Evening star., 1943-06-27
Business Briefs

Foundation for Postwar Business
Boom is being laid as the American
consumer pays of old debts at an
unprecedented rate and fails to con-
tract new ones, writes Frank Mac
Millen OF the Associated Press finan-
,cial staff. Studies of the Federal
Reserve Board and private sources
indicate installment debt and other
consumer credit. including charge
accounts, have been reduced more
than $4,000, ,000, 900, from s9,700, ,000,-
900 in September, 1941, to $780,
000, 900 in April of this year.
Bills, loans and installment con-
tracts are being paid of much
faster than In the past and sales for
cash are on the increase.
Part of Campaign to Curb Con-
sumer Purchases, the WPB has pro-
posed that large merchants switch
some advertising from price appeals
and sales promotion to an institu-
tional basis. A. d. Whiteside, chief
of WPB's ONCE of civilian require
ments, said the suggestion was made
at recent retail meeting in New
York and was approved by store ex-
ecutiveS, many of whom already
have taken action along this line.
A Busy Summer for Investment
Bankers Is in prospect, despite un-
precedented operation Of the Gov
ernment in the money market. Is
sues already in the incubation stage
or expected to reach the SEC in the
near future, amount to more than
$3.50 900 900 and others are in the
offing unless something now unfore-
seen should happen to dampen in
vestment demand Quick disposal
of the new $28, ,483 900 bonds of the
Pennsylvania. Ohio & Detroit 3as
sold Friday augured we'll for coming
events.
Workers Past 40 Years Of Age are
helping to solve the manpower prob
lem and at the same time are turn
ing in good work, according to Ralph
c. Stuart, manager of manufac-
turing and engineering Of the West
inghouse Lamp Division. He said
the "middle-aged corps" included
such workers as former lawyers,
actors, auto statesmen, bankers,
housewives and others with no pre-
Vious mechanical experience.
Business Weeks Index of general
activity for the last week stood at
208.2, compared with 2072 in the
preceding week. 205.8 a month ago,
1915 six months ago and 1906 a
year ago. The index for this week
will drop, due to the coal strike,
and for midyear is likely to fall just
snort OF the predicted 210 level be-
cause Of the accumulated effects of
the bituminous stoppages on steel
and so, in turn. on munitions items.
Prospects for the second half. how
ever, have improved, the magazine
reports.
Lower Wholesale Prices in the last
week were reflected by the Associ-
ated Press weighted index of IS
commodities, which declined tn
105.37fo of the 1926 average on June
Is, compared with SO a week ago
and 97.S7 a year ago.
A FURRY of Civilian Business
reached cotton textile markets in
the last week when mills let out
several print cloth numbers along
with sheetings for the bagging trade
Except for this, mills were on a day.
to-day basis because of uncertainties
over wages, labor and ceiling prices
Army releases tapered off sharply.
Public Service Corp. of New Jer.
sey paid Thomas N. McCarter, di.
rector and board chairman, 500 oOC
for his services in l942, the company
reported to the SEC. Edmund w
Wakelee, president and director. and
Percy S. Young, director and Execu-
J tive Committee chairman, received
$75 900 each.
American Water Works e. EIec-
trio Co. reported power output OF
subsidiaries in May was 10.57T
above year ago. Output for the
first five months of 1s43 was 9.78%
above a year ago.