The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1946-08-15
Forecasts Prevalent Year Ago
at Wide Variance From
Developments
Full Employment Prevails But
Production Quotas Lag Far
Behind

Ill in gay celebration here, post
war conditions so far as they affect
the average Bluffton citizen have
formed pattern vastly different
from that which was expected.
Since the capitulation of Japan in
August a year ago, everybody who
wanted work has been able to find it,
and the anticipated unemployment
and near-depression expected in the
wake of record wartime production
has failed to materialize.
Shortages of virtually everything,
luxuries and necessities alike, are
continuing and widespread demand,
intensified by ''good times" have
kept prices at high levels, consider
ably above those prevailing when the
Atom bomb ended the war.
SHORTAGES CONTINUE
Rationing has been discontinued on
everything except sugar, but short
ages in many lines carried by gro
GERS still persist, including washing
powder, toilet tissue, jello, bananas,
cured meats, etc.
Mems clothing and shoes are hard
er to get than during the war years.
Cotton goods and nylon hosiery can
not begin to keep pace with the de-
mand.
Automobiles, electric refrigerators
and other electrical appliances ex-
pected to flood the market in short
order still are as hard to find as the
proverbial needle in the haystack,
altho radios, one year later, are now
beginning to come on the market in
sizable quantities.
WHERE ARE THE CARS
Used cards still bring higher pric-
es than they did when new, but one
bright spot for motorists is the fact
that the supply of tires at last is
catching up with the demand.
Building materials, plumbing and
electrical fixtures expected to speed
lily solve the housing situation re-
main as scarce as ever, and the local
shortage of residential buildings ap-
pears even more critical. Many
homeless have resorted to the ex-
pedient of building and living in
garages as one means of beating the
shortage conditions, while others are
buying houses and moving them to
town.
Farm machinery has made no
headway, and repair parts for imple-
ments are harder than ever to find.
On the other hand, farmers got a
break in market prices, with wheat,
$3.50 a bushel last year, around
S1.90 now, and oats, 55 cents in
1945, bringing SO cents this year.
Livestock prices are way up, and
bumper crops this summer assure
heavy feeding programs on district
farms this winter.
Worldwide food shortages en-
visioned last fall have not been as
serious as anticipated, and better
than average crops in Canada and the
United States this year will further
ease the situation.
G. rs returning to civilian life
generally have not experienced the
difficulties of adjustment expected
from many sources. Many of them
are back at their old jobs and there
have been employment opportunities
aplenty for those who wanted a
change in vocations.
Colleges which were largely de-
nuded of male students "a year ago
now are flooded by returned G. I. en-
rolIment, and the situation probably
will continue for three or four years,
until the veterans benefit program
expires.
Nationally and internationally the
pattern of peace also remains in the
making. Victory Day has been Off
cially proclaimed for this Wednesday
by President Truman, one year after
VI Day, but the international pic
ture remains about as clouded as
ever as the world enters Year ii
of the Atom Age.