Evening star., 1941-07-20

aming with heavy high-speed trucks,
coursing towards New York with
garden produce, chickens, eggs,
meats. cheese and dairy products
and other living essentials COM
manding sharply higher prices than
year ago.
And crowding the streets of small
towns are lines of cleaning new
l94l automobiles. owned locally and
purchased with those added dollars
flowing into the pockets of New Jer-
Sey-PennSylvania farmers.
The further west you get the
more the evidences of more money
in the family pocketbook.
New Houses Multiply.
The clusters of modest one-fam-
lily houses in small towns and on
the outskirts of bigger Pennsylvania
cities like Allentown. Bethlehem.
Altoona and Pittsburgh-dull and
Weather-beaten in depression days
how are sporting new coats of
dazzling white paint.
New houses are going up by the
score.
Renovation is under way in older
residential communities. Porches
are being rebuilt-interiors are be-
ing redecOrated.
ProprietorS of stable. well-estab-
lished furniture and house furnish
ingS stores report sharp gains in
business and some say turnover the
past couple months has been the
largest in memory.
The defense boom has siphoned
down through new automobiles and
household needs to the youngsters
and new bicycles, red play wagons
and roller skates are numerous
enough on small town streets to be
quickly noticeable.
Skepticism Is Felt.
But overhead there hangs a pail
There has been certain nervous
quickening of the pace of retail
business in factory minded Penn
sylvania. merchants say. There is
a feeling that the present swell of
prosperity is too good to be true
Too many people, they say, are
buying everyday goods. fearing
there may be higher prices or short
ages of desired MERCHANDISE later
on.
As if to confirm this feeling Price
Control Administrator Leon Hen
derSon this week warned that the
honeymoon months of the defense
boom were about over AS defense
industries get first deliveries of raw
materials, consumer lines will have
to curtail production. he indicated.
For the American housewife, he
said, a long period of higher prices
and shortages was at hand.
Costs and prices of many con-
sumner items have already risen at
the wholesale level-its only a
question of time lag when they will
hit the pocketbook. he declared.
And of supplies of consumer goods
produced by industry. he said:
customers. ready, eager and able
to buy, will be crowding the market
places and stores. but manufac-
turers will be unable to get enough
raw materials to satisfy demands .
Foods Near Peaks.
Foods shuff1ed around unevenly
at close to 11l2-year tops in cash
commodity markets. A little more
expensive were barley hams. ba-
cons, sugar, coffee. beans, peas. po-
1atoeS, steers and hogs. A shade
cheaper, however, were flour. wheat,
corn, rye. oats. lard, butter, eggs.
cocoa and lambs.
Steel mill operations moved
slightly higher this week to 972 per
cent of capacity, compared with
968 per cent last week.
Electric power production was
1875 per cent above a year ago. COM
pared with a gain of 1872 per cent
over the 1910 comparative in the
preceding week.
Railway freight loadings at 876,-
165 cars were 1879 per cent above q
year ago.
Automobile production totaled
109,9l2 cars, compared with l14.318
a week earlier and 53,020 in the like
week last year.
Buying in stores continued at a
fast pace in almost all classihcations
of merchandise, and retail sales
averaged 25 per cent above a year
ago for the country as a whole.