The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-10-22
By s. BURTON HEATH NEA Staff Correspondent

NEA Stan COrreSpOndent
 New York, Oct. 19- CNEA In spite of the serious damage done by strikes, American industry Is rapidly getting back to pre-war pro- duction of consumer goods-and, tn- deed, in many important categories is far exceeding the best 1t ever did before Pearl Harbor.
 That statement may bring incre- dulous snorts from millions who know that there are very few things they can walk into @ store and buy without delay, substitution and much haggling. But 1t is based upon specific production figures from the Civilian Production Administration, Office of War Manpower and Re- conversion, industry itself, and there is every reason to believe that 1t is true.
 You think it is hard to buy an automobile? eSo 1t is. They're al- most as scarce as hens teeth, and 1t may be two years yet before you can get one. Yet in August, De- troit turned out passenger cars at the rate of 2,900, 900 year, whcih is only s5O,OOo behind the 1s41 output.
 Production Was Higher
 Does your dealer laugh If you ask when you can get delivery on a washing machine, vacuum cleaner, a gas or electric range? He may have only display models, and a backlog of orders stretching from here to there, but the electrical in- dustry manufactured almost 30 per- cent more washing machines, almost 40 percent more vacuum cleaners, slightly more gas ranges, 20 per- cent more electric ranges, about 50 percent more radios and about 60 percent more electric irons in Au- gust than in the average month in 1941.
 Mothers nylons all have runs? Three times as many were made in June as in the average month in 1941, and to give her something to wear around the house there were 20 per cent more rayon stockings made for women than the 1941 rate.
 Above all, you can't get build- ing materials to erect new home or fix up an old one. It's na- tional scandal. Yet lumber, brick, cement, structural clay tile, gyp- sum board all are leaving their makers at an all-time record pace.
 Industrial production in August, the last month for which overall figures are available, was IT per cent above the 1885 to 1889 av- craze, and climbing steadily. Elec- tric power production, the most accurate measurement of manu- facturing activity, was at an all- time high for the season. Freight car loadings, which reflect the shipment of raw materials tS fac- tories, parts from supplier to user, and manufactured goods from producer to dealer, were higher than for comparable weeks even in the war years, and would have been even greater if there had been more cars in usable condition.
 Employment Sets Record
 Never before were so many men and women employed in the manu- fracture of consumer goods - four millions more in August than in July, 1S millions more than in 1899.
 Labor unions had held most, if not all, their enormous wartime gains, with the American Fedora tion of Labor alone boasting more than 7,150,000 dues payers.
 And wages were away up. They were up enough, in most instances, to more than offset the effects of postwar shifting and loss of over- time. Remembering the decrease in income taxes. the take-home pay of all American workers in every form income payments to individuals' had climbed back to exactly match the highest net spendable in- come in all this country's history, the $l42-billion rate set by the first three months of 1945 when federal spending for war material was at it's bloated peak.
 Why, then, is it so hard to buy things that are being produced in record quantities? Because of the pent-up wartime demand and the dammed-up wartime supply. Be- cause dealers shelves, all the way back to factory warehouses, were empty; because this current high production is just getting into swing: because there is no backlog of goods, and for every item that gets to a stores shelves there are dozen or c hundred customers trampling one another for first chance to buy.
 And why, if industry has achieved this enormous production in spite of strikes, can it be said that strikes are the biggest single reason for shortages of goods and the threat of serious imitation that this nation faces?
 THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE Because if 1t had not been for strikes we should have reached cur rent levels of production months ago, and by this time might well be ahead of pre-war rates not only in the items named (and many otherS) but also in automobiles. refrigera- tors, sewing machines, batteries. mems shirts and shorts and suits, soil pipe and sewer pipe, radiation. nails, lavatories, fabrics and lot of other things we need very badly. 1 Comforting as it may be to know that 100000 radios were put onto the market in August, and that the | electrical goods industry is going all | out--now-on washing machines, vacuum cleaners, ranges and water |