inside!
the News I
DAILY PICTURE OF
WHAT'S GOING ON IN
NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
September was slightly disappointing to New Deal economists
scanning the skies for signs of
black billows of factory smoke. It
maintained the momentum which
got under way in late spring, ail
index figures revealing ino
activity. But it did not skyrocket
as doped out by insiders.
There are some compensation:.
however. While employment in
the ■ non-durable goods industries'
remained stationary at 94.0 pos
sibly a bit. above that, the heavy
industries began to turn over, gain-
ins: perhaps 4 or 5 points over the
July figure. Employment in-
key spots as iron and steel, lumber, plumbers' supplies, farm implements, and especially machine
iniiarly sensitive barometer, was
down to 7 on the chart in March
of 11*33. Now it stands at about
127, which is tops since the best
years of the boom. It hit 186 in
Textiles and apparel for both
sexes kept on the climb. Improvement In all these fields indicate
that at last recovery is beginning
to take where it counts. The
paralyzed giant of private capital
may be waking up.
] charts leave no room for guessing.
With 1923-1925 representing 100
except for wholesale prices, which
j are based on the 1926 standard,
| the following table tells how we're
Industrial Production
Per cent.
September, 1934 73
July-August, 1935 86
September (estimate) 88.5
Factory Employment
Per cent-
September, 1934 73.9
July, 1935 79X
August, 1935 ., - 81.7
September, 1935, estimate.. 82.1
Factory Payrolls
Per c
September, 1934 5
July, 1935 65.3
August, 1935 69.7
September, 1935, estimate.. 70
Wholesale Farm Prices
New Dealers knit their political
brows over one drawback in all
this improvement. It warns of
problems which may persist in
spite of fairly substantial recovery.
Although industrial production
has increased by 13.5 points in a
year, employment has jumped less
than 4 points in the same period,
and total payrolls by only 7.8.
What this means is that improved
industrial efficiency permits fewer workers to turn out a larger '
volume of goods. Economists have I
guessed and second-guessed at the
September, 1934 .
July, 1935
August, 1935
September, 1935, estimate.. 80.5
Cost of Living
Per cen .
September, 1934 .
July, 1935 82.6
August. 1935 83
September, 1935, estimate.. 83.3
Doubt that Cordell Hull will trj
to rctutrn to the senate next year j
—there are practical difficulties---
they have sensed that he has been
unhappy as secretary of state. And
it isn't only that he longs for the
life of a legislator.
Mr. Hull has been unable
bring any of his pet policic
fruition. Unsettled world conditions have stymied him in i _
tiating reciprocal tariff treaties o
a grand scale. Except for Belgium, we have got nowhere with
the larger nations. He can't take
the preliminary step to enlarge
ment of world trade — c
stalibilzation. Congress paid
heed to his cautious words against
hastily written munitions legislation. The swish of the big stick
as President Roosevelt cracked
down on Russia did not make t
pleasant sound i
With dictators bossing a large
portion of the globe, Mr. Hull is
too much of a gentleman to r—
