The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1940-08-05
Behind
The Ticker

NEW YORk-Not every rise In
business barometer" Is to be
set down as a sign of actual i'm
provement in general business.
An instance in point is the strik-
ing gain shown in the latest week
ly figures on electric power output.
The week-to-week rise amounted
to nearly 3 per cent. which is quite
notable achievement in itself.
But what attracts most attention
to the figures is the fact that the
output total was only a little more
than Ia per cent under the record
output set in the week of Dec. %,
1889
II is the normal thing for power
output to make peaks late In De-
cember when daylight hours are
fewest and the so-called lighting
load" Is heaviest But II is some
what abnormal for the last week OF
July to show an output of as much
as 1900. 723, 900 kilowatt-hours in
comparison with a peak of 2,641.-
458, 1000 kilowatt-hours in the previ-
Gus December.
Going to the source of the fig
ures, however, we find that the
explanation does not lie in the sud-
den speeding up of industrial oper-
atoms, but is to be found in wide
spread weather conditions which
the weather bureau referred to as
the hottest in the history of the
United States" Over the wide
area temperatures ranging from
100 TO 115 were reported, and one
Iowa city recorded 100 every day
for week.
Such temperatures, of course, in
creased the use OF electricity for
air conditioning. refrigeration. and
operation OF electric fans, and prob
ably also about some additional
consumption for irrigation pump
ing. The west central region.
which accounts for an estimated 7
per cent of the electricity consum-
ed in the entire country, reported
for the latest week an increase of
III per cent over the like 1899
week. That year-to-year increase
compares with one of only SO per
cent IN the preceding week.
BY contrast, the New England
region, which had no heat wave,
showed a gain over the like 1899
week of 81 per cent. as compared
with gain in the preceding week
of 5.4 per cent. And actual figures
from the New England region
showed a decrease in kilowatt-hour
output.
Conversely, the steel industry
was slowed down by the heat wave.
Although there was a sizable gain
in operations this week, the Iron
Age reported that "a heat wave
throughout the country has pre-
vented steel plants from getting
maximum output
incidentally, that trade puhlica-
ton made none too happy COM
parison with some past periods by
saying that conditions in the steel
industry resembling those of the
spring of 1887 and the fall of 1899
are becoming apparent :" 1t is
well-remembered that both those
hectic periods were soon followed
by severe declines in the rate of
operations. From last November's
peak OF e4.4 per cent. operations
dropped to a low of 90 per cent
in April of this year. The 1887
decline, which was much more
severe. did not set in until after
Labor Day. with December bring.
ing rate under 20 per cent as
compared with 81 per cent at the
enc OF august.
The Iron Age also says that do
nestle business on the whole has
stopped increasing and also tina
British. apsnese and Soutf
American buying is more thar
making up for any leveltng off IL
some domestic lines" Obviously
there Is considerably dependence
upon foreign orders. which in turl
depend largely upon the futur
course of various events Difficult
TO forecast.