AT
the rate industry is moving. en-
ployment seems sure to top the 1887
high before the end of the year.
The 1897 peak was about the sv-
erage of the boom year 1929. Other
indicators point clearly to the
steady increase of employment since
August.
Meanwhile plants turning out
steel, machine tools, ships and air
craft, whirling at record pace,
began to make their demands felt
in other sections Of industry.
The railroads. although freight
movement seemed to be taking a
breather after a busy summer. heard
the principal shippers organization
estimate accommodation require
ments in the last three months Of
this year at per cent ahead OF the
same period of 1899, although that
was the time of the boomlet which
followed the outbreak of hostilities
in Europe.
Freight Cars Needed.
At the same time. the Association
of American Railroads, looking to
the future, recommended that the
country's carriers plan to buy 100000
freight cars in the coming II
months. and called on the shipping
public to cooperate in the most
economical use of existing facilities.
Equally significant appeared the
announcement of General Electric
Co. that orders booked in the three
months just past were the greatest
for a similar period on record, and
that Is per cent of the business put
on its books so far this year was
Government orders.
Further evidence that the defense
effort was sucking into the huge
reservoir of unused credit that has
been the bane of the country's
banks and investors since 1929 was
the general, though modest, rise in
commercial loans shown by the
great Wall Street banks which made
their third-quarter statements pub
lie this week.
Supplementing the figures was a
survey indica ting that inquiries and
preliminary feelers were being put
out by likely borrowers to their
banking connections for credit as
needed in the future.
Excess Reserves Grow.
That these nibblers found plenty
of encouragement was made clear
by the weekly Federal Reserve Sys-
tenn figures which showed member
banks throughout the country had
excess lendable funds to the tune
of near $1,000, 900 900, as gold con-
tinued to flow in from abroad to pay
for war purchases, mostly against
the more than $4,000 900 900 of or
ders for Great Britain.
Borrowers had still fresh in men,
DRY repeated assurances given last
week at the annual convention of
the American Bankers Association
that banks were eager to make any
sound loan connected with the de-
Tense program.
To those who have seen the huge
piles of money standing idle in the
hands of banks, institutional and
private investors. as the major de-
terrent to business prosperity, these
growing evidences of a seepage OF
credit through the body economic
appeared highly important for the
future.
Further tending to loosen shackles
which have held back credit for the
expanded plant need for defense.
many observers believed. was the
passage this week of the Federal
excess profits bill.
Uncertainty as to the provisions
of the law had held many plans for
expansion in allegiance.
The mere statement of the pro-
visions and rates-although the lat
ter were records for peace times
made planning for the future more
feasible for business executives.
Further, some observers pointed
out, the terms of the law were such
that the burden would bear more
lightly, for the time being, on indus
tries which have been slow to re-
cover from depression. Mentioned
in this category were companies in
the railroad, steel, oil and mining
business. Likely to feel profits cut
into most heavily under the ''in-
vested capital" feature of the law.
tax experts said, was the aircraft