Booming Tools

Unique in industrial life are machine tools. They not only make all other machines but can also reproduce themselves. Composed of scores of small companies, many family-owned, the machine-tool industry is really more basic than steel, for it takes machine tools to make the machines which make steel. Machine-tool orders are a prime index of the business outlook, reflecting as they do businessmen's confidence in adding new equipment or in replacing the old or obsolete.

Last week the Association of Machine Tool Manufacturers reported that orders booked in June were at a new high since 1929. The Association's index rose 8% from May to 128.8, which was 41% above a year ago. The May-June gain was recorded in the face of an actual drop in foreign orders, an important item with U. S. machine toolmakers. Except for 1929 and a few months in 1928 business was better than at any time in the past 16 years. The shortage of good machinists, noted early in Recovery, had become so serious that many a toolmaker could not staff his factory to the capacity justified by orders.

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